Did you know that Bangkok, Thailand is the  2013 UNESCO World Book Capital? UNESCO initiated the concept of World Book Capital City in 2001 and each year the designation is awarded to a city that has a lot of programs that promote reading, has a strong publishing industry, and promotes freedom of speech. To celebrate Bangkok’s designation, the Bangkok Book Awards were launched with three categories: Picture Book, Junior Book and Teen. Head on over to Tarie Sabido’s amazing blog Asia in the Heart, World on the Mind to see the recently announced  list of winners.

I joined the PaperTigers team in 2008.  At that time, there were five of us on the team — Aline Pereira, Marjorie Coughlan, Corinne Robson, and Janet Brown.  Based as we were in different locations — Aline in the U.S., Marjorie in the U.K., Corinne and I in Canada, Janet in Thailand, we made quite a cosmpolitan group.  All of us were enthusiastic about the rapidly developing online world of communication on and or about children’s books.  I joined the team as a blog contributor and reviewer; I was thrilled at the prospect of being able to write about multicultural children’s books on a weekly basis for a blog.  The position came up on the heels of my having just experimented with blogging on the late Canadian poet Margaret Avison (see: Month with Margaret blog) and I was eager to explore the world of children’s books thru blogging.

Well, as they say, all good things come to an end, and so has my time with PaperTigers.  It’s been a wonderful ride these past few years.  I have been introduced to many interesting and engaging writers, illustrators and fellow kidlit bloggers, and my reading life with my children has been deeply enriched by my involvement in this fine on-line publication.  Corinne and Marjorie will be staying on as editors, and they will be introducing guest bloggers (see already featured Holly Thompson and Tarie Sabido)  as the year goes on, so do stay tuned!  I’ll be moving on to other things in my writing career but I might pop in here and there with a post or review.   Until then, I bid you farewell, faithful PaperTiger reader, and wish you a happy summertime of reading to your children!

Filipino Readers Make It Social~ by Tarie Sabido

Part 3 of 3 (read Part 1 “Best Reads from the Philippines at the 3^rd Asian Festival of Children’s Content” here and Part 2 “Watch Out for New Young Adult Literature from the Philippines!” here)

Wondering about the Filipino reading community? Filipino readers are social readers. We don’t just love books; we unite with other book lovers and meet both online and offline to discuss books. We regularly meet with our book clubs or other reading organizations in person, and we use social media to keep in touch between meetings. The first Filipino online and offline book club was Flips Flipping Pages. Flips Flipping Pages meets every second Saturday of the month for food, games and other activities, and discussions of books – everything from Dr. Seuss books, the Hunger Games, and Howl’s Moving Castle, to Wicked, the Little Prince, and the Left Hand of Darkness. Their website serves as a bulletin and discussion board. Their latest online discussion being on books they would recommend to school children and books they would like to be part of the elementary and high school curricula.

Another online and offline reading group is Filipino Book Bloggers, an informal organization that started as an online directory and grew to include regular meet-ups. Click here to see a list of some Filipino children’s book bloggers and here to see a list of some Filipino young adult book bloggers.

Last year, the Filipino reading community organized the first Filipino Reader Conference. The event was held on September 14 at the Manila International Book Fair, and included a keynote speech on the merging of readers and writers through social media, a panel on putting up and running a book club, a panel on the whys and hows of book blogging, and giveaways. Speakers included Tata Francisco, teacher and founder of Ex Libris Philippines, a book club and an organization that raises money for scholarships, and Chachic Fernandez, popular young adult book blogger and administrator of Filipino Book Bloggers. The conference provided support, instruction, and social time for readers; celebrated readers and reading; and promoted closer ties between readers, writers, and publishers.

The second Filipino Reader Conference is this August 18 and will be bigger and better, with book discussions, presentations on topics such as book blogging ethics and effective school reading programs, and the ceremony for the first Filipino Readers’ Choice Awards.

