In our family we have all joined together and read picture books set in Mongolia, which is our current focus on PaperTigers. I had to hunt around a bit but we came up with a good selection. I’m not going to go into a great deal of detail here as they are all gathered up in my Personal View, Taking a step into children’s books about Mongolia. We have really enjoyed delving into the culture and heritage of Mongolia and these picture books have been read all together and individually.

One bedtime Older Brother read Horse Song: the Naadam of Mongolia by Ted and Betsy Lewin (Lee and Low, 2008) to Little Brother – quite a long read and they were both engrossed. Watching them from the outside, as it were, I came to an added appreciation of the dynamics of Ted and Betsy’s collaboration, both in the energy of their shared enthusiasm and participation in the events surrounding the famous horse-race, and also of being struck by a busy, crowded scene one page and then giggling at the turn of expression on an individual study’s face the next.

And I’ll just share with you Little Brother’s reaction to Suho’s White Horse, which you can read about in a bit more detail in my Books at Bedtime post earlier this week:

It was a moving story. The governor made me angry because he broke his word and was cruel to Suho and his horse.
[Listening to the musical version played on the Mongolian horsehead fiddle, the morin khuur] Once you know the story, you can tell which part of the music is telling which part of the story. How do they make that music with just two strings? It fills me with awe.

I also read The Horse Boy: A Father’s Miraculous Journey to Heal His Son by Rupert Isaacson (Viking, 2009), an amazing story of a family’s journey to Mongolia in search of horses and shamans to seek healing for the torments that were gripping their five-year-old autistic son’s life: as Isaacson puts it with great dignity, his “emotional and physical incontinence”. If you have already read this humbling, inspiring book (and even if you haven’t), take a look at this recent interview three years on from their adventurous journey. Now I need to see the film!

And talking of films (which we don’t very often on PaperTigers, but I can’t resist mentioning this one), The Story of the Weeping Camel is a beautiful, gentle film that takes you right to the heart of Mongolian life on the steppe. Who would have thought a documentary film about a camel could be so like watching a fairy tale? Don’t be put off by the subtitles – our boys love this film. Take a look at the trailer -

But now it’s time to leave Mongolia and find out what everyone else has been reading…

Sandhya, who blogs eloquently at My Handful of the Sky has re-read Anne Frank’s The Diary of a Young Girl for the first time since she was a teenager – and her post makes me think I should do the same.

Sandhya is also doing the Challenge with her daughter A. and together they have read two books. Firstly The Wolves in the Walls by Neil Gaiman and illustrated by Dave McKean, a formidable partnership: read Sandhya’s great post here. And secondly, from India and as their non-fiction book, Aajoba – My Grandfather by Taruja Parande (Tulika Books, 2010): read her beautiful review here, following on from her celebrating fifteen years of Tulika Books.

Myra at Gathering Books, who was raring to go with the Challenge is already nearly half way through reading the world (well on the PaperTigers Challenge anyway!) – she started off, during Black History Month, with Life Doesn’t Frighten Me by Maya Angelou and illustrated by Jean-Michel Basquiat, as a poetry book from North America. Although I have read Maya Angelou’s autobiographies, I didn’t know about this book and wow – I have to get hold of it! The art-work, some of which you can see in Myra’s wonderful post is astonishing.

Book Number 2 is actually two books reviewed together in her post Of Vanishing Villages and Round and Square Houses: A 2-in-1 Ann Grifalconi Special – and again, I have to thank Myra for introducing me to two very special picture books, both written (and the second one illustrated) by Ann Grifalconi, which she says embrace “the magic of storytelling and weaving words together that makes one’s eyes close and one’s heart open”: The Village that Vanished illustrated by Kadir Nelson (set among the Yao people, east of Lake Malawi) and The Village of Round and Square Houses (set in the Cameroons).

And Book Number 3 is a gorgeous, wordless picture book by Chilean author/illustrator Fernando Krahn – The Self-Made Snowman – read Myra’s in-dpeth review here.

Zarah over at School Librarian in Action has read The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows – read her insightful review here.

Amy at Delightful Children’s Books has posted lists of 10 Books About Children From Around the World and her children’s top 10 books about South America – if you’re looking for inspiration, you’ll definitely find it there, especially non-fiction; and she has also just posted a list of educational resources for reading around the world…

If you haven’t joined us yet, then please do – it’s so great to be joined by friends around the world. Remember there’s no time limit in this year’s Reading the World Challenge, apart from completing it by the end of the year – and that’s lots of books away yet! I’ve also tried to make it so that it could fit in with school programs – so how about getting your class involved if your in school? If any children would like to contribute their responses to books, we’d love to feature it too. For details, read this year’s introductory post…

Now on to the next book – Happy Reading!

Of the 131 children’s books nominated, the board of judges chose 6 books as this year’s winners. Of these 6 books, 3 were published by Adarna House. The 1st National Children’s Book Awards are special for many reasons including, as Adarna House states on their blog,:

We are so happy with the NCBA, which gives the awards on an even playing field — without ranking and categories — along with written citations that highlight each book’s strength and charm.

