Head on over to the PaperTigers website to see some examples of James Rumford‘s stunning artwork in our Gallery. James is the creator of Rain School, one of the new 2011 Spirit of PaperTigers book set. In his interview with us, one thing that James said is, “If you look at my books, the art is varied. When I write a book, I want the illustrations to reflect the story not me. Thus, I have no particular style.” Our Gallery certainly bears testimony to that – and to the virtuosity with which he expresses himself, no matter what style or medium he has adopted.

We’ll be bringing you Galleries featuring the other books in the SPT 2011 Book Set soon.

PaperTigers is pleased to announce that Rain School by James Rumford is one of the three books included in the 2011 Spirit of PaperTigers book set. For more information about the Spirit of PaperTigers Project, please click here.

James Rumford,
Rain School
Houghton Mifflin Books for Children, 2010.

Ages: 4-8

A visual memory from his youthful Peace Corps days in Chad inspired award-winning author-illustrator James Rumford‘s Rain School. As the back flap recounts, one day on vacation during the rainy season, he and his wife Carol “came upon the mud ruins” of a primary school in the town where they were posted. The story behind that scene comprises the plot of Rumford’s fourteenth book.

Rain School begins with the “dry dirt road filling up with children” on the way to their first day of school. In the loose colorful clothing of their hot country, they share the road with little goats, couples on electric bikes, and open air businesses, like the tailor with his pedal sewing machine. At the schoolyard, first grader Thomas realizes that there is no school: no classrooms, no desks. Rumford’s spare, clean language builds atmosphere in poetic tandem with his beguiling pastel and ink illustrations:

“It doesn’t matter. Vibrant, optimistic
There is a teacher.
‘We will build our school,’
she says. ‘This is the first lesson.’”

Together the children and their teacher make mud bricks, mud walls, and mud desks, then roof the structure with straw. Wooden stools, a blackboard, and notebooks and pencils appear. Thomas and the other younger children learn their (Roman) alphabet. They study a map of “Afrique,” with landlocked Chad colored in red.

Nine months later, when the “students’ minds are fat with knowledge,” school ends for the year, and the rainy season begins.“Slowly, the school disappears until there is almost nothing left. It doesn’t matter. The letters have been learned and the knowledge taken away by the children,” who will build a school again when the rains end.

Rain School makes clear the dedication it takes for Chadians to get an education, makes their vitality and resourcefulness apparent.  At the back of the book, a large map of Africa, labeled with all the continent’s countries, provides geographic orientation. An exquisite congruence can occur when story and illustrations come from one mind; James Rumford is a master of this magic, and Rain School another great example of his skill. Children around the world will delight in this engaging story.

Charlotte Richardson
September 2011

PaperTigers is pleased to announce that A Child’s Garden: A Story of Hope is one of the three books included in the 2011 Spirit of PaperTigers book set. For more information about the Spirit of PaperTigers Project, please click here.

Michael Foreman,
A Child’s Garden: A Story of Hope
Walker Books / Candlewick Press, 2009.

Ages 5-11

A Child’s Garden: A Story of Hope is a timeless fable with particular relevance for today’s young readers.  Michael Foreman, one of the UK’s foremost illustrators and storytellers, has created a masterpiece that combines uncluttered but meaningful prose with beautiful watercolors in contrasting monochrome and joyous, unstoppable color.

A boy finds a “speck of green” among the rubble that is the bleak, monochrome landscape of his home, and nurtures it with almost desperate care.  His world is separated from the outside by a tall, barbed wire fence: but as the plant grows, it covers the fence, bringing welcome shade, and birds and butterflies.  Other children come there to play and help care for the sturdy vine. Then the unthinkable happens.  Soldiers from the other side of the wire rip the vine away, leaving it to die in a ditch.  Color has once again gone out of the world.  The boy’s heartbreak is palpable.

