Anmore Elementary School ~ Anmore, British Columbia, Canada

Canyon de Chelly Elementary School – Navajo Reservation ~ Chinle, Arizona, USA

St. Benedict’s RC Primary School ~ Ampleforth, North Yorkshire, UK

To learn more about the books included in the 2010 Spirit of PaperTigers Book Set click here

Last year we were pleased to have the Butterfly School involved with our Spirit of PaperTigers Outreach Project. Holly Thompson, author and SCBWI Tokyo regional advisor, hand delivered a 2010 Spirit of PaperTigers Book Set to the school.  The photo accompanying the Japan Times article (and reprinted here) shows Heather reading one of the 2010 Spirit of PaperTigers books, My Little Round House, to the Butterfly School students.

To read more about the Butterfly School’s involvement with our project and to read their feedback on the 2010 Spirit of PaperTigers Book Set, please click here

On the front page you will find an interactive world map showing all the SPT participants, who are also listed alphabetically and by country. On the feedback pages, you will be now not only be able to read comments from teachers and students, but where available, you will also be able to watch slideshows and enlarge images to view children’s work. All information about the project, including our Mission Statement and annual Book Set can be found in the About Us section.

Over the next few weeks we will be adding more and more feedback from SPT participants around the world. In the meantime, as well as feedback which was already available from Agape School and Mountain View School, both in Nagaland, India, and Woodlands School in Montevideo, Uruguay, you will now find newly posted feedback from the following schools:

Monroe and Fairmount Elementary Schools in San Francisco, California, USA:

“Two books were a HUGE hit, One Hen and First Come the Zebra.

With One Hen, the kids want MORE… They want to know how much of this story is true, and what has happened since the story was written They loved the idea of the domino effect of helping each other, and related it to their own classrooms and how things work better when they all pitch in. I read this book to 3rd, 4th and 5th graders.

I believe that First Come the Zebra was a huge hit, because the kids can relate to the happenings in the books, especially the conflict between the two boys. They were full of questions and, of course, gave personal anecdotes of times when they were in those situations…”

Pingliang Road No. 3 Elementary School in Shanghai, China:

“Our favorite book was First Come the Zebra [...] They enjoyed the book very much. Their interest partly came from the pictures, the English words and expressions. In the book, there are very different ways to express the ideas from Chinese. Sometimes it has idioms to express the meaning. We don’t know much of English idiomatic expressions in our daily life.”

and Talisay Elementary School in Agusan del Norte, Philippines

“The story about One Hen is so very beautiful. I learned many things about it. Someday I want to be like Kojo because I was inspired by his life.”

First Come the Zebra: “And if you have an enemy in your neighborhood, just give them a chance so that you can win them as friends. That’s why chances are very important.”

“I like the story One Hen because it gives me example of all the families in one province who are helping each other. And it makes me brave that I can make myself fight my shyness.”

Don’t you just love the photos – and there are some very special comments too. Head on over to the Spirit of PaperTigers Outreach site to read more and explore the project. We’ll be bringing you more feedback soon, including one of our water projects…

Auction #121: A Spirit of PaperTigers 2010 Book Set of Seven Picture books, some signed. From PaperTigers.org

Description: You are bidding for a set of seven high-quality picture books (all hardcover) which were selected as the Spirit of PaperTigers book set for 2010 to be sent to different schools and libraries around the world.

