NEWSLETTER Jay Heale’s

No.212 December 2015

Email: [email protected]

Postal: Napier Retirement Village, Private Bag X1, Napier, 7270 South Africa

A happy book-filled Christmas to you all!

SELECTED HEADLINES

 Swedish Cape-to-Cape flights benefits children and reading. On Saturday 24 October, Swedish pilot Johan Wiklund landed his 1935 De Havilland 60 Moth biplane in Stellenbosch completing an epic flight from North Cape in Norway. “The goal of my adventure is not just flying from the North Cape to the Cape of Good Hope. I also aim to raise money for the Children’s Book Network to help them: Make reading cool.”  Half of all refugees are children. They leave everything behind. Think, therefore, of the massive lack of children’s books in refugee camps. (Re-reading John Steinbeck’s great book The Grapes of Wrath, I read how the desperate families trying to reach a promised land as migrant people can find no work when they get there.)  The final Children’s Book Network workshop in Clanwilliam has been successfully presented (by CBN founder, Lesley Beake). Lesley has now moved east to Stanford. One of the girls asked me at the workshop why I brought CBN to Clanwilliam. ‘Why do YOU think?’ I asked her. ‘To make the children happy,’ she answered. I hope we did.  By May this year, the Harry Potter books had sold 450 million copies worldwide.  Anne Frank died in 1945, so her famous diary should (by EU law) be out of copyright after 70 years. But her father (who died in 1980) prepared the diary for publication. Whether the Diary of Anne Frank is now in the public domain is not clear.  Congratulations to Print Matters (and Bumble Books) on its 10th birthday.  How sad that UK schools minister Nick Gibb should wish to create a ‘canon’ of 100 classics (to be supplied cheap to schools). People are obsessed with making lists. Put masses of books into schools – yes – and then let the children choose for themselves.

AWARDS

Fiona Moodie’s Noko and the Kool Kats (Tafelberg) has been announced as the winner of the 5th Exclusive Books IBBY SA award - for the best of the past two years (2013 and 2014). In the words of the jury, “It’s a witty and engaging tale, seamlessly accompanied by illustrations that are deceptively simple, their spontaneity underpinned by a keen eye and fine sensibility. The likeable and down-to earth character of Noko the porcupine is hilariously offset by the spoilt and egotistical Kool Kats. This is a notable contribution to picture books that celebrate our home in Africa.” Shortlisted for this award were: Sisi goes to school and other stories – Wendy Hartmann, illustrated by Joan Rankin; and The name of the tree is Bojabi - Dianne Hofmeyr, illustrated by Piet Grobler.  The Katrine Harries Award for Children’s Book Illustrations has been revived and the most recent winners are: Joan Rankin for Just Sisi (Human & Rousseau) for the period 2008–2009 Maja Sereda for Haasmoles (LAPA) for the period 2010–2011 Johan Strauss for In die Land van Pamperlang (Human & Rousseau) for the period 2012–2013.  Perhaps these awards failed to receive enough attention: The 2014 Percy FitzPatrick Prize for Youth Literature: Kagiso Lesego Molope for This book betrays my brother. The 2015 Tienie Holloway Medalje vir Kleuterliteratuur: Ingrid Mennen for Ben en die walvisse.

I was ‘chuffed’, as they say, by kind notice of my retirement being given by IBBY SA, by the Children’s Book Network, and by the Cape Librarian.

Editorial : Learning by rote

Chinese President Xi Jinping’s reception by Queen Elizabeth II of England has (apparently) resulted in a sudden mass-production of black & gold ceremonial carriages in China. Mr Xi has also looked at British education and feels that “Chinese children do not play enough.” That’s difficult at present. Chinese children have a 12-hour school day starting at 7 am with physical exercises, and the classes include much rote and repetitive learning.

Personally, I think that some rote learning is a good idea. All primary children should learn a poem a week (preferably of their own choice). I recall teaching a class of 9-yr-olds who went whoopee over “In Xanadu did Kublai Khan a stately pleasure dome decree …” No, they didn’t understand it – they just thought it sounded wonderful. Those old maths times-tables are necessary too. Not lists of historical dates. History isn’t facts: it’s people and stories – and detective work. . The Chinese believe that children learn faster and better by rote learning. But the problem with rote learning is much the same as the problem of exams. You can only examine what can be examined. So you can’t test individual opinion, imagination, creative thought – or learn it by heart, unless it is the collected opinions of Comrade Leader. Not much chance of individuality. (Remind you of SA in the 1970s?) In the picture, each Chinese child has a textbook (that’s one up on Limpopo and some other places). Do they, however, have free-choice reading books? I doubt it. I am old-fashioned enough to believe that a wide range of well-written (and well-illustrated) children’s fiction promotes imagination and holistic education. The excellent work of such NGOs as Biblionef, IBBY SA, Nal’ibali, Children’s Book Network, FunDza all believe much the same. [This editorial was prompted by an article on the BBC World programme.]

