Our Common Earth

Vol. 51, No.1 JANUARY 2013

Feature Articles: Our Common Earth: The Local and Global Flow of Narrative in A River of Stories • Heal the World, Make It a Better Place • The Child-Poet Gwen Cope in the Land of “Australian Faery” • The Mountain and the Devil: Fake Lore or Folklore? • Paranoid Prizing Children and Their Books: The Power of Caribbean Poetry • Flying to Pick Blueberries The Journal of IBBY, the International Board on Books for Young People Copyright © 2013 by Bookbird, Inc. Reproduction of articles in Bookbird requires permission in writing from the editor.

Editor: Roxanne Harde, University of Alberta—Augustana Faculty (Canada)

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Bookbird’s editorial office is supported by the Augustana Faculty at the University of Alberta, Camrose, Alberta, Canada.

Editorial Review Board: Peter E. Cumming, York University (Canada); Debra Dudek, University of Wollongong (Australia); Libby Gruner, University of Richmond (USA); Helene Høyrup, Royal School of Library & Information Science (Denmark); Judith Inggs, University of the Witwatersrand (South Africa); Ingrid Johnston, University of Albert, Faculty of Education (Canada); Shelley King, Queen’s University (Canada); Helen Luu, Royal Military College (Canada); Michelle Martin, University of South Carolina (USA); Beatriz Alcubierre Moya, Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Morelos (Mexico); Lissa Paul, Brock University (Canada); Laura Robinson, Royal Military College (Canada); Bjorn Sundmark, Malmö University (Sweden); Margaret Zeegers, University of Ballarat (Australia);

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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.

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IBBY Executive Committee 2012-2014: Ahmad Redza Ahmad Khairuddin (Malaysia), President; Linda Pavonetti Vice President (USA); Hasmig Chahinian (France), Vice President; Marilar Aleixandre (Spain); Gülçin Alpöge (Turkey); Nadia El Kholy (Egypt); Kiyoko Matsuoka (Japan), Azucena Galindo (Mexico); Angela Lebedeva (Russia); Akoss Ofori-mensah (Ghana); Timotea Vrablova (Slovakia), Voting Members; María Jesús Gil (Spain), Andersen Jury President; Elizabeth Page (Switzerland), Executive Director; Ellis Vance (USA), Treasurer; Roxanne Harde (Canada), Bookbird Editor.

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Bookbird is indexed in Library Literature, Library and Information Abstracts (LISA), Children’s Book Review Index, and the MLA International Bibliography.

Cover image: Cover image of A River of Stories courtesy of Jan Pieńkowski. Jan Pieńkowski, born in Warsaw in 1936, went to the UK in 1946. He was educated at Cardinal Vaughan School, London, and King’s College, Cambridge, where he read Classics and English. He has written and illustrated over a hundred children’s books and won the Library Association Kate Greenaway Medal twice. He is currently working on theatre design. Editorial | iii

Introduction A River of Stories Alice Curry and Lydia Kokkola | iv

Our Common Earth: The Local and Global Flow of Narrative in A River of Stories Alice Curry | 1

Heal the World; Make It a Better Place: Social and Individual Hope in Indian Children's Cinema Jayashree Rajagopalan | 10

“She flings her elfin dreams of mystery”: The Child-Poet Gwen Cope in the Land of “Australian Faery,” 1931–1939 Nicole Anae | 20

Feature Articles The Mountain and the Devil: Fake Lore or Folklore? A Wonder of the World in South African Children’s Literature Tanya Barben | 31

Paranoid Prizing: Mapping Australia’s Eve Pownall Award for Information Books, 2001-2010 Erica Hateley | 41

The Power of Caribbean Poetry: Word and Sound Morag Styles | 51

Flying to Pick Blueberries: Two Preschoolers’ Literary Encounters with other Cultures Virginia Lowe | 60

Reading Camp: Children from the Bahamas Develop a New Appreciation of

Children & Their Books Children’s Literature Joyce Armstrong | 67

Belonging and Differentiating: Aspects of New Zealand National Identity Reflected in the New Zealand Picture Book Collection (NZPBC) Nicola Daly | 73

The Triumphant Return of the Dodo: Emergent Children’s Literature in Mauritius

Letters Sandra Williams | 80

The Growth towards a Truly African Quality in South African Children’s Literature Jean Williams and Jay Heale | 87

IBBY.ORG 51.1 – 2013 | i Young Irelands: Studies in Children’s Literature by Mary Shine Thompson Anthony Pavlik | 94

A Made-Up Place by Anna Jackson, Geoffrey Miles, Harry Ricketts, Tatjana Schaefer, and Kathryn Walls B.J. Epstein | 95