The Book Set comprises the following titles with some, as indicated, containing book plates signed by the author/illustrator:

First Come the Zebra – SIGNED
Written and illustrated by Lynne Barasch
Lee & Low, 2009. Ages 4-8

Little Leap Forward: A Boy in Beijing – SIGNED BY THE AUTHORS
Written by Guo Yue and Clare Farrow, illustrated by Helen Cann
Barefoot Books, 2008. Ages 9-12

My Little Round House - SIGNED
Written and illustrated by Bolormaa Baasansuren
Groundwood Books / House of Anansi Press, 2009. Ages 4-8

One Hen: How One Small Loan Made a Big Difference – SIGNED BY THE AUTHOR
Written by Katie Smith Milway, illustrated by Eugenie Fernandes
Kids Can Press, 2008. Ages 7+

Planting the Trees of Kenya: The Story of Wangari Maathai – SIGNED
Written and illustrated by Claire A. Nivola
Frances Foster Books/Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2009. Ages 5-8

The Storyteller’s Candle / La velita de los cuentos – SIGNED BY THE ILLUSTRATOR
Written by Lucia Gonzalez, illustrated by Lulu Delacre
Children’s Book Press, 2008. Ages 4-8

Where the Mountain Meets the Moon – SIGNED
Written and illustrated by Grace Lin
Little Brown Books for Young Readers, 2009. Ages 9-12

Estimated Value: $150

Bio: PaperTigers.org is a colorful website devoted to multicultural books from around the world for children and young adults, with a particular focus on the Pacific Rim and South Asia. We seek to promote the celebration and tolerance of diversity, and to nurture literacy and a love of reading. As well as highlighting the world of multicultural children’s and ya literature on our website and blog, we work to reinforce our goal of promoting cross-cultural understanding via our Spirit of PaperTigers Outreach, under the banner Books and Water: Nourishing the Mind and Body.

PaperTigers’ website: www.papertigers.org

According to the National Library of Mongolia, at one time Mongolia’s “most popular slogan was ‘Everything for children’” and in 2003 the library opened its Book Palace for Children in Ulaanbaatar, which does indeed seem to provide everything in the way of books a young visitor to the Library could possibly desire. Meanwhile, author and publisher Dashdondog Jamba has spent his whole life ensuring that children in Mongolia have access to stories and the written word, taking his mobile library out to the remotest areas of the country, first by camel and oxen, more recently by truck. You can read his account of one of his journeys here.

Many children’s stories from and about Mongolia reflect its place in world history. The cultural heritage of those times remains strongly evident today, especially when you look beyond the urban areas towards the vast grassland steppe that consitutes most of Mongolia’s geography. This means that picture books with a contemoporary setting and the retellings of traditional stories merge to offer insight into each other that is relevant to today’s young readers, wherever they come from.

The list of books given below is not long, and I’m sure there are others to be found: but in the meantime, all of these are enriching and worth seeking out.

Picture books

Bolormaa Baasansuren, adapted by Helen Mixter,
My Little Roundhouse
Groundwood Books, 2009.

A delightful picture book, which brings the nomadic life of a Mongolian community to life through the eyes of one-year-old Jilu, who shares his experiences of all the roundness in his life, from the ger that is his home to the encircling love that enfolds him. There’s plenty here for young children to contrast and compare with in their own lives. My Little Roundhouse was selected as part of the 2010 Spirit of PaperTigers book set.

Demi,
Marco Polo
Marshall Cavendish Children, 2008.

Marco Polo’s adventurous life is relayed through compact text and sumptuous illustrations bursting out of borders that reflect the rich patterns and brocades of the Silk Route. We read about his many years working under Kublai Khan and the sceptiscism of his fellow countrymen back in Venice. A beautifully depicted map shows the extent of his Travels.

Demi,
Chingis Khan/Genghis Khan
Henty Holt and Company, 1991/Marshall Cavendish 2008.

Originally published as Chingis Khan in 1991, this classic title has recently been reissued as a Marshall Cavendish Classic with the slightly differently spelled title Genghis Khan.

A picture book biography of the great Mongol leader “based upon both historical resources and folklore”, this story pays particular attention to the events of Temujin’s childhood which moulded him into the charismatic conqueror and unifier he became as Genghis Khan. Demi’s signature use of gold comes into its own to depict both the wide, open grasslands of the steppe and the rich architecture of cities beseiged and conquered by Gengis. The last page holds a thought-provoking postscript to the story.

