I realise that the last update I gave of our progress in the PaperTigers Reading the World Challenge 2009 was just beyond the half-way point – however, the deadline was over a month ago now, at the end of July, so I thought I’d better round it off!

For our last three books we read together:

Toad Away by Morris Gleitzman (Puffin, 2004). All about a brave cane toad wanting to make friends with the human race and traveling with two cousins to the Amazon to find out the secret of their ancestors as to how to achieve this… My two loved this and laughed uproariously at the rather revolting antics that cane toads are wont to get up to. I have to admit that I would probably have encouraged them to read this one on their own if I’d realised at the outset what it was going to be like – but actually, it was good to be a part of something that so appealed to their typical-boy sense of humor…

Super Jack by Susanne Gervay, illustrated by Cathy Wilcox (Angus & Robertson, 2003). The sequel to I Am Jack, this story focuses on Jack’s relationship with his family, especially the newly-introduced son of Rob, his Mum’s boy-friend. A family holiday intended to help everyone get to know each other is certainly eventful before the desired outcome is achieved… This is to be recommended to older children who may be trying to make sense of complex family relationships in their own lives.

Tom Crean’s Rabbit: A True Story from Scott’s Last Voyage by Meredith Hooper, illustrated by Bert Kitchen (Frances Lincoln, 2005). A very special, true story which is a great way to introduce early Antarctic exploration to young children – you can read a review from Create Readers here. This had the added kudos for my children of being a story which their grandad, who spent a year in the Antarctic quite a long time ago now, did not know…

Older Brother rounded off his Book Challenge with (more…)

We are cracking on and are on target to have completed our PaperTigers Reading Challenge 2009 by the end of July, though it will be tight!

For our European readaloud, we have just finished the Swiss classic Heidi by Joanna Spyri. It has lost none of its charm over the years and we delighted in the well-rounded characters – the non-saccharine goodness of Heidi herself, Peter’s spikiness and jealousy, Grandfather’s transformation from a surly recluse, even the goats! This is not a book that either of the boys would have picked up on their own to read and is just another example of the breadth of literature that children are happy to absorb when it is read aloud to them. For an interesting take on Heidi, see this post from Hungry For (mostly Japanese) Words.

Little Brother (8) has also journeyed into Europe but a little further East, with Sheep Don’t Go to School, a collection of children’s poetry from Eastern Europe, edited by Andrew Fusek Peters and illustrated by Markéta Prachatická (Bloodaxe Books, 1999). He spent a month dipping in and out of this book – and one rather gruesome poem we read aloud together with great relish! Here’s what he has to say:

Some of the poems are funny, some are plain weird, and some are to carry on and on until you’re bored, like:

A doggy stole a sausage from the big bad butcher [...]
And on the doggy’s gravestone they wrote this little tale:
A doggy stole a sausage…etc etc! ad infinitum!

I’ve recited that one over and over and now my family is begging me to stop!

Too right!!! Yes, he’s definitely got a lot of enjoyment and glee out of that book!

Older Brother (10), in the meantime, headed to the other side of the world and plunged into the Amazonian rainforest with (more…)

Here we are with Book Number 3 in our PaperTigers Reading the World Challenge 2009 – and there are still a few weeks to go for you to join in, if you haven’t got going yet…

Together we read Scott O’ Dell‘s Island of the Blue Dolphins (first published in 1960 and a Newbery Medal winner). It was my well-thumbed copy from when I was a child and I was perhaps being a bit self-indulgent in sticking it under the boys’ noses – but my concerns that the protagonist is a girl were unfounded. They loved it. It is, after all, an incredible story of survival, steeped in tragedy, love and hope – and mind-boggling for them (and indeed, everyone) to take on board that the essentials of the story are true. It’s also beautifully written and is a joy to read aloud.

Older Brother (10 1/2) enjoyed Harry the Hairy-Nosed Wombat & Other Australian Animal Tales, by Jill Morris, illustrated by Tina Wilson (Greater Glider, 2003): you can read an on-line review here and here’s what Older Brother had to say:

The stories were very active and full of adventure. It was fun reading about Australian animals because they live in very different habitats from us and I like them. The story about Harry was my favourite and I really liked “Bobuck the Mountain Possum”. I thought it was really interesting that koalas are sometimes called kolas by Australian Aborigines, which means “no drink”.

Little Brother (8) revelled in Antarctic Antics: A Book of Penguin Poems by Judy Sierra, illustrated by Jose Aruego and Ariane Dewey (Voyager Books, Harcourt, 2008) – I should perhaps say that for someone who loves both Natural History and playing with words, this was a wonderful book – here are his own words:

The poems are about a penguin family – and about the fun and the predators and what a penguin’s great thrill would be – two months at sea because the fish swim straight into their mouths:

“Several shrimp swimming south
Are approaching my mouth -
So I’ll just open wide
And invite them inside.
Yes, two months’ vacation
Is a penguinish wish.
I’ve got nothing to do
But slurp squadrons of fish.”

