Authored by a friend!

pic courtesy tulikabooks

Have You Seen This?
Text by Arthi Anand Navaneeth
Illustrated by Roomani Kulkarni
Published by Tulika books (bilinguals)
Ages 3+

I came home with A from her school bus-stop, and a parcel was waiting for me. I had a fair idea as to its contents, as I had been expecting my review copy from Tulika. The kid pounced on it when I told her what it was, and tore open the wrapping. There she stood, with her bag and shoes still on, giggling as she read through it!

Arthi Anand Navaneeth, Saffrontree’s own Artnavy, has brought us the wacky, the whimsical, the quirky, even the outlandish in this completely giggle-worthy book. A book bang-on in the premise of fiction, even fantasy- suspending disbelief, and even believing the unbelievable!

“A chair that jumps? 
A tree that flies? 
A crow that cooks?” 

A friend who came over read it to her 2 ½ year old in front of me, and his reaction was equally giggle-worthy. The child was transfixed, with his mouth open, and saying “Yes!”, “No!” : acting out some stuff and laughing out really loud at places. It was interesting to note what he said “Yes” to. Those were the ones he has seen as the anthropomorphised characters doing similar wacky things in other stories or on the TV. So these were clearly things that children around his age seemed to think were possible- spot on for the target age group of the book.

Illustrations by Roomani Kulkarni are a huge part of the book’s appeal. I did a search for this artist, who I had not heard of before, and I was amazed by some of her other work. In the book, the eye looks at a picture on a new page first, travelling next to the words which explains it all, just a single sentence on each page. The pair of children romping around the narrative reminded us for some reason of ET, the extra-terrestrial!

The book is the newest in the Tulika books' series of bilingual books, and ours was a Marathi-English combo, thoughtfully sent by Tulika and Arthi, as we speak Marathi at home. A had as much fun tripping over reading the Devnagari script that she has learnt in Hindi at school, and then smoothing out the prounciation into the familiar Marathi. Our personal favourite? The book that reads!:)

We're proud of you, Artnavy!

Crossposted at Saffrontree.

Malavika Shetty- the writer of The Sweetest Mango

She is a linguist with impressive credentials. The bio at the place she currently works reads:

Malavika Shetty is currently a Marion L. Brittain Postdoctoral Fellow at Georgia Tech, where she uses her background in linguistics to teach courses in multimodal communication. Her courses encourage students to think critically about the role of language in the media and in their daily lives.
Malavika received her PhD in Linguistics from the University of Texas at Austin. Her areas of interest are linguistic anthropology, sociolinguistics, and narrative. Her dissertation, Television and the Construction of Tulu Identity in South India, looks at how television can be used by a community as an effective medium for language revitalization and maintenance.

Let me add here, that her particular field of work is one which has often fascinated me- linguistic anthropology- the development and propogation of language. There are a few books at hand on the subject that I would like to share here sometimes. Not really technical books, but easy reads for lay persons like you and me

She is also the author of a lovely children's book, The Sweetest Mango, published by Tulika books. A mouth-watering addition to their wonderful books for children.

As one of the winners of their mango blogathon, Tulika books sent me a copy of the book, and asked me if I would like to interview the author. Would I like to? Of course, YES! They introduced us to each other by mail. Malavika was very approachable and sweet. Even waiting a week or so that it took me to actually get down to sending her a list of questions, which she promptly replied to. Thanks, Malavika.

So here she is, Malavika Shetty, in her own words.

How did you conceive of the story idea?
I have always wanted to write a story about friendship and the close bonds formed during childhood. Also, I love mangoes, so I thought about writing a story about friendship, but also a story that was set during the mango season.

Tell us a bit about your childhood and background.
I grew up in the suburb of Bandra in Bombay in an idyllic neighbourhood where I played all day with lots of children. We went cycling, plucked and ate mulberries from bushes, played cricket and hide and seek…. My childhood was a never-ending summer. I am still in touch with the friends I grew up with and, when we meet, we speak about how much fun we had growing up together.
My family is from a village near Udipi (the village I describe in the book is my village), and almost every summer, my family and I make the trip to the village where there are lots of mango and coconut trees. My summer holidays, growing up, were spent doing exactly what Suma and Jyothi do in the book (except the walking to school bit!). I plucked mangoes from the trees surrounding the house. I ate lots of mango curry.

