Oranges in No Man's Land

Pic courtesy books.google.com

Oranges in no man's land
Written by Elizabeth Laird
Illustrated by Gary Blythe
Published by  Macmillan Children's Books
Ages 8-12 years.

10 yr old Ayesha lives with her mother, grandmother and two brothers in Civil war torn Beirut. Her mother gets killed by a bomb that also destroys their home, and they become refugees living in a shelter. Here Ayesha makes a friend, the deaf-mute girl her age, Samar. Life goes on, her grandmother their only parent.

Until one day, her grandmother becomes seriously ill. She has been ill for a long time now, and had medicines that she took for it, given to her by Dr Leila, for whom she had worked for many years. But now her medicines are over, and Dr Leila lives beyond the Green line, on the other side of the divide, beyond the 'no man's land' that lies between their portion of the city and hers.

So what is a mere 10 yr old to do? Does she manage to go to the good doctor and get medicines for her grandmother? How does she get past the armed solders gaurding the entrances to both sides and come back unscathed?

"I was used to danger. I'd heard countless bombs exploding, and I'd often gone to sleep to the sound of gunfire. But nothing had frightened me as much as that wild dash along the empty street. The world seemed to stand still, holding for breath, waiting for the men of death to open fire."

This is a touching story written by Elizabeth Laird, who lived in Beirut during the Lebanese Civil War which stretched from 1975-1990. It is based on some real life events and experiences, as she writes in her preface to the book.

The sketch of Ayesha, running swiftly for all it's worth, looking furtively at something in the distance that she probably needs to be wary of, is a repeated motif throughout the book, at the title of each chapter. Done by Gary Blythe, (illustrator of other well known books like The Whale's Song, Rumer Godden's Miss Happiness and Miss Flower and Michael Morpurgo's I believe in Unicorns) they lend a sense of urgency to the books.

The story brings home to us the fact that there are both good and bad people on both sides of any divide, and the common man usually wishes for peace, not war, so that normal life can go on.

Hooray for Amanda and Her Alligator

Hooray for Amanda and Her Alligator
by Mo Willems

Ages 4-8

Pubisher: Balzer + Bray (April 26, 2011)

Much like Elephant and Piggie books the kids liked, it seems like Amanda and Her Alligator collection has tickled them enough to urge me to share it here.

Little girl Amanda has a toy alligator, as the title suggests. And the conversations and interactions between them make up the 6½ stories. It is an early reader chapter book presented like a picture book, making the reading transition easier and fun.

But, as with Willem's other books, it is the pared down simplicity of words and images as well as the active imagination that made this one of my recent favorite reads for the children.

The continual message of reading is subtly yet notably brought out by the first statement in each story.

Amanda was at her library getting her books for the week.

Amanda was reading her new library book How to Raise a Tiger when her alligator snuck into the room

Amanda was reading her new library book You Can Make It Yourself: Jet Packs! when she noticed her alligator chewing on her head.

Boos, surprises, and tickles, how can kids not respond to these universal themes. Admittedly, the 3½ year old liked it better than the 6 year old in the house, enjoying the images as well as the simple storyline.

The heart-warming part for all of us was when Amanda says the sweetest thing when alligator finds out that he was in the Sale bucket at the store because nobody wanted to buy him:  

No one wanted to buy you because they knew you were meant to be my best friend.

[image source: Mo Willems Stuff]

Molly Moon's Incredible Book of Hypnotism

This is a fun book that was recently recommended to us by Choxbox's FB, and we were thrilled to realise that we had picked it up at the recent Strand sale.

Pic courtesy flipkart

MOLLY MOON'S Incredible Book of Hypnotism
Written by Georgia Byng
Published by Macmillan Children's Books
Ages 8-12 yrs

Hardwick House, the decrepit orphanage where Molly, our 10 yr old heroine lives, is a Dickensonian place, owned and run by the mean and spiteful Miss Adderstone and Edna, the equally mean and spiteful cook whose cooking is horrible. There are other bullies, too, the older children who make life extremely difficult for the younger ones.

