ISSN 0006 7377 0006 ISSN For rates and information, contact our advertising manager (see inside front cover for contact details) contact for cover front inside (see manager advertising our contact information, and rates For Bookbird is distributed in 70 countries 70 in distributed is Bookbird YOUR AD COULD BE HERE! BE COULD AD YOUR Publishers, booksellers, ... booksellers, Publishers, Board on Books for Young People Young for Books on Board The Journal of IBBY, the International International the IBBY, of Journal The VOL. 48, NO. 1 JANUARY 2010 ty days For of mou rnin with Ibtisam g • chat Bar Th A akat e A sraeli child • C r o r in I ren’s hi ab the liter ldr w children’s li atu en or in teratu re o ld re • • C f P in Me ha al ch m rle es ild ori s tin ren es Pe e t ’s b of rr ell ooks m au the : Findin ee lt’s ir st g Palestine • ti “L ories ng e P • Face t wo etit o face: Self and rld Pouc s • et” • Fan sophy Profi tasy as philo le of Ted van Lieshout The Journal of IBBY, the International Board on Books for Young People Copyright © 2010 by Bookbird, Inc. Reproduction of articles in Bookbird requires permission in writing from the editor. Editors: Catherine Kurkjian and Sylvia Vardell Address for submissions and other editorial correspondence: kurkjianc@ gmail.com and [email protected] and [email protected] Bookbird’s editorial office is supported by Central Connecticut State University, New Britain, CT Editorial Review Board: Sandra Beckett (Canada), Emy Beseghi (Italy), Ernest Bond (USA), Penni Cotton (UK), Hannelore Daubert (Germany), Toin Duijx (Netherlands), Claire Malarte-Feldman (USA), Erica Hateley (Australia), Nancy Hadaway (USA), Hans-Heino Ewers (Germany), Janet Hilbun (USA), Jeffrey Garrett (USA), June Jacko (USA), Kerry Mallan (Australia), Nadia El Kholy (Egypt), Kerry Mallan (Australia), Chloe Mauger (Australia), Lissa Paul (USA), Linda Pavonetti (USA), Ira Sax- ena (India), Anna Karlskov Skyggebjerg (Denmark), Deborah Soria (Italy), Liz Thiel (UK), Mary Shine Thompson (Ireland), Mudite Treimane (Latvia), Jochen Weber (Germany), Terrell A. Young (USA) Board of Bookbird, Inc. (an Indiana not-for-profit corporation): Joan Glazer (USA), President; Ellis Vance (USA), Treasurer; Alida Cutts (USA), Secretary; Mingzhou Zhang (China); James Tumusiine (Uganda) Advertising Manager: Ellis Vance ([email protected]) Production: Design and layout by Charlsa Kern, Texas, USA Proofread by Connie Rockman, Connecticut, USA Printed by The Sheridan Press, Hanover, Pennsylvania, USA Bookbird: A Journal of International Children’s Literature (ISSN 0006-7377) is a refereed journal published quarterly in January, April, July, and October by IBBY, the International Board on Books for Young People, and distributed by The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2715 N. Charles Street, Baltimore, MD 21218-4363 USA. Periodicals postage paid at Baltimore, Maryland, and at additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Bookbird, The Johns Hopkins University Press, Journals Division, 2715 N. Charles Street, Baltimore, MD 21218-4363. CANADA POSTMASTER: Bookbird, Publications Mail Registration Number 40600510. Send address corrections to The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2715 N. Charles Street, Baltimore, MD 21218-4363 USA. Subscriptions to Bookbird: See inside back cover IBBY Executive Committee 2008-2010: Patricia Aldana (Canada), President; Reina Duarte (Spain) and Ahmad Redza Ahmad Khairuddin (Malaysia); Vice President; Anastasia Arkhipova (Russia); Elisa Bonilla (Mexico); Hannelore Daubert (Germany); Wally de Doncker (Belgium); Nikki Gamble (UK); Jehan Helou (Palestine); James Tumusiine (Uganda); Mingzhou Zhang (China); Voting Members; Zohreh Ghaeni (Iran), Andersen Jury President; Elizabeth Page (Switzerland), Executive Direc- tor; Forest Zhang (China), Deputy Director of Administration; Ellis Vance (USA), Treasurer; Sylvia Vardell (USA), Catherine Kurkjian (USA), Bookbird Editors. IBBY may be contacted at Nonnenweg 12 Postfach, CH-4003 Basel, Switzerland, tel: +4161 272 29 17 fax: +4161 272 27 57 email: [email protected] <www.ibby.org>. Bookbird is indexed in Library Literature, Library and Information Abstracts (LISA), Children’s Book Review Index, and the MLA International Bibliography. Cover image: International Children's Book Day 2010 poster designed and created by Noemí Villamuza and sponsored by IBBY Spain. To order, contact oepli@oepli. org TO SIT AND DRE AM, TO AND LEA SIT AND READ, TO SIT RN ABO UT THE WORLD Editorial | ii OUR W TSIDE ORLD O ORLD OU F HERE BLEM W AND NOW – OUR PRO Forty days of mourning Ibtisam Barakat | 1 The Arab world in children’s books: Finding Palestine Elsa Marston | 5 A chat with Ibtisam Barakat Elsa Marston with Ibtisam Barakat | 11 VAST HORIZON EAM OF S OF TH DR DREAMS E SOU TO HROUGH MAKE WH L; T OLE Children of Palestine tell their stories Jehan Helou | 16 Face to Face: Self and other in Israeli children’s literature Celina Maschiach | 23 Charles Perrault’s “Le Petit Poucet” and its possible Arabic influences