Seedlings: English Children’s Reading and Writers in South Africa by Elwyn Jenkins B.J. Epstein | 97

Racial Innocence: Performing American Childhood from Slavery to Civil Rights

Reviews of Secondary Literature by Robin Bernstein Samantha Christensen | 99

Dogodogo: Tanzanian Street Children Tell Their Stories by Kasia Parham Lilian Vikiru | 9

To chamogelo tis Semelis [Semeli’s smile] by Marina Michaelidou–Kadi, illus. by Constanze von Kitzing Christina Christodoulou | 19

The People from the Sea by J.O. de Graft Hanson Rose Austin | 40 Postcards Adventure at Brimstone Hill by Carol Ottley-Mitchell Nahdjla Carasco Bailey | 59

That Boy Red by Rachna Gilmore Karyn Huennemann | 66

Yellow Mini by Lori Weber Sylvia Vardell | 72

Focus IBBY | 103

ii | bookbird IBBY.ORG Editorial

© Jan Pieńkowski Dear Bookbird Readers, am pleased to present Bookbird 51.1, the first of 2013’s two guest-edited, themed issues of IBBY’s journal. This year, IBBY celebrates its 60th Anniversary. This organization of more than I70 national sections all over the world has come a long way since its remarkable founder, Jella Lepman (1891–1970), invited delegates to Munich to attend International Understanding through Children’s Books, the meeting that eventually led to IBBY’s foundation in October 1953. This issue of Bookbird has been prepared in collabo- ration with another well-established organization: the Common- Bookbird Editor wealth Educational Trust (CET), which shares many of the same goals as IBBY. Like IBBY, the CET is an international organization of people who are committed to increasing the opportunities for children to develop the critical thinking, empathy, and cultural literacy essential for a child to thrive in today’s societies. By bringing books and children together, both organizations aim to promote international understanding and responsible citizenship. The expertise and energy guest editors Alice Curry and Lydia

Kokkola have brought to this issue, and Bettina Kuemmerling- Roxanne Harde is an Associate Professor Meibauer is bringing to the Multicultural issue (Summer 2013), of English and a McCalla University ensure these issues will resonate with the journal’s international Professor at the University of Alberta, Augustana Faculty. She studies and audience. And their collective and individual work on and for chil- teaches American literature and culture. dren’s literature has had me thinking about all the members of our She has recently published Reading the Boss: Interdisciplinary Approaches to global community who work with children and their books. Like the Works of Bruce Springsteen, and A River of Stories collected by Alice for the CET, Bookbird brings her essays have appeared in several journals, including International Research together people with diverse backgrounds, from disparate cultures, in Children’s Literature, The Lion and and a variety of disciplines. I hope you enjoy this issue which, the Unicorn, Christianity and Literature, Legacy, Jeunesse, Critique, Feminist thanks to Alice and Lydia, brings together work from across the Theology, and Mosaic, and several edited Commonwealth, from people who dedicate their effort and talent collections, including Enterprising Youth to this discipline and its audience. and To See the Wizard. © 2013 by Bookbird, Inc. editorial

Introduction Bookbird Guest Editors

Alice Curry is an Honorary Associate of Lydia Kokkola is Professor of English Macquarie University and the Children’s and Didactics at Luleå University of Literature Advisor to the Commonwealth Technology, Sweden. Her main areas Education Trust, for whom she compiled of research are English as a Foreign and edited A River of Stories. She is Language, Second Language Acquisition, currently working closely with educators Holocaust Fiction, Trauma Fiction, to produce a blended media education Adolescent Sexuality, Advanced Literacy package to support learning about global Skills, and Ekphraxis. issues of sustainability and culture.

