The theme for Children's Book Week this year was "One World, Many Stories" with a fantastic poster designed by Christian Robinson, and bookmarks by illustrators Ekua Holmes, Yuyi Morales, LeUyen Pham and Sonja Wimmer.

At Westerville Public Library, we celebrated with a special storytime featuring songs and stories from around the world.

Books included:

What Are You Doing? by Elisa Amado

Amado was born in Guatemala and is a frequent translator of books from Spanish to English. I love the literacy tie-in with the subject matter in this book.

Millie Waits for the Mail
written and illustrated by Alexander Steffensmeier
of Germany

Interestingly, I had a child ask if this book was originally written in another language and if so, how could we read it? Thanks to  Lieselotte Lauert, the translator, we can read it in English!

What Should I Make?
Written by Nandini Nayar
Illustrated by Proiti Roy

From: India

New Shoes for Helen
written and photographed by  Ifeoma Onyefulu (setting Ethiopia)

Onyefulu was born in Nigeria and currently lives in England.

In between each book we looked at the globe and found our next destination. Over fifty people showed up for this special celebration!

We also featured a book display and other travel related activities at our Imagination Station during this special week. For the rest of May, we are featuring the Reading without Walls challenge, which is a nice tie-in and continues the theme of global awareness.

Friday, January 20th 2017. 8-9:30 pm.
Georgia World Congress Center, A302
Atlanta, GA

Join storied New York Times Best-selling author, Carmen Agra Deedy, as she presents a spirited defense of free speech and reads from her new book, The Rooster Who Would Not Be Quiet, illustrated by Newbery Honor Award-Winner Eugene Yelchin, published by Scholastic Press. So far it already has two starred reviews, from Kirkus & Publisher's Weekly
​
From fables to folktales to farmland, we all know that roosters crow at dawn. They also sing in the afternoon, the evening, and in the middle of the night. In short, roosters crow when they wish, and that is all there is to that.
Much like those noisy roosters, a human child is born with a voice that is strong and true and often irrepressible. Then, for better or worse, by the time most of us reach adulthood we learn to silence that pure, joyful voice but is it lost forever?

The 2017 Outstanding International Books will also be announced at the USBBY sponsored session. Hope to see you there!

What do you know about Lithuania? I certainly didn’t know much before reading Ruta Sepetys’ books. I knew it was one of the Baltic states, taken over by the Soviet Union in the early years of World War II and kept as one of the buffer states during the Cold War. Lithuania became independent in early 1991 — with only short lived interference  from the crumbling Soviet Union.

Before reading Sepetys Between Shades of Gray, I knew little about Lithuania. I didn’t give much thought to what Soviet occupation meant. How much brutality lies underneath those few sentences on the subject in a textbook. That anyone seen as part of the intelligentsia, that is, anyone with an education, — teachers, doctors, lawyers, and yes, librarians — all were rounded up and deported. Homes, belongings, possessions lost, families divided. Sepetys draws upon her own family history in her writing, as she is of Lithuanian descent.  Fifteen year old Lina narrates the harrowing tale of her families removal, the long journey on the train, work in a labor camp, and final journey to Siberia.

Salt to the Sea reveals another story often hidden from history — the story of the sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff, the worst maritime disaster in history. As World War II draws to a close, refugees are fleeing the Baltic States through Poland and Prussia from the advancing Russian army, who pillage everything — that is, everything that the Germans have not destroyed as they are retreating. Refugees, children, soldiers alike seek an escape, a way out. Told from four different narrators whose stories intersect, this is another powerful and eye-opening story from Sepetys.

The links above will take you to Sepetys own site, and I highly recommend listening to her talk about her research and tell the story in her own voice. It also includes more history of the Wilhelm Gustloff, more about displaced persons of the Baltics during the war, and about refugees.

I’ve been thinking about these books quite a lot recently. Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia, joined NATO in 2004. With all the talk of NATO in the recent election cycle, what are the people of the Baltics concerned about these days? It is more important than ever to learn and remember history. In the Author’s Note section of Salt to the Sea, Sepetys writes: “If historical novels stir your interest, pursue the facts, history, memoirs, and personal testimonies, available. These are the shoulders that historical fiction sits upon. When the survivors are gone we must not let the truth disappear with them. Please, give them a voice.”

