I got my second book read the Reading the World Challenge! We went to a village in Kenya for some of Mama Panya's Pancakes. This was really good for my kids, a lot of similarities and differences for them to see. My son has a hankering to go to Africa now, if only it were cheaper to get to!
Design a blog button for What Are You Reading Wednesday (if there is time - this is the big one)Done!
When it is all spiffed up, back up my blog on Wordpress.Done!
Here is what my blog looked like before I started.
What's it going to look like on Sunday?
I would love some advice though! What are the pros and cons of moving to Networked blogs? Do you hate my blog post title font? I love how it looks but I think it might annoy people, and some upper case letters are hard to read.
I suppose a boy can get used to almost anything, but I know I still carry a residue. It's like an ache that arises in damp weather, a hurting along my spine. From that period in my life comes the habit of circumspection, of avoiding homogenous groups, of being better than most at reading body language, of deducing exits. -Marcel in Stray Love
Here Marcel is speaking of a time when rock-throwing juvenile bullies made his life as a mixed-race boy in a London suburb hellish. But it applies equally to his other experiences of searching for his family and watching the Vietnam war go on around him in Saigon in the 1960s.
Kyo Maclear's second novel (after The Letter Opener) follows Marcel as his temporary guardianship of a pre-teen girl, the daughter of his first love, prompts the recall of memories of his youth. His own guardian, Oliver, was a war correspondent who brought 11-year old Marcel to Saigon at the beginning of the Vietnam War.
Marcel yearns to find his own identity, which can be an arduous journey for those of mixed race even with parents who are present. In the case of Marcel and childhood love Kiyomi, life as what she calls a "moggy" is more difficult because of their unconventional family situations. Marcel tries to put together the pieces of his own puzzle but there are huge gaps left by his birth mother and father.
Maclear weaves a tale in which war and love intertwine, but leaves the reader with a sense of hope. Just when Marcel's memories of racist bullies or violence on the streets of Saigon get to be almost too much, Maclear brings us back to 2001 and the rock that is Iris, Marcel's ward. Funny that an inquisitive, self-possessed preteen can be the rock for a middle-aged man, but she is. Whether because she is the product of a different culture or time or the parenting skills of her mother, Iris is blessed with both inner strength and happier experiences.
The decision to tell the story through the eyes of an artist was inspired. Those little details that Marcel notices of his surroundings to put in his sketches add a level to the narration, and it feels authentic to the character rather than just extra info from the author.
I was thrilled to received this and start reading immediately when it was released on March 20th, thanks to the magic of ebooks. But the farther I got into the book the more I slowed down, wanting to savour every new phrase. It was fantastic luck that two Maclear books, this one and the fantastic picture book, Virginia Wolf, were released in the same month, but I'm afraid the wait for her next masterpiece will be longer.
Maclear manages to personalize the big issues of race, identity, social upheaval, and war by showing us how they affect a young, sensitive boy. The way she weaves a web through time and her writing make this a sublime novel, definitely worthy of recognition by the Governor General and Giller Prize Committee. Also, she gets bonus points because Polish dumplings (i.e. perogies) were served at a London happening in the 60s.
The cherry blossoms are blooming down here, the weather in the day is warm and beautiful. Perfect day to lay outside with a book in hand. My daughter turned 3 today so she was off on a brand new bike around our culdesac while I read the new book in the Black Dagger Brotherhood, Lover Reborn. The names are horrific (Bet someone gets named that in a future book!) but it is always an entertaining read. I want to check back in with Zsadist (see what I mean about the cringeworthy names?), John Matthew, and Quay.
My daughter is into Interrupting Chicken this week but does not seem to be taking the hint!
My son wants Sheep in a Jeep, having just learned the sound EE makes.
What are you and your families reading?
In addition, I want to mention that I will be taking part in the Bloggiesta Challenge this weekend running March 30 - April 1 (US Time). What's the Bloggiesta Challenge? That's a good question, it's my first time taking part so I am not sure yet!
Apparently it involves tweaking your blog and the theme is Bloggiesta Ole which means margaritas and tacos, right? So I will be drinking while working alongside some fabulous bloggers to spiff up my blog!
This isn't the first year but now it’s being hosted by Suey and Danielle, and will include mini-challenges and discussions on Twitter - which is probably where you will find me most.
Here is my To Do List:
Add a Japanese books page
Update Canadian picture books page
Put Cast of Characters on a static page
Update Review policy
Acknowledge the people who have created the cool elements on my page
Update social icons to include Pinterest
Change my user name
Unify the age tags for books
Meet other bloggers
Participate in at least one mini-challenge
I am not sure how well this will work, as I am on a different time plane than the other participants, but I will try and see! If you have any hints for what I could do to make my blog more user-friendly or anything you find annoying and want me to change, let me know! I haven't had this blog for even a year yet so I am still learning and want to get a lot better. My style has changed as has my focus but I am still all about books & bilingualism.
