I want to conclude The Elephant Rag posts with a vision. It's Kirsten Cappy's compilation of books and ideas about engagements with the books to build understanding among the world's people.
I'm Your Neighbor Books offers a selection of children's and young adult books indexed by geographic region, setting, and themes.
The Elephant Rag blog remains available to readers. You'll find many reading lists of multicultural books. I documented many of my projects. They include:
The New Hampshire Humanities Council bilingual book project to create a Nepali-English folktale and Tell Me a Cuento, a reading project with moms in Lawrence, Mass sponsored by the Lawrence Public Library.
South Sudan is about to be born as a new nation. Many Sudanese-Americans have returned to Sudan for the celebration on July 9. Here are some books for young adults about Sudan's long journey through decades of war to the creation of an independent nation.
Linda Sue Park’s A Long Walk to Water is a fictionalized biography of Salva Dut, a Dinka boy separated from his family during the war. He is among the “lost boys” who trek across three countries seeking safety, finally coming to the U.S. Park also tells the story of Salva’s return to Sudan after the war in 2008 to begin to dig wells for people who spend hours a day carrying water.
My forthcoming book, The Good Braider, Marshall Cavendish,
spring 2012, is a novel in verse based on oral histories I gathered from
Sudanese families in Portland, Maine. It's a teenaged girl's
experience of war and dreams and survival and the African art of
braiding hair.
Mary Williams with illustrator R. Gregory Christie tells the journey of the “lost boys” in pictures and words in Brothers in Hope.
Home of the Brave by Katherine Applegate is a novel in free verse. The main character, Kek, is a young boy, a keeper of cows when he lived with his family in rural Sudan. When he begins to care for a cow in Minnesota, it is a step to making American his home.
What is the What by Dave Eggers and They Poured Fire on Us From the Sky by Benson Deng, Alephonsion Deng, and Benjamin Ajak are adult books young adult will be reading. Both tell the story of “lost boys” from the Dinka tribe, the largest and dominant tribe of South Sudan. Another adult history is God Grew Tired of Us by John Bul Dau. Later Dau wrote a YA nonfiction book, Lost Boy, Lost Girl: Escaping Civil War in Sudan. He us also featured in the documentary film, "God Grew Tired of Us."
There are memoirs of the horrific experiences and victories of boy soldiers, adult books often read by teens. One is War Child: A Child Soldier’s Story by Emmanuel Jal, a “lost boy” from Sudan, now also a rap musician. War Child is often compared with A Long Way Gone by Ismael Beah, a story of the war in Sierra Leone in the 1990s.
I know of two books that focus on contemporary slavery in Sudan. One is a middle grade novel based on a true story, Dream Freedom by Sonia Levitin about slaves in Sudan and American students who raise money to buy their freedom. Another is a memoir by Francis Bok, Escape From Slavery.
Another category of related books are nonfiction refugee narratives, many in the voices of young people. One book is Making it Home: Real-life Stories from Children Forced to Flee with an introduction by Beverley Naidoo. It includes a short piece in a South Sudanese girl’s voice. Another is one of Brent Ashabranner’s beautiful photo journalistic books, The New African Americans.
Two books stand out as ones that tell girls’ stories of Africa, though neither is set in Sudan. One is a YA/adult biography about a girl who survived the genocide in Rwanda called Over A Thousand Hills I Walk With You written by her adopted mother, Hanna Jansen.
The other is totally different, the graphic novel Aya by Marguerite Abouet and Clement Oubrerie about 19-year old Aya in Ivory Coast in the 1970s and not about war at all. It's set in a time of freedom and hope. It even includes a recipe for a love potion beginning with "Peel 4 pounds of fresh ginger." You have to read the book.
Tell Me a Cuento, a book of poems,is also a list of multicultural picture books. What makes this list different is that students learning English wrote the poems in response to each of the illustrated books included. The little book is the last step in our Tell Me a Cuento book club in Lawrence, MA. Readers responded to the books they read with collaborative poems of there own.
You are most welcome to create a book with other English language learners of all ages, using "Tell Me A Cuento" as a guide. Adults love picture books, too! Many respond with passion to the folktales and illustrated stories of their own cultures.
Franchelly Greer painted the cover portrait based on a family photograph. His photo depicts a line in the poem "The Gift He Gave Me" by students
in the Day Care Providers program at Northern Essex Community College. One student wrote about her grandmother who sewed matching clothes for her and her doll. She was responding to Tomas and the Library Lady by Pat Mora.
"I Laugh" was written by teens at Lawrence High writing about their babies who stay in the school's day care while they are in class. They had read "The Things I Love," a poem in Lissette Norman's book, My Feet are Laughing. Here's a link to an earlier post about Felicia and Kyle at Greater Lawrence Technical School who designed the book.
Outstanding International Books List - created by USBBY – are books for kids and teens from authors and illustrators around the world. Elizabeth Poe, in School Library Journal, reviews some of the titles on the 2010 list in her article, "Crisscrossing the Globe." The USBBY page also has a link to an honor for one of my favorite authors of all times, David Almond. He won the Hans Christian Andersen Award, the “Little Nobel Prize.” Wonderful.
I’ve been searching these pages in my ongoing quest for Nepali and Nepali/ English folktales. Do you know one?
My first book was a story I wrote for my mother and gave to her as a Christmas present. I continued to write her stories, great leaps of fantasy from a nugget of real life. I loved J.R.R. Tolkein's Father Christmas Letters about the antics of elves at the North Pole. One year I wrote my mother a story about the elves of Cushing Academy in Massachusetts where she went to school. Here it is December again, and I want to make a handmade book to give as a gift.
