“Peace the World Together with Children’s Books” is the theme of the International Board on Books for Young People regional conference hosted by California State University, Fresno this fall.

Co-sponsored by the Arne Nixon Center at Fresno State, IBBY’s 9^th United States Regional Conference will be held at Fresno State on Oct. 21-23.

Conference chair Ellis Vance of Fresno said about 250 people – professors, librarians, teachers, authors, illustrators, publishers, collectors and fans – are expected. Registration so far includes participants from 48 states and every continent except Antarctica, Vance said.

The conference offers an opportunity to interact with authors and illustrators around the world, including Alma Flor Ada, Shirin Yim Bridges, F. Isabel Campoy, David Diaz, Margarita Engle, Kathleen Krull, Grace Lin, Roger Mello, Beverly Naidoo, Pam Muñoz Ryan and Peter Sis. Petunia’s Place Bookstore will sell books.

Activities will include exhibitions (including one by the International Youth Library), book discussion groups and tours. Optional activities are available to those who stay on beyond the conference closing at noon on Oct. 23. They include a tour of the Shinzen Japanese Garden in Fresno and a one-day bus trip to Yosemite National Park.

For information on the conference and registration visit www.usbby.org/conf_home.htm.

The award winners and commended titles are selected for their:

distinctive literary quality;
cultural contextualization;
exceptional integration of text, illustration and design;
potential for classroom use.

2011 Américas Award Winners

Clemente! by Willie Perdomo. Illustrated by Bryan Collier. Holt, 2010.
The Dreamer by Pam Muñoz Ryan, Illustrated by Peter Sis. Scholastic, 2010.

Américas Award Honorable Mention

The Firefly Letters by Margarita Engle. Holt, 2010.

The full commended list can be found here. The winning books will be honored at a ceremony during Hispanic Heritage Month (15 September – 15 October 2010) at the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

As our together-read, we’re “doing” Europe at the moment. We’re about half way through Dickens’ Oliver Twist, which I’m really enjoying, since it’s a good few years since I read it, and the boys are revelling in. I suggested it because I was getting a bit fed up with continued allusions to Oliver via the musical Oliver! and felt (poor kids, purist that I am!) that they needed to get back to grass roots here… I did wonder if we were biting off a bit more than we could chew but in fact they are completely caught up by the narrative and Dickens would be happy with his effect on their social consiousness/consciences! It’s definitely proving to be one of those books that they wouldn’t read on their own but that, with frequent, unobtrusive asides to gloss the meanings of words, they are more than able to enjoy having read to them. It’s just very long and now that term-time is back in full swing, it’s hard getting the sustained reading time all together that we would like.

We have also read The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas by John Boyne (David Fickling Books, 2006). This is an extraordinarily powerful book about a nine-year-old German boy, Bruno, who becomes an unwitting witness of the Holocaust when his father becomes the Commandant of “Outwith” concentration camp (as Bruno mistakenly calls it), and who makes friends with a Jewish boy, Shmuel, on the other side of the perimeter fence. If you have read this breath-taking, punch-in-the-stomach book, do take a look at the discussion that Janet got underway here on PaperTigers on the Tigers Bookshelf. Although it says on the back cover that despite being a book about nine-year-olds, “this is not a book for nine-year-olds”, and I therefore, again, had some reservations of reading it with the boys, I was glad we did. Because we were reading it together (and not at bedtime – this is definitely not a book to read just before you go to sleep), we couldn’t read it in one sitting as has been recommended – but we all mulled over it deeply and all brought our own ages to it. I know that Little Brother’s nine-year-old perspective was very different to mine (as, indeed was Older Brother’s), but it was still valid; and I hope they will both read it again independently when they are older.

Little Brother’s own read was also focused on Europe with Starry Messenger: Galileo Galilei by Peter Sís – this is what he says about it:

I liked The Starry Messenger because you could always recognise Galileo in the pictures because there were always stars near him. Sometimes he was wearing them and sometimes he was drawing them in the sand. It was hard to read because of the font with the swirly writing on some of the page so Mummy helped me. It was always poetic. I liked the poem by Mozart.

I would recommend this book because it tells you all about scores of things that were discovered by Galileo that have changed the world – the phases of the moon, the phases of Venus, and the pendulum, and he got into trouble for saying that Earth revolved around the sun – and he discovered that two objects of unequal weights dropped from the same height would fall at equal speeds by dropping two balls from the Tower of Pisa.

Older Brother read American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang:

I loved it! I understood a lot of the first story because I know the Legend of the Monkey King, who is one of the main characters. A lot of it was very funny (definitely for boys!). I liked the way the book was actually one story all mixed up but you don’t realise that until the end. There’s a lot of transforming into something else – like one of the main characters, Jin, transforms into another body but eventually he returns to his own body and realises that he’s happy with who he is. And that’s the message of the book really – be happy with who you are. Oh, and the graphics are really cool.

