“If you love riddles and puzzles, we are sure you would love the fun of fitting a haiku together” says the introduction to My Haiku Moments: An Activity Book for Young Haiku Lovers, one of an an imaginitive pair of small, square books by Kala Ramesh and illustrated by Surabhi Singh (Katha, 2010). The other is called simply Haiku and while the Activity Book is a conventionally formatted booklet, Haiku is anything but! Opening Haiku for the first time and you are presented almost literally with a cascade of color as you gradually find a fold that opens flat, to reveal one of several large square areas filled with an abstract flow of lines and color – and poetry. Close it up, and then open it again and you find yourself on a different “page”. Specifics emerge from Singh’s gorgeous swirls to reflect some aspect of the haiku scattered throughout – and there’s humorous bathos too – one string of lines, on closer inspection, reveals an electricity pylon; and one of the haiku ends with “bird droppings”. Indeed, the haiku themselves offer plenty to capture young poets’ imaginations, making them fly, but always from a familiar starting place, such as:

kite contest
the rise and fall
of ohs and ahs

The activity book takes you through the formula of creating a haiku and gives interesting background snippets. I learned for the first time, for example, that hai means humor and ku means poem. I also learned that haiku never have a title – so we’ll know better next time… There is no insistence on fitting your haiku into the 17 syllable pattern, although there are “tips” to make it work: the emphasis is on having fun and creating poems that give an interesting slant on reality. There’s a “Word Dance” page and then, at the end, a broadening of the already wide haiku horizons with “Meet Haiga, Haiku’s sister”.

Haiku and Haiku Moments make a delightful pair and I’m sure that those who follow its path into creating haiku will also be inspired to try out a bit of interesting presentation. If you’re looking for a creative activity for your kids this summer (or winter), look no further.

Elaine is hosting Poetry Friday today over at Wild Rose Reader… let’s head on over.

Geeta Dharmarajan is the Founder and Executive Director of Katha, an Indian non-profit organization working in the areas of formal and non-formal education, publishing and pro-poor activities. Read my interview with her to find out how since 1988 Katha has been helping children grow up to be India’s reader-leaders. The breadth and depth of their work is remarkable and awe-inspiring!

In case you haven’t heard, Katha was nominated by PaperTigers for the 2011 Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, in the category “Promoter of Reading”.

On the Tip of a Pin was… by Geeta Dharmarajan (founder and executive director of non-profit organisation Katha) and illustrated by Ludmilla Chakrabarty (Katha, 2009)… what an intriguing, zany title, and an intriguing, zany cover. And indeed, what a book. We ABSOLUTELY LOVE it (And I wish I had scope on this blog to show that via the actual print on the page, like the book does!)!! The story is so exuberant and silly and yet conveys a depth of meaning so profound that readers of all ages will enjoy it – and it certainly becomes a heads-together, collaborative bedtime readaloud. The illustrations seem to spill out of the text in a profusion of color and the various contortions of Worm’s twisting, digging body. Yes, this story revolves around a worm. If you’d asked me before picking up On the Tip of a Pin was… whether I liked stories about worms, I would probably have said that, although not my reading of choice, I would suffer them for the sake of my two boys: but now, well, if all worm stories can be this hilarious and thought-provoking, I’m converted.

In brief, the story stars a long, troublesome, zzzooooooommmming worm, who is considered the bane of the the lives of the people, including 20 children, and the lion, pig, cow and goat who all live on the tip of a pin in the town of Pintipur – until, that is, the worm shows them how to explore the world and indeed space through the wormholes she makes. Worm doesn’t change by the end of the story, despite the children’s best efforts, but their attitudes do. Plenty of more-than-satisfying nonsensical twists lead this tail, no I mean tale, from beginning to end – and then, just when you think you’ve come to the end of the ride, you turn the page and discover there’s more to wormholes than you realised. Budding physicists may already be aware that wormholes are “actually like a ‘shortcut’ through space and time.” Wow! So then you have to read the story all over again, adding that extra layer to the narrative. Wonderful!

Some aspects of this unique book that we love: (more…)

The Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, which amounts to SEK 5 million (approx. 500 000 EUR), is awarded annually to a single recipient or to several. Authors, illustrators, oral storytellers and promoters of reading may be rewarded.  For the past two years PaperTigers has had the honor of being a nominating body for the award.

Today, the 2011 Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award Nominees were revealed at the Frankfurt Book Fair by the Chairman of the Jury, Mr. Larry Lempert. 175 candidates representing 62 different countries are eligible for the world’s largest children’s and young adult literature award. We are so pleased to see PaperTigers’ three nominees on the list: author and illustrator Allen Say, author and illustrator Grace Lin, and Katha, a “profit-for-all” organization based in India. You can view the complete list of nominated candidates  here.

On March 29, 2011, the winner or winners of the 2011 Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award will be announced at the birthplace of Astrid Lindgren in Vimmerby, Sweden. The announcement will be held simultaneously at Bologna Book Fair and will also be broadcast live on the award website.

To keep abreast of  today’s exciting announcement and to learn more about the nominated candidates, be sure to check out the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award blog.

Saturday was the deadline for nominations for the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award (ALMA) 2011. Having barely caught our breath from this year’s announcement of Kitty Crowther as the ALMA winner for 2010, we found ourselves working right up to the mark to get our nominations submitted in time, but in they are and it’s very exciting to be able to share them with you all now, along with our 500-character nomination statements:

Author and illustrator, Allen Say, whom we also nominated last year (and if you haven’t already, do read our interview with Allen and enjoy our Gallery of his work):

Often drawing on his own background, Allen Say captivates his readers through beautifully honed prose and luminous watercolors. He embraces a striving for happiness with a blend of gentle humor and realism, and touches on many aspects of being human, such as race, migration, disability and age. Even young children can empathize with and find echoes in many of his stories. Say opens young hearts and minds both to new cultures and to their own potential; and his portrayal of the human condition provides a forum for children to recognize their own value and to dream.

Author and illustrator, Grace Lin (and don’t miss our interview with Grace, either, or her two Gallery features here and here; and do visit her blog):

Grace Lin is passionate about writing for children. Her child-centred creativity is filled with energy and imbued with core values such as family, friendship, loyalty and love. Her readers respond to the warmth of her stories, whether founded on reality or imagination, and to the charm of her illustrations, which demonstrate a commitment to unobtrusive detail. Often drawing on her Asian American heritage, and with a gift for interweaving old and contemporary elements in her work, Grace is not afraid to step away from tradition to create new, meaningful narrative for today’s children.

And Katha, a “profit-for-all”organisation based in India:

Katha is an Indian non-profit organization working in the areas of literacy and education. Since 1988, it has been successfully promoting the literacy to literature continuum in urban disadvantaged communities across India. Its multi-faceted school and community-based outreach approach, including reading campaigns, the supporting of pavement schools in slum clusters and the translation and publishing of Indian literature, among other initiatives, are playing an essential role in helping create a more literate, less divisive India.

You can explore Katha further via their website and we are looking forward to featuring them on PaperTigers in the not too distant future.

There are only two more days to submit your artwork to the Katha Chitrakala Award, an international competition that seeks to find “children’s book illustrations that are fresh, powerful and unique.” Artists can illustrate their own story or choose one of these.

Find more details about the competition here.