Ted and Betsy Lewin,
Horse Song: The Naadam of Mongolia
Lee & Low Books, 2008.

An exciting, exuberant story of the Lewins’ trip to Mongolia for the annual Naadam to watch one of the traditional horse-races in which the jockeys are children. Luminous, panoramic illustrations are interspersed with cartoon-like vignettes that will make readers chuckle aloud. The “Ger Facts” and “Other Mongolia Facts” at the end provide exactly the kind of information young readers will want to know.

Yuzo Otsuka, illustrated by Suekichi Akaba, translated by Richard McNamara and Peter Howlett,
Suho’s White Horse: A Mongolian Legend
RIC Publications, 2006.

Translated from the Japanese, where this story is now a classic, this beautiful, sad legend explains the origins of the morin khuur, the traditional Mongolian two-stringed instrument that always has a carved horse’s head. Suho enters a horse-race on his beloved white horse to win the hand of the local governor’s daughter. He wins, but when the governor realises that the winner is only a poor shepherd boy, he goes back on his word and tries to steal the horse… This tragic tale will raise passionate indignation in young readers, who will also love listening to Suho’s story related through the atmospheric playing of the morin khuur itself on the accompanying CD, perhaps while turning the pages to absorb the at times haunting illustrations.

Robert D. San Souci, illustrated by Jean & Mou-Sien Tseng,
Fa Mulan: The Story of a Woman Warrior
Hyperion, 1998/2000.

A retelling of the famous story of how Fa Mulan saved her family’s honor by disguising herself as a man to join the Khan’s army against the Tartars, and was so convincing that she became a respected general. An interesting Author’s Note discusses the sources and contemporary writings.

Laurence Yep, illustrated by Jean & Mou-Sien Tseng,
The Khan’s Daughter: A Mongolian Folktale
Scholastic 1997/2002.

A traditional story in which Möngke, a poor man’s son, seeks to win the hand of Borte, the powerful Khan’s daughter. The Khan’s wife sets the first two of three tests for him and then attempts to make it impossible for Möngke to succeed, but Borte helps him and sets the third task herself… This is a witty story with a surprising twist at the end. Yep’s retelling has plenty of vitality and the expressive illustrations provide geographical and cultural detail, as well as a lively portrayal of character.

For reading aloud and older readers

Retold by Dashdondog Jamba and Borolzoi Dashdondog, edited by Anne Pellowski,
Mongolian Folktales
World Folklore Series, Libraries Unlimited, 2009.

This collection contains a broad spectrum of more than sixty myths and folktales translated into well-honed English that just begs to be read aloud. Older children will enjoy reading the stories for themselves, and exploring the rich cultural background that the book also embraces.

Young Adult book

Dori Jones Yang,
Daughter of Xanadu
Delacorte Press, 2011.

A vivid portrayal of life under the Kubilai Khan told through the eyes of his (fictional) grand-daughter Emmajin, who longs, unusually, to become a soldier. A task set by her grandfather to extract information from the Venetian merchant Marco Polo leads to unexpected results as she scrutinises both her own and his culture and values. Full of adventure, well-written and absorbing, it’s hard to put this book down until you reach the end.

Patricia (Patsy) Aldana, founder and publisher of Groundwood Books (and president of IBBY, the International Board on Book for Young Readers, since 1997), answered our questions about My Little Round Rouse, one of the seven titles selected for inclusion in our Spirit of PaperTigers Book Set Donation Project; her commitment to publishing books by First Nations authors; the multicultural titles on their Fall list, and more.

In our series of interviews with the publishers of the books selected for our Spirit of PaperTigers project, I normally start by asking how the book in question came about as a project for the publisher. Since we already know the answer to this question in relation to My Little Round House, both from our interview with author Bolormaa Baasansuren and from translator Helen Mixter’s article, My Little Round House: The Journey of a Picture Book from Mongolia to Canada, we’ll start by asking…

PT: What in particular attracted you to My Little Round House?