Life continues through a joyless, cold winter but spring brings with it new growth – on the other side of the fence.  A girl appears and nurtures the plants in her turn, under the disinterested eyes of the soldiers.  Soon there are shoots on the boy’s side too.  Tendrils meet and entwine across the fence, and children on both sides come together to play and tend the vine.  The boy realises that it will grow despite the soldiers’ efforts to destroy it – and in the same way, the fence itself will one day disappear.  The seeds for that have been sown.

Perfectly honed for young children, A Child’s Garden also has much to offer older readers.  At first glance, Foreman’s use of monochrome versus the color of the vine and the life it attracts seems very clear cut.  However, a deeper reading, picking out details in the illustrations especially, provides provoking food for thought, reinforcing the tenacity of the seeds of hope not only sown in the boy’s heart but spreading and growing elsewhere. Foreman’s virtuoso illustrations draw out the story’s multilayered complexity and provide wordless stimuli for readers to put out their own tendrils of hope for the future.

A Child’s Garden is a moving, empowering read that, like all good fables, will leave a lasting, deep-rooted impression on its readers.

Marjorie Coughlan
September 2011

Looking for a lovely calendar for 2012? Be sure to check out award winning author/illustrator Grace Lin‘s Red Threads Calendar, the sales of which will go to assist orphans in China.

Grace Lin is the author and illustrator of picture books, early readers and middle grade novels. Her book Where the Mountain Meets the Moon was a huge success and won many awards including the prestigious Newbery Honor.  It was chosen as one of seven books in our Spirit of Paper Tigers Book Set and Grace was one of our nominations for the  2011 Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award. Don’t miss our interview with Grace or her two Gallery features here and here.

Today we hope you will join with us in celebrating the launch of our new Spirit of PaperTigers Outreach website.

On the front page you will find an interactive world map showing all the SPT participants, who are also listed alphabetically and by country. On the feedback pages, you will be now not only be able to read comments from teachers and students, but where available, you will also be able to watch slideshows and enlarge images to view children’s work. All information about the project, including our Mission Statement and annual Book Set can be found in the About Us section.

Over the next few weeks we will be adding more and more feedback from SPT participants around the world. In the meantime, as well as feedback which was already available from Agape School and Mountain View School, both in Nagaland, India, and Woodlands School in Montevideo, Uruguay, you will now find newly posted feedback from the following schools:

Monroe and Fairmount Elementary Schools in San Francisco, California, USA:

“Two books were a HUGE hit, One Hen and First Come the Zebra.

With One Hen, the kids want MORE… They want to know how much of this story is true, and what has happened since the story was written They loved the idea of the domino effect of helping each other, and related it to their own classrooms and how things work better when they all pitch in. I read this book to 3rd, 4th and 5th graders.

I believe that First Come the Zebra was a huge hit, because the kids can relate to the happenings in the books, especially the conflict between the two boys. They were full of questions and, of course, gave personal anecdotes of times when they were in those situations…”

Pingliang Road No. 3 Elementary School in Shanghai, China:

“Our favorite book was First Come the Zebra [...] They enjoyed the book very much. Their interest partly came from the pictures, the English words and expressions. In the book, there are very different ways to express the ideas from Chinese. Sometimes it has idioms to express the meaning. We don’t know much of English idiomatic expressions in our daily life.”

and Talisay Elementary School in Agusan del Norte, Philippines

“The story about One Hen is so very beautiful. I learned many things about it. Someday I want to be like Kojo because I was inspired by his life.”

First Come the Zebra: “And if you have an enemy in your neighborhood, just give them a chance so that you can win them as friends. That’s why chances are very important.”

“I like the story One Hen because it gives me example of all the families in one province who are helping each other. And it makes me brave that I can make myself fight my shyness.”

Don’t you just love the photos – and there are some very special comments too. Head on over to the Spirit of PaperTigers Outreach site to read more and explore the project. We’ll be bringing you more feedback soon, including one of our water projects…

Now live over on the Kidlit4Japan site:

Auction #121: A Spirit of PaperTigers 2010 Book Set of Seven Picture books, some signed. From PaperTigers.org

Description: You are bidding for a set of seven high-quality picture books (all hardcover) which were selected as the Spirit of PaperTigers book set for 2010 to be sent to different schools and libraries around the world.

