The Places You Will Go

Picture Book of the Month: Finding Little Sister

February 2007

FINDING LITTLE SISTER

By Yoriko Tsutsui

Illustrated by Akiko Hayashi

Publisher: RIC, 32 pages

ISBN: 978-174-126-0397

Naomi has to look after her little sister Ellie, but Ellie wanders away and Naomi is filled with fear that she has lost her baby sibling for good. I was drawn to this book because Ellie reminds me of my daughter. I think illustrator Akiko Hayashi has a real gift for portraying little girls. I also love this team's work for 'Amy and Ken Visit Grandma', which will be next month's featured Picture Book. The English versions of these books are published by RIC, a very special imprint/publisher that specialises in English translations of Japanese picture books.

Words of Wisdom

The author of the Webs of Significance blog commented on my Gnooks post and, on checking out her blog, I came across this quote from a Malory Towers book. Pretty cool, don't you think?

"I want you all to listen to me for a minute or two. One day you will leave this school and go out into the world as young women. You should take with you eager minds, kind hearts and a will to help. You should take with you a good understanding of many things and a willingness to accept responsibility, and show yourselves as women to be loved and trusted. All these things you will be able to learn at Malory Towers -- if you will.

I do not count as our successes those who have good scholarships and passed exams, though these are good things to do. I count as our successes those who learn to be good-hearted and kind, sensible and trustable, good, sound women the world can lean on. Our failures are those who do not learn these things in the years they are here...

Some of you will find it easy to learn these things, others will find it hard...But, easy or hard, they must be learnt if you are to be happy after you leave here, and if you are to bring happiness to others. " - Miss Grayling,headmistress of Malory Towers, the girls boarding school in Enid Blyton's series. (From the Webs of Significance post Favourite Female Authors Follow-up Post.)

Step Aside, Mum and Dad

"Just because parents have the legal right to control their children’s reading does not mean that we should encourage them to do so." - Roger Sutton (editor-in-chief of The Horn Book Magazine and writer of the Read Roger blog) in The Horn Book Magazine, March 13, 1997.

Gnook at This

Check out this website: Gnooks

Type in an author's name to discover other writers, literature maps, join in discussions, search for books etc.

It's really funny that the map for Elizabeth David comprises just three names: her's, JeffreySteingarten and Hunter S. Thompson. HUNTER S. THOMPSON???!!!

However, these maps are created based on readers' tastes, not the similarity of one author to another.

The site says: "The closer two writers are, the more likely someone will like both of them."

Well, interestingly enough I typed in Tove Jansson (the author of the Moomin books and definitely a big favourite of mine) and Aidan Chambers, floating very close by, is next on my "Must Read" list. 

However, although Kenneth Grahame and C. S Lewis are also hovering nearby, so are Gail Tsukiyama and Liza Dalby who write, as far as I can tell, romances set in Japan, which are not my cup of green tea at all.

Well, as I said, it's about individual tastes and that's how Hunter S. Thompson came to beon the same map as Elizabeth David!

Talking About Books

Tots to Teens, Star Mag

18th Feb 2007

I HAD the thrill, last Saturday, of attending the launch of my picture books. Now, before I go on, let me just say that I’ve been ribbed endlessly by friends and family about my “shameless self-promotion”. What can I say? Who else is going to blow my trumpet, right?

Anyway, back to the launch. It was fun. It was also nerve wrecking. I imagined no one turning up: How embarrassing! And then I imagined throngs of people: How even more embarrassing!

About 10 people showed in the end. Most of them were friends and family, and there was a girl who said she read this column, and a little boy who just smiled and took lots and lots of pictures….

Treasured Knowledge Preserved

Review by DAPHNE LEE

THE CHINESE WOMEN’S ASSOCIATION COOKBOOK

Edited by Maniza Jumabhoy

Publisher: Marshall Cavendish, 152 pages

ISBN: 9-789-81261-378-3

A GOOD balance of recipes for familiar and exotic dishes are presented in this book. The contributors are members of the Chinese Women’s Association (CWA), Singapore’s oldest local women’s group.

Founded in 1915, the CWA remains a vital and vibrant force today, playing an active role in charitable fundraising. In fact, the proceeds from the sale of this book will go to the Henderson Senior Citizens’ Home, which the CWA considers its special project.

Age is Just a Number

Tots to Teens, Star Mag

11th Feb 2007

SHOULD books be labelled according to age group? I used to do so when compiling lists of newly released children’s and young adult books for StarTwo’s Reading Room column. I stopped this week because I decided it was just a lot of nonsense. I mean, I was often deciding on a recommended age just for the sake of it, not because I really thought that a book was for children, say, age eight to 11.

They are just rough guides but I know that some parents take them very seriously, which is just crazy. So, if I suggest that a book is suitable for nine- to 12-year-olds, they wouldn’t dream of giving it to their seven-year-old. Heaven forbid the child should read above his level!

I Went, I Saw, I Bought

I just got myself some new books with my office annual book allowance.

I would like to start reading them all at once because they look so very delicious (flipping through the pages I read snippets that make my mouth water) and I am greedy.

I got:

The Book That Changed My Life: Interviews with National Book Award Winners and Finalists
Edited by Diana Osen
Publisher: Modern Library Paperbacks

Sixpence House: Lost in a Town of Books
By Paul Collins
Publisher: Bloomsbury

The Child That Books Built
By Francis Sufford
Publisher: Picador

The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop
By Lewis Buzbee
Publisher: Graywolf Press

The Art of Eating
By M.F.K Fisher (My friend at the bookstore said: "Her initials are rather rude, don't you think?" I never noticed before, but yes, they are, rather!)
Publisher: Wiley

Check out the covers here.

Nun of This and Nun of That

One of the books I'm reading and loving Forever and Ever Amen: becoming a Nun in the Sixties by Sister Karol Jackowski.I love books about nuns ... fiction and non-fiction. Maybe it's because there's always been a part of me that thinks of becoming one (I'm Catholic, lapsed). I don't think I could give up my books though, which I would have to with the vow of poverty.

Does My Head Look Big in This, by Randa Abdel Fattah, is featured in my column this week. It's not about nuns, but it involves a similarly important, religious-based personal decision.

Picture Book of the Month: Lost and Found

January 2006

LOST AND FOUND
Written and Illustrated by Oliver Jeffers
Publisher: HarperCollinsChildren'sBooks, 32 pages
ISBN: 0007150369

A little boy finds and befriends a lost penguin and tries to help it find its way home. They journey to the South Pole in a row boat, but the closer they get to their destination, the sadder the little bird seems to get. This sweet tale of friendship is beautifully illustrated using simple, clean shapes and bright, clear colours that light up the page and the heart.