To learn more about the 1st National Children’s Book Awards and the 27th National Children’s Book Day celebrations check out Zarah Gagatiga’s blog School Librarian in Action as well as Tarie Sabido’s blog Asia in the Heart, World on the Mind. Tarie was one of the judges for the awards and if you click here she shares the judges’ comments on the 6 winning books.

This year’s theme is “A Book Reader is a Winner” and PBBY will be commencing their celebrations at the Museo Pambata in Manila for the handing out of their annual awards. This year’s Salanga (Writers’ Prize) goes to Raymond G. Falgui for his poetry collection Green Leaf and Other Poems (the first time the award has been awarded for poetry); and the Alcala (Illustrators’ Prize) has been awarded to Aldy Aguirre for his “dreamy and whimsical illustrations” of Falgui’s poems in the same book.

Filipino author Candy Gourlay will be delivering the day’s keynote address, fresh from the successful publication of her Young Adult novel, Tall Story, in the UK. The day will also be marked by the opening of a Retrospective of Albert Gamos, an award-winning Filipino illustrator who died last year. An esteemed honorary member of Ang Illustrador Ng Kabataan (InK), he was well-known for his classical and intricate style of illustrating for children.

As part of the NCBD celebrations PBBY and the National Book Development Board (NBDB) will announce the Best Reads of 2008 and 2009.

Schools, learning communities, libraries and families are all encouraged to get involved. For ideas on what type of activities could be organized, check out Zarah’s Top Ten Suggestions.

And even if you are not in the Philippines, why not join in the celebrations by reading a Filipino children’s book or YA novel? The summer edition of the National Geographic Kids magazine has picked Candy Gourlay’s Tall Story as one of its Brilliant Summer Books. You can get plenty of ideas from our recent issue of PaperTigers focusing on the Philippines; and more Filipino book suggestions can always be found on Zarah’s and Tarie Sabido’s blogs.

As Zarah says “The NCBD celebration is not exclusive to PBBY. Bring it to your schools and families. After all, we are all here to celebrate reading, books and the Filipino young reader.”

I already know and follow Into the Wardrobe – and indeed Tarie has been a major contributor to this issue of PaperTigers: read her interviews with authors Carla Pacis, Dorina Lazo Gilmore (reprint) and Edna Cabcabin Moran (reprint). Tarie is also one of this year’s Cybils judges, in the Science Fiction and Fantasy category, so she definitely has her finger on the pulse of what’s out there!

Also Zarah at School Librarian in Action – Zarah opens up the world of Filippino children’s literature and is always happy to share events with us here at PaperTigers. As current president of PBBY, the Philippines chapter of IBBY, she’s another person who seems to know everything that’s going on – definitely another blog to follow!

Of the other blogs I’ve come across, I’ve found plenty of interest at Masayang Mgbasa!, publisher Adarna House’s blog; and I love illustrator and all-round artist Mark Salvatus’ blog – his current art projects are very different to his illustrations for Papa’s House, Mama’s House, which I blogged about recently! I’ve also enjoyed reading Nitoy’s Homeschool Journal and Children, Books and Life Lessons, writer Jean Lee C. Patindol’s blog.

And I’ve read some very moving posts too – writer and illustrator May Tobias Papa describing the devastation to her family’s home during the recent flooding in the Philippines, alongside delightful musings on her small son’s discovery of reading; and writer Dean Alfar’s up-to-the-minute detailings of lack of running water and power-cuts in the wake of Typhoon Ondoy and, most recently, his beautiful eulogy to an old friend, all at his blog Notes from the Peanut Gallery.

So go ahead and dip into these blogs – and if you have any other recommendations do let us know!

You can read more about the devastation caused by Typhoon Onday at TyphoonOnday.org and its sister-site OndayRelief.org, where you can also make a donation to the relief fund.

So, we are passing this award on to these great blogs:

All at Create Readers
All of the Blue Rose Girls
Annie at Here and There Japan
Cynthia Leitich Smith at Cynsations
Debbie Reese at American Indians in Children’s Literature
Jen at Jen Robinson’s Book Page
Margriet at Margriet’s Blog
Mitali Perkins at Mitali’s Fire Escape
Uma Krishnaswami at Writing With a Broken Tusk
Zarah Grace C. Gagatiga at School Librarian in Action

This is a meme award and the rules for passing it on are:

1. Put the logo on your blog .
2. Add a link to the person who awarded you.
3. Award up to ten other blogs.
4. Add links to those blogs on yours.
5. Leave a message for your awardees on their blogs.

By the way, does anyone know where/when this award actually originated? My theory is that the tagline was invented by someone whose mother tongue is not English. That would explain the verb-tense anomaly, since there are other languages which would use this type of structure… Any ideas, anyone?