Meanwhile, since Update #1 of the PaperTigers Reading the World Challenge, there’s been some voracious reading going on across the globe!

Corinne has read Young Fu of the Upper Yangtze by Elizabeth Foreman Lewis, which won the Newbery Award in 1933 – she says,

I was lucky enough to travel to China in 1987 and since then have always had an interest in Chinese history. One of my all-time favorite adult books is Shanghai by Christopher New. I especially love any book that takes me back in time to another country and quite enjoyed Young-Fu.

Corinne has also read Swimming in the Monsoon Sea by Shyam Selvadurai (set in Sri Lanka), A Girl Made of Dust by Nathalie Abi-Ezzi (set in Lebanon), Chandra’s Secret by Allan Stratton (set in Africa).I, Coriander written by Sally Gardner (set in England). However, she didn’t get on well with Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta (set in Australia).

So, as she says, just North and South America to go! And we’re looking forward to hearing how the rest of the family enjoys their reading too.

Olduvai at Olduvai Reads has made her pick from her inspirational list of possibilities and has now read Read: Terra Incognita by Sara Wheeler (Antarctica), Death With Interruptions by Jose Saramgo (Portugal), Island by Alistair MacLeod (Cape Breton, North America) and Stolen Lives: Twenty Years in a Desert Jail by Malika Oufkir and Michele Fitoussi (Morocco).

Eva at A Striped Armchair didn’t enjoy either her fiction or non-fiction choices for Africa, set in Ethiopia: The God who Begat a Jackal by Nega Mezlekia (although she had loved his first book, Notes From a Hyena’s Belly), and In Search of King Solomon’s Mines by Tahir Shah. Let’s hope she has more success with the rest of her armchair travelling – and for an inkling where those will take her, have a look at the list she put together too.

Tiina from A Book Blog of One’s Own has read The Lieutenant by Kate Grenville (Australia) and Happenstance by Carol Shields (North America) – and she enjoyed both of them (phew!).

There’s still plenty of time to take up this year’s Reading the World Challenge (find out all about it here) – do give it a go yourself and/or encourage the young people in your life to take it up too – and then don’t forget to let us know what you’ve read.

PaperTigers: Your life has been a tapestry of living in many cultures—in France, Spain, England, the United States, Nigeria, India. How has this helped you as a writer?

Katia: This is an interesting question. How does life in general help and/or affect us as writers? I would say every experience shapes us, and what we are shows up inevitably in what we write. I could not have written Amadi’s story if I had not lived in Nigeria. On the other hand, it must be said that a life spent traveling or living in vastly different countries (even if I also find similarities from one to another) has made me slightly jaded. I’m so used to witnessing diverse ways of living, eating, dressing, even driving a car on the road (!) that it takes more and more to surprise me. I notice that particularly when we have guests. Some of the things that amaze them, I have come to view as part of my daily routine or panorama.

PaperTigers: It’s been said that writing a picture book is as demanding as writing a poem. Each word must be precise, the use of language must be economical, and the images evocative. Longer forms of fiction can be more forgiving. Why did you choose this difficult form for Amadi’s story? And would you choose it again?

Katia:I love the picture book format. I love the conversation between the art and the words on the page, how they are meant to complement each other. I think that writers who are also artists are very lucky to be able to experience this medium in its full beauty, and difficulty. Amadi came to me that way : it was a turning point in the life of a young boy, related to a particular instance, and something that needed to be resolved quickly. And yes, I have three other picture book manuscripts that I hope will find a home. Children love pictures. They love being able to suspend the flow of a story to examine an image, notice details, talk about the expression on the face of a character, the background, etc.

PaperTigers:As a mother of two girls, why did you decide to write about a boy? Is there a “real-life” Amadi? How did you manage to enter the heart and mind of a small “Igbo man of Nigeria” and give him such complete life on the page?

Katia:There is no “real-life” Amadi, but there are lots of boys just like him. The problem of these boys dropping out of school to earn quick money in the street is very real. As for entering the heart and mind of Amadi, I think it’s the reverse. Amadi entered my own mind and started telling me his story. I just had to write it down.

Papertigers:The best picture books are the ones where the story and the illustrations blend into a seamless creation, which happens quite wonderfully in Amadi’s Snowman. Did you and Dimitrea Tokunbo communicate at all as your book came together or was this a lucky accident?

Katia: Dimitrea and I did not communicate at all during the illustration process. I think it depends largely on the illustrator and the editor. Some want some communication, others don’t. I was sent a scan of an early painting of Amadi, at the very beginning, and then, the dummy, which is the succession of drawings with the page breaks, and it was the only time I was able to formulate questions and concerns, again, going through the editor.

