Maurice Sendak and Leo Dillon : a tribute

Two notable illustrators, both Caldecott award winners, passed away this month. One is also a writer, and almost a household name for those who know their picture books. Maurice Sendak, who passed away on 8th May 2012 at the age of 83 and Leo Dillon who passed away yesterday, 30th May 2012 at the age of 79..

Do a google-search for Maurice Sendak, and the first few links thrown up (other than the recent obits) will be for his Caldecott winner book Where the Wild Things Are (1963) This book, along with In the Night Kitchen (1970) and Outside Over There (1981), formed a sort of trilogy. I say a 'sort of trilogy' because they do not comprise parts of a contiguous story. Authored and illustrated by him.

All of these can be read aloud to children as young as 3 years old, and older. The kind of classics that can be read over and over again, well into adulthood and beyond, and we can gain at every reading. They deal with the dark side of little children, the side that is real, but which we, as a society, are often in denial about. Or if we do recognise it, we can only deal it by doling out punishment. When all it takes is a little bit of validation from a parent, and treating it as the grey area that it is. After all, all human beings have some good along with some bad. Grown-ups are just that much more able to keep it in check.

Published by HarperTrophy 

 Max is your regular, mischievous little boy, with an active imagination, and a penchant for getting into trouble. Sent one day to his room without any supper. A room that magically transformed into a forest- where the wild things were! Giving Max a chance to work off his angry feelings. A chance to send these wild things off to bed without there supper. Letting him come back to the reality of the safety of his room and a hot supper; the parent too has had a chance to cool off!

Sounds familiar? The book has been made into a lovely movie, that reads between the lines of the very spare text, and gives us the back story on Max. Watched it recently on DVD, and is worth every rupee spent on it!

Published by Red Fox books
Random House

I was reminded of the chapter in 'Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban' as I read this one. The way, we are told, of handling the boggart that frightens you, is to laugh at it, to recognise the ridiculous in it - which changes it to something we can have control over.

Children are characteristically afraid of the dark, and of things that go 'bump' in the night. In this story, we see Mickey coming face-to-face with his fears - of the dark, and of being mixed into the batter for tomorrow's cake and baked - and his gaining of an upper hand. Happens a lot of time, doesn't it? Maybe a story that the child has read/ has been read to, or something that it has seen or heard, gets into the dark recesses of the subconscious, only to surface in a dream. Happens to us adults too!

Published by Red Fox books
Random House 

Which first-born child hasn't wished the next-born away? There is no doubting the bond between siblings, but there is always sibling rivalry. Ask any parent of more than one child.

Ida has been asked to keep an eye on her little sister while her mother is a little busy. Something that she does because she has to do.

"Ida played her wonder horn to rock the baby still - but never watched."

The goblins come in and snatch the baby away. So now Ida goes to the rescue. She goes all the way outside over there, where the goblins have taken her baby sister away, tricks the goblins, and gets the baby back home.

Here is a review of another notable book by him at Saffrontree.

******************************************************

Our other Caldecott winner is Leo Dillon, who is one half of a team with his illustrator wife, Diane Dillon. Their illustrations are larger than life, with a lot of detail, rooted in African culture. The couple is the only recipient of the award two years in a row.

The first was awarded in 1976 for Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People's Ears,  reviewed here on Saffrontree by Tharini. (Do click on the link to read). We loved this tale from West African folklore, which goes on and on from one animal to another, in the fashion of a neverending tale, coming full circle finally to the mosquito.

Their book that won the Caldecott the following year, 1977, is
Ashanti to Zulu : African Traditions.
Written by Margaret Musgrove
Published by Puffin Pied Piper
Ages: 8+

An alphabet book with a difference - for older children who already know their alphabet. The book takes one African tribe for each alphabet, and gives us a peek into their culture, traditions, lifestyle and history. With vibrant, richly detailed illustrations.

As we read through the book, we realise how varied life is for people fairly close in geography, and yet human beings are so much the same all over the world.

Two more books illustrated by the couple have been reviewed on Saffrontree here and here. Do hop over and read.

