The Places You Will Go

Picture Book of the Month: Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People's Ears

February 2009

WHY MOSQUITOES BUZZ IN PEOPLE'S EARS
By Verna Aardema
Illustrated by Leo and Diane Dilllon
Publisher: Scholastic Press, 32 pages
THIS West African folktale unfolds at a leisurely pace, and packs in a wealth of detail, in its text and pictures, about the animals it describes. A mosquito so irritates an iguana with her silly story that he blocks her out by stuffing two sticks in his ears. When python calls out to his friend, iguana doesn't respond as he can't hear. This sets off a chain of events that leads to the owl not waking up the sun and leaving the world in darkness.

I love Aardema's use of onomatopaiea: off goes the iguana "mek mek"; "wasuwusu" goes the snake through the grass; the rabbit scurries away "krik, krik, krik". The pictures look like a vibrant batik painting. In one spread, python is drawn with a head at each end of his body - to cleverly show how he moves from one situation to the next in the story.

In the end, when mosquito is revealed as the trouble-maker, owl is satisfied and wakes the sun. But mosquito hides and goes unpunished. Still, she continues, to this day, to to whisper guiltily in ears. "Zeee! Is everyone still angry with me?" she asks and we all know how she's answered!

What Was and What's Next

What a week it's been.

I had a marvellous time at the British Council-organised conference Animating Literature: Words and Beyond (17th-20th Feb) and am very grateful to the organisers for giving me the chance to waffle on about my work with The Dram Projects (introducing books and reading to children who belong to marginalised communities in Malaysia). I also ran a workshop about using book discussion groups to turn kids on to reading, and that ended in a very lively discussion about lit circles, talking to children about books, and
allowing children to choose their own reading material, and speak freely about how they feel about stories (all subjects very close to my heart).

The focus of the conference was picture books and so most of the people who attended were picture book enthusiasts. It was so good meeting others with whom I could discuss these books and not be fixed with a look that said, "Aren't you a little too old to be reading picture books?"

Anyway, the week was an extremely exhausting one, but what FUN!

And so inspiring and enlightening too.

I met some lovely people and was introduced to some wonderful books. Ideally (for me), this sort of conference should happen once every six months ... just to see me through those times I feel discouraged and/or alone in my efforts.

Different, Yet the Same

By DAPHNE LEE

From Tots to Teens, StarMag

AN INDIAN friend of mine told me that his mother had called him up to say that she had had a horrible dream about him.

"What was the dream about? Did I die in it?" he asked.

"No, worse than that. I dreamt you married a Chinese girl," said his mother.

Most of us have been in situations where people show a similar dread and horror of, and disdain for people of a different race. Oh yeah, the word is racism, and it's largely and ultimately the result of ignorance.

In Power of Three by Diana Wynne Jones tells the story of three different species who live on an English moor. They are the Lymen, the Dorig and the Giants. The Lymen and the Dorig are at war, and both fear the Giants and keep out of their way.

The story is told mainly from the Lymen's point of view, and the impression is that the Lyman are humans who live in tribes. The Dorig are shape-shifters, they are small and are covered in silver scales, and live in the water.

The Giants are just big and violent.

Purple Prose

By DAPHNE LEE

From Tots to Teens, StarMag

UNCLE is an elephant. He is immensely rich, and he's a B.A. He dresses well, generally in a purple dressing gown, and he often rides about on a traction engine, which he prefers to a car.

He lives in a house called Homeward, which is hard to describe, but try to think of about a hundred skyscrapers, all joined together and surrounded by a moat with a drawbridge over it, and you'll get some idea of it."

Those are the opening paragraphs of Uncle by J. P. Martin. It is the first book in the Uncle series which, apart from Uncle and the second book, Uncle Cleans Up, is out of print.

I am a devoted fan. I adore elephants (they are a divine and delicious and ridiculous shape), and what's there not to love about an elephant in a purple dressing gown?

It's Not Supposed to Hurt

I've always believed that parents and teachers are way to fussed about their children learning to read. Why is it so important to know how to read? So you can do well in school of course. Ho-hum.

OK, OK, so it's important to do well. It's important for ... erm ... one's self-esteem ... and ... future. Yes, yes, score straight As and get that first class so you can join the rat race and spend the rest of your life paying off a seven-figure mortgage.

Seriously though, I think parents and teachers should lighten up. Reading should be fun, not a bore. It should be a treat not a chore.

If your children love stories and see books as fun and exciting, they'll learn to read soon enough.

Michael Rosen, Britain's children's laureate, has the right idea, as written about in The Guardian (here and here). There's a BBC documentary being aired tomorrow (in the UK) about how he tries to turn the children in a Cardiff primary school into book lovers.

