School Library Journal’s Battle of the (Kids’) Books competition has begun.  Patterned after the wildly popular March Madness, when college basketball teams vie against one another in a “bracket” scheme, the “Battle of the Kids’ Books” pits 16 topnotch children’s books against each other and asks popular children’s book authors authors to choose a winner. It’s a fast-paced event with the 16 books that open the contest  whittled down to eight books by the second week, and four books on the third week. A winner will be chosen on Monday, April 6, by Newbery Medalist Katherine Paterson, who is the new National Ambassador of Young People’s Literature.

Yesterday, in round one, match one, Jim Murphy chose Deborah Heiligman’s Charles and Emma: The Darwins’ Leap of Faith over Phillip Hoose’s award-winning Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice. Today’s battle, judged by Nancy Farmer, pits Fire (Kristin Cashore) against Evolution of Calpurnia Tate (Jacqueline Kerry). Click here to see the schedule. Spread the word and get involved in the event: you could win a 2010 Battle of the Kids’ Books t-shirt!

We have deeply enjoyed hosting the Tiger’s Choice, the PaperTigers’ online bookgroup, over the past year–it introduced us to a number of interesting books, a group of authors whom we hadn’t read before, and a collection of new friends from around the globe who joined in our discussions.

Nancy Farmer, Uma Krishnaswami, Ken Mochizuki, Minfong Ho, Jane Vejjajiva, Julia Alvarez, John Boyne,  Katia Novet Saint-Lot are all authors whom we plan to return to again and again for reading that expands our cultural horizons. As their body of work increases, the Tiger’s Bookshelf will be there–to read, to praise, to cheer them on.

We will however be doing this in another form rather than through the Tiger’s Choice. As exciting and rewarding as it has been to explore books through this avenue, we have new plans for the Tiger’s Bookshelf that do not include our bookgroup. We thank all of you who have read this portion of our blog, and who have joined in the discussions, and hope that you will continue to be part of the ongoing conversation that will take place on the PaperTigers Blog, and through the Tiger’s Bookshelf!

I’d never before read anything by Nancy Farmer (although as a former children’s bookseller, of course I knew about her) until I picked up A Girl Named Disaster to read as the first Tiger’s Choice. I was lucky to have found it–this book is an outstanding piece of fiction that can be read and enjoyed by a doddering fifty-nine-year-old like me or by people who are substantially younger.

In an earlier posting by Corinne on PaperTigers, the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators in the Philippines pointed out that children’s literature from different cultures is shaped by differing values. This is made intriguingly clear by the story of Nhamo, the girl who leaves her tribe in search of her one living parent and a family that will be truly hers. Her quest is an adventure, and a solitary one, that takes her into a world populated only by animals. Unlike similar stories written with a differing cultural perspective (Julie of the Wolves, My Side of the Mountain, Island of the Blue Dolphins), this book does not show an anthropomorphic relationship between Nhamo and the baboons who are her neighbors. A lonely and frightened child, Nhamo forges a relationship with a world of the spirits rather than with the animal kingdom. She sustains herself through stories that she knows and loves about beings of an unseen realm, and in her dreams and in her waking imagination, these are the figures that guide her, and who allow her to bring out menacing, and hitherto unexplored, parts of herself by cloaking them under different names and the persona of spirits.

Her three-part story begins with elements of Cinderella, sweeps into a Robinson Crusoe-like world, and ends with a modern-day transformation and the fulfillment of a quest. At almost 300 pages, it is longer than many pieces of fiction for children, and it contains an impressive body of information within its compelling story. Anyone who reads it will be given a sense of place that only someone who has lived in that part of Africa could provide.

It could be a problematic choice to read aloud to a classroom of boys and girls. Although Nhamo’s adventures, and her adventuresome spirit, will appeal to both genders, the author’s frankness when writing about menstruation and other physical functions could be difficult in a mixed-gender classroom if read aloud. It is, however, a dazzling choice for a parent-child book group, or to give to a reluctant reader, or to enjoy as a solitary pleasure when in need of something absorbing and magical to read.

Before we move on to our discussion of A Girl Named Disaster and the introduction of the next Tiger’s Choice, we want to talk about the latest comments in the discussion of how to turn children into passionate readers.