Molly, too, is no angel, and often gets into trouble because of her lazy and stubborn ways, although she is good to those younger than her. Her only friend is Rocky, a boy at the orphanage, who has a calming personality, the one person who can motivate Molly and keep her from getting into trouble.

Then everything goes further wrong one day when Rocky is taken away by an American couple who want to adopt him, and he goes away without saying goodbye. Molly's one support in her short life is gone.

Just when things begin to look very bad indeed, Molly finds a book on hypnotism in the library. She 'borrows' it, and learns the art by following the very clear instructions in the book. What follows is an out-and-out fantasy that any 10 yr-old might have and thoroughly enjoy.

We have Molly winning a talent show, and using her winnings to travel all the way to New York, with Petula, the pug belonging to Miss Adderstone who is now hypnotised into loving Molly. In New York, along the way to finding Rocky, she becomes a huge star, which draws her into the clutches of Simon Nockman, a crook out to use her talents for big-time robbery.

How does it all end? Since the fantastical seems to escalate? Well, you have to read the book to find out. The narrative is just as hypnotic, and both A and I read it at one go, unable to put the book down. Things do resolve, and a lot of good lessons are learnt. All around. Molly and the reader included. While having a good laugh as we read.

The book reminded me of Mathilda by Roald Dahl, another book about an extraordinary little girl belittled by her own parents and bullied by the monstrous school headmistress, Miss Agatha Trunchbull, and who uses her magical powers to teach her a lesson.

A loved this one, and we will be looking out for the sequels, Molly Moon stops the world, Molly Moon's hypnotic time-travel adventure, Molly Moon Micky Minus and the time machine and Molly Moon and the morphing mystery. They all sound delicious.

Crossposted.

Hana's suitcase

Pic courtesy infibeam

HANA'S SUITCASE
Written by Karen Levine
Published by Jyotsna Prakashan, by permission of Second Story Press
Ages 10 +

An estimated 11 million people were killed in the Holocaust, of which about 6 million were Jews. Bare statistics. Since then, many stories of those killed and of the survivors have come to light, bringing home the horror of it all, how many ordinary and extraordinary lives have been lost.

Hana Brady would have been just such one faceless statistic.

Our book begins in Tokyo, Japan, in the winter of 2000, when an ordinary looking tattered suitcase from Auschwitz arrives there. On it are these words painted in white- HANA BRADY, 16 May 1931, WAISENKIND (orphan in German). It was sent here from Auschwitz on request by the Tokyo Holocaust Education Resource Centre.

Pic courtesy:
Tokyo Holocaust Education
Resource Centre

Who was Hana Brady? What was her story? Fumiko Ishioka, the director of the museum, sets out to find out. This is the story of her journey to find out all about the girl, which takes her all the way from Auschwitz to Nove Mesto, in the former Czechoslovakia, where Hana's story begins.

A happy family of four- the parents and brother-sister, George and Hana. Their life changes in 1939 when the Nazis take over Czechoslovakia. Increasing sanctions make ordinary life difficult and then impossible by degrees, then first her mother and then father is deported.

Then one day, the two children are also deported to Theresienstadt, now Terezin, and they are permitted to take just one suitcase each with their personal belongings. There, they are separated, and later, Hana is transported to Auschwitz on 23rd October, 1944, where she is sent along with the rest of the girls straight from the train to the gas chamber. They had been commanded to leave their suitcases on the railway platform.

Pic courtesy hanassuitcase.ca
Fumiko and George with the suitcase

Fumiko Ishioka doggedly and painstakingly followed the leads from the entry of George and Hana Brady's name in the Nazi's registers to trace her journey, and found out about her death, but also the fact that George was known to have survived. By tracing other survivors who were with him in the concentation camp, she finally traced a 75 year old George Brady now residing in Canada, and got in touch with him.

Between them, they brought Hana's story to us, all his memories and the family photographs that he had saved, and which he now so generously shared. There were also many things that the siblings had put in a box and buried in their backyard all those years ago, in a game of 'burying treasure', that were found by another family now living there. Ensuring that she does not remain a faceless statistic. A lovely, lively human being, who was lost to the senseless genocide.