I won this children's verse book in a monthly draw for the 5th Canadian Book Challenge. What a pleasure! Some of these delightful verses have made their way into my craw and haven't come out. For example:
A lobster named Larry so wanted to marry Lila the lobster next door.
That when he proposed and she turned up her nose, he wept all over the floor.
This is Labroador's answer to Mother Goose and it's basically a short fun book that looks at the creatures of the undersea world in a way you probably haven't ever before! Cross-dressing cod and wobbly lumpfish made my kids laugh and laugh.
Pam Hall originally won the Canadian Library Association's Amelia Frances Howard-Gibbon Award for Best Canadian Illustration. Her illustrations do give life and personality to all sorts of creatures including a feuding squid couple and even a human in a dreamscape.
The late author Al Pittman is a playwright and writer from Newfoundland and I will definitely be searching out more from him.
This is a favourite book of both my daughter and my niece. It is a little Japanese hardback that shows a number of inanimate objects getting into their futons, ready for bed, including an ice cream cone, an octopus, and a roll of toilet paper.
Toddlers all over Japan love this book, but it is also great for those learning to read Japanese, adults and kids alike. My son reads it to his sister and cousin over and over, and those adorable eyebrows means no one gets tired of it.
It also introduces onomatopoeia, which are so integral to Japanese children's literature and to the language itself. Anybody could understand the rolling action inherent in the word ころころ (korokoro) by looking at that little TP rolling out of bed. I would recommend this to new parents trying to raise bilingual babies overseas, as well as students of Japanese as a foreign language.
When I reviewed the fabulous Sora and the Cloud I talked about how much I love those simple brushstrokes that are so expressive - the single line of these faces and in Sora are so adorable and heartwarming.
I liked them so much this is what I chose to recreate for the Edible Book Festival hosted by Playing by the Book. Mine was #18, but there are over 70 entries and so fabulous and creative! Please go check out the winners that were announced today!
The cover of the book actually portrays an ice cream cone which we tried first but that did not work so well as it kept melting before I could apply eyebrows and take pictures! So then we tried my beloved gyoza, but it wouldn't have tasted so good with the chocolate and sweet pancake so I had to change it all up! In the end this ended up being thinly sliced fried eggs (kinshi tamago) covered by a savoury pancake (from a watered down version of the recipe in Mama Panya's Pancakes) that encloses a gyoza dumpling with nori seaweed eyebrows and eyes. The seaweed is stuck on with painted-on mayonnaise.
We had so much fun with the Edible Book Contest, I hope to do it again! Here's hoping the lovely Zoe makes this an annual event!
In Janurary my kids and I had a few days at home due to illness. For the first time they watched Sesame Street, which is only on when they are at school and I am at work. It was strange to realize that my kids had never seen a show which was so integral to my youth. The episode we saw was about Africa and my son, especially, was enthralled. However, as much as I love Sesame Street, it's not exactly above taking some serious artistic licenses with information. I wanted my kids to have a little more knowledge about Africa than the idea that there are muppets there dancing around with fish on their heads.
That's when I ordered this book. It surpassed my expectations completely. It's very accessible to toddlers with its lyrical prose and dialogue that is fun to read aloud. Even the main character's name, Adika, is a joy for little kids to practice saying.
But on top of that, there is a wealth of information included. There are maps, information on the language Kiswahili and the nation of Kenya, and a recipe for the savoury pancaked Adika's mother makes. My kids loved making these pancakes together and were so surprised when they weren't sweet!
The story is about a generous and gregarious boy who walks with his mother to the market to buy food for dinner. He invited everyone he meets along for his mother's famous pancakes. She frets about how to feed all these people, but they make a pot luck meal with enough left over to smooth over some of the mother's worries for food over the next few days. It's a heart-warming story of generosity and community.
The vibrant illustrations portray a way of life so different to our own. My son loved to point out things that are so different in this book, but especially how much time people spend outside! They shop, cook, eat, relax, and entertain outside. The rich foliage in the back is different to that in our climate. Of course the amazing clothes are quite different to the clothes we wear as well as traditional Japanese dress. My son was fascinated.
Of course, this book does not gloss over the poverty in villages like this either. Money worries are central to Adika's mother's character. I felt how lucky I am not to have this worry.
This is a great book to introduce a lovely lesson about how to treat neighbours, as well as a little bit about a part of Africa, to children.
