I have the opportunity to talk about several translations of works (including one into Spanish), and artists from different times and places; several of these titles invite reflection. I have to say this was very ambitious of me, but I am glad I got the chance to read every one of these!
First up a holiday book:
I think this joyful celebration of the first snow can appeal to anyone and be a great addition to a school library where different beliefs collide. Perhaps Christmas, Hanukkah, and Diwali are different holidays that happen around the same time, but the first day of snow is something everyone can relate to and celebrate.
This book captures the magic of the first snow and the joy an entire community can feel around it.
Set in the middle of winter winter’s chill, with no snow in sight, Ori and her friends go outdoors and Ori wishes for snow. Soon, a special snowflake beckons Ori and her friends to follow it, bringing joy to the entire town.
The Magical Snowflake is on sale since October 17, 2023.
Publisher: Boxer Books
Pages: 32 / Hardcover
EAN/UPC: 9781914912221
I love the fact that the girls in this book are named after crayon colors. Violet is the older one and enjoys drawing more, and Marigold, the young one, just loves the chance to scribble and doodle because she is not old enough to draw yet. They are both very artistic in their way.
When Violet’s mum agrees to buy her a huge box of 84 crayons, Violet just loves the possibilities and keeps admiring them: all of these perfectly pointed, smoothly wrapped tools for art.
When she postpones using them or sharing them, her sister doesn’t understand what is going on. They will squabble about it and perhaps the little one will help Violet let go of perfectionism, but this is the first book that addresses this.
I love that all the wonderful things she can draw with them walk about in the book beside her, as if waiting to be born. You can feel both the pressure and the sense of possibility on each page.
The Brand-New, Never-Used, Perfect Crayons is on sale since August 22, 2023
Publisher: Margaret Ferguson Books
Pages: 40 / Hardcover
EAN/UPC: 9780823452309
The next few are about Latin America:
Mobile libraries have been very famous ever since Waiting for the Biblioburro came out. They are always a good thing to have around, and I like the angle on this small tale about a real project taking place in Tegucigalpa, Honduras:
Luis loves Mondays, the day when the bookmobile comes to his neighborhood.
Often, he feels that sad stories are the norm for his community, hunger, bad news, lack of job opportunities, perhaps even violence. He gets a chance to get away from that reality at the bookmobile, where he can hear colorful stories that burst with life and laughter.
There are activities to be made, puppet shows to watch, and time to spend with a book. And then, Luis gets to share: he can share the stories he has read, and make life a bit more colorful for his family, neighbors, and friends.
Never underestimate the power of a mobile library.
Colorful Mondays is on sale since September 19, 2023
Published by Eerdmans Books for Young Readers
Hardcover | Pages: 36
ISBN: 9780802856166
Irene Vasco is an amazing Colombian author who cares very much about kids in far-away, hard-to-get-to places in her beautiful country. She hosts a library on the beach, called Joy (La Alegría), and all of her books are about the joy of learning different things and the struggles of the war.
Colombia has had a civil war going on for several decades and some of the young people involved tend to reject books and reading, and she has fought her entire life to change that.
In this beautifully illustrated book, a young teacher sets out for the Amazon rain forest, to teach young children at an indigenous village called Las Delicias. It takes forever to get there, but she is proud to have managed to bring her books with her, to share with the children.
The kids love the books and quickly the young teacher settles in her ways, trying for kids to learn the things she brings. However, when they in turn try to warn her about the great serpent, she dismisses them as indigenous superstitions.
This will change when the river rises, and she will learn that perhaps books are not the only way to discover the wisdom of past generations…
The Young Teacher and the Great Serpent is on sale since October 10, 2023
Published Eerdmans Books for Young Readers
Hardcover | Pages: 40
ISBN: 9780802856173
It is sometimes hard to imagine what the world is like for those who did not learn to read. Words are everywhere: on the walls, on our cellphones, on food wrappers, and yet, there are still a lot of illiterate people in the world.
Take Palenque, Colombia, for instance, where hardly anybody knows how to read. A young girl is feeling curious about the letters her older sister, Gina, is receiving from a doctor she met a couple of months before. They imagine there are love promises in those letters, but they can only gaze at them, unable to understand the written words.
Soon, the girl decides to take the matter into her own hands and asks Señor Velandia, the owner of the village shop, to help her learn how to read. He agrees, and in exchange, she has to work at the shop. Soon, she will start deciphering the initials from the names of the people in the village and will practice with charcoal on the ground. She will slowly unlock the letters of the alphabet and discover the magic of reading. And by doing so, she will help other girls from her village to read too, an experience Irene Vasco has seen once and again in her multiple journeys throughout the jungle.
