https://twitter.com/TirzahPrice/status/998569959281385473
I mentioned the Ontario Library Association list, and she was glad to hear about it, but also pointed out that these books really aren't that hard to find. The problem tends to be a lack of interest. She was terribly right.
Oddly, that made me feel that I need to keep reviewing these books and making a bigger deal of the groups that award them. Maybe it isn't so much illogical as that I hope in my own way I might help generate some interest. Also, maybe every time I see that our library system has these books, that's a good sign. Maybe if something is missing, I can gift it.
Anyway, this time the books are from The Asian Pacific American Awards for Literature:
http://www.apalaweb.org/awards/literature-awards/
The goal of the Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature is to honor and recognize individual work about Asian/Pacific Americans and their heritage, based on literary and artistic merit.Most groups award one picture book a year, possibly with an honorable mention, so I usually go back a few years, until I get at least five. Without realizing it I got a children's book - not a picture book, but one with chapters - into the mix, and it seems right to keep that up.
Picture Books:
Puddle by Hyewon Yum - This one is pure fun, with a rainy day leading to a kind of bratty mood, but all that mood needs is to embrace the rain. Well, there might be some mischief in that too. At times the artwork practically leaps off the page to pull the reader in.
The Nian Monster by Andrea Wang, illustrated by Alina Chau - This is a good introduction to Chinese New Year traditions. The story is a little cutesy, but there are some lessons in needing to continually adjust, and also in seeking help from the community and working together.
Juna's Jar by Jane Bahk, illustrated by Felicia Hoshino - By total coincidence I read another book about a friend moving away, Jane Clarke's Gilbert the Great, around the same time. This one handled the emotions a lot better, although Gilbert being a shark may have affected that. Both are reassuring that eventually you make new friends, but the issue of finding comfort with the loss, rather than just moving on to the replacement, seemed like that would make Bahk's book more helpful for thoughtful children.
A Different Pond by Bao Phi, illustrated by Thi Bui - There is a lot of melancholy in this book as a refugee family resettles, but sometimes that sadness is real. This book can be helpful for that. I mentioned yesterday the emotional impact of the non-fiction books; of the children's books, this is where I felt that the most.
Drum Dream Girl: How One Girl's Courage Changed Music by Margarita Engle, illustrated by Rafael López - The artwork is pretty imaginative for how it conveys what is real and what is dreamed, and also for how it conveys the musical elements.
Set in Cuba, it might seem to have come from the wrong list, and I think it received some other honors as well. As it is, the book is based on the true story of Millo Castro Zaldarriaga, a Chinese-African-Cuban girl. I have also recently learned that many Jews fleeing Europe went to Cuba, though many had to flee again after Castro. One thing these books can do is remind us how much different people get around, which leads to our final selection.
Children's Book:
Step Up to the Plate, Maria Singh by Uma Krishnaswami - There was a time when many Sihk and Muslim men from India came to the Americas to work, and then were not able to bring families over. Interracial marriage was outlawed in California, but the Indian men were allowed to marry Mexican women, leading to many families sharing two cultures.
That is a factor in the book, as well as how the tensions of WWII can strain the community relationships, but really, the book is about Maria's love for baseball, redirected into softball, but still facing some obstacles with learning how to take coaching, how to interact with her teammates, and how to work with her parents so that they can be happy with her participation.
I was talking to a parent recently who was shocked at some of the heavy topics that end up in books for fairly young readers (about fifth grade in that case). What I immediately felt strongly - and told her - is that when they encounter heavy issues (and they will, long before fifth grade for lots of kids), those books will gave them ways of thinking about things, and being able to communicate about them. I hope it will help them find ways to cope.
Reading children's books again after a long time, I was caught off guard by the immaturity of the characters, but that's real. These are the ages when all the often embarrassing but really needed lessons happen, and when you do start to grow up.
It is vital that many different children can see themselves inside these stories.
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