The Filipino Readers’ Choice Awards seek to honor Philippine-published books and give the Filipino reading public a greater voice in the Philippine publishing industry. The award categories include children’s picture books, comics/graphic novels, short story anthologies, and essay anthologies. (Next year will probably see young adult novels added as a category as more are published in the country.) There will be a two-week online nomination period, followed by a one-week online voting period. A shortlist of finalists for each category will be based on the top nominations and the tally of votes. The finalists will then be deliberated by panels of reader-judges. For example, the winner of the children’s picture book category will be determined by a panel of young readers.

In the Philippines, reading is a social activity. In cyber space and in person, Filipino readers engage with one another and very actively promote books and reading!

Tarie Sabido is an English teacher and editor in the Philippines. She blogs about children’s and YA books at Into the Wardrobe and Asia in the Heart, World on the Mind, and writes for Kwentillion, the Philippines’ first YA science fiction and fantasy magazine. Tarie was a judge for the 4^th Children’s and Young Adult Bloggers’ Literary Awards (CYBILS) and the 1^st Philippine National Children’s Book Awards.

We were thrilled to have Tarie join us as PaperTigers’ Global Voices Guest Blogger for the month of June. This is her final guest post of three: Part 1 of her series “Best Reads from the Philippines at the 3^rd Asian Festival of Children’s Content” was posted here . Part 2 “Watch Out for New Young Adult Literature from the Philippines!” was posted here.

Award-winning author Rene Colato Lainez will be joining us as our Global Voices Guest Blogger for July .

Watch Out for New Young Adult Literature from the Philippines! ~ by Tarie Sabido

Part 2 of 3 (read Part 1 “Best Reads from the Philippines at the 3^rd Asian Festival of Children’s Content” here)

In the Philippines, very young readers have many excellent local picture books to choose from, but it’s slim pickings for young adult readers. There just hasn’t been a lot of young adult literature (excellent or not) published in the country. So when young Filipino readers grow up, they turn to young adult literature from the US, the UK, Australia, and other countries.

The good news is that Philippine young adult literature is slowly growing. The local publishing industry is starting to recognize the desire for much, much more young adult literature with Philippine content. Just last month, Summit Media launched Kwentillion, a bi-monthly young adult science fiction and fantasy magazine that includes comics, short fiction, book reviews, writer and artist features, resources for young writers and artists, and much more. Co-editors Paolo Chikiamco and Budjette Tan have put together an entertaining and eye-opening first issue with stories of Philippine mythical creatures, monster-fighting plumbers, comic book superheroes, alternate histories, and deep space-swimming Filipinos, along with previews of young adult science fiction and fantasy novels, an article on fan fiction, interviews with two rock stars of the Philippine comic book world, a directory of Filipino artists to follow, an art tutorial, and a primer on folk magic.

I wrote an article for Kwentillion about the need for more Filipino young adult literature. It’s important for Filipino teens to read stories from around the world, but it’s even more important for them to read local stories. Young adult literature is about being relevant to teens, and context and distance matter when it comes to relevancy. It isn’t enough for Filipino teens just to know through stories that there are others who share their problems, concerns, hopes, and dreams. They need to know that other teens going through very similar emotional journeys are around them every single day, on buses and trains with them, in their churches and neighborhoods, at the same schools and malls.

Filipino teens can now look forward to books like Horror: Filipino Fiction For Young Adults, an anthology of horror stories edited by Dean Alfar and Kenneth Yu, to be published by the University of the Philippines Press. Flipside Publishing will soon release four young adult e-books: the first two installments of a paranormal romance series by A.S. Santos (tentatively entitled The Voices in the Theater and The Corpse in the Mirror); The Woman in the Frame, an art mystery and historical romance by Raissa Falgui; and The Viewless Dark, a paranormal mystery by Eliza Victoria. Other Philippine publishers also have young adult books in the pipeline. I can’t wait! This may seem like a very small number of books compared to other young adult markets, but this is the most number of Philippine young adult books to be published in recent years. This is something to be excited about.