Pic courtesy radio.cz
Hana and George with their
mother Marketa 

The book by Karen Levine is simply written, shuttling between Hana's story in the 1930s, and the story of Fumiko's effort to bring it to us. There are plenty of real photographs of the Brady family, beginning with the toddler Hana to the 12 yr old Hana on the cover page, copies of the drawings Hana made in the Theresienstadt deportation centre, as also photostat copies of the Nazi records which Fumiko followed on her search.

The telling is gentle, though, so that even a child as young as 10 can read it. As A told me when we discussed the book after reading it, "I felt very sad, but it was not frightening."

Crossposted.

Georgia O'Keefe: Picture Book Biographies

The name Georgia O'Keefe is probably not unfamiliar to many today. Her large arresting flowers in bold colors and immaculate detail is what my mind has come to associate with the name, along with a few now-famous bones.

Presenting a biography, knowing which aspects of the illustrious life to showcase, and to do it in a short picture book format sounds like a Herculean task. But the three biographies here (regardless of how accurate they are historically) gave us a good picture of the artist, the person.

My Name Is Georgia: A Portrait by Jeanette Winter
by Jeanette Winter

We started with My Name is Georgia. The title was arresting enough and caught Ana's attention.

The book has bold illustrations and simple text. It presents Georgia's life in a condensed and compact way, highlighting her birth, childhood and later years.

But, unlike typical biographies, by selectively quoting Georgia's words directly, the book turns into a first person narration letting us see how the artist saw things. There is an indication of time passing and Georgia growing.

She painted small things large so people would notice them. This stuck in our head. The book might not be quite engaging in and of its own for the typical picture book audience but it certainly started us off on a good path.

Georgia's Bones
by Jen Bryant
illustrated by Bethanne Anderson

Then, a few days later, we read Georgia's Bones. As my daughter read it, she pointed out, "These are the same bones from that other book! Is she the same Georgia? She looks different in this book..."

Sure enough, she did have a different look and this opened up a new door for us to talk about.

The illustrations are beautiful nonetheless. The double-page with the huge Ram's Head caught our attention.

Text is simple enough for elementary level reading, combining quotations and third person narration, but is also laced with poetry. Talking about Georgia's fascination for bones that she collects from the desert

She didn't know why they pleased her so.
Perhaps it was the quiet way they did their work - the years of being invisible, and then, when everything fell away, they appeared, pure and beautiful.

The book again reinforced a handful of facts about the artist's life. It also brings out the artist's attraction to natural and everyday objects in which she found shapes, and she viewed them in unusual ways.

In the woods around her father's Wisconsin farm, she collected shapes: flowers, leaves, sticks and stones. She put them in her pocket and took them home.
"Such common objects," said her brother.
"Why do you bother?" asked her sister.
"Because they please me," Georgia replied.

However, it also showed how Georgia looked at things differently.

The holes in the bones pleased Georgia, too.
They made frames and windows through which she glimpsed a piece of the sky,
or a tiny corner of a mountain.

The book ends with Georgia painting the bones in her New York City studio.

Through Georgia's Eyes
by Rachel Victoria Rodriguez

A week later we read Through Georgia's Eyes, which is another picture book biography of the artist.

Again, my daughter wondered why Georgia looked different in the pictures in this book, compared to the other two. She noticed that the book talks about the same yearning Georgia has for the wide open spaces, the same night sky she sees over open desert, the same determination at 12 when she declares 'I want to be an artist', and the attraction for common objects around her.

Season melts into season on her family farm. Georgia struggles to show on paper what she sees. At twelve she takes painting lessons. She tells her friend, "I am going to be an artist."

This book is in third person narration. The illustrations are beautiful. Ana particularly liked the double-page spread that shows people flitting like butterflies over gigantic flowers that Georgia paints.

Flowers delight her. She paints them as giants. People stop to stare. Georgia's flowers make them feel like tiny butterflies, flitting through the universe of her garden.