I have to warn you, there is a big problem with this book. It will make you hungry. Now, if you are Canadian and live in Canada, it will be no problem to go to Costco and pick up a giant pack of Dad's Oatmeal cookies or Old Dutch chips. But if you are a Canadian in Japan, you're SOL. Let me tell you too, that the recipes online for Dad's oatmeal cookies will not produce the rock-hard goodness you are expecting. And what a wasted marketing opportunity this was! Why wasn't there a coupon for 50 cents* off a bag of Dad's Oatmeal cookies on the paperback versions of this book?
Other than that though, this is a fantastic read. Jann Arden takes us through the good and bad times of her youth in Alberta and Vancouver. She may not reveal everything, but you get a real sense that she is being as honest as possible, at least with her feelings around an event that left a lasting impression on her. The brutal honesty includes a view of herself during self-destructive periods in her youth, as well as her views of her father's drinking and her older brother's troubles, as he is now serving a life sentence for murder.
What is really clear in this book is that she loves and respects her parents despite their faults. Her song Good Mother has meant a lot to me as when I miss my mommy I tend to play it really loud and get into bed. I love reading about Jann's mom, the good strong hardworking Alberta mom whose crockpot meals are legendary, so much like my own mother.
Parts of it are really funny, though, and those parts really appealed to me. When you see Jann perform live or in interviews or hanging with Rick Mercer you get the feeling that she is such a funny, warm-hearted person, and this really comes through here. She's so real, there's no airbrushing. Even with the dog on train incident that appeared in the news last week, you just totally get her point of view. Who wouldn't be upset at getting asked to leave a train, even if it was your fault? She's just like the people you know, good, bad, and ugly all in one. I want to have a mojito with her. Jann! Call me! Let's go for drinks. Or just cookies.
The way Jann grew up in rural Alberta was so similar to my upbringing. I can feel the dirt under my toes from playing in fields until 10pm when the sun started to go down. I can smell the pussy willows along the gravel roads into town. I started the Canadian reading challenge and this blog mostly because I wanted to be connected again with my youth and my Canadianess, which I feel pretty disconnected from most days. This book gave me that back, as well as insights into one of my favourite singers ever.
Just in case you were wanting the answer to the question "Who is Insensitive about", it will have to remain about the high school boy who ignored you until she writes her next autobiography.
Edit: or you could try wikipedia, it turns out Anne Loree wrote the song, about a chef at a Calgary restaurant. C'mon Alberta boys, you need to pick up your game. ;)
Last week we missed WAYRW because I was the host of Interview Wednesday for the first time. That was fantastic- I love getting to know the people behind the books! However, I missed hearing what everyone's reading.
My daughter is reading Strawberry Shortcake's Easter Surprise over and over again. And again. It might be the glitter she loves so. I think she is going to be disappointed if we don't do a scavenger hunt at Easter this year. When is it again?
This is a day off work in Japan, and sometimes it is nice enough to spend out in the park under the almost blooming cherry blossoms. Not this year though, it's cloudy and grey and cold.
My daughter starts kindergarten on Thursday so I am spending the day adding her name to her uniform and bags (4 homemade, 1 purchased backpack) and all of her tools. Ever wrapped a name label around a chopstick? It's a special kind of talent.
The big question I encounter on these days is which language her name should be written in. I've talked before about how there are 3 different syllabaries in Japanese; kanji, katakana, and hiragana. Technically my kids both have kanji names - but these are too difficult to learn in kindergarten (in my son's case, a kanji selected by my mother-in-law, I'm guessing he'll be in university before he can write it). However, most of my friends write my kids' names in katakana in text messages. At first I was a little put off by this as I thought it was because my kids are not full-Japanese. But then I realized they do that with all the kids whose kanji they don't know. There are a lot of possibilities and it's considered rude to get the kanji wrong, so you can't go wrong with katakana.
Hiragana is the syllabary that the kids learn in their second and third years of kindergarten (it's a 3-year programme here, from ages 3-6). It's the one my son is learning now. When he started kindy I wrote everything on his stuff in hiragana. At the time his English was stronger than his Japanese and he looks much more caucasian than his sister or many of his mixed-race friends, so I didn't want him to stick out for something as silly as his mother writing his name in English on his stuff.
I've done a 180 on this issue in 2 short years though. This time everything I need to handwrite on labels is going to be written in English.
First, there is no hiding that my son is part-foreign so I think that I was silly in the first place to even think that something like the way his name is written would matter.
Second, I have realized just how hard it is for kids to tell their stuff apart in the first year. At 3 there is almost no kid who can recognize the differences between their name and someone else's. That's why the kindergartens use symbols next to each kids shoe and bag locker. They don't tell us in advance what those symbols are going to be, and they change with each year anyway, so we can't match the symbols on our labels to theirs. I know how often this happens because Spinky came home with someone else's clothes at least once a week during his first year. It happens less now that he can read his name. Of course that doesn't work if he doesn't even look...