Fans of young adult literature, especially Filipino teens, please watch out for many more stories that feature Filipino settings, culture and heritage, legends and folktales, creatures, characters, and more!

Tarie Sabido is an English teacher and editor in the Philippines. She blogs about children’s and YA books at Into the Wardrobe and Asia in the Heart, World on the Mind, and writes for Kwentillion, the Philippines’ first YA science fiction and fantasy magazine. Tarie was a judge for the 4^th Children’s and Young Adult Bloggers’ Literary Awards (CYBILS) and the 1^st Philippine National Children’s Book Awards.

We are thrilled to have Tarie join us as PaperTigers’ Global Voices Guest Blogger for the month of June. Part 1 of her series “Best Reads from the Philippines at the 3^rd Asian Festival of Children’s Content” was posted here. Part 3 will be posted  on June 20th.

Best Reads from the Philippines at the 3^rd Asian Festival of Children’s Content ~ by Tarie Sabido

May 26 to 29 was the 3^rd Asian Festival of Children’s Content (AFCC) in Singapore, and this year the festival highlighted children’s books from the Philippines! The Philippine booth at the festival showcased the six winners of the 1^st Philippine National Children’s Book Awards along with other fiction and nonfiction picture books from leading Philippine publishers Tahanan Books, Adarna House, Bookmark, Lampara Books, Anvil, and CANVAS. I am very happy and proud to report that visitors to the booth oohed and aahed over all the book illustrations!

One of the featured panel discussions at the AFCC was “Trajectories and Themes in Children’s Literature from the Philippines,” with the popular and award-winning children’s book creators Russell Molina (Philippines), Jomike Tejido (Philippines), Candy Gourlay (UK/Philippines), and Isabel Roxas (US/Philippines). With joy and verve, Russell, Jomike, Candy, and Isabel set up for the audience a window to the Philippine children’s literature scene. Russell announced that it was more fun writing children’s books in the Philippines because the entire community loves stories and participates in storytelling. Some of the stories the Filipino community loves to share are about our modern-day heroes: hardworking overseas Filipino workers and the families they support in the Philippines. Jomike introduced the wide variety of illustrations for Philippine traditional picture books (legends and folk tales), contemporary picture books, informative picture books, and pop picture books (urban culture-based picture books). In the Philippines, illustrations for children include everything from fine art that also appeals to adults and intricate collage, to abstract art and digital work this is e-book and app-ready.

Candy told the story of how she learned that she shouldn’t write what she knows, she should write who she is! For years, Candy wrote stories that did not feature the Philippines or Filipino characters. These stories were all rejected by publishers in the UK and she was not published until she realized that being Filipino was part of what made her an interesting writer, and that a story with a distinctly Filipino perspective is a special story. Lastly, Isabel talked about her advantages and disadvantages as a Filipino illustrator in the US. Her advantages include the Internet as a great equalizer, all the uncovered territory in picture books, and of course, her unique Filipino point of view. Her disadvantages include her lack of a network in the US, greater competition, and readers’ lack of exposure to Philippine culture. Fortunately, the whole world now has greater interest in Asian languages and cultures, due in no small part to all the excellent and exciting talent coming from Asia. Talents like Russell, Jomike, Candy, and Isabel!

Other AFCC sessions with Filipino speakers were: Jomike’s fun paper folding workshop, Isabel’s very helpful tips for beginning illustrators, Candy’s presentation on how she used myth and magic in her successful debut novel Tall Story, popular blogger Blooey Singson’s presentation on the art and science of writing online and print book reviews, and Dr. Myra Garces-Bacsal’s lectures on picture book selection and how the book blogging network can be used as a classroom resource.

If you are curious about the joi de vivre and diverse talents of Filipino authors and illustrators, please check out our children’s books online – and at the Philippine booth at next year’s AFCC!