The book closes with an invitation to the readers.

Open your eyes...
...and walk along.
See the colors? Hear the shapes singing?
No need to hurry.
Lean in... look closer.

Georgia O'Keefe Museum

Highlights From The Collection
edited by Lynes, Barbara Buhler O'Keefe (Author)

To seal it, we looked at the reprints in Georgia O'Keefe Museum, Highlights From The Collection at the Santa Fe Museum.

The book has big pictures, caption and related information, which made it real, at least a bit more real than the illustrations in the biographies we had read.

To hold something beautiful, to be able to drink in the detail at one's own pace, to just open the book and land on a painting that Georgia herself painted made it quite valuable for us.


[image sources: goodreads.com, author Jen Bryant's website, author Rachel Rodriguez website, amazon.com, wikipedia]

The Merry Mischief of Gopal Bhand

The Merry Mischief of Gopal Bhand

By Devika Rangachari

Published by Scholastic India

Ages - 9 to 12

Growing up in India, most of us would have come across stories of the famous Indian jesters Birbal and Tenali Raman. Their wit, humour and the smart tactics employed by them to amuse their kings, are legendary. But have you heard of Gopal Bhand and Sheikh Chilli, whose stories are no less entertaining ?

The Merry mischief of Gopal Bhand by Devika Rangachari has been sitting in our book shelf for quite sometime. I had kept it aside to be taken out for Sooraj at the appropriate time, when I felt he would grasp the language, since it is meant for middle level readers. What a fantastic discovery it turned out be when we picked up this book now, for it got us started on a new trail !

Gopal Bhand is a jolly, round fellow employed as the court jester of Maharaja Krishna Chandra. The author takes us through the entertaining episodes of Gopal's life in relation to the king, his friends and family. His intelligence and humour make for some very interesting stories. This book was a "Read aloud" for kids' bedtime and they found the tales so absorbing, that it was fetched every night without fail for one more fascinating story ! Apparently, Gopal Bhand is a very famous figure in Beng ali folk literature. This book also gives us a little peek into the Bengali culture.

I enjoyed the stories as much as the kids and was pleased to discover more books in this series called "Wise Men of the East" by Scholastic India.

So the next book that I hunted down was The comic capers of Sheikh Chilli. As per the prologue of the book, Sheikh Chilli was a simpleton born in Pakistan but who moved to Haryana later on in his life.

If Gopal brings a lot of smiles,

Making us marvel at his wiles,

Then Sheikh Chilli has us in splits,

With his innocence and dim wits !

The Sheikh chilli stories retold by Anupa Lal, are so hilarious that my normally reticent son, was laughing uncontrollably as I was reading them aloud ! The character's innocence, foolishness, good endings despite all his goof ups - were all very endearing.

The other books in this series include stories on Tenali Raman, Birbal, Mulla Nasruddin, Vikram & Vetal and a new name that I encountered - Kunhaayan(from the Malabar area). I am quite curious to pick up the last book as it is a completely unheard of name.

These tales of jesters and tricksters, made me curious about more such trickster characters in literature from around the world. The online search led me to - Anansi the spider (Africa) tales, Coyote stories(Native American) and Brer Rabbit(Southern United States). Most of these seem to be animal based characters. Do you know of any more such trickster characters in books ? If so please do leave a comment here and I would be very happy to learn more about them.

Pic Src : Flipkart

The Crows of Pearblossom

The Crows of Pearblossom
by Aldous Huxley
illustrated by Sophie Blackall

Ages 4-8

Publisher: Abrams Books for Young Readers, 2011


Aldous Huxley whose novel Brave New World probably was a must-read for my generation, is easily a well-known figure in the literary world. The Crows of Pearblossom is a children's story he wrote, in 1944, for his niece, Olivia, as a Christmas present. Olivia's family at that time lived in Pearblossom, a town near where Huxleys lived circa 1937.