Rosen says: "Books are low-tech, portable packages of the widest range of human experience, presented in a format which gives time to grasp complex ideas or to spend time in imaginative worlds. Children who "get" the reading thing have the best possible platform for "getting" the trick of school learning, as well as a resource for the rest of their lives.

"This makes the current situation, with "reading" compulsory, but reading books optional, discriminatory. If schools don't make books important then children who come from homes with no books, and who don't visit libraries, will never find their way into this vital way of presenting ideas, feelings and knowledge."

For him, one of the most exciting things about the project was seeing "teachers enjoy the freedom of being able to transform children's lives".

I wonder what Malaysian teachers would do given a similar chance.

Golly Gee!

I am conflicted over golliwogs.

On one hand I know they are supposed to be politically incorrect. On the other, I want one and have wanted one ever since I was introduced to golliwogs in the Enid Blyton book The Three Golliwogs.

When I was living in England, I ate Robertson's Jam because you could save the jar labels and exchange them for golliwog badges. I have a nurse golly [right]!

I was sorely tempted to buy myself a golliwog doll when I was in Sydney two years ago but they were so expensive - at least AUS$100.

The Guardian has a story about golliwogs. And you can read more about gollies here.

How insensitive am I to find gollies adorable? Perhaps I don't feel offended by them because I am not black. I know they look like the stereotypical depiction of Africans and when I think of them in this light, I do see how they are offensive. However, I have to say, no more than Barbie dolls, with their ridiculous (supposedly ideal female) proportions, are.

Coffee + OJ

I received good news yesterday about an event I was hoping to organise.

Oliver Jeffers will be in KL for a British Council conference (the same one I'm speaking at) and I've been given the green light for a session where he'll speak to a some aspiring children's book illustrators about his experiences creating picture books.

I'm thrilled!

More info about the event here.

In the meantime, here's a recent interview with Jeffers in The Guardian.

Hot Men of Children's Literature III: M. T. Anderson

M.T. Anderson is the author of The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume 1: The Pox Party, which won the 2006 National Book Award for Young People, and was named a 2007 Michael L. Printz Honor book.

In 2008, Anderson published The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume II: The Kingdom on the Waves.

His other books include Feed and Whales on Stilts; and, with illustrator Kevin Hawkes, picture books Handel, Who Knew What He Liked and Me, All Alone, at the End of the World.

Happy Moo Year

By DAPHNE LEE

From Tots to Teens, StarMag

Since we're a week into the Year of the OX, I thought I'd write about a lovely book that features ... well, not an ox, but a little bull. And yes, I mean the animal!

The Story of Ferdinand was published in 1936. It was written by an American writer called Munro Leaf, and it remains his best known work. It is said that Leaf wrote the tale in less than an hour. He wrote it for his friend, the illustrator Robert Lawso,n to showcase Lawson's talents.

When it was published, some said that the story promoted pacificism. As this was around the time of the Spanish Civil War, Ferdinand was not viewed kindly in some quarters and banned in several countries.

Ferdinand is a bull who prefers flowers to fighting. As a calf, he wanders meadows and fields, and loves to sit under the shade of a cork tree, inhaling the fragrance of the blossom-filled countryside while his friends snort and kick and butt one another. Ferdinand's mother ("who was a cow") worries about her son, but when she sees that he isn't lonely and being an understanding mother ("even though she was a cow"), she decides to let him have his own way.

I like those asides about Ferdinand's mum being a cow and I wonder if they are just Leaf being cheeky or if he was referring to some private joke, or an actual person.

Anyway, in time, Ferdinand becomes a large, strong bull. He continues to prefer quiet contemplation to rough games. One day, a group of men from Madrid come looking for a bull to fight in the ring. The other young bulls put on a show - they want nothing more than to fight in Madrid. The men would probably have picked one of them, but Ferdinand accidentally sits on a bumble bee and is stung. The pain of the sting makes Ferdinand go crazy. He leaps about, snorting, butting and pawing the ground.

Of course, he is chosen to fight in Madrid. And you can guess what happens there. Instead of fighting, Ferdinand walks into the middle of the ring and gazes at the flowers worn by the laides in the audience. Then he sits and just sniffs happily. Nothing the banderilleros or the picadores do make a difference. Ferdinand does not react. The Matador, denied the chance to show off with his fancy red cape, cries with frustration.

In the end, Ferdinand is ... no, not slaughtered and made into beef stew. Lucky Ferdinand is packed off home where he can continue to sit under his favourite cork tree and smell the flowers.

What a lovely book and a lovely idea in these times and, really, all times when might and aggression may be seen as preferable to gentleness and kindness. Ferdinand also celebrates individuality and his mother's good sense (despite being a cow) is something parents should take note of when faced with sons who want to dance, and daughters who wish to play football.

Happy Year of the Ox and Happy Reading.