The Book Set comprises the following titles with some, as indicated, containing book plates signed by the author/illustrator:

First Come the Zebra – SIGNED
Written and illustrated by Lynne Barasch
Lee & Low, 2009. Ages 4-8

Little Leap Forward: A Boy in Beijing – SIGNED BY THE AUTHORS
Written by Guo Yue and Clare Farrow, illustrated by Helen Cann
Barefoot Books, 2008. Ages 9-12

My Little Round House - SIGNED
Written and illustrated by Bolormaa Baasansuren
Groundwood Books / House of Anansi Press, 2009. Ages 4-8

One Hen: How One Small Loan Made a Big Difference – SIGNED BY THE AUTHOR
Written by Katie Smith Milway, illustrated by Eugenie Fernandes
Kids Can Press, 2008. Ages 7+

Planting the Trees of Kenya: The Story of Wangari Maathai – SIGNED
Written and illustrated by Claire A. Nivola
Frances Foster Books/Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2009. Ages 5-8

The Storyteller’s Candle / La velita de los cuentos – SIGNED BY THE ILLUSTRATOR
Written by Lucia Gonzalez, illustrated by Lulu Delacre
Children’s Book Press, 2008. Ages 4-8

Where the Mountain Meets the Moon – SIGNED
Written and illustrated by Grace Lin
Little Brown Books for Young Readers, 2009. Ages 9-12

Estimated Value: $150

Bio: PaperTigers.org is a colorful website devoted to multicultural books from around the world for children and young adults, with a particular focus on the Pacific Rim and South Asia. We seek to promote the celebration and tolerance of diversity, and to nurture literacy and a love of reading. As well as highlighting the world of multicultural children’s and ya literature on our website and blog, we work to reinforce our goal of promoting cross-cultural understanding via our Spirit of PaperTigers Outreach, under the banner Books and Water: Nourishing the Mind and Body.

PaperTigers’ website: www.papertigers.org

Congratulations to Stephanie Taylor, who is the winner of our 1,000th Post Draw. Stephanie wins a 2010 Spirit of PaperTigers book set. Thank you to everyone who entered – I wish we had book sets for you all. We so appreciate your support of PaperTigers and were delighted to hear from so many readers. In all, there were 93 entries. We allotted each entry a number and below you can see Aline pulling out the winning number 24.

Don’t forget to take a look at our 1,000th post, with the chance of winning a Spirit of PaperTigers 2010 book set. This fabulous set of seven books contains:

Planting The Trees of Kenya: The Story of Wangari Maathai by Claire A. Nivola Frances (Foster Books, 2008);

First Come the Zebra by Lynne Barash (Lee & Low, 2009);

Little Leap Forward: A Boy in Beijing by Guo Yue and Clare Farrow, illustrated by Helen Cann (Barefoot Books, 2008);

The Storyteller’s Candle/La velita de los cuentos by Lucia Gonzalez, illustrated by Lulu Delacre (Children’s Book Press, 2008);

My Little Round House by Bolormaa Baasansuren, English adaptation by Helen Mixter (Groundwood Books, 2009);

One Hen: How One Small Loan Made a Big Difference by Katie Smith Milway, illustrated by Eugenie Fernandes (Kids Can Press, 2008);

Where The Mountain Meets The Moon by Grace Lin (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 2009).

You can enter the draw for yourself – and/or you can nominate a school or library anywhere in the world where you would like the books to go to: just let us know.  But hurry as the deadline for entries is midnight PST, Wednesday 19 January. The draw will take place in San Francisco on Thursday 20 January and shortly after we’ll announce the winner here on the blog! Stay tuned!

