A picture-book ode to the power of creative nonconformity, Who Left the Light On? achieves a rare trifecta: a loosely rhyming book in translation with brilliant illustrations. Mix in important themes—embracing diversity and expressing oneself—add a huge dollop of whimsy, and you have the ingredients to this charming tale. But the sum of the parts … Continue reading #WorldKidLit Wednesday: Who Left the Light On?
Princess Arabella at the Museum is a bold and quirky ode to a selection of brilliant artists. The portrait-style cover features little Princess Arabella wearing her signature crown and a geometrical print dress that pays homage to the works of twentieth-century Dutch painter, Piet Mondrian, just like Yves Saint Laurent did in the 1960s! This … Continue reading #WorldKidLit Wednesday: Princess Arabella at the Museum
Welcoming a new baby into an established household is not always easy, especially when some family members don’t quite understand what is going on. This charming Moroccan import for young children ages 2 and up tells a new baby story from the perspective of three cats: Minouche, Pasha and Amir. Even if, like me, you’re … Continue reading #WorldKidLit Wednesday: Alya and the Three Cats
Being a teenager is hard enough as it is. Layer in the loss of a beloved grandparent, gossiping relatives, a father who is a political prisoner, and the trauma of military occupation, and perhaps the only way to make sense of everything is to resort to the fantastical. Trees for the Absentees is the coming-of-age … Continue reading #WorldKidLit Wednesday: Trees for the Absentees
Writing fiction about music can be tricky. Music is sound in time; it speaks to our brains at a pre-verbal level. As a result, using words to describe music can be hard and the literature is littered with near-misses. So it’s a great pleasure as a musician to read a well-written novel centered around music … Continue reading #WorldKidLit Wednesday: Wonderful Feels Like This
Photo credit: Austin Malema Please extend a warm welcome to Lebohang Masango who joins the #WorldKidLit Wednesday team at the Global Literature in Libraries Initiative blog as a regular reviewer. Lebohang is a writer, poet and anthropologist with an impressive range of publications to her name, including Mpumi’s Magic Beads, a picture book for which … Continue reading #WorldKidLitWednesday: Meet Reviewer Lebohang Masango
Oxymoronic as it may sound, there is an exciting comfort in picking up a book by a beloved author—or, as in Dragonfly Eyes, a beloved, award-winning writer-translator team. What joys, worlds, and experiences lurk within its pages? Will anticipation be tempered by disappointment? In the case of Dragonfly Eyes*, Cao Wenxuan’s new YA historical novel, … Continue reading #WorldKidLit Wednesday: Dragonfly Eyes
Last month I reviewed a book produced by Spanish publisher Cuento de Luz, which exclusively uses stone paper, a paper made without bleach or wood pulp. Today we return to Cuento de Luz's innovative books in The Map of Good Memories. Written by Spanish author Fran Nuño and illustrated by Poland born artist Zuzanna Celej, … Continue reading #WorldKidLit Wednesday: The Map of Good Memories
Picture books can be a wonderful source of stories and information about life in far-off places. The Moose of Ewenki is set in the mountains of Inner Mongolia, one of the few regions* in Northern Asia inhabited by the Indigenous Ewenki people. There, they lead a semi-nomadic way of life, raising reindeer and hunting in … Continue reading #WorldKidLitWednesday: The Moose of Ewenki
When I was a kid, I loved to count all sorts of things, as so many children do. Because numbers are fascinating! Even the names are cool: long before there was Google, there were googols and googolplexes. In Stars and Poppy Seeds, a picture book for ages 3-7, Flora is the child of mathematicians. And … Continue reading #WorldKidLit Wednesday: Stars and Poppy Seeds
Global Literature in Libraries Initiative 