Pics courtesy flipkart. Crossposted at Saffrontree.        

The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind



Pic courtesy flipkart

THE BOY WHO HARNESSED THE WIND
Creating currents of electricity and hope
Written by William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer
Cover illustration by Mary Schuck
Published by HarperCollins
Ages: YA / 15+

William Kamkwamba was a regular boy growing up in Kasungu, Malawi, Africa. His father was a farmer living off the land, a hardworking, honest man, who nevertheless found it difficult to feed his family of a wife, six girls, and a boy, with his yearly crop of maize and tobacco. The tobacco would be sold to pay for the children's education, and the maize would feed them...until the middle of the year. Then there would be the struggle to make it last till the next harvest. It was a dreary, difficult life, with not much hope for any better future. Added to that were ignorance, an overall poor state of education, rampant health problems like AIDS, superstitions that were crippling in their belief in magic-- not science, lack of basic amenities like drinking water and electricity. There was also the frequent failure of the rains, leading to a failure of crops, compounded by a tyrannical and indifferent government. All problems that are usually associated with the third world countries.

There was one such famine in 2002 when William was 13, leading to widespread malnutrition and deaths. William's family managed to scrape through it, all of them working odd jobs for a bit of food. There was of course, no money for school fees, and he and his sisters all had to drop out. The following year, there were better rains, and food was manageable, but school fees still were a problem.

William, though, had a keen mind and a thirst for knowledge. While many of his peers loafed around, he would go to the local library, and try to read, (there was a local library with books donated by charities) even though his English was not very good. He chanced upon two books, Explaining Physics and Integrated Science, which lucidly explained the science behind common objects with line diagrams. Using the concepts there, he tried creating electricity with the help of a bicycle dynamo to power a radio. Soon he found another book, Using Energy, which fascinated him with the pictures of windmills on the cover. This gave him his 'eureka moment.' He decided to build his own windmill.

"No more kerosene lamps that burned our eyes and sent us gasping for breath...I could stay awake at night reading instead of going to bed at seven with the rest of Malawi. But most important, a windmill could also rotate a pump for water and irrigation...No more skipping breakfast, no more dropping out of school. With a windmill, we'd finally release ourselves from the troubles of darkness and hunger. In Malawi, the wind was one of the consistent things...A windmill meant more than just electricity, it was freedom."

In the rest of this amazing and un-put-downable book, William recounts his struggle to find material for his windmill in the junk heaps around the village, the hounding by the villagers who considered him crazy, the painstaking putting together of the parts, the support by his family and close friends who helped out at crucial points, the setbacks, and finally, the sweet taste of success.

William's first windmill next to his house.
Pic courtesy Tom Reilly

Soon word spread to neighbouring villages and towns, and people would come in hordes to see this 'electric wind' (as he called it in his local language, Chichewa), and it caught the attention of the media and academics. It was remarkable that a school dropout with not much formal education had achieved what many who are priviledged cannot- found a way out of the darkness harnessing a natural resource- with just a few basic science books at his disposal.

He was invited to be a TED Fellow, and this platform brought his acievement to the notice of the world, along with the spreading word on the blogosphere. It was at the TED conference that he met Tom Reilly, the TED Fellows Director, who would help to launch the Moving Windmills Project  for self-sustainable economic development in Malawi. Since then, William's village has seen unprecedented development, with wind power and solar power at the forefront. William is also all set to complete his education, with dreams of a brighter future for his country.

It is an inspiring story- one that should be widely read. The first few chapters give a stark picture of the poverty and deprivation which make William Kamkwamba's enterprise all the more spectacular.

This is a book for older readers-- 15years +, so I told A the story as I read through it, reading bits aloud to her. There is a Young Readers Edition due to be out in January 2012 that I'll be looking out for.

There is also this video that tells William's truly inspiring story in his own words. After watching this, A is keen to get her hands on the book.



Crossposted at Saffrontree.

Will be entering this review for the 2011 Global Reading Challenge under Africa, and for the Reading the World Challenge 2011 at Papertigers for myself.