Having just finished reading Bamboo People,  I was excited to see this email in my inbox today from Primary Source, a non-profit organization that promotes history and humanities education by connecting educators to people and cultures throughout the world:

Global Read of Bamboo People by Mitali Perkins

You are invited to join us for a discussion of the young adult novel, Bamboo People, by Mitali Perkins — a compelling coming-of-age story about child soldiers in modern Burma. The online discussion forum will begin tomorrow – Wednesday, January 12th. Then join the author for a live chat on January 19th.

Online discussion forum: January 12th-19th, 2011
Live chat session with the author: Wednesday, January 19, 3:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. EST

Register online here (registration is free but participants are responsible for obtaining their own copy of the book). All are welcome – teachers, students, parents, and anyone interested in global issues!

I’m off to register now and hope that some of our PaperTigers readers will join me!

P.S. Don’t forget to take a look at our 1,000th post, with the chance of winning a Spirit of PaperTigers 2010 book set. The deadline for entries is midnight Pacific Standard Time, on Wednesday 19 January with the draw taking placing in San Francisco on Thursday 20 January.

Here on the PaperTigers Blog we invite you to join us in celebrating our 1,000th post today (I wish I knew how to get fireworks and flashing lights but there’s still a lot to learn – maybe by the second thousand…). The number 1,000 certainly seemed a long way away when we started back in May 2007 and we’ve all had a wonderful journey around and through the world of books for young people of all ages since then. We have made many friends along the way: you’ll find some of them in our Guest Posts category, others in the comments to many of the preceding 999 posts; and if you delve into our Archives or some of our Revisited Posts section in the sidebar, you will find posts by Charlotte and Janet, who have moved on to pastures new in the meantime (and Charlotte continues to write her perceptive book reviews for PaperTigers), but who both contributed so much while they were part of the PaperTigers Blog team.

So, as I said at the beginning of this post, Aline, Corinne, Sally and I invite you to celebrate with us – and here’s how. We are offering a Spirit of PaperTigers 2010 Book Set to the first name out of the hat in a draw that will take place in San Francisco on Thursday 20 January – that’s a month from now. The deadline for entries will be midnight Pacific Standard Time, on Wednesday 19 January. Just to remind you, this fabulous set of seven books contains:

Planting The Trees of Kenya: The Story of Wangari Maathai by Claire A. Nivola Frances (Foster Books, 2008);

First Come the Zebra by Lynne Barash (Lee & Low, 2009);

Little Leap Forward: A Boy in Beijing by Guo Yue and Clare Farrow, illustrated by Helen Cann (Barefoot Books, 2008);

The Storyteller’s Candle/La velita de los cuentos by Lucia Gonzalez, illustrated by Lulu Delacre (Children’s Book Press, 2008);

My Little Round House by Bolormaa Baasansuren, English adaptation by Helen Mixter (Groundwood Books, 2009);

One Hen: How One Small Loan Made a Big Difference by Katie Smith Milway, illustrated by Eugenie Fernandes (Kids Can Press, 2008);

Where The Mountain Meets The Moon by Grace Lin (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 2009).

I know the book set is irresistible – so, without further ado, here’s how to enter:

Leave a comment at the end of this post.

If in the past you have sent us a picture for our Round the World in 100 Bookshelves, you will be entered automatically into the draw. We would also love to hear from you – and if you leave a comment, you will be eligible for an extra ‘ticket’.

If you have joined the PaperTigers Blog through Google Friend Connect (see the sidebar), you will also automatically be entered; the same conditions apply as above.

You can enter the draw for yourself – and/or you can nominate a school or library anywhere in the world where you would like the books to go to: just let us know. Each individual is eligible for one ticket in the draw – but you can nominate more than one school or library.

Different people can nominate the same school/library, which will be eligible for as many tickets as there are nominations.

Take part in our Around the World in 100 Bookshelves, send us a picture of your Paper Tiger (a great activity for the holidays!), or join us via Google Friend Connect, and get an extra chance at winning.

The draw is open to all our readers, wherever you may be in the world.

Thank you to everyone who has shared these past few years with us — and we look forward to the future, which, as Aline explained recently, will see PaperTigers continuing to evolve and grow. Here’s to the next thousand!