Also published on my wordpress site: bookmuse.wordpress.com

There's a great opportunity to hear Japanese children's book author/illustrator Momomi Sako talk about her work on Sunday, October 2 at the Mazza Musuem of Picture Book Art in Findlay, Ohio.

earn more about this event: http://www.mazzamuseum.org/illustrator-japan-speak-mazza-funday-sunday/

​and see some of her illustrations:
​
http://momomisako.tumblr.com/

and

https://www.behance.net/momomi_sako
​

Mister Whistler
by Margaret Mahy
Illustrated by Gavin Bishop
​Gecko Press, 2012.

Hans Christian Andersen award winning author Margaret Mahy's distinctive voice lends itself to the droll story of Mister Whistler, whose "twitching feet were longing to dance."  When his great-aunt asks him for help, he quickly dresses (in a very snazzy style) and leaves for the train station. The song in his head keeps playing and he dances all the way there.

Once on the train platform, Mr. Whistler can't seem to locate his ticket. So, one by one, he goes through each article of clothing, searching for the ticket and discarding the clothing as he goes, until . . . he's not wearing much of anything. And his ticket has been in plain sight the whole time!

This story has innate child appeal  . . . all the stages of getting dressed and undressed (and dressed again -- don't worry, his aunt "would be furious if I turned up in my underwear.") New Zealand illustrator Gavin Bishop's energetic illustrations add to the appeal. Each page is full of movement: Mr. Whistler seems to be dancing with every part of his body. The tune in Mr. Whistler's head is made visible to the reader as music notes floating across the page. The facial expressions of Mr. Whistler and his growing audience add to the humor. The color palette is a bit unusual; a muted palette with lots of shades of green and yellows and blues.

Mahy's text fairly dances at times too (rhyme & repetition): "Nothing in the right pocket./Nothing in the left" repeats for waistcoat pockets and trouser pockets. She includes some interesting and fun vocabulary: smeary, waistcoat, scatterbrained, I'm looking forward to sharing this one with kindergarten/early elementary age children.

Children Just Like Me  (UNICEF/Dorling Kindersley) 1995 has always been one of my favorite books. It was the first book I knew of that highlighted the everyday lives of contemporary children from around the world. Not folktales (which I also love), but real children and their interests, which wonderful photographs and what I've come to think of as that DK look. And it has aged very well -- I still bring it out for displays (I didn't realize quite how old it was!)

Earlier this week I was delighted to see an updated version of Children Just Like Me arrive at the library. It's visually appealing, just like it's predecessor, large sized, with less text so it has a cleaner feel and is more accessible to younger readers. There is also a free activity guide with a template for children to create their own "Children Just Like Me" page and other ideas  -- now to plan a library program!

I'm excited to see so much discussion on the topic of translation recently. There is a new initiative, the Global Literature in Libraries Initiative, introduced in two blog posts, from YALSA's The Hub: 
http://www.yalsa.ala.org/thehub/2016/06/08/the-global-literature-in-libraries-initiative/

and from a site for translators: ​https://literarytranslators.wordpress.com/2016/03/14/the-global-literature-in-libraries-initiative-call-for-responses/ 

There is also a panel at ALA on Sunday morning, June 16th, with Rachel Hildebrandt, Doris Gebel, Marc Aronson and Annette Goldsmith:

Conversation Starter: Other People's Voices: Using Global Literature in Translation to Reimagine Diversity in Libraries

Sunday, June 26​, ​10:30 AM - 11:15 AM
Orange County Convention Center, Room W414CD

This Conversation Starter session seeks to be a springboard for a collaborative initiative between librarians, translators, and publishers to raise awareness of the significance and accessibility of literature in translation - not just adult fiction, but also children's and YA works, scholarly publications, and poetry. This session will provide an introduction to literary translation as a process and to the unique significance of global literature in today’s world. Most importantly, we intend to discuss a variety of concrete, collaborative project ideas, ranging from searchable databases to reading guides. 
​
Through this dialogue, we wish to explore how we can increase the general visibility of international works in English translation and specifically the diversity that is embedded in these books and the perspectives they present. Whether an academic librarian or a YA blogger, a rural library director or a programming librarian in a large city, we would welcome your insights as we examine the various ways that librarians and translators can collaborate to encourage readers to diversify their perspectives by thinking beyond the boundaries of their own cultural and linguistic constructs. 