The original manuscript unfortunately was destroyed in a fire. By happy chance, the Huxleys neighbors, Mr. and Mrs. Yost (the tall poplar in which Old Man Owl lived belonged to them), had a copy of the story, which remained unpublished for nearly two decades. In 1967, it was released with Barbara Cooney's (whose Mrs. Rumphius is well-loved in our bookshelf) black and white drawings, which edition, as far as I searched, is out of print.

Olivia revived the story in full-color splendor with Sophie Blackall's detailed and brilliant illustrations. Abrams Books for Young Readers republished The Crows of Pearblossom in 2011 in picture book format.

Mr. and Mrs. Crow lived in a cottonwood tree at Pearblossom. A very proper couple, they went about their business with righteous dignity. Every day Mrs. Crow laid an egg. When she returned from her afternoon shopping trip she always found the egg gone. This worried and annoyed her so, naturally.

A rattlesnake lived in a hole in a cottonwood tree at Pearblossom. Every day, he woke up punctually at half past three, slithered up the tree and breakfasted on a fresh egg in a crow's nest. Then, he crawled back to his hole and went back to sleep.

By now if you have quickly surmised that the big old rattlesnake and The Crows shared the same tree, you are correct.

And, as is inevitable, one day Mrs. Crow comes back early and catches the snake swallowing her egg whole, shell and all, and gets rightfully indignant. She worries Mr. Crow into teaching the rattlesnake proper manners or better yet, just kill him.

Mr. Crow being a gentleman states that her idea is not very good, and tells Mrs. Crow that he will consult with Old Man Owl who is a thinker.

Together with Old Man Owl, how Mr. Crow teaches the rattlesnake a lesson makes up the rest of the story, which is best enjoyed directly from the book.

The illustrations are delightful and charming. The inside back-flap notes that the illustrator's father once arrived at a party as Aldous Huxley was leaving. They may or may not have crossed paths in the vestibule.

I first encountered Sophie Blackall in Ivy+Bean books we read last summer. Then, in Wombat Walkabout (Carol Diggory Shields) and then in The Big Red Lollipop (Rukhsana Khan). I found her distinctive style appealing, and for some odd reason reminded me of Alison Jay's, (whose picture books are simply breath-taking with their signature crackle-finish), even though there is nothing much similar.

All's well that ends well in Pearblossom. The text is delightful and rather humorous. Of course, as it was written over half a century ago, it is possible that today's conscientious parents might find some aspects of the story objectionable. I found nothing terribly unappealing about it and loved reading it to Ana, reserving the sermonizing, opting to open some thoughtful discussions later on.

At the post-reading chat, I casually mentioned, "Poor rattlesnake, he was just hungry and that is what snakes do - find food, eat a bunch, sleep, wake up, eat again. If not Mrs. Crow's egg, he might just find a nearby Mrs. Blue Jay's eggs."

To which, Ana countered, "I hope the snake learnt his lesson about not eating all of poor Mrs. Crow's eggs. She will never have babies if all her eggs are eaten. The rattlesnake should leave her a few eggs so she can have her babies."

We did agree that the rattlesnake was untangled and released from its agony afterwards, which is not mentioned in the story book, but happened anyway, and that he went about his life in a fair and courteous manner.

[image source: blommi.com]

Stories from The Teardrop of India

We are always on the look out for stories from across countries. Nothing better to capture the ethos, philosophy and way of life of a region. I was lucky to find a collection of picture books on my visit to Srilanka.

These books are from a publisher by name Sumitha Books. Most of the tales have been written/ retold by JB Disanayaka. Many of these books have been illustrated with a distinct regional flavour by either Nirupama Mahagama Sekara or Jagath Punchihewa.

One series is called Once upon a time and is a collection of old tales that offer a peek into the village life of yore in Sri Lanka. The title we enjoyed most was " Have you ever eaten Hotteripanchan?" A forgetful villager yearns for a sweetmeat whose name he forgets!

There is a another series titled Wisdom of Folk. They are centred around proverbs and have a tale to bring it to life. A word of caution, some of these folk tales depict domestic violence and could be a bit disturbing for a sheltered child.

