The perfect picture book is one in which pictures and text blend together into a seamless unified whole world held in two hands. When this magic happens, then that book appeals to all age categories. This is what Katia Novet Saint-Lot and Dimitrea Tokunbo have accomplished in their new book, Amadi’s Snowman.

From the first sentence of this book, when Amadi is introduced while “crouched in the shrubs, stalking a red-headed lizard,” until the last words “And he ran down the dirt path, his heart filled with joy,” he leaps out as a completely delightful small boy, who considers himself “an Igbo man of Nigeria.” Although his mother urges him to let a neighbor teach him to read, Amadi sees no room for that nonsense in his future. He plans to be a businessman and knows exactly how to begin this enterprise–reading is unnecessary.

Wandering through the market while mulling over his business plan, Amadi finds an older boy immersed in a book. Caught by a picture of a world covered in white and a boy standing beside a large white figure with a carrot for a nose, Amadi discovers that his own world is far smaller than he ever imagined. With awakened curiosity, he begins to hunger for facts that can only be provided by breaking the secret code of print on a page.

And yet this book is so much more than this simple plot summary. With precise and evocative descriptions of Amadi’s world, Katia Novet Saint-Lot plunges readers into the color and beauty of Nigerian village life, while making Amadi such a vivid character that as he runs down the dirt path and away from his readers on the final page, he leaves us hoping for a sequel. Dimitrea Tokunbo’s glowing paintings bring motion and light and detail to the words, truly illuminating the text by showing readers exactly what Amadi sees every day.

This is a celebration of literacy that takes us back to the yearning and hunger that made us readers, while giving us a new world that we will yearn and hunger to learn more about, no matter how young–or old–we may be.

The PaperTigers’ website current (and ongoing!) focus is “literacy,”and to help unpack some of the site’s riches I call attention to a very special book we have reviewed earlier this year, Armando and the Blue Tarp School (Lee & Low, 2007). Written by Edith Hope Fine and Judith Pinkerton and illustrated by Hernan Sosa, this inspiring story, which has won a 2008 Skipping Stones Honor Award, is based on a teacher’s humanitarian work in the Tijuana garbage dump community. It’s the story of a young boy who is finally able to take some time off his work, picking trash with his father, to attend Señor David’s school.

“He thought schools had walls, floors, and roofs. But Señor David said a school could be anywhere — even on a tarp, in a colonia.”

Literacy and education are basic human rights and, as this book shows well, integral to the betterment of one’s life and of humankind.

Yesterday we went to the library and signed up for the Summer Reading Challenge – this year it’s called Team Read - and judging by the piles of books we all came out with, we’re really going to enjoy it. A new book in was Kanako Usui’s The Fantastic Mr Wani. Hooray! It’s been out since 2005 and I certainly knew of it before now but we’d never actually read it – and since it features in our current Big Picture Gallery, it couldn’t have appeared on the library shelves at a better time.

Mr Wani is a crocodile who is in a hurry to get to a party but the journey proves to be rather eventful. The story is helped on its way by expressive punctuation and font sizes and the illustrations are just superb. I love the way Usui draws the various animals’ eyes and there are lots of expressions for listening/ reading children to enjoy imitating – like the squashed mice with their tongues hanging out. There is a glorious moment where you just know the inevitable is about to happen as you turn the book end on to see Mr Wani hurtling down from the sky over a sledge carrying three penguins.

That is the other lovely thing about this story. It completely enters the spirit of young children’s imaginations – the journey is totally matter-of-fact in its acceptance of mice carrying umbrellas, balloons attached to the signpost pointing to Town and then the three penguins sledging down a snowy hillside, followed by Mr Wani’s “Bump! into Mr Elephant’s rump” (a very satisfying rhyme that I can see finding its way into the family lexicon) and bouncing from prickly hedgehog to prickly hedgehog through the Froggies’ door and so into the middle of the party. There’s an extra little surprise at the end as well…

This is a great readaloud, with lots of potential for “audience participation”! Kanako Usui also has a great Japanese/ English bilingual blog – well worth a visit.

The prolific and voluble Australian writer Chris Cheng has published 16 books for children. Five came out in 2007, by 5 different publishers, on topics ranging from Australian historical fiction to unusual pets. Chris writes about the forces of nature and people, in other words, and he’s also a force of nature himself, as his website indicates.

His tips for young writers is chock full of other interesting information, all in a lively kid-friendly voice. And here’s a personal views article Chris wrote for PaperTigers about the Australian environment in children’s books.

The July update of the PaperTigers website focuses on literacy, one of Chris Cheng’s passions. When Australia’s Literacy and Numeracy Week comes up in September, 2008, Chris will be an Ambassador for the fifth year. Seems like the sunburnt country couldn’t have a better bloke on the team!

I grew up in a remote corner of Alaska, without electricity or a telephone, at a time when the Internet would have been considered a maniac’s wild fantasy. Anyone entering our house at night would have found everyone in our family clustered around a couple of gas-fueled lanterns in dead silence, each of us deeply immersed in a book–except for my little brother.