I do think that kids can tell the difference between Japanese and English letters at 3, even if they can't figure out what those specific differences are. Babies younger than a year can distinguish between spoken languages. Since my daughter will most likely be the only child with a native English-speaking parent in her grade, she will likely be the only one who has name labels in English, so I hope that she and other kids will be able to identify the clothes on sight. I am hoping this works in her favour and I spend less time calling X-chan's mother to track down her gym uniform.
My other reason for writing things out in English is just to give her a little more exposure to environmental print. I want her to recognize the letters in her name organically. In a place with so little English every little bit helps!
Is your child's name written differently in your majority and minority languages? Which do you choose?
Provided by the publisher for review through NetGalley.
This is a fun read about the history of foods common in North American lunchboxes and supper tables. We all know about the Duke of Sandwich wanting to eat something with his hands so he didn't have to leave the gaming table. But I didn't know about the Bishop who ate his seal-skin boots!
The book goes through a week of lunches and the history behind each ingredient from the spice wars over spices we get at the grocery store now to the science behind pita bread and vanilla pods that only open for a single day. My kids absolutely loved the illustration of the dog's stomach after lunch.
One of the attractions for me is the multicultural aspect. Of course so many of the foods eaten in Canada and the US come from many places across the globe, and just reading about all the places sourced in one meal is a geography class in itself. The crisp-chip name discussion about the different names used in English-speaking countries was fascinating to my kids who think they are called potefurai! Of course the best thing about this book for me was the introduction to my kids of North American food. I noticed there was no mention of intricate kyara-ben (character bento box lunches which are ubiquitous in Japanese kindergartens)!
This is a book that is funny as well as informative, an enjoyable non-fiction book for kids.
Tomo: Friendship through Fiction: An Anthology of Japan Teen Stories (CAN, JP, US, INT)
Edited by: Holly Thompson
Published by: Stone Bridge Press
Published on: March 6, 2012
The 3/11 disasters last year spurred the publication of a number of books, including the 2:46 Quakebook project from Our Man in Abiko and Kibo from the number one English-speaking authority on Japanese cooking, Elizabeth Andoh. But this project, based a collection of young adult short stories, verse, and graphic stories, is the most ambitious. It brings together well-known writers with those who are just starting out, and proceeds are benefiting the Japanese NPO, Hope for Tomorrow, which helps young entrepreneurs in Tohoku. The word tomo means friend in Japanese.
This book spans basically all the major genres of Japanese literature - from ninjas to ghosts to verse to blog posts and everything in between. You would think that a book that does that would be either academic and huge or completely haphazard. But somehow editor Holly Thompson has managed to put together a book that is not only very current but also unified despite the different styles. The threads of hope and bonds (kizuna) weave through the stories and the varying characters, tying them together without any repetition.
This is a young adult book, so naturally the pitter patter of young love is a constant theme and is described adeptly by Thersa Matsuura in The Zodiac Tree and Sarah Ogawa in One. The superstitions of Japan are illuminated well in The Ghost Who Came To Breakfast from Alan Gratz and Yamada-san's Toaster by Kelly Luce. Relationships between teens and their parents are convincingly portrayed in House of Trust by Sachiko Kashiwaba (translated by Avery Fischer Udagawa) and I Hate Harajuku Girls by Katrina Toshiko Grigg-Saito. Somehow, Debbie Ohi is able to pull in all of these elements in her handwritten (graphic?) story, Kodama, and it is extremely accessible due to the format (sketchbook entry).
I love historical fiction so The Bridge to Lillooet from Trevor Kew, about young people in internment camps in WW2 Canada playing baseballe with local Mounties, has whet my appetite for more, as did supernatural mystery Staring at the Haiku, about antique dolls who confound young ghostbloggers, from John Paul Catton.
The writers are good at introducing other parts of Japanese literature into English as well. Louise George Kittaka shows the cheesy puns beloved of old Japanese men and television producers all over this country. Science-fiction story Anton and Kiyohime by Fumio Takano and translated by Hart Larrabee incorporates an exciting nagauta. Mariko Nagai's poem uses the onomatopeia Japanese verse is most famous for as well as being a joy to read out. Also, I was thrilled to read my first Ainu story, transcribed by Yukie Chiri and translated by Deborah Davidson.
Thompson chose to place the disaster-related stories at the beginning of the book and I really appreciate this decision. There is no white-washing of the enormity of this event, but the message I got was that the youth of Japan are going to move beyond it. This collection of stories leaves the reader with an amazing sense of hope for the future of Japan.
I reviewed Love Right on The Yesterday by Wendy Nelson Tokunaga for Short Story Monday last month. I had thought that probably this was the best and that's why it was released early - but it's nigh on impossible trying to pick the best. This is not only a great book commemorating the spirit of the Tohoku people, it is a darn good read, and the English book I would recommend first to anyone who wants to dip their toes into Japanese literature.
