It’s London, 1963 and Maggie Stephens stutters. Because she stutters so badly, Maggie rarely speaks and finds all kinds of ways not to have to speak or read in school. Interestingly, Maggie does not stutter when she speaks to animals. Her parents, concerned (and perhaps a bit embarrassed) about her behavior, wonder if she needs to be treated at Granville, a school for children who don’t seem to fit in to the typical school. Granville is terrifying to Maggie who has heard rumors about how children are beaten if they cry. Looking for a way out of the Granville plan, Maggie agrees to an alternative plan to spend time with her grandfather in Wildoak Forest. Continue reading
Author: Rebecca Ballenger
WOW Recommends: The Mystery of the Monarchs
The Mystery of the Monarchs: How Kids, Teachers, and Butterfly Fans Helped Fred and Norah Urquhart Track the Great Monarch Migration by Barb Rosenstock and Erika Meza (illustrator) is a fascinating and absorbing account of how the mystery of where millions of monarch butterflies migrate over the winter was solved by Fred Urquhart, a Canadian professor of zoology and hundreds of citizens from three different countries. Fred, who lived in Toronto was a “bug man,” from the time he was eight. One of the bugs that fascinated him was the monarch butterfly. He knew a lot about the monarchs including that “during the fall, the monarchs disappeared.” Fred even wrote to a famous professor. “He asked: ‘Where do the monarchs go? He got a surprise answer: No one knew…. It was a mystery that Fred wanted to solve….” For ten years as he worked as a scientist he tried different methods of tagging the butterflies, but never heard back from anyone who found the tagged insects. Continue reading
WOW Dozen: Environmental Picturebooks
by Susan Corapi, Trinity International University, Deerfield, IL and Annette Y. Goldsmith, Kent State University, Kent, OH
As storms become more frequent and violent, attention to the environment and global warming is increasing. Each title here has a distinct call to action that invites readers of all ages to “rethink, refuse, reduce, repair, reuse, recycle, and revolutionize” (Pêgo, 118-121). Some are biographies of everyday citizens who stood up for protecting our natural resources, others are examples of ingenuity, and several describe the ways animal and marine life can recover when given the space and time to adapt or regain habitats. What follows is a selection from an in-process paper about environmentally-focused books, fiction and nonfiction, discussed through the double lens of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Diverse BookFinder BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) descriptors. We included the original place of publication because we want to explore what other countries are saying about environmental issues. Continue reading
WOW Recommends: A Land of Books: Dreams of Young Mexican Word Painters
In his new book, A Land of Books: Dreams of Young Mexican Word Painters, Duncan Tonatiuh weaves verbal and visual narratives together to create an historic account of how the “Mexhicah who dwell in the valley of the volcanoes, make books….”
Long ago, before woodblock printing, moveable typeset and the printing press, the Mexhicah made books by painting images onto long strips of amatl, or paper, made from the bark of the amacuahuitl tree. The long strips of paper were folded accordion style and then bound by covers made from wood that were decorated with hides, feathers and jewels. The reader of the amoxtli (book) would unfold the pages so that it could be read. When the reader had finished, the amoxtli was folded and stored in the amoxcalli, the house of books. The tlahcuilohqueh, the painters of words, mixed plants and insects with clay, ash and water to create the paints they used to record the stories of the past and the present, and from which future generations would read to learn about the lived experiences of the Mexhicah.
Fortunately for readers of Duncan Tonatiuh’s newest amoxtli, the future is upon us. In Tonatiuh’s picturebook, he tells a story of Mexhicah book making from the perspective of the daughter of a tlahcuilohqueh. The young girl explains to her brother how their parents make the amoxtin. She tells him why the amoxtin are made and about the contents painted on the pages. She tells her brother that the tlahcuilohqueh need to know “a great deal” about many subjects including “religion, astronomy, warfare and history” for this is the content that fills the pages of the amoxtin.
As the story progresses, readers join the sister and brother at the flower festival where performers sing the stories printed on the amoxtin. There are no letters on the pages, only drawings that certain people like noblemen, priests and wise elders know how to read. For this reason, the amoxtin are read or sung aloud at special occasions, like the flower festival, so that all the villagers can hear the stories and see the paintings.
Readers familiar with Tonatiuh’s own amoxtin know that he draws artistic inspiration from the iconography of the Mixtec codices written centuries ago. As such, Tonatiuh’s distinctive illustrations in The Land of Books seem to authenticate the research-based narrative of the book making process featured in the text. Readers will find much of Tonatiuh’s research in the Author’s Note at the end of the text. A Glossary, Bibliography and list of websites complete the resources that readers can access to learn more about the Mexihcah and their book making process.