PA: I thought it was a really special book about people whose lives are very different from ours. I also thought it was a very unique look at a baby’s life, a life that despite being nomadic seemed wonderfully cosy and safe.

PT: The books you publish often tell the stories of people whose voices are underrepresented. What first motivated you to start on this path and how do you manage to stay true to your mission?

PA: Being a Guatemalan, I guess that seeing the world through the eyes of the marginal has always come naturally to me. There are so many books published from and for the mainstream that, for me, focusing on underrepresented authors and illustrators was one way to justify being a publisher. As a small Canadian house, this focus has also been a way for us to distinguish ourselves from the huge multi-nationals with whom we have to compete.

PT: How did the decision to stop selling rights to the American market and to start publishing your books in the US come about?

PA: As US publishing changed from the editor-driven houses that I first came to know (Margaret K McElderry, Dorothy Briley, Susan Hirschman, Phyllis Fogelman, etc.), it became harder and harder to sell rights to our books in the US. At the same time Canada began to cut funding to school libraries and as a result our domestic market really shrank. We had to publish ourselves in the US or die. And that meant we had to bring our best books to the US in order to establish our list. We had very little money, but we had the quality of our books and needed to show our whole list in order to make our way.

PT: Since 1998 Groundwood Books has been publishing stories in English and Spanish by people of Latino origin under its Libros Tigrillo imprint. What motivated the creation of this imprint, and how has this part of the business grown since then?

PA: Libros Tigrillo was made possible by our move into the US market. While there are excellent books for children published in Spanish, I felt there was room for a list that was oriented toward North American Latinos. What has been a crushing disappointment, however, is the virtual disappearance of the Spanish-language market in the US. We have had to abandon Spanish-only books and start publishing bilingual books.

I have always been opposed to the use of bilingual books, however given that Spanish-only books hardly sell at all, I have had to accept that books in Spanish can only reach Latinos if they are bilingual. This goes against everything I believe and know to be true about language instruction, the joy of reading in your mother tongue, and what I believe to be the wishes of the Spanish-speaking population. I find it shocking that such a large population of Spanish speakers are not served properly by bookstores, teachers and even (although this is less the case) by librarians.

PT: A 2005 Publishers Weekly article quotes you as saying: “Given that people are so interested in visual media, like graphic novels, I keep wanting to put illustrations into books for older children and older adolescents.” Have you been able to act on your desire to add illustrations to middle reader and young adult books?

PA: I have been able to, sometimes successfully, as in the case of Skim, and sometimes less successfully. But I will keep trying. We have a thrilling new graphic novel coming out in the Fall, Harvey by Herve Bouchard and Janice Nadeau, a very unconventional book that can be read by middle readers and yet has enormous adult appeal. I have high hopes for it. I have also just published a beautiful 96-page illustrated version of the Ring Cycle by Jorge Luján, called Brunhilda and the Ring, that adults have been enjoying, but that hasn’t been favorably reviewed by children’s book reviewers. They don’t seem to realize that it’s not aimed at children, that just because it has pictures it’s not necessarily for children.

PT: PaperTigers is currently focusing on the theme of Canadian Aboriginal Children’s Literature. Can you tell us something about the books by aboriginal authors and/or illustrators on Grounwood’s list?

PA: Everywhere in the world First Nations people suffer terrible discrimination, poverty and exclusion. I am especially interested in making sure that these people have a voice, and so Groundwood has always published as many aboriginal people as we can.

In Canada, not only did First Nations people lose their land and in many cases have had to make do with terrible, isolating living conditions on reserves, there was the systematic destruction of these peoples’ way of life through the system of enforced residential schools. These schools not only abused the children within them, they broke people’s contact with their elders and with the land, further rendering a traditional way of life almost impossible. The residential-school process strikes me as a kind of crime against humanity, and Canada is still a very long way from coming to grips with it and the consequences of it, much less in making adequate reparation for it.