This desire comes at the same time as a December trip my daughter and I are taking to Oaxaca in southwestern Mexico. This led me to Susan Gaylord's Multicultural Books to Make and Share where I found a small accordian book called a curandero book. It was made by healers of the Otomi Indians of Mexico. I loved the idea that I could fold an acccordian book in this ancient tradition of healers to hold my story. So that is my goal this December, to give a story in a curandero book.
I've also started to find children's books about the Zapotec Indians of Oaxaca and other areas of Mexico. Pictured is La Boda: A Mexican Wedding Celebration by Nancy Van Laan, illus. by Andrea Arroyo about a Zapotec Indian wedding in Oaxaca. Here are two excellent reading lists that include books set in Mexico: University of North Carolina and Duke University run a Consortium in Latin American and Caribbean Studies and offer a Children's Book List. Colorin colorado, a Spanish/English bilingual site for families and educators, offers a list of recommended children's books. Please pass on your recommendations from your corner of the world.
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Rubia is a nonprofit organization that supports women in Afghanistan to create and sell their traditional handwork and to develop literacy skills. The Director is artist and photographer Rachel Lehr. Rachel created a reading list of books to support a program she presents for students and teachers through the Arts Alliance of Northern New Hampshire, The Heart of the Silk Road.
Silk Road explores the "ancient caravan routes along which luxury goods as well as technology, religion and ideas were traded between East and West." See Rachel's bibliography of resources about Afghanistan and other countries along the Silk Road including Mongolia, Persia, and China. Rachel is in Afghanistan today as I write this. Above is the cover of Rubia's 2009 Calendar.
Here is a beginning of a list of books about children and teens from many cultures. Some of these are brand new. Some are classics. Some are my long time favorites and some are new favorites contributed by my fellow writers and illustrators on the New England Society of Children Book Writers and Illustrators list serve.See links to the right for other lists of good books on multicultural themes.
Write me with your favorites and we'll make this list grow.
Picture Books and Folktales
ALVAREZ, Julia. illus by Fabian Negrin, The Secret Footprints. Dell Dragonfly, c2000.
A folktale about Dominican ciguapas, mythical creatures who live on the land and in the sea.
BARTONE, Elisa, illus by Ted Lewin, Peppe the Lamplighter. Lothrop, Lee, & Shepard, 1993. Set in New York City’s Little Italy at the turn of the century.
BROWN, Monica, illus by John Parra, My Name is Gabriella* Me llamo Gabriela, the Life of Gabriella Mistral, Luna Rising, 2006.
A picture book biography of the Chileanwriter and Nobel Prize winner.
BULION, Leslie. Fatuma’sNew Cloth, MoonMountain, 2002.A little girl in East Africa shops with her mother for a cloth to make a kanga.Includes a recipe for East African tea.
BUNTING, Eve. How Many Days to America? A Thanksgiving Story, illus by Beth Peck.
CHAMBERS, Veronica. Celia Cruz, Queen of Salsa, illus by Julie Maren, Dial, 2005.
Biography of Celia and her childhood world that influenced the making of salsa, illustrated in brilliant colors.
CONNOR, Leslie. Miss Bridie Chose a Shovel, illus by Mary Azarian, HM, 2004.
Miss Bridie comes to America in 1856 and shows the fortitude and ingenuity ofimmigrants.
CUNNANE, Kelly. For You Are a Kenyan Child, illus by Ana Juan, Atheneum, 2006.
A little boy in search of cows calls out to people in his Kenyan village to the refrain of “Hodi? Anybody home?”andthey answer “Karibu! Welcome!”
HEST, Amy.When Jessie Came Across the Sea, illus by P.J. Lynch, Candlewick, 1997.
Jessie immigrates from Eastern Europe to New York City at the turn of the century.
LORD, Michelle.A Song for Cambodia.Lee and Low, 2008
Biography of Arn Chorn-Pond who played the khim. (Film Connection:The Flute Player.)
KURTZ, Jane, illus by Lee Christiansen. Fire on the Mountain.Simon & Schuster, 1994.
A retelling of an Ethiopian folktale.
MICHELSON, Richard.Grandpa’s Gamble, illus by Barry Moser, Marshall Cavendish, 1999.
Story of a Polish grandpa and grandchild that captures “the tough, brazen immigrant culture...” Booklist.
NORMAN Lissette.My Feet Are Laughing, F, S, & G, 2006.
Narrative poems about a girl in NYC whose parents are from the Dominican Republic.
Film connection:Mad Hot Ballroom, a gorgeous story about competitive ballroom dancers in NYC elementary schools. Many of the kids are Hispanic.
NIVOLA, Claire. Planting the Trees of Kenya,Frances Foster Books, 2008.A biography of Wangari Maathai, 2004 Nobel Peace Prize winner.
Set in India in the 1940s, this is the story of a young woman's struggle for freedom which plays out against the backdrop of World War II and India's coming independence.
SCHMIDT, Gary. Trouble. Clarion, 2008
YA novel, a Cambodian American and a native boy are in deep trouble in this adventure story of climbing Mt.Katahdin.
Tan, Shaun.The Arrival, Arthur Levine, 2006.A wordless, graphic story told in surreal drawings to capture the unknown and often frightening things of a new place to immigrants.
TESTA, Maria.Something About America, Candlewick, 2005.
A short verse novel about a girl from Serbia who comes to Maine. It climaxes when 6,000 people rally in support ofimmigrants in Lewiston.