Tonatiuh’s picturebook serves as a history lesson about the Mexhicah culture that is not often told in schools today. History lessons sometimes imply that book making began with Gutenberg’s invention of the printing press when, in fact, books were being printed in China, Korea and Mexico long before Gutenberg began printing his texts in Europe. Fortunately, Tonatiuh’s newest picturebook provides a more accurate account of the evolution of book making which adds another layer of truth about the history of books and book making on a global scale. -Recommended by Mary L. Fahrenbruck, Associate Professor, New Mexico State University
Author/Illustrator: Duncan Tonatiuh
ISBN: 9781419749421
Publisher: Abrams Books for Young Readers
PubDate: November 15, 2022
Each month a committee of Worlds of Words advisors recommends a book published within the last year. Our hope is to spark conversations on our website and on social media about the book that expand global understandings and perceptions. Please join us by leaving a comment. You can also share your thoughts with us by using the hashtag #WOWRecommends on social media. Check out our alphabetical listing of all the books featured in WOW Recommends.
Photography as a Tool for Social Change: Biographical Picturebooks
By Celeste Trimble, St. Martin’s University, Lacey, WA
Photography is part of the everyday world. Children (and adults, of course) are constant consumers of this medium in personal, social, political, economic and artistic realms. Indeed, practically every aspect of our lives is saturated by the photographic image. Not only are we consumers of photography, most of us are also producers of digital photographs. What began as an art form limited to scientists with specialized chemicals and equipment is now as quotidian as breakfast.
Like many artistic practices, photography is often used as a form of activism. The photographic image can help bring hidden or shadowed issues and realities into the public eye, illuminating the world as a way to create change. An excellent way to unlock photographic history and activism for children in accessible and engaging ways is through biographical picturebooks of notable photographers. These stories provide context for how photography became so ubiquitous and essential around the globe, as well as how it has and can be used as a tool for social change, perhaps inspiring young readers to do the same. Although there are a number of excellent examples, for this post I will look closely at picturebook biographies of three artists who used the photographic medium for expression and activism: Anna Atkins of England, Jacob Riis of Denmark and the United States, and Gordon Parks of the United States. Continue reading
WOW Recommends: The Moon from Dehradun
The story in The Moon from Dehradun is based on the history of the 1947 partition that created the individual countries of India and Pakistan. Prior to the partition the region had been a colony of Britain from 1858 to 1947. At the end of their rule the British divided the country according to the majority religions. Muslims must live in Pakistan and Hindus in India. Continue reading
WOW Dozen: Picturebook Biographies of Musicians
By Janelle Mathis, North Texas University
In a recent study that examined picturebook biographies of musicians, I was interested in what they offered young readers about the value of music in the lives of these individuals. Shared in a recently submitted article, I discovered over 40 biographies that spanned across historical eras, forms of music, ages of musicians and how music impacted individuals which often was the focus of the picturebook. Books were read and reread revealing themes of offering hope and comfort, creating identity, sharing tradition, giving voice to marginalized people and sharing examples of determination, persistence and strength. Below, are a dozen titles that reflect the challenges and successes of musicians in narratives that provide young readers with new insights to the significance of music in these lives and the potential influences in their own lives. Continue reading
WOW Center Launches Reading-Focused Podcast Centering Youth Voices
The Worlds of Words Center at the University of Arizona College of Education launched a new podcast called “WOW Reads” that centers the voices of teens and pre-teens around literature for young people. The podcast, which currently has four episodes of about 15 minutes each and a bonus episode, features WOW Center Reading Ambassadors discussing books after having met the authors of those books.
Worlds of Words Center Receives Large Donation of Art from Mary J. Wong
by Rebecca Ballenger, Associate Director of Worlds of Words Center
Mary J. Wong, renowned collector of art and signed, first-edition children’s picturebooks, donated sixteen original picturebook illustrations to the Worlds of Words (WOW) Center of Global Literacies and Literatures in the UArizona College of Education. The donation includes works from some of the most notable children’s picturebooks published in recent years – including art by illustrators attending the Tucson Festival of Books.
WOW Center staff member, Aika Adamson, sets up display of Juana Martinez-Neal illustrations that are part of a new donation from Mary J. Wong.
WOW Dozen: Books on Schools and Schooling
By Janine Schall, The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley
Children around the world go to school, but the ways they do so and what happens once they arrive appears very different in diverse places. No matter what it looks like, schools are places of friendship, growth and learning for most children, but they are also situated in a political and cultural context that is worthy of exploration. Continue reading