Letters in Charcoal is on sale since September 05, 2023.
Publisher: Lantana Publishing
Pages: 32 / Hardcover
EAN/UPC: 9781915244512
Not only is reading difficult, but sometimes kids have to walk for miles to get to school:
Very early, before sunrise, a young boy sets off towards his school, nine kilometers away (five-and-a-half miles). Several birds will accompany him, thus providing us with a bird’s eye view of his path, through the mountains of Chile.
The boy encounters butterflies and lizards and thinks about where the 15,000 steps he takes every morning could lead. His imagination expands, and the journey is contemplative, one you feel that he enjoys every day.
Southern Chile is gorgeous, filled with grass fields and forests and the experience of the boy is similar to the author’s childhood, he walks a lot to get to school. And he was not alone, the book shows many children around the world who travel long distances to go to school, too.
The unique birds of Chile play a hide-and-seek game from the information on the back to the illustrations within. This is a lovely book to spark conversations about habits and, perhaps, privileges. Maybe kids who are towed away on school buses might envy this quiet journey, where each day promises a different experience.
9 Kilometers is on sale since February 28, 2023.
Publisher: Eerdmans Books for Young Readers
Hardcover Pages: 56 pages
EAN/UPC: 9780802856005
Now for two interesting books about artists:
This son of Italian immigrants, born in 1914 in New York, was a self-taught artist who never grabbed a paintbrush until he was forty years old.
Ralph Fasanella was a visionary folk artist and labor organizer and this picture book is illustrated in the way he painted, wide, detailed pieces depicting everyday life.
Ralph worked at dress factories, ice deliveries, and union meetings, and loved to hear the stories his mother had to tell about the Bread & Roses Strike around the dinner table. When he started to paint, Ralph started making portraits of ordinary people doing ordinary things, on a huge scale, filled with color and energy.
I’m Gonna Paint is on sale since November 07, 2023.
Publisher: Holiday House
Hardcover Pages: 48 pages
EAN/UPC: 9780823450060
This was a challenging subject for the illustrator, one I feel was difficult to solve and get across. Is not like Wei Wei makes giant pumpkins filled with dots or spooky spiders everyone can recognize, his work is far subtler than that.
Joanna Ho is amazing at describing the life experiences of this incredible artist, who experienced censorship from an early age, and whose radical interventions are world-famous.
The book concentrates on how the Life Jackets exhibit at Konzerthaus Berlin came to be. The book addresses how difficult is for refugees to arrive at a safe place after escaping a wave of violence, and how Ai Weiwei was inspired by the discarded life jackets on the shores of Lesbos to create an installation that would grab the world’s attention. I like his Monet adaptation made out of LEGOs and the thousands of buttons he used in another art show.
The scale was very difficult to display, and I think you might need a bit more imagery to introduce this artist to kids.
On the Tip of a Wave: How AI Weiwei’s Art Is Changing the Tide is on sale since October 31, 2023.
Publisher: Orchard Books
Hardcover Pages: 48 pages
EAN/UPC: 9781338715941
Finally, a translation into Spanish of a book that made a lot of buzz a couple of years ago:
This book proposes a dignified take on the question: where do my ancestors come from? For people who were enslaved, life did not begin in the water, or the slave ships: that was a partition moment. They must never forget that before the ships they had a history and in that history they were free.
When a young student receives a family tree assignment in school, she can only trace back three generations. When she asks Grandma about this, she gathers the whole family, and the girl learns that 400 years ago, in 1619, their ancestors were stolen and brought to America by white slave traders.
Here, they learned to survive, and adapt and fought for their freedom. They were born anew, born in the water, new people, daughters, and sons of those who refused to die. This is very much not an immigrant story.
And the people planted dreams and hope,
willed themselves to keep
living, living.
And the people learned new words
for love
for friend
for family
for joy
for grow
for home.
“Y la gente sembró sueños y esperanza, y, por su propia voluntad, siguió viviendo, viviendo”.
El Proyecto 1619: Nacieron Sobre El Agua is on sale since October 17, 2023.
Publisher: Kolila
Hardcover Pages: 272 pages
EAN/UPC: 9780593625040
Click through to read all of “Stack Overflow: November Titles Encouraging Diversity” at GeekDad.If you value content from GeekDad, please support us via Patreon or use this link to shop at Amazon. Thanks!
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