Parents who read to their children are an essential element in creating readers, and Jeannine and Marjorie both bring up new ways for parents to ensure that this happens. Marjorie, whose sons’ book reviews light up the PaperTigers blog this week, suggests a virtual book group as being a way for children with irrepressible physical energy to come together in a space that doesn’t lend itself to exuberant (and distracting) physical activity. “After all,” she points out, “they are growing up with an affinity for virtuality which we can only wonder at!” Providing a way to link the world of books with the virtual world seems to be a brilliant way to keep reading alive in the brave new world of the internet. If anybody else has ideas on blending these two disparate pastimes, please let us know.

Jeannine, who read three to four books a night with her son when he was small, says that talking about the books was as much fun as reading them. She observes that parents can encourage their children to be engaged readers who can eventually take part in intelligent book discussions by through questions (“Why do you think he did that?”) and through connecting real-life activities with books shared with children. “If you’re reading about a garden, go outside and dig in the dirt,” she urges. And she adds, in the same spirit as Corinne, “As for the TV–just say no!”

Suggestions that add to this conversation, previously posted to the CCBC-net listserv, (the Cooperative Children’s Book Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Education), are reprinted here with permission. Megan Schliesman, CCBC Librarian, says, “When my husband, daughter and I gather together for a shared story (we are currently on book 3 of Suzanne Collin’s “Gregor the Overlander series), I am aware–as several have already mentioned–that we are not only experiencing a terrific story, we are also making shared memories.”

Lee Bennett Hopkins, a well-known poet and anthologist, echoes another poet, Sherman Alexie, in advocating The Snowy Day. “Read aloud The Snowy Day by [Ezra Jack] Keats; follow it up with “Cynthia in the Snow” where snow is “Still white as milk or shirts/So beautiful it hurts.” in Gwendolyn Brooks’ Bronzeville Boys and Girls….With every book you read aloud, find a poem to go with it. I believe we spend too much time TEACHING children to READ–and NOT enough time TEACHING them to LOVE to read. GET the difference.”

Let’s celebrate that difference and continue the discussion on how to make it become a vital part of the lives of children.

While reading A Girl Named Disaster, I found there were questions that I wanted to discuss with other readers and I hope some of you feel the same way. Your questions will probably be different from mine, and I’m eager to know what they are.

Nhamo is a storyteller and this book is punctuated with the folktales that she has learned and loves. Do these stories strengthen or weaken Nhamo’s own story?

Who is Long Teats and what does she mean to Nhamo?

Is Nhamo’s relationship to the baboons, especially Rumpy, disappointing? Would a different relationship be more appealing?

Nancy Farmer is noted for the length of her novels. Is this particular book well-served by its length or could it be more effective if it were shorter?

A Girl Named Disaster has three distinct segments of Nhamo’s story and some readers are disappointed with the third segment. Is the ending strong enough to provide a satisfying completion to the novel?

Let’s talk!

Alone on an island with a damaged boat, a rapidly dwindling supply of food, and with nothing to save her from death but her own wits, eleven-year-old Nhamo has never been by herself before.

She is a girl who grew up in a Mozambique village, who has always been surrounded by members of her tribe. She never knew her parents – her mother died when Nhamo was small, her father disappeared after committing an act of violence long before she could remember, and her grandmother is the only one who loves her.

When the village decides that Nhamo must become one of the wives of a middle-aged man to satisfy her father’s blood-debt that has cast a blight upon the community, her grandmother hatches an escape plan. Giving her granddaughter the gold that she has saved throughout her life, she sends the girl off with a supply of food in a stolen boat.

Nhamo knows she must follow the river that leads to Zimbabwe and her father’s family, but her boat drifts off course and she is lost in a gigantic lake, with no land in sight but small islands. Can she survive on her own and eventually find the family that she longs for?

This novel is the story of a quest that intertwines physical and spiritual adventure, written by a woman who lived for years in Zimbabwe and Mozambique. It provides much to talk about – come to the Tiger’s Bookshelf next week for a few questions and the beginning of our first book group discussion.

“Kids can handle more plot, facts, and complexity than we give them credit for,” says literacy expert (and friend) Gina Biancarosa. Her studies at Harvard and Stanford indicate that what slows down young readers is not difficulty of story line but just the opposite: actions without consequences. Her favorite writers don’t dumb down for kids, and there are lots of multicultural titles on her list, including Nancy Farmer. “Many of Farmer’s works take place in Africa, but others take place in Mexico and other countries around the world. Some of her shorter works are my personal favorites: A Warm Place and Do You Know Me. But she’s great at epic length novels for hungry readers as well: Sea of Trolls, The House of the Scorpion, and A Girl Named Disaster (awesome title). I find them a bit long, but some kids just eat them up, à la Harry Potter.” More on Farmer and her books here. And more of Gina’s faves in posts to come.