Spinky and I have been working on his reading for about 6 months now, slowly but surely. He has read all the Beginning Bob Books but is looking for a little more of a challenge. This is the first real book he read all by himself.
Big Egg features a mother hen tending to her chicks, even though one is almost the same size as her. The sneaky fox tries to convince her the big egg is his, but she rescues the egg just in time!
This is a great first book. It features actual conflict, the pictures give enough context to figure out the words, and it incorporates some rarely seen letters like x and q. This only word that was tough for my son to figure out was "says" because that doesn't fit into the rules he has learned so far.
"Why is it say and says?" asked my son. No real good answer from me, I'm afraid. He'll just have to learn that English is weird. It's so hard because Japanese at this stage is so logical, what you see in hiragana is what you get!
Interview Wednesday is an event in the Kidlitosphere which, from this month, recurs monthly. Please see the grand poobah, Tina, for more information and a schedule of hosts.
I can't forget to include me! I have not one, but two fantastic interviews this month. I fell in love with the picture book Virginia Wolf, and I was so unbelievably lucky to be able to interview its author, Kyo Maclear, and its illustrator, Isabelle Arsenault.
Did you interview someone in the children's literature world in the last month, or even before? If so, please leave a link in the comments so I can add it to the post.
Next month's Interview Wednesday will be hosted by Teaching Authors on April 11th (second Wednesday of the month).
One of Canada's most loved book illustrators is Isabelle Arsenault, who won the prestigious Governor General's Literary Award in 2005 for children's illustration due to her work on Le coeur de monsieur Gaugin. She is also the illustrator of the wonderful Virginia Wolf. I had the pleasure of asking her a few questions, and I loved reading the answers. Hope you do too! Perogies & Gyoza: Did you do any research for Virginia Wolf since it is loosely based on real characters?
Isabelle Arsenault: I did visual research focusing on pictures
of Virginia Woolf and around her house in order to have references that
would help me visualize her life and include elements about it in my
images.
As the story had so little to do with the real Virginia Woolf, I
didn't feel like I had to read biographies to make the work accurate.
Also, Kyo gave me lots of hints about Virginia's life, that she
suggested could be integrated into my images.
Image from Virginia Wolf - copyright Isabelle Arsenault
PG: Could you elaborate on the colours/style you chose to show the different moods of Virginia Wolf?
IA: The story begins while Virginia is not feeling
so good... to describe her state of mind, I chose to work with muted
tones, mainly grayscale with one or two colors, while the rendering was
sketchy.
When the whole house sank, the colors and style
shift to different ones where the shapes look like shadows or
silhouettes. It's a world where everything is dark and negative.
When Vanessa starts to use her imagination and creativity to
enlighten this darkness, she uses color crayons and paint that contrast to the previous atmosphere. Colors/creativity bring some joy and fun
to what seemed boring and faded.
But this world is in their imagination. When they
woke up the day after, reality is not as perfect as they thought it
would be. This is described as a mixed of the sketchiness from the
beginning and the colors from the end. It's not as perfect as in
Bloomsberry, but it's much better than before.
So basically, colors represent Arts and creativity and what we can
do with them. With just a few colors and a big imagination, we can go a
long way.
House sinking from Virginia Wolf - copyright Isabelle Arsenault
PG: Is Bloomsberry based on anything, or your own secret world?
IA: I just tried to picture it as I figured the author would see
it herself. In the text, she mentions that Vanessa painted Bloomsberry
"to make it look just the way it sounded". So that's what I tried to
do. I also took inspiration from a picture I saw on Kyo's blog which
showed some blue flowers from her garden.
PG: You
seem to have a very distinct style (rosy cheeks, muted colour palette,
judicious use of white space). Did this come about organically or was it
a specific choice?
IA: It's a bit of both. As I said, the styles
were distinct from one part to another in order to define the different
states of mind Virginia was going through. So I had to think about the
impact of every style before going with it or not. But on the other
hand, it all came naturally. I like to experiment with techniques and
explore the possible visuals for every specific book I'm working on. I
also have a tendency to play with colors and oppose them to grayscale
tones in my everyday work. It's my way of using colors - I'm a bit
selective and picky about it I guess.
Image from Virginia Wolf - copyright Isabelle Arsenault
PG: Do you produce art other than that for children's books? If so, is there a way for people to buy it?
IA: I produce illustrations for children's books
and do some other illustration assignments for magazines and newspapers.
In my free time, I work on a sketchbook where I develop ideas and new
projects. Sometime, these can develop into a creative project of its
own, like a silk-screen print series, or a promotional object. But I
don't have right now what I could call a production that people could
buy, out of the original artwork pieces from my books.
PG: What books did you love as a kid, and are there any kids books you love as an adult?