Did you have an experience similar to that of Suma or Jyothi, as a child?
While the setting of the story is similar to my experience of childhood in my village near Udipi, I do not recollect a similar incident of saving a mango for myself and finally sharing it.

How did you approach Tulika books with your story, and how did the journey of making the book go?
I have always loved reading Tulika books and enjoy reading them with my children very much. I also make up my own stories and tell them to my children, so the thought of writing a children’s book was always in my mind.  I was in Chennai one summer, so I walked into the Tulika office and asked about how I could go about writing and submitting a story to them. I was, very kindly, given an email address to which I could submit a story.  I got back to Atlanta, wrote the story, and sent it to Tulika. I was thrilled when they actually accepted the story for publication.

Ajanta Guhathakurta, the illustrator, is an established name. As I said in my review, "A drool-worthy book, with warm, summery illustrations by Ajanta Guhathakurtha matching the yumminess of the text."  How did you collaborate with her on this book? Check out this interview of Ajanta Guhathakurta by R's Mom.
Ajanta read the story and came up with the fabulous illustrations all by herself.

Your bio says:  "Her areas of interest are linguistic anthropology, sociolinguistics, and narrative."  Could you elaborate on that? How do you associate that with creative writing?
My research broadly looks at the relationship between language and culture. I look at how language is a crucial component that binds communities together and how it is an essential part of a community’s identity. My training and background is in linguistics, but I use tools from anthropology to look how language is used by a community.
My dissertation looked at how a Tulu-language television station in Karnataka could change the way Tulu is regarded. Having a call-in Tulu TV show gave community members an opportunity to voice their opinions and present different versions of narratives like folk tales and folk songs that have been part of the community’s oral culture for centuries.
Listening to folk tales and folk songs while I was doing my research has been an amazing experience. There are so many stories and wonderful descriptions contained in our oral cultures. These narratives are a source of inspiration for my own creative writing

Tell us some more about the 'mundappa mango' that the story mentions.
The Mundappa is a variety of mango found in the region of Karnataka that I describe in the story. It is one of biggest and fleshiest mango varieties, and, if eaten, when it is at its optimum moment of ripeness, is in my opinion, the sweetest mango in the world. The Mundappa has a distinct round shape and grows to be as large as a coconut. I used to see the Mundappa in trees far more often when I was growing up than I do now. It seems as though the Mundappa mango trees are giving way to other varieties, so laying ones hands on a perfect Mundappa is really a treat.

It is said that it is more difficult to write for children than for adults. What do you say to that as seen from the perspective of your profession, and as a children's writer?
I don’t think it is a question of ‘difficulty’. For me, it is more of a question of what I want to work on at a given moment. Sometimes I find that I want to write something that adults would read. At other times, I want to write something that children might enjoy. While I enjoy my work as a linguistic anthropologist and like writing about aspects of my work for an academic audience, I have discovered that I also enjoy writing for children very much.

Great, that means that we shall be reading more by you. Are there more books in the pipeline?
Yes! I loved writing The Sweetest Mango, and working with the editors and staff at Tulika has been a wonderful experience. I will certainly write more children’s books.

Crossposted at Saffrontree.

RIP, Jan Berenstain!

Berenstain Bear Books

Written and illustrated by Stan & Jan Berenstain

Published by Random House books for Young Readers

Ages: 4-8 years

One half of a pair of writers who created one of A's favourite book series, passed away on friday, 24th February 2012. Jan Berentstain was the co-creator of the Berenstain Bears books, with her writer-illustrator husband Stan Berenstain, who passed away 7 years ago. She was 88. Co-incidently, the first book created and published in this series was The Big Honey Hunt written for The Cat in the Hat beginner book series in 1962 at the behest of Dr Seuss (Theodor Geisel), whose birthday falls on 2nd March.