Ahmed K. Al-Rawi | 31 OO UNFE AMERS, T TTERED FREE – HELP ME! ALL YOU WHO ARE DRE Fantasy as philosophy in children’s literature: The multicultural landscape of The Clockwork Forest Kate McInally | 42 Memories of meeting worlds or close encounters of the fourth kind Carmen Diana Dearden | 51 Profile of Ted van Lieshout Toin Duijx | 61 E OUR WORLD ANEW. I LP ME MAK REACH O O YOU. HE UT MY HANDS T Postcards from Around the World | interleaved Books on Books | 67 Focus IBBY | 72 “Palestine” Ibtisam Barakat | 80 The quoted lines for each section are from the poem "To You" from THE COLLECTED POEMS OF LANGSTON HUGHES by Langston Hughes, edited by Arnold Rampersad with David Roessel, Associate Editor, copyright 1994 by the Estate of Langston Hughes. Used by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House, Inc. Editorial Dear Bookbird Readers, nderstanding that the world’s children are innocent was a Bookbird editors powerful source of inspiration to Jella Lepman’s work. This U issue of Bookbird focuses primarily on the children’s literature of the Middle East with this idea in the forefront. A converging theme that ribbons through the articles here includes the importance of writing and literature as a way to establish identity and hold on to one’s dreams and hopes. Literature offers the promise of providing the self and the other with a shared frame of reference to promote understanding and dialogue. Other intersecting ideas include the SYLVIA VARDELL is a professor important role literature can play in helping us to see ourselves in at Texas Woman’s University (USA) where she teaches graduate courses others, to acknowledge different ways of being, and to recognize the in children’s literature. She is the interdependence of self and other as crucial to survival. author of CHILDREN’S LITERATURE IN ACTION: A LIBRARIAN’S GUIDE and the PoetryForChildren blog. Feature articles The first three articles serve as a trilogy that highlight the work of two authors of literature about the Arab world; Palestinian born author, Ibtisam Barakat and U.S. author, Elsa Marston. In forty days of mourning we step into the shoes of author Ibtisam Barakat as she reveals her journey remembering her Palestinian roots while mourning her father’s death. In this process, she describes how she came to terms with the pain and humiliation of her Palestinian childhood and how she began to heal through remembering and writing Tasting the Sky. CATHERINE KURKJIAN is a professor in the Department of Prolific U.S. author, Elsa Marston explores the Arab world as depicted Reading and Language Arts at Central in children’s books and shares her quest to write books in which Connecticut State University (USA) where she teaches courses in Reading Arab Americans and those of Palestinian heritage can see themselves and Language Arts and Children’s represented. In The Arab world in children’s books: Finding Palestine, Literature. Her areas of specialization include children’s literature and the Marsten reviews books with themes of reconciliation, ones in which intersection of literacy and technology. conflicting peoples find a common ground and friendship, as well as books that show shattered lives, devastation and hopelessness inflicted © 2010 by Bookbird, Inc. EDITORAL by war. In Marston’s Santa Claus in Baghdad, a fantasy can help us to negotiate futures in a way book of short stories portraying teenagers from that realism cannot. For those of us who were not various Arab societies, she hopes that readers will privileged to attend the biennial Dorothy Briley see her protagonists within their particular cultural lecture presented at the IBBY Regional conference contexts as young people who have the same hosted by USSBY in October 2009, we have the concerns as young people everywhere. The last pleasure of reading Memories of meeting worlds article in this trilogy, A chat with Ibtisam Barakat or close encounters of the fourth kind by Carmen by Elsa Marston with Ibtisam Barakat presents Diana Dearden. We encounter a universe of an enlightening conversation between these two multicultural worlds which overlap, sometimes fellow authors. In particular, this piece provides clash, and sometimes merge. Dearden, a strong background information on Barakat’s resilience and fiery publisher at Ediciones Ekaré in Venezuela and ability to find inner peace and healing through and former IBBY President, presents a humorous the telling of what she refers to as “heart” stories. and poignant speech which provides a dynamic In the second trio of articles, themes of historical cross-section of many intersecting multifaceted and interdependent relationships worlds including those worlds found in books. between self and others are considered. Evocative Finally, Toin Duijx offers an enticing Profile of drawings and stories created by children are Ted van Lieshout, the poet, author, and artist, featured in Children of Palestine tell their stories on the occasion of his winning the Dutch Theo based on the “First Book” project sponsored by Thijssenprize.