The illustrations are what got me- rich, colourful and lively when it comes to village themes and cheerful and tropical when the theme is animals. These books are separately available in English and in Sinhalese versions. The language is fluid and the large font makes it easy for the young reader. Ideal for ages 5- 8yrs.

The same publisher offers a bilingual Sinhala Nursery rhymes ( the World of Animals) where the rhymes are in Sinhalese and English with music notes as well. The Sinhalese version is also transcribed in English script- in case a child unfamiliar with the vernacular script wants to say it in the original language. This gave cause for some merry music making at home.

My most interesting find was Tales from an angel, by a six year old Sri Lankan girl, based in London. This one is from Gunashri Publishers. The young writer is Vihangi Rajapakshe and has written and illustrated the book herself! It is a collection of stories and poems and while I think it would be unfair to review a child's work, we enjoyed the poems/ rhymes more than the stories. The drawings are charming enough but it is the vivid colouring that took my breath away.

For those familiar with Indian picture book scene, the books reminded me of Tulika in terms of size, styles of illustration and colour but are more like the DC- Mango books in terms of the glossy paper and finish.

Some Srilankan books are available for sale, online.

The Mystery Of Blue

The Mystery Of Blue
By Muriel Kakani
Art By Boski Jain
Publishers: Tulika Books
Ages: 6 - 9
Picture courtesy: tulikabooks.com

Have you read Sivakamiyin Sabatham by Kalki?, if not and if you can read Tamil, you can read the whole novel here. Sivakamiyin Sabatham is a historical fiction by Kalki, written in 1944, for over a period of 12 years, in four parts and 209 chapters. It truly is a master piece and one of the main reasons I want my kids to learn how to read Tamil, it is for them to read Kalki’s work in its original form. No, this is not a review of Sivakamiyin Sabatham. But there is a point behind this digression.

The one line story is, ‘The Pallava prince avenges the Chalukya king who kidnapped his love, the dancer Sivakami.’ How did the Chalukya king manage to kidnap Sivakami, the Pallava prince’s lover, in the middle of a siege with the whole Pallava army watching? The answer to this is, Sivakami’s father - a gifted sculptor sneaks out of the Kanchi fort, with his daughter and willingly takes refuge with the Chalukya king because he is tricked in to believing that the Chalukya kings knows the secret of the permanent natural dyes used to create the Ajantha paintings! So great is the imaginary character’s desire to find out how the natural dyes were created in the 2nd century BC, that he walked out on his benefactor, in to enemy camp and thus offsetting a series of events in Kalki’s imagination!

The novel leaves the reader wondering, how did so many colors exist in India? How were they created? How were the primary colors extracted? Were the vegetable dyes treated specially for them to last through the centuries? If the dye pigments were extracted from the flora unique to a specific region, how were the same primary colors extracted through out the country? Was the knowledge about the dyes the extraction process freely shared or was it kept under lock and key?

These are the questions explored in Muriel Kakani’s, The Mystery Of Blue. The story is narrated by little Kunku from the village of Ilkal. Kunku’s father and mother are dyers and weavers like the thousand other people in their village. As Kunku describes how her mother makes different colors from one pigment, one cannot help but wonder the scientific process behind dye making! Also one is filled with awe how the people in old times lived with a deep understanding of nature and the numerous experiments they had to go through to isolate the pigments. Kunku’s world is filled with orange, red, maroon, purple and pink. One day, Kunku, inspired by the blue shade on her pet pigeon Chandrakali’s neck embarks on the journey of making blue. See how nicely the author touches on the possibility that the artisans were influenced by the colors they see in nature?! How Kunku and Chandrakali manage to make blue is the rest of the story.

The illustrations are rich and captures the essence of the story. As the story proceeds the warm earthen tones give way to the cool blue, stately indigo, royal purple and soothes the eye. The block print patterns are gorgeous.

We have owned this book for two weeks, but I have read it as a bed time story multiple times. The children are enjoying the beautiful illustrations and are learning how the ancient Indians worked scientifically and in unison with nature. I am not complaining.