Following up on my post from last week, Mitali has graciously allowed us to share her blog post about the event here:

A thousand thanks to Porter Square Books in Cambridge, Ma and to my publisher Charlesbridge for hosting my Bamboo People book launch party. I always get nervous, so I greatly appreciated everybody who came and sent notes of encouragement from near and far. I’ve posted a few videos below, and here are some recaps from others who attended:
Charlesbridge, Walk the Ridgepole, Not Just For Kids, Britt Leigh’s Brain on Books, and The Papa Post

Arrived to find this gorgeous bamboo plant sent from Portland, Maine by Curious City‘s Kirsten Cappy, Jamie Hogan (who illustrated my book Rickshaw Girl), Annie Sibley O’ Brien (After Gandhi), and King middle school librarian Kelley McDaniel. Thank you so much, ladies, for your love and support!

I loved watching people mingle and meet.

My buddy Deb Sloan is one of the best book cheerleaders on the planet.

Authors who write for adults don’t get love like this.

Porter Square bookseller Nathan exuded hospitality. Thank you! I’m holding the bamboo bookmark giveaways I picked up a couple of weeks ago at the Chiang Mai Night Bazaar.

Introducing the book

Reading an excerpt of BAMBOO PEOPLE

Exploring Mitali Perkins’ Twitter files, I discovered that her book, Rickshaw Girl, which won the prestigious Jane Addams Award, in addition to a string of other accolades, will be translated into Marathi and published by Jyotsna Prakashan, a publisher in Maharashtra (of which Mumbai is the capital). The Marathi language is spoken by the Marathi people, or Maharashtrians, living in the state, and also in some parts of Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Goa, as well as in Karnataka and the union territories of Daman and Diu (here’s a map of India, to help you get oriented).

To book a “Chai & Chat” school/library/book group visit with Mitali, virtual or otherwise, visit her at the Fire Escape (and for a lowdown on virtual author visits, see Deborah’s Sloan’s post, at The Picnic Basket, and Kate Messner’s, at Kate’s Book Blog).

Entering Bangkok’s Neilson Hays Library is like launching an adventure into time travel. Not a computer can be seen, card catalogs still hold sway, and books–no video cassettes or DVDs–wait behind glass doors in old-fashioned bookcases. Patrons remove their shoes before entering the building, and the smooth, highly polished wooden floor feels like satin beneath the soles of bare feet.

Make no mistake about it, this is a true library, not a museum, and nowhere is that more evident than in the children’s section. Shelves built over 140 years ago hold Lemony Snicket, Harry Potter, Artemis Fowl, and Montana prodigy Christopher Paolini’s Eragon series. They are joined by modern classics–Hatchet and The Outsiders, Edward Eager’s Knight’s Castle, Arthur Ransome, Enid Blyton, and all of Mary Poppins, as well as the more venerable Don Quixote, Lorna Doone, and The Pathfinder.  Among this august company is Mitali Perkins’ wonderful novel, Rickshaw Girl, the story of a Bangladeshi girl who transforms her talent for painting alpanas, the traditional patterns that adorn household walkways and thresholds, into a financial contribution for her family.

It’s a good thing that bean-bag chairs are near the picture books, because this is a corner that demands lingering, filled with gorgeous books from all over the English-speaking world. New Zealand’s wonderful Hairy MacLary lives here, as does Where the Giant Sleeps, by Mem Fox, illustrated by Vladimir Radunsky–and a treasure from New York City’s Chinatown that deserves–and will soon receive–its own post.

Set in a serene little garden, with an adjacent cafe and outdoor tables, this library is an oasis of tranquility in a restless city. It’s not only a respite for Bangkok residents, the library also offers a welcome vacation from shopping and sightseeing for travelers, with a small charge for those who are not library members.

The Jane Addams Children’s Book Awards are given annually to children’s books published in the preceding year that effectively promote the cause of peace, social justice, world community, and the equality of the sexes and all races, as well as meeting conventional standards for excellence. On October 17th, winners of the 55th Jane Addams Children’s Book Awards received their awards, gave their acceptance speeches, and signed copies of their books at the United Nations Plaza in New York City.

PaperTigers congratulates:

WINNER – Books for Younger Children Category

The Escape of Oney Judge: Martha Washington’s Slave Finds Freedom, written and illustrated by Emily Arnold McCully

WINNER – Books For Older Children Category

We are One: The Story of Bayard Rustin, written by Larry Dane Brimner

HONORS – Books for Younger Children Category

One Thousand Tracings: Healing the Wounds of World War II, written and illustrated by Lita Judge

HONORS – Books for Older Children Category

Rickshaw Girl, written by Mitali Perkins with illustrations by Jamie Hogan

Honors – Books for Older Children Category

Elijah of Buxton, written by Christopher Paul Curtis

Honors – Books for Older Children Category

Birmingham, 1963, written by Carole Boston Weatherford

You can read Mitali’s acceptance speech and see photos of the event on her blog. Check out Larry Brimner’s Write. Write. Written! — A Writer’s Journal and Lita Judge’s blog as well!