Most manuscripts we receive from Canadian First Nations people are about the schools or, perhaps even more important, about what was lost—the kind of glorious natural world from which the schools terminally separated them.

Leo Yerxa, Larry Loyie, Shirley Sterling, Ninegeokuluk Teevee and now Nicola I. Campbell, who is the child and grandchild of school survivors, all deal with these themes. There is also Tom King, a great satirist and
humorist who is an important author of ours.

PT: You have recently announced the release of Teacher’s Guides for your bestselling Groundwork Guides series. Are there any plans to develop teacher’s guides for other books as well?

PA: Yes, if teachers find them useful.

PT: How, if at all, do you think the public’s attitude toward multicultural books for children has changed since Groundwood was established, in 1978?

PA: I think the biggest difference is that it is now widely accepted in North America that these books are a part of our national literatures. While there are many, many things in North America that one can decry, we have grown more accepting of a multi-cultural world in which we have got to live together, tolerate each other and like each other. Our European and Asian friends are far behind us in this. I also think we are much more critical about books and expect excellence no matter who they are written or illustrated by, though now that quality has to include authenticity. Tokenism no longer works.

PT: What would you say are the biggest challenges you face as a publisher of children’s books, and in particular of multicultural books? What are your hopes for the future?

PA: I don’t see challenges, but opportunities. As for my hopes for the future, they are:

-That public institutions continue to be adequately funded, because we live and die by libraries and school libraries and the librarians who are such passionate advocates of our type of publishing.

-That we continue to instill in children a love of reading by giving them great books that speak to their own lives and give them knowledge about other worlds.

PT: Could you please give us a taste of your Fall catalog?

PA: These are the “multi-cultural” books on the Fall list:

No by Claudia Rueda, a Columbian author-illustrator, is a classic picture book about a little bear who doesn’t want to go to sleep.

Hello Baby Board Books by Jorge Uzon show the major stages in his baby’s first year. Jorge is an internationally recognised Chilean photojournalist.

Doggy Slippers is a wonderful book of first poems about pets by Jorge Luján and Isol, an award-winning team.

Arroz Con Leche / Rice Pudding, the second book in our bilingual cooking poem series, features a poetic text by Jorge Argueta and wonderful illustrations by renowned Brazilian artist Fernando Vilela.

Viola Desmond Won’t Be Budged by Jody Nyasha Warner, and illustrated by Richard Rudnicki, is a remarkable true story about a Canadian black woman who in 1946, almost a decade before Rosa Parks, refused to give up her seat in a whites-only section of a theater. The Nova Scotia government has just apologised for her arrest.

On the fiction front, we have…

No Safe Place, a gripping new YA novel by Deborah Ellis about teenage refugees in Europe.

Harvey, the graphic novel I mentioned earlier, by Hervé Bouchard, illustrated by Janice Nadeau.

Between Sisters, a wonderful novel about a fifteen-year-old girl in Ghana, by Ghanaian Canadian author Adwoa Badoe.

PT: Wow. It sounds like we have lots of gems to look forward to! Thank you, Patsy, for taking the time to answer our questions. We are very grateful to Groundwood Books for donating copies of My Little Round House in support of our Spirit of PaperTigers project, and we wish you continued success!

To find out more about Groundwood Books, visit their website, facebook and twitter pages.

When my daughter and I read this book together, we got a good sense of the passage of time.   And of course, one year in the life of an infant is quite amazing!  The world of their consciousness  — from being held and suckled, to their first independent movements, to their growing perception of the world outside of themselves — is all contained in this wonderful book.  By the time one year passes, little Jilu is old enough to truly enjoy the season — summer — he was born in, outside of the ger.

Baasansuren’s illustrations are lovely and rich.  My Little Round House is a picture book of the first order and this is one of the reasons why it was selected for the Spirit of PaperTigers project.   Do read the PaperTigers interview with Baasansuren.   And of course, do seek out the book itself either at your local library or bookstore!