IA: I loved books with striking images, either
because of their beauty or of their darkness, their scariness. In
either ways, I remember liking the feeling of being impressed by the
illustrations of my favorite books.
Colour test for Virginia Wolf - copyright Isabelle Arsenault
PG: Are you multilingual? If so, do you have any tips for parents like me raising multilingual kids on how not to stuff it up?
IA:I have two sons, and they only speak French
right now... but sometimes, I read to them books in English. I think
children's book are great for learning a new language. The
illustrations help understanding a story and guessing the meaning of new
words. You can go at your own pace, and repeat parts if needed. My
kids and I especially like books by Mo Willems like Piggie and Elephant, which are simple, repetitive, and fun.
PG: What's next?
IA: I'm working right now on a children's book that
looks a lot like a graphic novel and I'm having lots of fun doing it!
It's for kids aged between 8 and 12 years old and will be published in
French at La Pasteque.
I have other great book projects coming up in the next year and
hopefully, I'll have another collaboration with inspiring author Kyo
Maclear in a near future.
Thanks so much Isabelle for letting me interview you! Can't wait for your next book!
Yes, you read that right. How cool is that? First, there is a museum dedicated to shoes. Second, it shares its collection online, and solicits written pieces from diverse shoe-wearers. This particular collection is about immigrant women to Canada.
My favourite of The Shoe Project is The Wind Beneath My Feet, by Tanaz Bhatena. It is a story of a journey, not just about immigration, but a journey to find one's own version of womanhood, and the story of expectations of others versus those of oneself. Bhatena does a fantastic job of describing what it is like for a woman to go from one culture in which women are treated a certain way to another culture which is its polar opposite. Not only is the subject interesting for an immigrant to me, Bhatena' use of language is excellent, and I hope to see something published by her in the future.
I identified with the phone calls between Bhatena and home- people in Canada want to hear my Japanese accent too. :)
When I first moved to Japan I had trouble with wardrobe. The slightest bit of cleavage is considered inappropriate here, although most work clothes in Canada (v-neck sweaters!) are made in that style. However, skirts are shorter in this country than any other I've been in, so I admit to getting angry at that double standard! It's hard to shop at home for clothes to be worn in Japan, actually. This gives me an appreciation for Bhatena's wardrobe culture shock.
Go ahead, read them all! Which shoe story is your favourite?
We all know what happened in Japan on this day last year. We all know the horror Mother Nature can wreak on humans. We are far from the devastation but there are still marks on our psyche from this tragic event.
I wanted to get a book that could start some controlled conversations with my kids about the events of 3/11. They still act out tsunami and talk about it when playing which is healthy for them, but I am a little afraid that there are kids around them who have lost a relative or who have moved here to escape devastation and that they could hurt by doing this.
I read parts of Meltdown! to them which helped process the nuclear disaster and to help them understand the discussions we are having on energy in Japan right now. The science behind the nuclear process is solid and that is a good book for that. However, I still wanted something suitable for their age range about the earthquake and or tsunami that isn't jarring. This is definitely that book.
In Tsunami!, Ojichan (Old Man) sacrifices his fields and therefore his riches to save his entire village from a tsunami that washes all the buildings and possessions away but does not succeed in taking the people.
Caldecott winner Ed Young is known for his unique collages, and in this book these mixed media collages work on several fronts. The texture and paper gives a folk art feel that makes this feel like a folk tale. Which it is I think- I've seen variations in Japan as a play and in art as well as in a collection of Lafcadio Hearn stories. The collages also serve to lessen the impact of this event, which makes it appropriate for even kids at a young age.
I think this is an extremely well-written picture book that can serve as a catalyst for talks about sacrifice, disaster, and rebuilding. The author has a number of excellent lesson plans related to tsunamis on her website as well.
I know what you are thinking. Why in the world would a 2-year old need an app? Even 3 years ago I would have thought myself nuts so keep on thinking that!
Tomorrow is my son's big kindergarten concert. The school is big for a non-Tokyo kindy and each kid has three separate parts to play, plus the PTA and teachers each have two. This will be about 4 hours long. My daughter can sit still a long time but 4 hours is pushing her limits. The kids in the kindy will be backstage doing games and origami and colouring and reading books (that's my job!) but the kids in the audience are going to have a rough time.
So we are bringing my iPod and filling it with new apps and old faves.
The newest one we have found is the Bunny Fun: Head and Shoulders, Knees and Toes app by Rosemary Wells. Rosemary Wells is most well known as the creator of Max and Ruby, but in our house we think of her as the woman behind Yoko, the Japanese kitty who lives in the US. One of the best things about Rosemary Wells is that she brings many different cultures into her work. This app is no different, as Head and Shoulders, Knees and Toes is presented in 4 different languages; English, French, Spanish, and Japanese! Three cheers for a multilingual app.