I leave you with Candy’s wonderful “Filipino heavy” AFCC video:

Tarie Sabido is an English teacher and editor in the Philippines. She blogs about children’s and YA books at Into the Wardrobe and Asia in the Heart, World on the Mind, and writes for Kwentillion, the Philippines’ first YA science fiction and fantasy magazine. Tarie was a judge for the 4^th Children’s and Young Adult Bloggers’ Literary Awards (CYBILS) and the 1^st Philippine National Children’s Book Awards.

We are thrilled to have Tarie join us as PaperTigers’ Global Voices Guest Blogger for the month of June. Part 2 of her series will be posted here on the blog on June 13th and Part 3 on June 20th.

Later today we will be launching a new feature here on the PaperTigers’ blog entitled Global Voices. Each month we will be inviting a guest to join us and write three blog posts.  The posts will be published on three consecutive Wednesdays within each month under the title “Global Voices”. Our guests, located around the world,  are all involved in the world of kid and YA lit and include award winning authors and  illustrators, bloggers, librarians, educators and more! It is our hope that through the Global Voices posts we can better highlight the world of multicultural kid lit and YA lit in different countries around the world. The Global Voices line-up for May, June and July is:

Holly Thompson (Japan/USA)

Holly Thompson was raised in New England and is a longtime resident of Japan. Her verse novel Orchards (Delacorte/Random House) won the 2012 APALA Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature and is a YALSA 2012 Best Fiction for Young Adults title. She recently edited Tomo: Friendship Through Fiction—An Anthology of Japan Teen Stories (Stone Bridge Press), and her next verse novel The Language Inside (Delacorte/Random House) will be published in 2013. Her picture book The Wakame Gatherers was selected by the National Council for the Social Studies in cooperation with the Children’s Book Council as ‘A Notable Social Studies Trade Book for Young People 2009′. Holly teaches creative writing at Yokohama City University and serves as the regional advisor of the Tokyo chapter of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators. Visit her website: www.hatbooks.com

Tarie Sabido (Philippines)

Tarie is a lecturer of writing and literature in the Philippines and blogs about children’s and young adult literature at Into the Wardrobe and Asia in the Heart, World on the Mind. She is also on the staff of Color Online, a blog about women writers of color for children, young adults and adults. Tarie was a judge for the 2009 Children’s and Young Adult Bloggers’ Literary Awards (CYBILS) and the 2010 Philippine National Children’s Book Awards. At the 2010 Asian Festival of Children’s Content, Tarie and I joined Dr. Myra Garces-Bacsal in the panel discussion Building a Nation of Readers via Web 2.0: An Introduction to the Kidlitosphere and the YA Blogsphere.

René Colato Laínez (El Salvador/USA)

René Colato Laínez was born in El Salvador. At the age of fourteen he moved to the United States, where he later completed the MFA program in Writing for Children & Young Adults at the Vermont College. René is the author of I Am René, the Boy, Waiting for Papá, Playing Lotería, René Has Two Last Names and The Tooth Fairy Meets El Ratón Pérez. His picture books have been honored by the Latino Book Award, the Paterson Prize for Books for Young People, the California Collection for Elementary Readers, the Tejas Star Book Award Selection, the New Mexico Book Award and he was named “Top Ten New Latino Authors to Watch (and Read)” by latinostories.com. His goal as a writer is “to produce good multicultural children’s literature; stories where minority children are portrayed in a positive way, where they can see themselves as heroes, and where they can dream and have hopes for the future. I want to write authentic stories of Latin American children living in the United States.” Read our 2006 interview with René here.

What’s new for the Asian Festival of Children’s Content coming up next month in Singapore? Tarie Sabido has the answer on her blog Asia in the Heart, World on the Mind.

Take some time today and head on over to author Cynthia Leitich Smith’s blog Cynsations to read her Guest Post with author Holly Thompson entitled “Holly Thompson on the Perfect Setting & Orchards“.

Orchards is Thompson’s debut novel for young adults and is written in verse. It tells the story of Kana Goldberg, a half-Jewish, half-Japanese American teenager who, after a classmate’s unexpected death, is sent to her family’s farm in Japan to reflect on her participation in the events that led up to the classmate’s suicide.