Author Jane Kurtz discusses translation in this article from the Ethiopia Reads blog: http://www.ethiopiareads.org/blog-date/2016/4/8/jane-kurtz-translation She notes the real need for books in one's native language when learning to read and the dire lack of these types of books in Ethiopia (as well as other African countries. She looks closely at English, French and Spanish translations of a picture book set in Tanzania and notes differences -- translation isn't simple a matter of word choice (also rhythm, culture, natural phrasing, idioms, etc.)

A recent article in Publisher's Weekly covered the Franco-American Children's Book Publishers conference on June 9, with fascinating information about children's publishing in France and America, challenges and differences, including translation​.
http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/childrens/childrens-industry-news/article/70644-a-tale-of-two-cultures-children-s-publishing-in-france-and-america.html

"You won't want to miss a chance to hear English author Frances Hardinge, whose novel The Lie Tree won the Costa Book of the Year and  the fiction category of the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award when she joins Terry Farish for a panel discussion "The Threads that Hold a Spine." USBBY welcomes them to the ALA Annual Conference session on Saturday, June 25th @ 5-6pm at the Orange County Convention Center, Room W102B

Check out Francis Hardinge's amazing Library of award winning books on her website http://www.franceshardinge.com/library/library.html
and read the insightful conversations about diverse books, immigration and culture on Farish's website
htttp://terryfarish.com."

- Via USBBY on ALAConnect

Take a look at Frances Hardinge's Twisted City website -- awesome design!
and explore
Terry Farish's Rabbit in the Moon blog for articles about diversity and working with international students.

Off to read more now . . . .

The Hans Christian Anderson Awards were just announced! Congratulations to illustrator  Rotraut Susanne Berner from Germany

and author Cao Wenxuan from China, who I look forward to learning more about. 


The Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award will be announced tomorrow, April 5. You can watch the announcement live from Sweden. This year 215 candidates were nominated from 59 different countries. The ALMA Award is the largest monetary prize in children's literature. Exciting times!

Enchanted Air
by Margarita Engle
Atheneum, 2015

Based on the author's own childhood, this poetic memoir recounts summers  spent with her mother's extended family in Cuba, until 1960, when everything changed. Revolution. Communism. The Cuban Missile Crisis.

Engle's descriptions of the Cuban landscape -- the air, the land, the food -- is truly enchanting. It definitely makes me want to visit Cuba! Her feelings of being torn between the two places, of wondering where she belongs, of longing for family are beautifully conveyed and ones that many children (immigrants, refugees, or Americans from various backgrounds) will be able to relate to. On what would be the last childhood visit, a yet to be born foal is designated as belonging to Margarita and her older sister. A horse she only gets to see in a photograph. (as a horse lover as a child, this episode struck a particularly emotional chord with me!).

A few favorite excerpts:

From "What Am I?"

At school, all the teachers and students
seem angered by Cuba.
WHAT ARE YOU?
they ask.

It's a question that requires fractions,
and I don't like math.
Do I have to admit
that I"m half Cuban and half American,
or should I go even further, and explain that Dad's parents were born in the Ukraine,
part of Soviet Russia?
Or am I just entirely American,
all the fractions left behind
by immigration from faraway nations?

p. 43
---------------------------
Refuge

The ugliness of war photos
and the uncertainty of TV news
join the memory of FBI questions
to make me feel like climbing into
my own secret world.

Books are enchanted. Books help me travel.
Books help me breathe.

When I climb a tree, I take a book with me.
When I walk home from school, I carry
my own poems, inside my mind,
where no one else
can reach the worlds
that are entirely
completely
forever
mine.

p. 54

And isn't the cover image by Edel Rodriguez amazing?

Reading the World: Cuba