I joined the PaperTigers team in 2008.  At that time, there were five of us on the team — Aline Pereira, Marjorie Coughlan, Corinne Robson, and Janet Brown.  Based as we were in different locations — Aline in the U.S., Marjorie in the U.K., Corinne and I in Canada, Janet in Thailand, we made quite a cosmpolitan group.  All of us were enthusiastic about the rapidly developing online world of communication on and or about children’s books.  I joined the team as a blog contributor and reviewer; I was thrilled at the prospect of being able to write about multicultural children’s books on a weekly basis for a blog.  The position came up on the heels of my having just experimented with blogging on the late Canadian poet Margaret Avison (see: Month with Margaret blog) and I was eager to explore the world of children’s books thru blogging.

Well, as they say, all good things come to an end, and so has my time with PaperTigers.  It’s been a wonderful ride these past few years.  I have been introduced to many interesting and engaging writers, illustrators and fellow kidlit bloggers, and my reading life with my children has been deeply enriched by my involvement in this fine on-line publication.  Corinne and Marjorie will be staying on as editors, and they will be introducing guest bloggers (see already featured Holly Thompson and Tarie Sabido)  as the year goes on, so do stay tuned!  I’ll be moving on to other things in my writing career but I might pop in here and there with a post or review.   Until then, I bid you farewell, faithful PaperTiger reader, and wish you a happy summertime of reading to your children!

As we said back in December, the PaperTigers website and blog will be evolving in the coming months, to allow for us to include more Outreach work in what we do. The first phase, of updating the website to reflect the balance of Website, Outreach and Blog, is now complete – and we invite you to take a look for yourselves. Now, the papertigers.org homepage will take you to a portal, where you can choose which of the three areas you want to visit; and Aline and Eun Ha have worked wonders to set up the new homepage for the PaperTigers website – head on over and take a look, and then come back and tell us what you think…

…and then, if you haven’t already, make sure you sign up to take part in our 1,000th post draw for a Spirit of PaperTigers book set – either for yourself or for the school/library of your choice.

The round-up of posts taking part in the “One Shot: Southeast Asia” Blog Tour went live today, at Chasing Ray (Coleen has been posting regular updates as she gets more links, so check often!). PaperTigers is in with a post highlighting some gems related to the region, and PaperTigers itself is featured in an interview at A Chair, a Fireplace & a Tea Cozy.

This round-up has no doubt put PaperTigers in very good company… but don’t take my word for it! Head on over and be ready to succumb to the spells, charms and incantations of the participating bloggers and their rich and varied posts.

Korea’s participation in the 2005 Frankfurt Book Fair and at this year’s Bologna Children’s Book Fair as “Guest of Honor” was an important step toward making its literature better known worldwide. On both occasions, cultural events helped generate awareness of the country’s many literary riches and encouraged publishers to pay more attention to its wealth of established and new book creators.

Whereas the number of Korean books translated into English is still small, comparatively speaking, the output of writers and illustrators with Korean roots continues to grow and enlighten readers about the realities and experiences of their communities all over the world. Through our current website features, PaperTigers pays tribute to the narratives for children, available in English, from/about Korea and the Korean diaspora. We encourage you to hop on over to the website to check them out.

We will also be writing about these books here, on the blog, so please check back often and join in the conversation!

Join us today as we celebrate the announcement of the 2008 Kiriyama Prize winners. The fiction and nonfiction winners will divide the US $30,000 cash prize. One of the projects of Pacific Rim Voices (of which PaperTigers and WaterBridge Review are also part), the Kiriyama Prize was established in 1996 to recognize outstanding books about the Pacific Rim and South Asia that encourage greater understanding of and among the peoples and nations of this vast and culturally diverse region.

The latest issue of WaterBridge Review features reviews of all 10 finalists as well as a spirited conversation with Canadian author Sally Ito and author/translator Abby Pollak, who chaired the 2008 judges’ panels. Our own PaperTigers blogger Janet Brown, who hosts The Tiger’s Bookshelf, was a judge on this year’s non-fiction panel.

We invite you to visit our family of websites, where readers with a wide range of tastes and interests can begin/deepen their literary explorations of the Pacific Rim and South Asia.

PaperTigers.org is part of the Pacific Rim Voices family of websites which includes The Kiriyama Prize and WaterBridge Review. The Kiriyama Prize was established in 1996 to recognize outstanding books about the Pacific Rim and South Asia that encourage greater mutual understanding of and among the peoples and nations of this vast and culturally diverse region. The Prize consists of a cash award of US $30,000, which is split equally between the fiction and nonfiction winners. On February 26th the finalists for the 2008 Kiriyama Prize were announced on the website. Winners will be announced on April 1, 2008.