Orchards has been receiving rave reviews since its release this past Spring (read PaperTigers’ review here) and is included on the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA)  Best Fiction for Young Adults Nominations list.

Holly has been keeping extremely busy this year (click here to visit her blog) and has just returned from the Manila International Literary Festival where she presented three panel discussions:

“Writing for Young Adults” with author Perpi Alipon-Tiongson and publisher RayVi Sunico;

“The Many Forms of the Novel”, in which she spoke about writing in verse and read an excerpt from Orchards; and

“The Stranger Experience” on writing away from home, cross-cultural experiences, and the multi-faceted immigration experience, with Gemma Nemenzo and Pulitzer Prize winner Junot Diaz. The immigrant’s experience plays a vital role in Junot’s work and I have to share this amazing quote from him that I found on Tarie Sabido’s blog Asia in the Heart, World on the Mind:

“You guys know about vampires? … You know, vampires have no reflections in a mirror? There’s this idea that monsters don’t have reflections in a mirror. And what I’ve always thought isn’t that monsters don’t have reflections in a mirror. It’s that if you want to make a human being into a monster, deny them, at the cultural level, any reflection of themselves. And growing up, I felt like a monster in some ways. I didn’t see myself reflected at all. I was like, Yo, is something wrong with me? That the whole society seems to think that people like me don’t exist? And part of what inspired me, was this deep desire that before I died, I would make a couple of mirrors. That I would make some mirrors so that kids like me might see themselves reflected back and might not feel so monstrous for it.” — Junot Diaz

Last year in Singapore a new children’s literature conference was launched: The Asian Festival of Children’s Content (AFCC). Organized by the National Book Development Council of Singapore and The Arts House, the mission of the AFCC was (and is) to foster excellence in the creation, production and publication of children’s materials with Asian content in all formats and to facilitate their distribution and access, first in Asia and then to children worldwide. The AFCC noted:

Over a billion children in Asia lack good resources, both for their education and entertainment. Those who have the means and the access, benefit from a wide selection of edutainment material available from the West. Asian material, even those available, is seldom promoted and is therefore left unexplored. Bringing quality Asian content to children is paramount as it would make children aware of Asia’s unique environment and cultural values, promote understanding of, and love for, the literary and visual arts. It will thereby lay the foundation for a good and all-round education. This will benefit parents, teachers, librarians and children in Asia as well as the world.

The inaugural AFCC festival was a huge success with over 400 participants from 17 countries attending, and dates were promptly set for the 2nd AFCC to be held 26 – 28 May 2011. Here at PaperTigers we were eager to attend the 2011 festival, especially when the opportunity arose to conduct an AFCC panel discussion with Tarie Sabido (Asia in the Heart, World on the Mind) and Dr. Myra Garces-Bacsal (Gathering Books.org). So on May 23rd I departed Vancouver, Canada and headed to Singapore, brimming with excitement and enthusiasm (and a wee bit of nervousness at the thought of my panel presentation) and eager to take part in all the AFCC had to offer.  I was thrilled at the thought of this opportunity to meet other like-minded individuals all eager to discuss Asian children’s and young adult literature.

This was my first time visiting Singapore and I was immediately struck by how perfect a spot it was to hold a festival that focused on the gathering of people from Pacific Rim and South Asia countries. Singapore’s geographical location has resulted in the the country historically being a gathering spot for people of many ethnicities and religions.  The majority of Singaporeans is of Chinese descent (74% according to the 2009 census); 13.4% are of Malay and 9.2% of Indian descent. There are four official languages: English, Chinese, Malay, and Tamil; and multiple religions are represented. The multicultural flavor of Singapore is represented in the distinct ethnic neighbourhoods – Chinatown, Little India and the Arab Quarter – as well as the large number of religious buildings, some of which have great historical significance. The Singapore government recognizes the importance of racial and religious harmony and, of course, this is something that we all would like to see promoted and reflected in children’s literature.