PaperTigers: After reading about Amadi, I wanted to send picture books to him and his friends, and I’m sure that many of your readers feel the same way. How can people help to put books in the hands of children in Africa (and other places)?

Katia: I’m delighted that you’re asking that question. We will talk about sustainable library projects in Africa, during the blog tour, and we’ll even visit at least one, in Nigeria, maybe two more in other parts of the continent. I’ll be sure to post the necessary information, then.

PaperTigers: Does Amadi continue to be a presence in your life? Do you think you might give him a sequel?

Katia: Amadi is still a presence in my life, but in a different way. He’s grown, somehow, as he started becoming a part of the lives of children who read his story and relate so strongly to him. So, I’ve let him go. At this point, I don’t think there will be a sequel, even though people keep asking me that question. But you know: never say never…

Papertigers: You have said on your blog that in some ways you didn’t leave Nigeria—or at least not in a way that would have given you closure. If you could relive that time in your life, how would you reconstruct your departure?

Katia: I wouldn’t only reconstruct the departure, I would try to do a lot of things differently. Arriving in Enugu with a 7 months old baby, after a life in Europe and the US was a real shock for me. I had done a lot of back-packing and budget traveling, but that was different. I was not prepared at all for… anything, really : the lack of supplies, the isolation, the mentality, the security issues. It was a lot to deal with on my own, with a small child, and my husband gone 12 to 14 hours a day, when he was not traveling. It is not easy to try and find the right balance, especially for people like me, who can very easily withdraw and spend days alone with books, a computer, writing or reading. But it was a good lesson.

PaperTigers:Did living in Nigeria help you adjust to living in India?

Katia: Absolutely. It has been easier, because we can travel – and we have – all over India, and we haven’t had any of the security or supply issues that we had in Nigeria, but Nigeria made me realize the necessity to keep an open mind at ALL times, to try and have a more relaxed approach to things and life. People are late, say they will come and don’t show up, say they will do something, and don’t do it, say yes when they mean no, etc, etc. It still bothers me, at times, but there are days when I actually laugh about it, and most of all, it doesn’t drive me insane.

PaperTigers: On your website, you mention “the moving bubble that I call home” which is also what your daughters call home. Although children can be more adaptable to new surroundings than adults are, what do you do to make your children’s transition from one culture to another as smooth an experience as possible?

Katia: I think that the fact that our own lives are a mixture of cultures means we don’t have to do that much, really. The French, Spanish, Haitian cultures live within us: it’s in the languages we speak, the food we eat, the music we listen to, the places we go to in the summer, etc. Then, there is the place where we land the bubble, as I say. And there also, we travel a lot. We went on a trip through Karnataka and Tamil Nadu when our little one was only 8 months and the older was 4, complete with the second class night-long train ride without which no Indian experience is complete, in my opinion. Kids are not bothered by all the needs and wants and prejudices that adults carry around, as long as the parents don’t carry these prejudices themselves, of course. The only thing I’m careful about is the preparation, when we leave a place for good. It must be very clear that we are going away for good, and we say good bye to everything and everyone, including trees, and birds, and animals, and places. That’s what I did with Kora, when we left Nigeria, four years ago, and that’s what I’ll do again, when we leave India.

PaperTigers: What are some of the books that you have read to your daughters recently?

Katia:The little one is in a Dr Seuss phase. I think she loves the music of the rhymes, and how much fun they are. With the older one, we’ve been reading Roald Dahl, Charlotte’s Web, and a collection of French small comic books that address all sorts of issues faced by children in their everyday lives (kid doesn’t want to go to school, wants a cat or a dog, fights with brother or sister, got a bad grade, is in love, etc, etc. It’s called Max et Lili.)

PaperTigers: Who are some of your favorite writers for children?

Katia: Ah, that’s such a difficult question. I love anything by Uma Krishnaswami, Jacqueline Woodson, and Peter Sis. Let’s see: Meg Rosoff, Kimberly Willis Holt, Christopher Paul Curtis, Pam Munoz Ryan, Suzanne Fisher Staples, and so many more. I read Angel Blood by John Singleton, recently, and found it incredibly powerful.

PaperTigers: What are you reading now that is not children’s literature?

Katia: I think the last one I read was a while ago, and that was Barack Obama’s Dreams from My Father. And a collection of essays titled Homelands, Women’s Journeys across Race, Place, and Time edited by Patricia Justine Tumang and Jenesha De Rivera. Oh, and Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. I have a pile waiting on my bedside with The Last Mughal by William Dalrymple, Salman Rushdie’s The Enchantress of Florence, and A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini.

Many thanks to Katia and best bon voyage wishes for a fabulous virtual journey!