This app is super simple, it is just a wee bunny who changes clothes and therefore languages. Kids can choose to play the song or read and hear the word for the body part by touching on the screen. Perfect for 2-year olds.
Another new find is an adaptation of the book I loved as a child: The Monster at the End of This Book. Grover takes the child through this book, and Elmo joins him in Another Monster at the End of This Book. These are really fun books, and not only can it be read aloud by these characters, you can tickle them as well.
The old fave is SUPER WHY! from PBS Kids. Both of my kids love this app so much. How can you go wrong with Whyatt and the Super Readers. Choosing a character chooses a path according to the child's ability, from learning the alphabet to assembling sentences. Fairy tales from around the world are used so it adds another element of excitement. My kids love this and so do I. The best app we have ever bought, hands down.
My daughter also loves the Strawberry Shortcake app, which involves sorting fruit by colour. Not a bad app, but I prefer the old pinafore-wearing Strawberry Shortcake!
I've loaded up the iPod with these English activities, packed a pair of earphones with lots of padding, put them in her Meeabee bag with some snacks, and all I can do is cross my fingers that she doesn't wander onto the stage to play with her big brother like last year. Here's hoping!
Today is International Women's Day. To celebrate, I wanted to find a picture book that celebrated a Japanese or Canadian woman in history. Quite a few Canadian books to choose from, including Viola Desmond Won't Be Budged, which I reviewed last month. I did not find anything suitable in Japanese though, so I will be looking more. I chose this book because I love Maud Lewis' folk art.
Capturing Joy is a celebration of Canadian folk artist Maud Lewis. It starts with Maud in a rural area in Nova Scotia meeting her future husband, but takes the reader back to her childhood of art and illness. Nothing, not even poverty or great physical limitations, stops Maud from expressing herself with bright colours. Although she was never a financial success during her life, her style influenced artists and Canadians for decades, and this continues to this day.
Last year I reviewed the wonderful Big and Small, Room for All, also by Jo Ellen Bogart, and have kept an eye open for books by her since. In both books Bogart is able to take large concepts and simplify them for young folks but keep the subject interesting.
This book alternates between Maud Lewis' gorgeous paintings and illustrator Mark Lang's pencil sketches. Lang's work is a tribute to her but does not parody her work, so important when chronicling an artist. Lewis' bold palette is especially appealing to children.
I was inspired to learn more about the amazing Maud Lewis and her work ethic, so I found out that The National Film Board of Canada has a short documentary about Maud Lewis called Maud Lewis: A World Without Shadows, from Diane Beaudry in 1976. Definitely worth watching.
I needed something lighter after The Letter Opener, so I am reading the very funny Jann Arden's autobiography, Falling Backwards. It's a gas- review to come.
If you've been reading my
blog lately you know that I am going through a little Kyo Maclear phase!
There was her first picture book, Spork,
which started the fascination, then her novel, The Letter Opener. This week I
finally got my hands on her new picture book, Virginia Wolf, and even it
exceeded my high expectations. I was thrilled to be able to conduct an interview with Kyo Maclear, and to share it with you. Grab a cup of tea and read on!
Perogies & Gyoza: This is
your second children's book, and second collaboration with
Isabelle Arsenault, after
2010's award-winning Spork. How did the second project come about?
Kyo Maclear: When I was in highschool a
boyfriend gave me a copy of The Waves and I instantly fell in love (with
Virginia Woolf… the boyfriend and I were ill-suited.) I have continued to adore
and admire Virginia ever since. A few years ago I came across a childhood photo
of her playing cricket with her sister Vanessa Bell and it started me thinking
about their relationship. Shortly after, I started working on this story. When
it was finished I sent it to my wonderful editor, Tara Walker, who shared it
with Isabelle. To my delight, Isabelle signed on immediately.
PG: My image of a children's
book is that an author writes a book, submits it to the publisher, and then
the publisher chooses an illustrator who then develops the second part of
the story. However for both of your books with Isabelle Arsenault, I get
the feeling that it is more collaborative than that. Can you speak to the
process of working with your illustrator?
KM: I consider Isabelle a dream
collaborator and artistic soulmate but the funny thing is we’ve never met in
person. With both Spork and Virginia Wolf, my editor served as the primary
go-between. I think I forwarded a few pictorial notes but the rest was up to
Isabelle. At some point in the early stages, she sent us a “Mood Board”——a
large page filled with character sketches, Bloomsbury period photos, Liberty
fabric patterns and palette swatches. It was so beautiful, the first thing I
did was frame it and put it on my bedroom wall. On one page, Isabelle had
managed to convey the entire emotion and aesthetic of the book. It is
incredibly magical to work with an illustrator with such sensitivity and
metaphoric intuition. I’ve been so lucky.