Introduction: A River of Stories The Commonwealth—a voluntary organization Commonwealth of Nations, and the Institute is of fifty-four countries with a shared set of values now the Commonwealth Education Trust. and an equal standing in the Commonwealth, Over half of the Commonwealth population irrespective of size or GDP—is remarkable for is under twenty-five, which is why the CET is the diversity of the countries it encompasses. committed to funding research in education and From the tiny island of Nauru in the Pacific, the benefits that such an education can bring to with an estimated population of around 10,000 communities worldwide. The Trust’s change of people, to the sprawling Indian subcontinent name has signaled a significant policy shift. Over with a population exceeding 1,186 million, the the years, the original Institute had become decid- Commonwealth includes a spectacular range of edly inward facing, with a large physical presence religions, geographies, climates, and languages. in the UK. The CET is more outward facing in Each country has retained a unique storytelling its promotion of education throughout the coun- tradition despite the colonial history these nations tries of the Commonwealth. Two of the papers share, and this issue of Bookbird celebrates this in this issue of Bookbird showcase recent activi- mix of indigenous, colonial, and Commonwealth ties in which the CET has been engaged, both of values. which call upon the dynamic story traditions of The Commonwealth Education Trust (CET) the Commonwealth. began in 1886 as part of the celebrations for The cover illustration by the award winning Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee that were to take illustrator Jan Piénkowski is taken from A River place the following year. Her son, Edward, Prince of Stories, an anthology of poems and stories from of Wales, was personally involved in raising funds across the Commonwealth compiled and edited to establish an Imperial Institute that would unite by Alice as part of the CET’s 125th anniversary. the peoples of the Empire through education, Last year, Judith Hanratty OBE, the Chairman research, and related activities. The majority of the of the CET, Jan, and Alice were delighted to £426,000 raised came from ordinary people living be invited to Buckingham Palace to present this in towns and villages across the Empire. In the collection to Her Majesty the Queen for inclusion 125 years since then—from the Golden Jubilee of in the Royal Windsor Library. The anthology’s Queen Victoria to the Diamond Jubilee of Queen theme of water draws on the idea that the world’s Elizabeth II—the Empire has given way to a waters connect nations yet, as Alice also explains iv | bookbird IBBY.ORG editorIal in her article, water is a precious resource, and the literature together can meet. Except for Congress anthology has a strong ecocritical focus. The CET Issues, which celebrate the host country’s litera- is now working with experts in New Zealand to ture, the journal editors endeavor to include develop accompanying teachers’ materials to information about children’s books from at address these global issues, with the aim that least three continents in every issue. This is not A River of Stories can become a useful learning always easy, mainly because many of those who resource for children in schools throughout the do exciting work with children and their litera- Commonwealth. ture are either too busy to write up their daily The other CET project we showcase in this activities or are somewhat daunted by the task of issue is from Morag Styles, Professor of Chil- writing in English, or both. With the aid of the dren’s Poetry at the University of Cambridge CET, we were able to contact people who would where the CET has established a Centre for not otherwise have thought to write for Bookbird. Commonwealth Education. In our Children and And we are more than a little pleased that this their Books section, Morag introduces us to the issue contains texts from or about Africa, Asia, Caribbean Poetry Project, which is a collabora- the Caribbean, Europe, the Indian subcontinent, tion between poets, teachers, and scholars, as well North America, and Oceania. Not all the articles as publishers and arts administrators in both the that were submitted and passed peer review could Caribbean and the UK. The project’s main goal is fit into this issue, so they will appear in future to bring children and the vibrant, dynamic poetry issues of the journal. of the Caribbean together, and it has already had We have letters from Mauritius by Sandra some remarkable successes. Williams, from New Zealand by Nicola Daly These two papers are specifically related to the and from South Africa by Jean Williams and Jay CET, but reflect the same values and concerns as Heale, introducing us to the varied literatures IBBY. Both organizations strive to promote inter- of these nations. The complex history of these national understanding through children’s books nations as they shifted away from their colonial and to ensure that children have access to books past to form independent nations is reflected in with high literary and artistic standards. To these their literature for children. Williams and Heale’s ends, both organizations are also involved in the general overview of South African literature is publication and distribution of quality children’s complemented by an article from Tanya Barben in books, especially in developing countries. IBBY which she examines a variety of stories depicting members are often teachers, teacher-trainers one of South Africa’s most iconic landmarks: and/or academics concerned with the interface Table Mountain. Her article traces stories from as between children and their books, and the CET far back as the sixteenth century, and in doing so aims to stimulate such activities by providing reveals a landscape and stories that bring people support and training for those involved in educa- together. tion and encouraging the production of scholarly This connection between landscape, nation- works in the field of children’s literature. With hood, and children’s literature constitutes a domi- so many shared interests, a collaborative issue of nant theme throughout the issue. There have Bookbird was a logical extension of the two organ- recently been several book-length publications on izations’ shared concerns. We were delighted by this topic and reviews of those from South Africa, the response to our call for papers and believe that Ireland—with a part-Commonwealth and the result is a celebration of the diverse range of part non-Commonwealth identity—and New literatures and readers to be found throughout the Zealand are included in our reviews section along Commonwealth of Nations. with a study of race-nation tensions in American As one of the ways in which IBBY dissemi- children’s literature and toys. With the overviews nates the collective interests of this diverse group of national literatures found in the letters, these of people, Bookbird provides a space where those critical works share an interest in how children’s who are passionate about bringing children and literature constructs a sense of nationhood. In our IBBY.ORG 51.1 – 2013 | v editorial

