What a thrill to receive in the post a few days ago Allen Say‘s new book, The Boy in the Garden (Houghton Mifflin, 2010). I’ve been on tenterhooks to read it since getting a glimpse of the mock-up at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair. Little Brother was just as excited as I was and we read it that evening as our bedtime story.

Set in Japan, the story tells of a New Year visit that Jiro pays to a neighbor with his father, who, as is a parent’s wont, instructs him to be on his best behavior: but too busy looking around, taking in the beautiful garden for himself, “The boy did not hear him.” Jiro soon wanders through the house into the garden, where he is captivated by the statue of a crane. As he reaches out to touch it, he is disturbed by laughter behind him, from his father and Mr Ozu. Stung, he runs deeper into the garden and is suddenly carried into the world of one of the stories his mother tells him: a rather bitter-sweet tale called The Grateful Crane, which Say retells at the beginning of the book…

The Boy in the Garden is a charming story that blends realism and imagination with such a keen awareness of the child’s perspective that 9-year-old Little Brother couldn’t stop himself asking several times, “Is it really the Crane Woman?” or “Did it really happen?” The art-work is as breath-taking as one would expect – a small boy you just want to pick up and cuddle; a beautiful, ethereal Crane Woman; and the luminescent scenes filled with unobtrusive, authentic detail.

This is a perfect book for sharing together. It’s a story that will grow with young listeners until they become adults themselves: because Say’s writing is so perfectly attuned to the perspective of all his characters – and his readers. For example, I know that the significance of the adults laughing held a slightly different nuance for Little Brother than it did for me. I’ve been there; I’ve done that. Hmm, a slight feeling of guilt – but it’s washed away by the end, as father and son walk home together. Father tries to play along, only to have the cold water of reality (or is it?) thrown over him:

“You know, son, for a moment that crane looked real.”
“It’s just a statue, Papa.”

Now, how many times has that happened?! But, of course, there’s the suggestion of a twist at the very end, which keeps the uncertainty alive…

Thank you, Allen Say, for another masterpiece.

Following on from Monday’s post, here are some of our highlights from Day 2 of the Bologna Book Fair.

We started out with a children’s theatre production inspired by Vivaldi’s Four Seasons and performed by students from Bratislava’s Academy of Fine Arts – great fun!

The JES: Join – Enjoy – Share session for the International Meeting of Children’s Librarians. They had two very interesting speakers lined up: Ruba Totah from the Tamer Institute in Ramallah, Palestine, which won the 2009 Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, talking about their many projects, linking to community and school libraries;

and famous Brazilian author Ana Maria Machado, winner of the Hans Christian Andersen Medal in 2000, who gave a very thought-provoking paper about the lamentably small number of foreign-language books translated into English…

“African Books for Children”, a roundtable session chaired by Viviana Quiñones of the French Centre national de la littérature pour la jeunesse – La Joie par les livres with Phocas Ekouedjin of Afrilivres (Association of African Francophone Publishers) and Tainie Mundondo of Apnet (African Publishers Network), as well as publishers from Benin, Senegal, Tanzania, Cameroon, Mauritius and Rwanda. They discussed the publishing and distribution of African children’s books and profiled recent children’s books published in Africa.

A presentation of the 20-year-old journal Takam Tikou in its new online format. Takam Tikou, published by the Centre national de la littérature pour la jeunesse – La Joie par les livres, focuses on children’s books and reading in Africa, the Arab world, the Caribbean and the Indian Ocean. If you read French, there is a fabulous wealth of material and resources available – definitely well worth exploring.

The announcement of the Astrid Lingren Award – see Corinne’s post. It was very exciting and we really felt we had a stake in it this year, with PaperTigers being a nominating body. The visual presentation of winner Kitty Crowther’s books made me want to read all of them – and also ask myself why I’d never come across her work – well, it turns out only one of her books has been translated into English. What was it that Ana Maria Machado was saying earlier that morning?

Seeing a proof of Allen Say’s new book, The Boy in the Garden - it’s going to be another gorgeous book. Thank you for showing it to us, Christine!

And you can see more photos from Day 2 here…