Gathering Books Award-Winning Books Challenge

Climbing the Stairs by Padma Venkatramen

G.P. Putnam’s sons, 2008

If you’re looking for a strong heroine, fifteen-year-old Vidya meets the requirements. In British-occupied India during WW II, when Indian women were expected to marry and raise children, Vidya’s beloved father, her appa, promises her she can go to college. Her dreams for the future change in an instant when Appa is severely injured during a demonstration for Indian independence.

Vidya is forced to move from Bombay with her mother, her father and college-age brother Kitta to their uncle’s home in Madras. Here, relegated to hours of chores by her ungracious aunt, Vidya strains against the cultural rules and expectations regarding women. What will become of her dream? Will she still be able to go to college?

Vidya discovers her grandfather’s library in an upstairs room of her uncle’s home. But she has to defy tradition first.

The staircase stood silent and empty. But it was forbidding. The barrier between the two floors of the house was unbroken except at mealtimes, when the men descended into our realm. Only men used the stairs. If anyone caught me walking up them, what would Periamma do to me?

Vidya fights for her freedom as India fights for independence, and the author weaves together themes of freedom, war and violence vs. non-violence to create a wholly satisfying read.

Visit the book’s website for a wealth of background information and discussion guides.

Awards

Julia Ward Howe Boston Authors Club 2009 Award (young readers book of the year)

Bank Street College of Education Best Book of the Year

ALA/YALSA Best Book for Young Adults

Award-Winning Book Challenge Status: 8 /11

 

Books That Foster Feelings of Safety and Hope

It’s a huge challenge for parents to help their young children feel safe in a world that seems so dangerous. Books can contribute to creating that feeling of safety, or least offer hope that caring people will be there when they are needed and that bad situations can improve. Editor Paula Morrow’s excellent article in the May issue of Children’s Writer newsletter highlighted two award-winning picture books that help allay fear and uncertainty in young children’s minds: Smoky Night by Eve Bunting and The Moon Came Down On Milk Street by Jean Gralley.

Smoky Night  by Eve Bunting

Illustrated by David Diaz

Caldecott Medal, Parents’ Choice Award Winner, School Library Journal Best Book of the Year

The setting of Smoky Night is the Los Angeles race riots. Chaos and confusion reign as rioters break windows and steal merchandise. Daniel, his mother and a cat named Jasmine watch from their apartment. Mama quietly explains about rioting.

“It can happen when people get angry. They want to smash and destroy. They don’t care anymore what’s right and what’s wrong.”

Their neighbor’s store is looted while the owner yells in the same language she uses when her orange cat fights with Jasmine. Fire forces everyone to a shelter, but both cats have hidden. Daniel and the neighbor worry until both cats are found together and seem to have made peace.

Smoky Night is a story about parents, helpers and firefighters who care for and protect children. It’s also about getting to know those who seem different from us, accepting the differences and finding common ground.

Bunting’s text and Diaz’s partnership of collage and acrylic paintings work together to show both the terror of a fire and the mother’s calm as she protects her son.

Award-Winning Book Challenge Status: 4 /11

The Moon Came Down on Milk Street, text and illustrations by Jean Gralley

While Smoky Night is realistic, The Moon Came Down on Milk Street is highly imaginative. It’s rhythmical and rhyming text make it a perfect toddler lap book.

The moon came down on Milk Street,

came down with a very soft sound.

And the moon really does descend, while the children watch it fall into glowing pieces on Milk Street. Immediately, the first responders set about putting it right again. First, the fire chief, then the medics and electrical workers with their feet covered in moon dust. And they are all children! After they glue together and hoist the moon, people everywhere prop it up until it’s shining down like it’s supposed to, and all the helpers sleep peacefully, even the helper dogs.

Just before the title page is Fred Rogers’ report of his mother telling him to “Look for the Helpers,” if they encountered an accident or terrifying scene. Sometimes this is the best thing we can say to the very young. Written after September 11th, The Moon Came Down On Milk Street says it simply and beautifully.

Jean Gralley studied books and illustration with Maurice Sendak. Read Cynthia Leitich Smith's informative author interview with Gralley at Cynsations.

There must be other picture book titles that help very young readers deal with tragedy and help children heal after witnessing frightening communal events. Please share other titles, and I'll compile a list.

Accepting the 2013 Award-Winning Books Challenge

I really enjoyed participating in the 2012 Award-Winning Books Challenge sponsored by the folks at Gathering Books. I read books I had meant to read long ago and discovered authors new to me, like Ray Bradbury. I am still singing praises for his Dandelion Wine and Something Wicked This Way Comes, which I read after Fahrenheit 451 whet my appetite for more Ray Bradbury. Thank you, Myra!

Dandelion Wine reminds me of Howard Frank Mosher's beautiful book of growing up in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont, Northern Borders. 12 year-old Douglas Spaulding comes of age in Green Town, Illinois in the summer of 1928. I will never forget Bradbury's passages describing the afternoon teas where 95-year-old Helen Loomis and 31-year-old William Forrester get acquainted. They meet over a dish of lime vanilla ice and come to realize they have been born too early and too late for one another. After Helen dies and William processes the loss, he says, "A thousand gallons of tea and five hundred biscuits is enough for one friendship."

Something Wicked This Way Comes is a fantastical treat. I haven't read much magical realism, but this book feels like it's in that genre. Two 13 year-olds, Will and his friend, scramble down hidden ladders outside their respective windows and get into nighttime mischief. When the carnival comes to town, the carousel spins backward and strange things happen; it speeds up going forward and how can a boy resist the result? The temptation is palpable. And what unlikely person steps in to save the whole town from an evil that's been ruining lives for years and years? It's a wonderful read.

Here's a list of the thirteen titles I reviewed for the 2012 Challenge.

Janice Joplin, Rise Up Singing by Ann Angel
Requiem: Poems of the Terezin Ghetto by Paul B. Janeczko
Breadcrumbs by Anne Ursu
Leaving Gee’s Bend by Irene Latham
BookSpeak! Poems About Books by Laura Purdie Salas
Won Ton, A Cat Tale Told in Haiku by Lee Wardlaw
The Good Braider  by Terry Farish
Inkheart by Cornelia Funke

Moon Over Manifest by Clare Vanderpool

The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
Dark Emperor by Joyce Sidman
MONSTER by Walter Dean Myers 
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

I have discovered some terrific authors due to other reviewers who took up the challenge. I might otherwise have missed Arundhati Roy, Walter Dean Myers and even Ray Bradbury.

So I am committing to another year of Gathering Books' Award-Winning Book Challenge and reviewing them here at Musings. I'll continue with the Silver Medal level. Check back to see what I'm reading.