A loves the Berenstain Bears Books, and we have tried to collect them all. Every time we visit a book store, she checks out their collection from the series, and we pick up the ones we don't yet have. They feature a family of bears living in a tree house (adventure!) - goofy, lovable Papa Bear, sensible, wise Mama Bear, with Sister Bear and Brother Bear, their everyday lives, the ordinary things that matter to them, the things they learn and do, and the scrapes they get into.    

When she was younger, heck, even now, the wisdom in these books guides her through many dilemmas- over and above a heart-to-heart discussion. The books make it easier for us both in considering how to approach a particular situation. Whether it was her fear of the dark, an annoying habit that she picked up somewhere, dealing with peer pressure, focusing on fixing a problem instead of trying to fix the blame,  taking a sensible stand when someone says- "I dare you to...", dealing with jealousy, stranger danger or bullies, learning about money...you name it, the Berenstain Bears had a book about it.

One does have to keep in mind, though, that even though the books offer, sensible, home-grown advice in a palatable, story form, many of these books have been written in the 60s and 70s, and there may be some dating of the context. One also needs to be mindful of some gender/racial stereotyping, much like that in the otherwise wonderful books by Enid Blyton.

A wonderful collection of books that is fun to read for both child and parent alike. We have spent many happy hours reading them together, discussing them, and returning to them again and again at any time a relevent situation presented itself. A great help to parents who may not have the luxury of an easily accesible extended family!

RIP, Jan Berenstain!

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Pictures courtesy Google Images. Crossposted at Saffrontree..

   

A Kick in the Head: An everyday guide to poetic forms

Pic courtesy flipkart.com

A Kick in the Head:
An everyday guide to poetic forms
Selected by Paul B Janeczko
Illustrated by Chris Raschka
Published by Candlewick Press
Ages: 8+

Do you know what a couplet is? A quatrain? A haiku? A sonnet? A limerick? A ballad? An elegy? An ode? You do? Great!

Now, do you know what a clerihew is? A roundel? A triolet? A villanelle? A senryu? An aubade? An acrostic? A pantoum? A cinquain? No? Do all those words sound as if they were a set of carpenter's / goldsmith's tools? Or some kind of flowers or herbs? (That is what A thought they were.) Well, they're not. They're forms of poetry, which follow certain rules.

Let's take a senryu, for example. Our book explains a senryu thus: "I like to call senryu a 'haiku with an attitude.' A senryu follows the same pattern as a haiku -- three lines of 5-7-5 syllables -- but it is about human nature rather than the natural world around us."

Intrigued? Let's take the senryu in our book to illustrate the point.

First day, new school year,
backpack harbours a fossil...
last June's cheese sandwich.

Or let's take an acrostic- one of the simplest way for a child to write poetry. "Descriptive poems- when read downward, the first letter of each line must form a word or phrase, usually the subject of the poem." It is a form that any enterprising child can experiment with, using any word that they may. Even their own or their friends' names. And it can be so much fun!

Santa Claus will come out tonight
And deliver presents
Near the
Time of midnight you can hear him
And what you will hear are the words ho ho ho

OR

Father
And
Mother
I
Love
You!

All these poetic forms have certain rules that have to be followed, for them to fit in the particular category. Doesn't that make it more difficult in a way? Why not write in free verse?

Free verse does have its merits, especially in modern poetry, which often is an unfettered expression of thought and feelings, a way of writing prose with a cadence, if you may.

Having specific rules for poetry does make it that much more fun to write, though, as well as making it fun to enjoy and appreciate it. As Paul Janeczko explains in his foreword, "Knowing the rules makes poetry -- like sports -- more fun, for players and spectators alike."

Beautifully illustrated in quirky watercolours by Chris Raschka, the book can be read as a picture book for younger children too, as the lilt and rhythm will appeal to the little ones too. Older children can appreciate the poems better, the form, the themes and the beauty of them. High school kids? The details of each poetry form will make much sense to the student with a literary bent of mind. Adults too can take a lot away from the book. Great for learning a particular form at a time, researching it, dabbling in it. Or just to keep it on the shelf to dip into a bit of poetic joy from time to time!

Acrostics, opposites, riddles, limericks, tanka, haiku...A and I have tried our hand a little bit at each. Here's a site which makes it easy for children. Why don't you try it?