BOOK REVIEWS The policy of Bookchat has always been to review all South African books, and the best of those submitted from overseas publishers.

TOWNSHIP TALES by Eefka Young, illustrated by Dru White (The Attic Press 2015) A generously-sized book containing five animal stories, gently linked, all set in a ‘township’ (probably near Cape Town). These stories (concerning a stray dog, a chicken factory, a racing pigeon, a dog buried alive and an injured carthorse) are all told from the animals’ point of view. They are true to life and full of compassion, accurate observation and the fact that “animals have rights”. I like the way that the author uses a ‘magical’ descendant from the Timbavati lions – children like a touch of African magic in their lives. (Perhaps a pity, therefore, to include Pegasus.) During these 5 tales, two nasty men learn a suitable lesson about animal treatment – but my favourite story is “Number 466”, the pigeon who gets lost. As in that old heart-wrencher, Lassie Come Home, home is reached at last. A lovely piece of writing. The soft-edged colour pictures provide useful atmosphere: some are better drawn than others. Hurray that these stories are suitable for middle primary readers: we are so short of good local books for them.

Two more titles from “Our Story” series (Heritage Publishers) have just arrived. HOPE’S WAR and THE BATTLE OF MHLATUZE RIVER will reviewed in the next issue.

PERCY JACKSON AND THE GREEK HEROES by Rick Riordan (Puffin 2015) Follow-up to Percy Jackson and the Greek Gods Not so often that I encounter a Puffin that has a hard cover and 500 pages. Don’t let that put you off. This is hugely entertaining. Huge as in Olympus, meaning the home of the gods. The original tales of the Greek gods and heroes were full of sex and seduction and murderous mayhem. Check the Iliad and Odyssey: the immortals are far worse than the mortals. However, writers such as Nathaniel Hawthorne and Charles Kingsley sanitised the stories so that nice children could read them without blushing. It took & (in and The Golden Shadow) to bring back guts and gore. And Charles Keeping’s line drawings are, without any colour, the most blood-thirsty illustrations I know. Percy Jackson (via Rick Riordan) tells the old tales as if they were happening in the 21st century. The sun chariot of Helios is “solid gold, with silver spokes and Maserati brake pads”. Chatty dude language – but each core story is fairly accurate to the original. Perseus, Theseus, that lot – and Otrera. Not heard of her? Neither had I. Plenty of blood in her story! Now, I’ll admit that (as a reviewer) there have been times when I read enough chapters to get the flavour and the basic storyline, skipped to the end, and that was enough. However, I read every chapter of Percy Jackson and the Greek Heroes for one easy reason: I was enjoying them. Risking the dangers of “bandits, monsters and tacky outlet malls”. A laugh a line – and a thrill in the next.

KATYA’S HAIRY TALES : THE BACON CHASE by Julia Richman, illustrated by Mrs Beckerling (Struik Children 2015) Author and illustrator are both creating their first children’s book. It’s a curious mixture – featuring Katya, a charming cat with a magic tail. The story takes a while to get going (via Katya’s owners, and Auntie Bea who have nothing to do with the plot). There is a mystery in a failing seaside hotel, which Katya, helped by a one-legged seagull, unravels. Eventually a vile, drunk ‘wine master’ who plans to turn cats into furry slippers, is found out. So the Goodies (mostly the cats) win. The storytelling is over-cute in places, heavy with adjectives. If further adventures are planned, the plot elements should be pruned to what is essential – and the characters need a bit more … well, character. For mid-primary readers or for read-aloud time.

Apology. The imaginative picture book THE POSSIBILI TREE, reviewed in my previous newsletter, is by Tamlyn Young. (Not Tarolyn.)

THE RABBIT WHO WANTS TO FALL ASLEEP by Carl-Johan Forssén Ehrlin, illustrated by Irina Maunune (Ladybird Books 2015) A New Way of Getting Children to Sleep Apparently a No.1 Bestseller. (So many books have this claim!) This incredible offering is by a behavioural scientist with a degree in psychology. It is a script rather than a story. “Instructions to the reader” say that bold text means you should emphasize those words, and italic text means you should read with a slow and calm voice. That’s most of the book covered – with ever constant repeating of going to sleep, now. An exercise in hypnotic suggestion! As a story it’s cutesy fairy-tale and dead boring. Which, I suppose, is as good a way of getting a child to sleep as any.

GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS 2016 (Published by Guinness World Records Limited 2015) Editor-in-Chief: Craig Glenday 250 large, incredible pages inside a glittering cover. It contains records of the fastest, slowest, tallest, most incredible, etc. You dip in and find yourself grabbed and waylaid. For example, you may wish to know that the turf at Melbourne Cricket Ground is cut daily in summer to precisely 11mm, while that at Wimbledon is 8mm. Martyn Tovey in UK has collected 353 GWR annuals – he has an obsession with facts and figures. His favourite: Bob Beamon’s world record long jump (in the Mexico Olympics 1968) of 8.90m; 29ft 2.5in which has yet to be beaten. GWR is the best dip-in book ever!

THE BOY AT THE TOP OF THE MOUNTAIN by John Boyne (Doubleday 2015) Most young readers will react to the loneliness of a boy who has lost both father and mother, and who has to go and live in a strange place “at the top of a mountain”. The setting between two World Wars may mean nothing – until the boy snaps to attention, as he has been instructed, and shouts “Heil Hitler!” I thought The Boy in Striped Pyjamas (by the same author) was moving. This book is far more than that – it is a tragedy, an indictment. It is full of implications that a young reader (how young? Intelligent teenager at the very least) will hardly comprehend: the Hitlerjugend, the friendship of the Duke of Windsor (abdicated) with Hitler, the buildings with showers but no water. References to books such as Mein Kampf and Emil and the Detectives (by Erich Kästner who was a founder member of IBBY). The reader will eventually understand as the boy himself grows without comprehension until he too understands what has happened and what he has willingly become part of. Perhaps this book is best for wrinklies like myself who will read it with increasingly deep sadness. This is about life and survival, about condemnation and death. a journey from boyhood to arrogant youth. A universal lecture on folly, set in Berghof, a place of historical significance. Perhaps safest to define this as a historical novel – but it isn’t safe. It is powerfully disturbing and yet too important to try to forget. One chapter is entitled: “The Sound that Nightmares Make.”

ADULT BOOKS that I have enjoyed

THE ROAD TO LITTLE DRIBBLING by Bill Bryson (Doubleday 2015) To know that this is a vague sort of sequel to Notes from a Small Island should be all the info you require. Chapter 1 is entitled “Bugger Bognor!” You get the idea? I had to be very careful when reading it because my helpless roars of laughter might have upset the retired old ladies living in the vicinity. Bryson has three types of writing: walks along scenic routes which he has (or hasn’t) enjoyed; visits to often unusual places with details of what he found interesting (or dead boring); and occasional sermons or rants upon topics which irk him, over-frequently ending with a four syllable expletive. He is, perhaps, at his best when most scathing – as with Trip Advisor, or whelks whose taste he likens to the inside of an old golf ball, and British Railways from Paddington to Penzance which is ‘like rigor mortis with scenery’. But mostly, he is in love with England and describes all that is English, lovingly. It’s a splendid book, an amusing reassurance that quirky England is still alive in many places – though I dare to suggest that sometimes Bryson carves out a joke with a machete where a tap with a butter-knife would have served.

BURCHELL’S TRAVELS by Susan Buchanan (Penguin 2015) The Life, Art and Journeys of William John Burchell: 1781-1863 A handsome hardback – a delight to read, peruse and admire. If you want a taste of genuine African history to be blood, thunder and action, stick to Indiana Jones! “Such indelicacies will never be found in these volumes.” Burchell’s stated reaction is that Africa is: “an inexhaustible source of knowledge and ideas, and an infinite variety of amusement of the most rational kind.” Susan Richards picks her way carefully through detailed observations and evocative sketches, taking us with William Burchell into the Africa of 150 years ago. (After a tantalisingly brief appraisal of St Helena.) He meets roaming Bushmen, admiring and pitying them, and knowing that his thoughts are contradictory. “… my imagination carried me back to that period when its peaceable inhabitants, the simple Hottentots, roamed freely over the country, enjoying the liberty of nature, nor dreaming that a day could ever arrive when they must all resign to some unknown race of men, coming upon them from the ocean …” For me, Burchell’s artwork is a constant delight. Stark black-and-white sketches and spreading aquatints, combining accurate observation and the inspiration of an artist in a strange land.

A study conducted by the South African Book Development Council revealed that only about 14% of South Africans read books and only a mere 5% of that read to their children. The study also found that 51% of households in South Africa do not have a single book in their home.

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