To be in such a multicultural city and then to have even more cultures represented, as attendees arrived for the AFCC from countries such as Australia, the Philippines, Vietnam, India, Japan, Malaysia, USA, and Canada, was truly amazing. Each day of the Festival was jam-packed with activities and it was truly an incredible experience to be surrounded by people from all over the globe who shared such a passion for children’s literature. The venue, The Arts House, an almost-200-year-old building that was Singapore’s first Parliament House, was steeped in history and tradition and was the perfect spot to host the festival.

Needless to say, I took many photographs. As well as those of Singapore shown above, below are some of my favorites from the AFCC itself – and you can see more in an annotated slideshow here. And so, to answer Festival Director Dr. Rama’s question about whether the AFCC can be considered to be the Bologna of Asia, my answer is a resounding YES: and I certainly hope to be able to attend again in 2012!!!

Via Gathering Books

Finally! The event that we have arduously prepared for in the last several weeks is now past and gone. As part of the pre-AFCC (Asian Festival of Children’s Content) festivities, we have just done a panel discussion on “Building a Nation of Readers via Web 2.0″ featuring yours truly from GatheringBooks, Corinne from Paper Tigers, and Tarie from Asia in the Heart World on the Mind.

We started promptly at 5:30 and ended around 7pm. We had quite a good turnout, nearly around 40 individuals including ourselves (and my daughter and husband, of course). Here are some photos taken from the event:

(L-R): Tarie from Asia in the Heart, World on the Mind; Myra from GatheringBooks, Corinne from Paper Tigers

I was giving the introduction here, I believe

Talking about the History of our Blogs

Essentially, the flow of the discussion centered on several themes/key issues:

The history of our blog: what is the story behind our websites?
What is the kidlitosphere and the YA Blogosphere?
Networking and Collaboration: How we establish links and networking with authors, publishers, book bloggers, fellow bibliophiles, educators
How do we build a nation of readers via Web 2.0: What is the future of book blogging? How has it evolved through the years, and how do you think it would evolve in the next coming years?

The exchange was truly dynamic, animated, and interactive. We were fortunate to have an audience who was keen to find out more about Web 2.0, blogging, and were sharp enough to point out issues and concerns such as safety on the internet, reviews of e-books, and how exactly can a nation of readers be built through the internet. There was a question raised as to whether we are preaching to the converted, since we essentially build a network of fellow bibliophiles who are connected on the net, anyway. Does it translate to those who may not be within the virtual world?

It is only now, upon reflection, that I realize that there may have been several points that I could have shared which might have escaped me earlier. Regarding the building of a nation of readers, we have pointed out that our websites can be used as a medium through which we can reach more marginalized children coming from disadvantaged communities through outreach programs such as the the one being initiated by PaperTigers and our 1:4:1000 Book Drive where we hope to donate 1000 books to 4 public schools in Samar for our 1st Year Anniversary this June/July.

Over and above the outreach programs we do, I think we may have failed to emphasize that prior to knowing about the kidlitosphere and the YA blogosphere, we were clueless Facebook netizens and Twitter enthusiasts and internet-aficionados who have zero awareness that such a world (kidlitosphere, etc) exist! My own personal take on this is that discovering this world as a bibliophile may be one of my greatest highs in years! Just the knowledge that I can be part of this nation of readers: avid readers, angry readers, animated readers, insightful readers, critical readers [and that there is a platform for a celebration of this sheer geekiness] – is truly a gift – and brings about its own positive vibe and weaves this beautiful synergy among like-minded individuals with similar interests and passion.

Thank you to everyone who attended and dropped by. And to Book Council for organizing everything so seamlessly and beautifully. It is exciting to have Tarie and Corinne here in Singapore. The knowledge that I have several more days to enjoy their vibrant presence (along with so many others who are attending the AFCC) is simply astounding. Looking forward to this day and the next (and the next).