In November our PaperTigers website will focus on the theme of “war and peace in children’s books,” featuring original essays by Lita Judge (One Thousand Tracings) and Jo Montie, former member of the Jane Addams Award committee.

This year’s winners of the Jane Addams Children’s Book Awards and the Américas Award for Children’s and Young Adult Literature have received the online equivalent of a standing ovation. The all-star lineup of awardees is indeed a reason to cheer and celebrate: they are exceptionally wonderful stories about social justice, equality, world community and other timely subjects.

Among the winners, honorable mentions and commended titles are books that have been praised, time and again, since published last year, by those involved in the children’s book community, PaperTigers included. The following titles (and certainly the ones not mentioned by name in this post) are well worth visiting and revisiting:

Américas Award Winner-
Yum! Mmm! Que Rico! America’s Sproutings by Pat Mora, illus. by Rafael López

Américas Award Honorable Mention-
Little Night, by Yuyi Morales

Américas Award Commended Titles-
My Colors, My World/Mis Colores, Mi Mundo, by Maya Christina González (scroll down the page to see it featured as our Jan’08 book of the month)
Come Look With Me: Latin American Art, by Kimberly Lane
Nana’s Big Surprise/Nana, Que Sorpresa!, by Amada Irma Pérez, illustrated by Maya Christina González
Tricycle, by Elisa Amado and Alfonso Ruano
Sacred Leaf, by Deborah Ellis

Jane Addams Honor Book-
Rickshaw Girl, by Mitali Perkins (more about Mitali and Rickshaw Girl here).

Thursday 21st February is International Mother Language Day:

Linguistic and cultural diversity represent universal values that strengthen the unity and cohesion of societies. The recognition of the importance of linguistic diversity led to UNESCO ’s decision to celebrate International Mother Language Day.

The day has particular significance in Bangladesh, which is the setting for Mitali Perkins’ Rickshaw Girl. Naima, the book’s main character, has won International Mother Language Day competitions for her beautiful alpana patterns (you can see pictures here of young artists at work from February last year, when Mitali and her mother, herself an award-winning alpana painter, passed on their expertise as part of PT’s outreach programme). Rickshaw Girl is aimed at the 7-12 age-range and would make a great readaloud, especially for a mother and daughter to share. As well as overturning gender stereotyping through Naima, it highlights the positive results of microfinancing in Bangladesh, particularly for women.

And, since one of the anxieties of displacement is often the striving to balance acquiring a new language with not losing your own, this is a good time to point you in the direction of Mitali’s own favorite readaloud for 2007, Home of the Brave by Katherine Applegate:

“a lyrical novel told in the voice of brave, honest Kek, a refugee from a country in Africa starting a new life without his mother, father, and brother in wintry Minnesota.”

I haven’t read it yet, but it is on my to-read list…

For reading to younger children, I recommend the bilingual I Am René, the Boy/ Soy René, el Niño by René Colato Laínez and illustrated by Fabiola Graullera Ramírez. In this delightful story, René researches his name and its cultural connotations in different languages – triggered by the arrival of a girl in his class called Renee: different spelling but horror of horrors, the same pronunciation!

If you are taking part in any activities for International Mother Language Day, do tell us about them – we’d love to hear from you.

As we come to the end of another year (already?!?), all children’s/ya book blogging eyes will be upon the Cybils 2007 finalists lists, which are due out on January 1st and 7th… what a great way to celebrate all that’s been happening in 2007 and bridge to all we have to look forward to in 2008.

To get ready for the moment we’re waiting for, Bookbuds has issued a challenge and the chance to win a copy of the pop-up Narnia…

There’s still time to catch Pam Coughlan‘s article in the latest The Edge of the Forest, which highlights nominations just asking to be read as bedtime stories …

…and nominations which have featured on PaperTigers this year include:

Shanté Keys and the New Year’s Peas by Gail Piernas-Davenport and illustrated by Marion Eldridge;

Hiromi’s Hands by Lynne Barasch;

Cracker: The Best Dog In Vietnam by Cynthia Kadohata;

Kimchi & Calamari by Rose Kent;

Rickshaw Girl by Mitali Perkins and illustrated by Jamie Hogan;

Artist to Artist: 23 Major Illustrators Talk to Children About Their Art;

The Arrival by Shaun Tan;

Twist: Yoga Poems by Janet S. Wong and illustrated by Julie Paschkis;

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie – well, we’ll be featuring a review in our next update – I’ll put in the link when it’s available…

New Online Cheap Shoes Sale New Best Running Shoes Sale Reef Sandals Sale Sandals Resorts Sale Shoes Sandals Sale New Sneakers Shoes Sale

…and not forgetting Mama’s Saris by Pooja Makhijani.

