Whenever there is something to be explained to small people, I usually turn to books. Having the right book to broach subjects like sadness and grief can be a godsend. Michael Rosen’s Sad Book is one of those, though I would advise a solitary reading before sitting down with the children, as its understated language, poetry really, is overwhelmingly emotive. As Rosen explained in an interview, he wrote the book following the death of his eighteen-year-old son Eddie. During school visits, children used to ask him what became of Eddie, following his appearances in previous books.

“When I said, ‘He’s dead,’ you’d see the kids just nodding, ‘Oh, right, that’s what happened, is it?’ Very matter of fact.” Which may be how Rosen had the sense that children could handle the material in his Sad Book, a book that, quite simply, makes sense of sadness.

Quentin Blake’s illustrations are integral to conveying the depths of emotion and actually draw children in to the meaning by offering scenarios which may touch parallels with their own lives. Rosen is not coming up with easy, pat answers. His grief will never go away – but he does talk about how he deals with it and the small but effective ways he can be kind to himself that mean the grief is not allowed to take over his whole life. It’s not a book to be picked up lightly but it offers a chance to reflect and can help children realise they don’t have to be isolated when they are feeling deeply sad.

Who am I and how do I look to others? Bob Raczka’s Here’s Looking at Me: How Artists See Themselves, an American Library Association Notable Book for middle readers, stimulates children to explore these two fascinating and important human questions. Fourteen artists’ self portraits, from Velasquez to Harlem painter Jacob Lawrence, introduce children to the many ways that visual artists portray themselves.

Parents and teachers who want kids to explore art on its own terms will find this primer on self-portraits much to their liking. In addition, check out Just Like Me, a multicultural collection of artist self portraits–along with artists’ statements and their childhood photographs–and this art workshop, based on Just Like Me. For some great online ideas about kids’ self-portraits, click here.

Finally, following up on my series of posts on spiritual literacy, here’s Concord Magazine’s gallery of spiritual self portraits by children.

Characters who don’t quite fit in with their surroundings are often the stuff of good narrative tension and timeless stories – Hans Christian Andersen’s The Ugly Duckling comes to mind… Two beautiful picture books which seem to follow on along that theme, not least through the fact of their protagonists being white water birds (or not), are Borka: The Adventures of a Goose with no Feathers by John Burningham and Guji Guji by Chih-Yuan Chen.

Borka was republished recently in a special 40th anniversary edition. It has lost none of its appeal in the intervening years and the fabulous, witty artwork has not dated. Borka’s parents are told by the doctor goose that they must knit some feathers for Borka(!)– but the other young geese still laugh at her and she spends most of her time keeping out of the way. She can’t fly and isn’t even missed when all the other birds set off on their flight south for the winter. That’s when Borka’s adventures really begin; and the unexpected broadening of her horizons brings new friendships and happiness at last…

Meanwhile, our copy of Guji Guji was given to the whole family with the inscription “I hope you ALL enjoy this charming book” and indeed, there really is something in it for readers of all ages. Above all, there is a bubbly humor and an all-round, gleeful delight in the dénouement. Guji Guji started life as an egg which rolled into a duck’s nest. At this point we see a nest with three smallish white eggs and an ENORMOUS brown one. The next page:

Mother Duck didn’t notice.
(She was reading.)

Of course she was! What a glorious way for young readers / listeners to be introduced to reading as a way of life! Mother Duck treats all four of her children the same and Guji Guji has no questions even, until the “terrible” day three crocodiles arrive on the scene and assure him he’s one of them and should behave likewise. What follows is a story of temptation and wiliness overcome by love. For children who have always been fully secure in where they fit in to their families and communities, that is the straightforward unfolding of the tale: but for those who have felt out of place or exposed because they are physically different, perhaps through adoption, this is a very special story. Here’s a full review from Book Carousel; and Books for Kids has some ideas about how to use the story in class to talk about peer pressure. You can also listen to the story here, read by Scott Simon and Daniel Pinkwater on a National Public Radio broadcast, with interjections to highlight the delightful, so integral illustrations – it does just make you want to have the book open before you! I particularly loved this:

Here’s a picture I’d have on my wall and look at every day for the rest of my life and not mind it a bit, of Mother Duck reading to her little brood: they’re all in a big pile, falling asleep, sort of draped over Guji Guji.

How’s that for a blissful picture of a bedtime story?

Narrative forms have the potential to inspire, sustain and heal us, and traditional folktales have a special healing magic for children. Witch and monster stories like Baba Yaga and Heckedy Peg show how to get through the dark woods of life and suggest that there are helpful beings along the way. Kelly Herold (of Big A littlea) writes on “Baba Yaga Heads West” in the September issue of The Edge of the Forest. The Elves and the Shoemaker illustrates the practice of generosity. Talking Eggs, a traditional Louisiana Creole Cinderella tale, demonstrates the eventual triumph of good over evil. In the Uncle Remus stories, underdogs like tar baby and the rabbit outfox the scary fox himself. Native American coyote tales offer tales of connectedness with the natural world. In our stress-filled lives, these stories provide steadying information and wisdom.