A multiple award winning book, this is a poetry anthology with a difference. A must read for anyone appreciative of fine poetry.

I will be entering this book for the Reading the World Challenge over at Papertigers for A, under US of A, poetry.

Battling the bogeyman in the dark

A is a child who is afraid of the dark. This fear is not strange to me, as I, too used to be afraid of the dark as a child, and this daughter of mine has inherited my over-active imagination. Even now I am unwilling to watch a horror movie (a real, spine chilling one- not the merely grotesque stuff that passes for horror sometimes!) as my imagination goes into a super-active mode!  

She does not go into a dark room by herself, unless there is someone standing outside urging her on to go ahead, and put on the light. Unfortunately, the builders of our house, while setting up electric connections and such, have placed the light switches at the far end of bedrooms, and not even in full view of the door. So if I stand outside, encouraging her to go in on her own and switch on the lights, she cannot see me there. I do not want to crystallise this feeling of fear by insisting on her doing this by herself without the crutch of me standing outside. At the same time, I do not want to convey the message to her that it may be OK to be frightened of the dark, in her own house. So I do not go in with her to switch on the light if it is she who wants something from there.

So her reaction to books with real horror in it (remember her distress on reading 'The Giant's Necklace' by Michael Morpurgo? Reviewed here. ) is a lot of distress. It makes me doubly careful while giving her books in this genre. So when I came across 'The Wolves in the Walls', by master spooky-storyteller Neil Gaiman at the library, that too in a picture book format for younger children, I decided to read it myself. And on reading it, I decided it would be a great book for A to get introduced to this wonderful writer, some of whose books I've dared to venture into myself.

Pic courtesy amazon.co.uk

The Wolves in the Walls

Written by Neil Gaiman

Illustrated by Dave McKean

Published by Bloomsbury
Lucy hears noises in her room at night. She knows what they are. There are wolves in the wall!

"Rats!" says her mother, unconcerned, busy with housework.

"Bats!" says her brother, busy with his school work.

Her father, a tuba player, doesn't even think it worthwhile to give her an explanation.

All of them tell her- "If the wolves come out of the walls, it's all over." 

And then, the scraping and scratching noises grow louder and louder, until one night, the wolves DO come out of the walls.

So is it over? Not by a long shot! It is just the beginning. The beginning of courage in Lucy, who, after scampering outside with her family, away from the wolves, realises that her pink pig-puppet has been left behind. And he has to be rescued. Inspite of her fear of the wolves. To her, it is her baby. Not "just a puppet!" as her father puts it.

This is something A could relate to very well, as she loves babies, and has already declared to me that she will marry (boys? yucky creatures!) only because she wants babies!

So what happens next? Does Lucy manage to get into the house and rescue her pink pig-puppet from the clutches of the wolves? And do they manage to drive the wolves out, after all?

A and I read this nail-biting, on-the-edge-of-our-seats story recently, and A loved it. As she rightly put it- "I'm glad I'm not so little anymore, or I would have been really frightened."  For the book is the stuff of nightmares. So although it is a picture book that can be read aloud to younger children, maybe 5+, I would still put the appropriate age at 8+.

We visited Neil Gaiman, the writer in this post during CROCUS 2010, on Saffrontree. All the books that I have read by him were spooky to an extent I was not comfortable with introducing to A, knowing her. So when I read through this book, it came to me that here was the perfect book with which to introduce this wonderful writer to her.

And the illustrations! Done in a combination of pen-and-ink sketches, watercolours and actual photographs, Dave McKean has brought the 'spooky' factor alive for us. It has that unmistakeable quality of graphic novels, where sometimes pictures speak more than words. Full page, in dark shades, alternating between hazy and stark, with the text written at strategic points. Dark but funny, realistic yet enchantingly fairy-tale like. A perfect foil for Gaiman's story-telling.

Two pictures struck us as extraordinary- the page on which the wolves come out of the walls- she let out a small scream, the dynamic energy of the wolves running out, with that 'almost heard in your head' baying that can be easily imagined. Another is the page on which the family is huddled outside around a fire- the fire has a very realistic glow in the overlapping strokes of red, yellow and orange that the artist has used. One could almost feel the heat.