PG: Was there any difference in
the way you approached Virginia Wolf, since it is loosely based on real
people, compared to a book like Spork which is all from your ideas?
KM: Yes, “loosely based” is the
key word here. Of course, there was more preparatory research with Virginia
than there was for Spork. For example, I re-read Woolf’s memoir essays (in
particular, On Being Ill and Moments of Being.) But then I set what I read
aside. I quickly decided that any references to Virginia Woolf’s real life
would need to be as light-handed as possible so as not take away from the
story: an imagined episode in which one sister tries to help lift the other out
of the doldrums. In the end, there are a few true-life details that may satisfy
older readers and Woolf-afficionados but they are extraneous to the plot (and
will sail over most children’s heads.) If I set myself any goal of fidelity
when it came to my source material, it was to be true to Virginia’s love of
language.
PG: Virginia Woolf is perhaps
most famous for her struggle with mental illness, as well as being an
author. You have tackled that in Virginia Wolf, but that's not a very
common theme for picture books aimed at children. Did you
specifically want to tackle the issue of mental illness or did it come about
organically by showing the relationship between
Vanessa Bell and Virginia
Woolf?
KM: I saw the relationship
between Vanessa and Virginia as a chance to take both a literal and metaphoric
look at depression. As a parent and a former child I know that kids have
intense moods and can suffer from lingering sadness. Having said that, I admit
I was a bit nervous when I first submitted the story because I knew I was
treading on sensitive ground. What amazed me was that no one balked (not the
publisher, editor or the illustrator). No one felt the idea was too gloomy for
children. (Had I stumbled upon a melancholic pocket of the publishing world?) I
have been really heartened by the response so far.* I think people recognize
the love and playfulness in the sister relationship and this—along with
Isabelle’s exquisite illustrations—helps temper any adult fears of encountering
a “difficult subject.”
PG: You have made a trailer for
each of your children's books so far. Is this
a necessary part of
marketing a children's book today, or just a fun extra?
KM: I love doing trailers. As you
may know, writing can be somewhat lonesome. At the risk of becoming
socially-inept, I always jump at the opportunity to collaborate, especially
with my musician husband. As for the role trailers play in marketing, I think
everything helps. (These days, books need a biodiverse ecology to thrive. That
means all forms of social media + devoted booksellers + word of mouth, etc.)
PG: What is the difference
between writing a children's book and an adult book?
KM: Good question. I think I’d
have to say the main difference is economy of language. Believe me, writing
shorter is not always easier! I’ve learned so much about distillation through
my work for children. The other difference is the place of illustration. In my
mind, the best books allow the pictures to do some of the talking. Books where
the images are simply parroting the text tend to bore me.
I've become so enamored of
visually-driven books that I've found illustration seeping into my adult
fiction. My new novel, Stray Love, which will be published this March, features
a boy named Marcel who grows up to be an illustrator. The novel includes two
gorgeous drawings by Canadian artist Heather Frise.*
*( Kyo Maclear's new novel is published as Stray Love in Canada and
appears in Australia/New Zealand as A Thousand Tiny Truths.)
PG: What books did you love as
a kid, and are there any kids books you love as an adult?
KM: I loved The Peanuts, Shel
Silverstein’s Where the Sidewalk Ends, anything by Richard Scarry (I loved his
encyclopedic detail), Dr. Seuss’s Sleep Book, Oscar Wilde’s The Selfish Giant
(and any story where children know more than big people.) As an adult, I’m a
big fan of The Treehorn Trilogy by Florence Heide Parry, The Very Persistent
Gappers of Frip by George Saunders and Lane Smith, The Three Robbers by Tomi
Ungerer, and for sheer rhythmic readability Charlie Parker Played Be Bop by
Chris Raschka.
PG: Are you multilingual? If
so, do you have any tips for parents like me raising multilingual kids on
how not to stuff it up?
KM: I speak Japanese like a four
year old——i.e. I can ask for toys and cookies fairly fluently. Japanese was
actually my first language but growing up in an English-speaking country and a
bicultural home, it quickly fell by the wayside. (The wayside is also cluttered
with my highschool French and undergraduate Spanish.) In retrospect, I wish I
grew up with two languages moving through my brain on a regular basis. That
kind of code-switching seems healthy and miraculous to me.
PG: What's next? Any more collaborations
with Isabelle Arsenault in the future?
KM: There
may be another collaboration in the future. In the meantime, I am working with
Matte Stephens on my next picture book, which will be out next Spring 2013. I’m
very excited about this. The story has a 60s vibe and Matte is very retro and
smartly stylish in his palette and approach.
Virginia Wolf is in stores now, and Stray Love, Kyo Maclear's new novel, will be released on March 20.
My interview with illustrator Isabelle Arsenault can be found here.