So now we wait with baited breath… We were a bit slow on the uptake with our own nominations for the Cybils this year but next year we’ll definitely be jumping on the band-wagon too – though choosing which books to nominate will likely be a struggle!

Before I sign off for this year, I just want to point you in the direction of Jen Robinson’s latest Literacy Round-Up – she highlights some wonderful initiatives in promoting literacy and reading aloud to small children, as well as providing much pause for thought, including Daphne Lee’s article about plans to label books in the UK with recommended age ranges… being based in the UK myself, I can see myself entering the fray there!

So, to all those of you who have supported us since the start of our PaperTigers blog in May this year, and to all those of you who have dropped in since (and maybe this is your first time), we wish you a Very Happy and Book-filled 2008!

On November 3rd, the 12th annual Multicultural Children’s Book Festival was held at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, USA. Over 7,000 people attended this free event and enjoyed an afternoon filled with authors’ readings & signings (more than 400 titles were available for purchase); illustrators and celebrities’ appearances; interactive performances, and more.

The Multicultural Children’s Book Festival originally began as a collaboration between the Kennedy Center and Black Books Galore!, a children’s book service created in 1992 by three African American mothers who were frustrated by the lack of children’s books portraying African American themes. Now produced by the Kennedy Center, the festival has grown to include books and authors representing a wide array of cultures and experiences from throughout the world, including Asian and Latino in all their rich shades.

One of this year’s featured guests was award winning author Mitali Perkins, a regularly featured author and contributor to the PaperTigers website (she was the first author to participate, along with her mother, in our Community Outreach project!). We asked Mitali to share something about her experience of attending the book festival, and here is what she wrote us:

“Okay, I confess: I haven’t been doing well with the label “multicultural.”Those five syllables can make a writer feel tokenized and sidelined in the children’s book realm. But all that changed on November 3, 2007 in our nation’s capital, when I fell back in love with the word.

The taxi whisked me from Reagan Airport to the Kennedy Center. Inside the spacious, flag-lined lobby, I was greeted, taken on a tour of the Festival venue, and guided into the theater for a sound check. All the authors scheduled to sign and read were fed (stuffed, in fact) and assigned a Kennedy Fellow as an escort. My personal TLC giver accompanied me to a signing area, toting a large bottle of icy water, a good pen or two, and more snacks to sustain me. A poster featuring my face (albeit a somewhat younger version — must update my bio photo) adorned the table, along with stacks of my books waiting expectantly to be connected to readers.

It was time. A ribbon was cut with oversized shears, music began to play, and a bevy of children and parents streamed into the large room. What a relief to be here, I realized, surrounded for once by piles of books featuring non-white protagonists. But even more intriguing were the eager eyes of children taking stock of a banquet of stories about kids like them. For once, they weren’t on the margins. For once, an entire event was about telling their stories. As I watched and talked and signed and listened, I realized anew the importance of providing a “multicultural” feast of literature, and gave thanks that I’m able to contribute to the spread.

I loved meeting the talented Kennedy fellows who guided us through the day, gave my best effort as I read from Rickshaw Girl in the Center’s acoustically and aesthetically perfect theater, and in short was thoroughly spoiled by the organizers’ gracious attention. The entire event was marked by professionalism and courtesy, but best of all it helped me make peace again with an overused but still desperately needed label: confound it, people, I am a multicultural author. And proud of it, too.

Doesn’t it sound like a fabulous event?… Visit Mitali’s website and blog to find out more about her and her award winning books. To learn more about the other authors and illustrators featured at the Multicultural Children’s Festival visit the Kennedy Center website. And for a wealth of information on African American Children’s Books, check out Black Books Galore. Black Books Galore was such an immediate success when it first started that it lead to the creation of the non-profit organization Kids Cultural Books, whose goal is “to organize African American and Multicultural Children’s Book Festivals with the purpose of promoting literacy, encouraging reading, and providing communities with the rich resources of African American and other ethnic children’s literature”.

KCB’s website has information on all the festivals they host, so if there is one near you, make sure to check it out!