A great book for addressing those things that go 'bump' in the night.

Crossposted at Saffrontree.

Edited to add : Entering this for the Reading the world challenge 2011 for A under Great Britain and fiction.

Secret Codes for an escape!

Pic courtesy Flipkart

THE PATCHWORK PATH : a quilt map to freedom
Written by Bettye Stroud
Illustrated by Erin Susan Bennett
Published by Candlewick Press
Ages 5+

Hannah is a 10 yr old slave living on a plantation with her parents and younger sister Mary. When she turns 10, her mother teaches her to make a special quilt using special patterns, with special meanings. Each pattern had a meaning, and stiched together, they would make a pattern that would help them to run away to freedom.

Soon after, the master sells Mary to someone else, and her mother dies of a broken heart. Hannah and her father decide to escape, afraid that they, too would get separated some day.

How do they do it? How does the Quilt Code work? Do they manage to get to freedom? How do they recognise the friends and the enemies along the way? Quite a few of the white men were against slavery, even in the south. There was a whole network of these abolitionists, along with certain religious groups like the Quakers who were anti-slavery, and freed slaves (a well-known example was Harriet Tubman) along the escape route who would help the escapees along what was termed 'the underground railroad, as the slaves travelled in hiding.

According to the afterword, the story about the use of quilt codes was given to was told to historian Jaqueline Tobin by an African American quilter Ozella Williams and together with another scholar Dr. Raymond Dobard, they published the first account of this amazing system that had originated in Africa, and was extensively used by slaves to run away to the US Canada border and freedom.

This was in 1994. Following this, there was a lot of debate on its authenticity, as there was no written or material evidence of this story, and was believed to have come from African American folklore. It has been theorised that this could be because slaves in those days did not know how to read or write, as it was illegal, and any quilts from that time might not have survived the wear and tear of so many years.

Knowledge of the controversies around the supposed history on which our book is based, however, did not deter A and me from enjoying it. It was the perfect picture book for the 9 yr old who is no longer into picture books big time, as it was a dip into the rich African American history, which is proving to be fascinating and horrifying by turns. And an escape story is always welcome, especially one that makes use of secret codes. Full page illustrations in earthy colours by Erin Susanne Bennett compliment the text and bring it to life.

February will be Black History month, and the history enthusiast at home hopes to find many more such books.

Those interested in the craft can go here to find printable templates of the patterns that were supposed to be in the Quilt Code.

Crossposted at Saffrontree.

James Herriot books for children

I discovered James Herriot a long time ago. His books are not really for young children, but can be easily read and appreciated by older children, probably 13+ ones. With typically gentle and wry British humour, Herriot, whose real life name as a vet in Yorkshire, was James Alfred Wight, brings to us the life in typical Yorkshire villages. A few years back, during our stay in the UK, a visit to Thirsk, the village in Yorkshire in which he lived and practised, was a not-to-be-missed-opportunity. Herriot has immortalised this village as Darrowby in his books. We realised how powerfully he had potrayed the sprawling Yorkshire moors (also a setting for another well loved classic- Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte.) and the life of the locals, complete with their dialect- as we could identify it immediately, essentially unchanged for the many years since the books had been written.

So when I found these picture books by him a few years back, I grabbed them immediately. Here was my opportunity to introduce this wonderful writer to A, then all of 6 yrs old. All of them have complete, single stories suitable for the age group of 4-8 years. Published by St Martin's Press.

Pic courtesy goodreads.com

THE CHRISTMAS DAY KITTEN
A stray cat regularly visits Mrs Pickering's house, where James Herriot regularly goes to check on her three Basset hounds. The cat, a timid tabby named Debbie by Mrs Pickering, creeps in a few times each week, eats the food given to her, spends some time in the warmth of the sitting room in front of the fireplace, and then and goes away. No-one knows where she lives.

On Christmas day, a dying Debbie comes to Mrs Pickering's house with her precious cargo- her kitten. She leaves it in the care of the only place where she has known warmth and love. How this Christmas Day kitten, named Buster by Mrs Pickering, makes it his home is for the reader to find out.