We thought it would be great to bring all the different answers together here on the blog, so here is the first of two parts in which we highlight each person’s response…

Bolormaa Baasansuren, author and illustrator of My Little Round House, adapted by Helen Mixter (Groundwood Books, House of Anansi Press, 2009):

I would like to send it to every country in the world! But right now, I would like to send it to Haiti, most of all. Now, after the earthquake, its people, especially the children, are going through very hard times. I like to imagine the children of Haiti forgetting their current hardships even just for a moment, by immersing themselves in a picture book.

Claire A. Nivola, author and illustrator of Planting the Trees of Kenya: The Story of Wangari Maathai (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2008):

I would think that the most important places to send the books would be to areas most affected by deforestation. Southeast Asia and South America are areas of enormous concern. But the list of countries is long: the countries of Central America, Brazil, Madagascar, Haiti, Mexico, India, Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, Myanmar, Malaysia, Bangladesh, China, Sri Lanka, Nigeria, Democratic Republic of Congo, Liberia, Guinea, Ghana, Cote d’ Ivoire. Too many! And unless there are translations provided, the books are useless to children who don’t read English. So, I would choose any of the above countries where English is spoken or taught in the schools. However, any country where children are in need would have my blessings. The Wangari Maathai story is not just about deforestation, it is about any misuse of the environment, and the environment is in need of help all around this globe!

Lynne Barasch, author and illustrator of First Come the Zebra (Lee & Low, 2009):

I would send First Come the Zebra to Kenya, where the story takes place. Of course conflict exists in many parts of the world. I would say Israel and neighboring Arab countries could benefit from this story too.

Grace Lin, author and illustrator of Where the Mountain Meets the Moon (Little, Brown & Co.,2009):

I’d like to send the book to myself when I was 10 years old. Partly because it is the kind of book that I wanted and needed and didn’t have when I was a child, and partly to tell my younger self, “Have faith, you will someday accomplish your dream.”

Hmm, all over the world is a bit tricky – but we are doing our best to find homes in some of the specific places mentioned. And what about you? If you could choose anywhere in the world to send special books like these, where would it be?

The rough translation was very useful for its factual content. It explained what was happening in the pictures and also conveyed the emotional tone of the book. It is a book that expresses very convincingly a baby’s feelings of being loved, of being safe and warm and cozy despite what to many non-Mongolians might seem to be the hard life of a nomad. All the elements of this wonderful story were there except that the text did not really resemble a picture book text that would work for North Americans.

The publisher had told me about [Japanese illustrator] Hideko Nagano’s story of working with Baasansuren on the theme of roundness to give the book its shape. So I decided that I would use this idea as the thematic centre for the English version. And roundness is certainly a dominant presence in this baby’s life – from his mother’s womb, to his ger, to the little basket in which he travels through a snowstorm to the family’s winter quarters. Roundness is there in the turn of the year as the family literally moves through four seasons, each with its own pastures and quarters for the animals. It is there in the family that lovingly surrounds him. Only at the very end, when he runs through the grass with the dogs on his first birthday, do we see the baby breaking out of his small round world into the greater, flatter world of the outdoors – though the sky is still a round canopy over his head.

The fact that the “original text” came through such an unusual route in some ways made the whole process much freer than usual. Whereas usually as a translator I work very hard to keep the voice of the original text intact and to remain as true as possible to the word for word of it, this process wasn’t really possible here. Because the illustrations show the story and the feelings of the book so clearly, and because the rough translation had the same emotional texture, it seemed to be okay to try and re-tell the story rather than to “translate” it. I think it works and that the English book is true in spirit and form to the original.

This book is a personal favourite of mine. It is so true to the emotional world of a baby while showing us such a wonderful and completely different way of life.

You can read the whole article here. I found the notion of translation vs adaptation particularly interesting. It would be interesting to know readers’ views on this too…