For folktales from Asia, search the wealth of the PaperTigers website, or go directly to interviews with authors like Debjani Chatterjee and Demi, who have written stories based on folktales. For faves of Asian kids, here’s a review of a collection of folktale retellings. And for Hispanic folktales, check out Tales Our Abuelitas Told.

PaperTigers welcomes your feedback about this important form of literature for the child within each of us.

Glass Slipper, Gold Sandal, the new picture book by Newbery Award winner Paul Fleishman, takes the story of Cinderella for a spin around the world. Fleishman starts out traditionally, “Once upon a time there lived a wealthy merchant whose wife had died. They had one daughter, gentle-eyed and good-hearted.” But once the stepmother messes things up and Cinderella cries, the story takes several directions. “…the animal poured honey for her from its horn…and a fairy gave her figs and apricots…and Godfather Snake gave her rice.”

By the time the prince/king/headman marries Cinderella, the page is overflowing with dancers and food from Zimbabwe to Korea, and readers of all ages will be under the spell of Fleishman’s lovely worldwide enchantment. Illustrator Julie Paschkis traces the story variations with colorful bands of textile-inspired images, labeled with country of origin. Click here and scroll down for an interview with Glass Slipper, Gold Sandal’s illustrator extraordinaire.

Fleishman may be the first to meld so many Cinderella tales into one narrative. In doing so, he communicates something very special about this beloved story. But Cinderella’s multiculturalism is well documented; here’s an ALA BookLinks list of worldwide Cinderellas by region and culture. Here’s an extensive list from the Cinderella specialists, our friends at Shen’s Books. You can also search for Cinderella, if not her glass slipper, here at PaperTigers.

For all families, spiritual books are an important way to transmit values to children. In multicultural families, the need is particularly complex. On our own PaperTigers site, you’ll find reviews of All the Way to Lhasa, Shiva’s Fire, Sky Sweeper, and even Ruth Nason’s series of books, prepared for the U.K.’s Religious Education school program, on visiting spiritual centers of various faiths. You can also search PaperTigers for books with spiritual content.

Out on the web, the Quakers’ website offers an annotated list of books emphasizing love, forgiveness and hope across cultures and religious traditions. Penguin Books publishes a list of mostly Christian and Jewish titles, plus one book on the Ramayana. Vietnamese Buddhist teacher Thich Nhat Hanh has written several books for children emphasizing kindness and other spiritual values; he’s published by Parallax Press. Nicole Harvey of the Asian Art Museum, where many multicultural San Franciscans turn for materials, recommends several widely available titles: Kindness: A Treasury of Buddhist Wisdom for Children and Parents, Ayat Jamilah: Beautiful Signs: A Treasury of Islamic Wisdom for Children and Parents, and Daughters Of The Desert: Stories Of Remarkable Women From Christian, Jewish, And Muslim Traditions.

That’s just a start! We’ll return to this important topic again with more resources and further perspectives.

On BBC Radio 4’s Open Book this week, Britain’s new Prime Minister Gordon Brown flagged up Julia Donaldson’s The Snail and the Whale as his top children’s book – and his choice was certainly greeted with approval from the small listeners in the back of my car yesterday. Gordon Brown extolled “the quality of children’s books now and the sheer brilliance of the writing” and talked about his experience as a Dad: “I read bedtime stories but sometimes early morning stories as well, as any parent knows; but I love reading to both my children. One is only ten months and he’s just starting to get a bit interested in what’s there.” Fantastic!

There has been a fair bit of research in recent years into the benefits of Dads reading aloud to their kids – (more…)

There’s been quite a bit about illustrated children’s books in the British press recently: first, back in April, I noticed this article from The Daily Telegraph about how research has shown that “very young children learn faster from picture books that contain colour photographs than from books with colour drawings” Aaaargh! Thank goodness it goes on to point out some of what’s special about artists’ illustrations. Then I noticed that Achockablog have highlighted another article from the Glasgow Herald in which Debi Gliori bemoans the currently perceived status of picture books. That made me really sad as Debi has been a firm favorite in our household since Baby Number One would only eat if Hello, Baby Bear was being read to him – every splodge of mush on a buzzy bee or a hooty owl belies the notion that he was too small to understand what the drawings meant…

Debi’s words have made me think about the role of illustration and how much good illustrations are inseparable from their story. The other day we were again reading Ed Young’s Beyond the Great Mountains, tracing the parallels between the pictures and the characters, reading the words over and over. It was a deeply satisfying read in the way only poetry can be – and a very calm way to end the day… which is quite amazing really, as we had also been doing mental gymnastics talking about how it all fitted together.

So how about you? What special picture books are you reading with your child at the moment? Do send in your comments and let us know.