I liked the words in the poems and Mummy liked the Antarctic Anthem poem – me too but “Belly Sliding” is my favourite.

It seems to have taken a while to get this year’s PaperTigers Round the World Reading Challenge off the ground in our house – but we’re flying now! We’re following a similar pattern to last year: a readaloud and the boys each reading their own choices…

The book we all read together was Planting the Trees of Kenya, which I blogged about a couple of weeks ago…

Older Brother, 10½, has read The Cat who Went to Heaven by Elizabeth Coatsworth and illustrated by Raoul Vitale (Aladdin Paperbacks, 2008). First published in 1930, this is a short, beautifully written fable which centres around the Buddhist legend that the Buddha blessed all animals except the cat because a certain cat “was not overcome with awe”. It was a Newberry winner and was discussed recently, as it happens, in a fascinating post on The Newberry Project blog, which is where my quotation above comes from. The story certainly worked its charm on Older Brother:

It’s about an artist in Japan and his housekeeper bought a cat instead of their food with their money. They were very poor so the artist was not happy with her at first but then after a while he was able to start selling paintings. Then a priest came to his house and ordered a picture of the Buddha’s tomb and all the animals he blessed. He blessed every animal except the cat so the artist did not draw the cat at first – but his cat always looked upset that there wasn’t a cat in the painting so the last thing he did was paint a cat in it… and I’m not going to tell you what happened but there was a miracle.

It is actually a beautiful story. You know, there was a shelf in the artist’s room and the cat sat and looked at a special statue of the Buddha belonging to the artist and they both prayed in front of it. I like art and I thought that I was actually standing there watching it happening (that happens to me quite a lot in books, by the way – sometimes I think I’m the main character, sometimes I’m up in a tree watching).

And Little Brother, just turned 8, read Grandpa’s Indian Summer, the second of Jamila Gavin’s three Grandpa Chatterji books (Egmont, 2006 – and you can read PaperTigers’ full review here):

I loved this book. Especially the bit where Sanjay eats all the cakes and then he gets scared because all the ants come and he jumps onto the metal chest with all the cakes in. Everyone’s looking for him. And he’s got two cakes in his hands and he eventually gets found. Then Grandpa Chatterji gets into trouble because he’d been eating cakes and Sanjay found him and wanted to have some too, so it’s all Grandpa Chatterji’s fault!

I really liked the last page. The last sentence was the best!

It made me want to go to India because it’s a wonderful, colourful place. And I also like peacocks, although there aren’t any in the book. I also want to play cricket – and that is in the book!

Do let us know how you are getting on with our Reading the World Challenge – or if you haven’t started yet, here’s what it’s all about – there’s still plenty of time…

January is moving on apace so there’s no time to lose! It’s time for this year’s PaperTigers Reading Challenge! Last year, we set about reading five books from/about/by someone from each of the five geographical areas on the PaperTigers map – but this year, as we have spread our wings all the way around the world, our Reading Challenge is going to do the same.

So, without further ado, here it is:

Choose one book from/about/by or illustrated by someone from each of the seven continents – that’s:

Africa
Antarctica
Asia
Australasia
Europe
North America
South America

Have the books read aloud to you or read them yourself; share them as part of a book-group or in class.

The books can be picture-books, poetry, fiction, non-fiction… the choice is yours.

Tell us what you have chosen/read, as and when, by leaving comments on our monthly updates – and complete the Challenge by the end of July 2009!

There are plenty of ideas for books in the PaperTigers Reviews and Reading Lists sections – and if you have any ideas you’d like to suggest to people joining in from different continents, please do!

It would also be great to join this to the Diversity Rocks! Challenge - this is a wonderfully adaptable challenge: it includes levels for The Overlapper, or even the Non-Joiner, which asks you to read one book by an author of color by the end of February 2009… Or if you’re a “Challenge Addict”:

Commit to reading 6 books, 12 books, or 24 books by authors of color in 2009. If you already read a lot of authors in one group, branch out.

Pick one or more of your challenges and commit to read four different authors of color: perhaps a black author, a Latino author, an Asian author, and a Native American author.

Well, I think at that point you could be an Overlapper AND an Addict, both while taking the PaperTigers Reading the World Challenge!

We’ll be following a similar programme to last year – each month, we’ll have one read-aloud and each of my boys will also choose their own. We’ll keep you posted – and I hope you will too!