A lovely story that touches a child's heart. With all the warmth associated with Christmas.

Pic courtesy goodreads.com

THE MARKET SQUARE DOG
One Market Day, James Herriot notices an unknown dog, obviously a stray, begging at the various stalls for food. The dog has "two friendly brown eyes ... in a wonderfully attractive face", a friendly wag of his tail for Herriot when spoken to, but would not be caught.

One day, the local police constable, Phelps, comes to Herriot's surgery with an injured animal- the Market Square dog, who had been found knocked down by the roadside, just outside the town. The vet does all he can for the dog, visiting him at the public kennels as he heals. Over the next few weeks, people come for many of the other dogs, but not for our stray.

What happens next? Does he find a home? Who are the lucky ones who get this very lovable and friendly stray as their pet? Read to find out.



Pic courtesy fantasticfiction.co.uk


OSCAR, CAT-ABOUT-TOWN
The Herriots adopt a stray cat brought to them in a very weak condition. They nurse him back to health, and name him Oscar.

Now Oscar proves himself to be a very sociable cat. He is missing one day, and after a lot of searching, they find him with the judges at a Women's Institute hat making competition! Over the next few months, he goes missing many times, but the Herriots know that they would find him at some social do, including, among other things, a soccer match at the local school and a rummage sale at the Town Hall.

"Now we know," said Helen.
I nodded. "Yes, when he disappears, he isn't running away at all. He's just visiting. He likes getting along, he loves people, especially in groups, and he is interested in what they do. He's a natural mixer."
Helen looked down at our cat. "Of course, that's it ... he's a socialite!"
"A cat-about-town!"

Pic courtesy fantasticfiction.co.uk

BLOSSOM COMES HOME
Blossom is an old, placid cow belonging to Farmer Dakin. She has been a good milk-cow for more than twelve years. But Dakin is a poor farmer, and cannot afford to keep a cow that is not productive, and he need the space in the stall for a younger cow. So, he does what all poor farmers do. Sells her very regretfully to a knacker on market day.

So what does the placid Blossom do? How does she come back home, where the farmer knows she truly belongs?

Here Herriot has potrayed the difficult decisions with which these poor farmers, deeply attached to their animals, are faced with. A wonderful book.

Pic courtesy amazon.com

BONNY'S BIG DAY
Bonny and Dolly are 20 year old workhorses belonging to a taciturn farmer, Mr Skipton. Although they can no longer work for him, he keeps them "down by the river", where he goes at least once every day, with a pitchforkful of freash hay, a steep climb for the old man. But he loves them, and although he has "no time for pets an' such", the horses are like pets to him.

So when the time comes for the Darrowby Pet Fair Show, Herriot suggests that Mr Skipton enter his horse, Bonny. An idea that the gruff old weatherbeaten farmer scoffs at.

What happens next stands testimony to these men's love of their animals. And the value they place by them.

There are a few more books in these series, which I would love to get my hands on. Moses the Kitten,  Smudge, the Little Lost Lamb , Only One Woof, are some of these.

All these stories by James Herriot carry his trademark warmth and his love for the animals, the bleak Yorkshire moors, and the people who live by this land. The distinct personalities of the animals and the people, revealed through the flow of the stories, makes for richly layered stories.

Although some of them had a note of sadness to the tale, the resolution to a happy ending made them extremely enjoyable. Leading A to read and re-read them many times on her own after we had been through the read-aloud sessions, many times over. She loves animals, and one of her dreams is to own a farm with lots of animals in it when she grows up, as we do not believe in having an animal living in an apartment, and so discourage her from having pets. Imagine having to stay cooped up in a place, from where you can go out only on a leash. Even if one was loved and provided with every comfort.

The illustrations by Ruth Brown are full page, often spilling over onto the adjacent page, making these books perfect picture books inspite of the extensive text. A biography says this about her work-  "Known for her delicate use of watercolors, her particular love of cats, and her realistic and atmospheric representations of rural life, she has been particularly praised for her richly textured and colored artwork." Making her the perfect choice for a picture book by James Herriot.

Crossposted at Saffrontree.