Scarred by an unsuccessful introduction to reading in the first grade, my brother had soon become embarrassed by his lack of skill in a family of bibliovores and was a resolute functional illiterate. The rest of us found this appalling as well as inexplicable and discovering a book that would make my brother a passionate reader became an overriding obsession for us all.

Not too far away there was a tiny library that was our family’s idea of paradise. Even my brother loved it, since it contained picture books and illustrated encyclopedias–and as it turned out, a sizable collection of Tintin books.

We were not a family of comic book readers, but when my brother came home with his first volume of Tintin, poring over the pictures and painfully puzzling out the words, it was a big day for us all. It was the moment that my brother became a reader and Tintin became a household saint.

As a bookseller, I love to find books for the uneasy reader and Tintin is always high on my list of suggestions. A colleague of mine specializes in turning reluctant readers into bookworms and in an upcoming interview she will tell us how she does it. What about you? What titles do you suggest for the uneasy readers of your acquaintance? Let us know!

Earlier this year while searching the web for children’s literature events, I came across Zarah Gagatiga’s blog School Librarian in Action. Zarah lives in the Philippines so I immediately emailed her and asked her if there were any children’s literature events happening there that we could share with our PaperTigers readers. She quickly emailed back with a resounding YES! - the Philippines’ 25th National Children’s Book Day would be celebrated July 15. Zarah then put me in touch with Ani Almario, Secretary-General for the Philippines Board on Books for Young People, who was pleased to send me the details for the upcoming celebration:

The annual ceremonies celebrating National Children’s Book Day, in commemoration of the publication of Jose Rizal’s Monkey and the Turtle, shall once again happen at the Cultural Center of the Philippines on July 15th. The ceremonies include the announcement of new books coming out in 2008, courtesy of the country’s leading children’s book publishers; the awarding of this year’s Salanga (Writer) and Alcala (Illustrator) prizes; and the induction of new PBBY members.

From July 15 -22 an exhibit entitled the 25 Best-Loved Children’s Book Characters Exhibit will be held at the Cultural Center of the Philippines. After surveying hundreds of Filipino children, this is an exhibit of life-size sculptures of the 25 best-loved children’s book characters. The sculptures are done by members Ang Ilustrador ng Kabataan.

During July, 25 schools will be visited by their favorite children’s book authors. The visits are a joint project between PBBY and the members of Kuwentista ng mga Tsikiting (Kuting), a group of Filipino children’s book authors.

Museo Pambata, the Philippines premier children’s museum, will be celebrating the silver anniversary of National Children’s Book Day throughout July with the following activities: Pop Stories Exhibit, an opinion corner for child visitors; a book donation corner; and a special day when people can dress up at their favorite children’s book characters!

Thanks to Zarah and Ani for providing this information so that we could share it with you. When I first contacted Zarah she posted this on her blog:

This goes to show how blogs and the Internet can help people from different places bridge gaps and get information. The world is indeed becoming smaller, but all the more richer it’s been. Barriers are broken down; new meaning and world views are constructed.

How true! If you know of an event happening in your country, we would love to share it with our readers. Please leave a comment or send me an email.

Families taking off to live on other continents have a challenge preparing kids for the changes ahead, often when they’re not that prepared themselves. Books can help, and many children’s books help parents as much as kids. Today we zero in on Japan, beginning with Annie Donwerth Chikamatsu’s blog Here and There Japan. In addition to her charming and insightful posts, check out her wonderful list of children’s books about Japan, with links, in the righthand column.

In Tokyo Friends, by old Japan hand Betty Reynolds, two little girls explore the city together, taking young readers along; it’s a great introduction to Japanese culture and language. Reynolds’ Japanese Celebrations: Cherry Blossoms, Lanterns, and Stars! follows up with a tour through a year of traditional Japanese holidays. I Live in Tokyo by Mari Takabayashi zooms in closer, with a month-by-month survey of special events, including some tradtional foods of the day or season. Takabayashi also introduces some Japanese written characters and explains how pictograms evolved, so her book is a good follow-up to both of Betty Reynolds’ books.

Colors of Japan by Holly Littlefield (Helen Byers, illustrator) introduces iconic images of Japan (like the red of the flag) and provides the Japanese word for each color in phonetic spelling, Romanized letters, and kanji. Japan (A-Z) by Jeff Reynolds orients middle school children to the animals of Japan with great photographs and illustrations. Kids Around the World: We Live in Japan by Alexander Messager and Sophie Duffet introduces young children to Japan through three Japanese kids from different parts of the country. Japan for Kids: The Ultimate Guide for Parents and Their Children by Diane Wiltshire and Jean Huey provides the kind of reassuring basic information that will soften at least a few harrowing moments of culture shock for travelers and new residents alike.

In The Way We Do It in Japan by Geneva Cobb Iijima, a bicultural boy leaves San Francisco for a year in his father’s native Japan. Through Gregory’s eyes, young readers get a survey of some major cultural differences between the two countries–even if few Japanese kids these days actually life as the kids in the book do!

Florence Sakade’s Japanese Children’s Favorite Stories gives middle schoolers some beloved traditional tales from the land of Wa, a very good way to intuit the culture directly rather than conceptually.

Finally, for those in for the long haul, the Asia Society’s Japan book list and background material for teachers will give parents a solid foundation for their upcoming family adventures.