Children and their Books section, Virginia Lowe and their struggles for freedom from violence and addresses this same issue from a different angle: other social evils are undertaken quite literally “on as a parent. Lowe is a mother from Australia who the ground.” Nicole Anae’s discussion of Gwen kept a daily journal of her two children’s engage- Cope, an Australian poet from the 1930s, reveals ments with literature for over five years. In the a different view of children’s engagement with next issue of Bookbird, she describes this process landscape. Gwen Cope began publishing her fairy of documentation in greater detail. In this issue, poems when she was just eight years old. Although she explains how literature contributed to her not widely read today, Cope’s poetry offers a child’s children’s comprehension of nationhood. perspective on her landscape, and Anae’s discus- Lowe’s parental insight into her children’s indi- sion reveals how Cope’s perspective was influ- vidual relationships with the books they read is enced by changing constructions of Australian an invaluable reminder of how idiosyncratic chil- identity in the poems of her adult contempo- dren’s responses can be. She also offers concrete raries. With postcards from five countries and four evidence of how children’s literature can inform continents—St. Kitts (Caribbean), Tanzania and young people’s ability to think about the world Ghana (Africa), Cyprus (Europe), and Canada they inhabit. This focus on education through (North America)—this issue is intended to take literature is taken up by Joyce Armstrong as she readers on a literary journey around the Common- describes a project combining literature and wealth. These snapshots of established and literacy in the Bahamas. The summer Reading emerging literary traditions, brought together in Camps Armstrong describes introduce Baha- one volume, provide an elegant metaphor for the mian children to picture books that engage with Commonwealth itself: a group of nations bound national characteristics and familiar themes, together by history yet flourishing in their indi- providing much-needed support for children who vidual children’s literatures. otherwise have little access to books. Nation- We hope you enjoy this special issue and feel hood, in this sense, becomes more than simply inspired to explore some of the national literatures an acknowledgement of shared characteristics; it we did not have space to include. The Common- becomes a tool for improving reading comprehen- wealth Secretary-General, Kamalesh Sharma, sion and enhancing literacy. has labelled the Commonwealth “a very diverse Nationhood is further explored in the non- community” which—in its wholeness—can fiction Australian books examined by Erica promote “great global wisdom” (Commonwealth). Hately, the Indian children’s films examined by It is in this spirit that we bring you this Common- Jayashree Rajagopalan and the poetry, also from wealth issue of Bookbird so that collectively we Australia, analyzed by Nicole Anae. Just as Alice’s can rise to the challenge of increasing literacy, article on the local and global imagination in enhancing children’s enjoyment of reading and the Commonwealth tales and poems of A River bringing more children and books together. of Stories connects identity to landscape, these articles situate their exploration of nationhood Works Cited within the geographies of Australia and India. TheCommonwealth.org. 5 Oct. 2012. Erica Hately’s study of prize-winning non-fiction pays particular attention to the Anzac figure (a Websites for Further Reference: soldier) and Aborginal culture in the presentation International Board for Books for Young People: of Australian national identity. Jayashree Raja- http://IBBY.org/ gopalan’s article explores the ways in which the The Commonwealth Educational Trust: emerging genre of Indian children’s film constructs http://www.cet1886.org/ notions of national identity through child char- A River of Stories: acters’ struggles against war, terrorism, religious http://www.ariverofstories.com/ intolerance, and alcoholism. These child charac- The Caribbean Poetry Project: ters lead lives closely tied to their local landscapes, http://caribbeanpoetry.educ.cam.ac.uk/about/ vi | bookbird IBBY.ORG A River of Stories of Narrative inRiver A LocalThe and Global of Flow Our Common Earth:

Globalization is rapidly changing the ways in which communities engage with their local landscapes; it is also changing the ways in which such landscapes are represented in literature for children. This article explores the tension exhibited by the Commonwealth Education Trust’s recent publication, A River of Stories (2011), between local and global understandings of human identity. The collection’s focus on environmental crises invites an ecocritical reading. This article questions whether the collection’s “common earth” by Alice Curry motif masks social and environmental inequalities, or whether this motif prompts a collective understanding of environmental crises and a commonality of human response. iterary studies are moving away from nationhood and towards the global. This move prompts Wai Chee Dimock to suggest that reading is a “global process” that turns literature into “the collective life of the planet” (178). Globalization is rapidly Alice Curry read English at Oxford L University before moving to Macquarie changing the ways in which communities engage with their local University in Sydney to complete a Masters landscapes; it is also changing the ways in which these landscapes and Doctorate in Children’s Literature, the latter of which is to be published in are represented in literature for children. If Dimock is correct in the “Critical Approaches to Children’s arguing that literature “holds out a different map, a different time Literature” series by Palgrave Macmillan. scale, predating and outlasting the birth and death of any nation,” it Her research interests lie in postcolonial and Commonwealth children’s literatures is important to analyze how children’s texts represent such globality and ecocritical theory.

(175). Ursula Heise (2008) uses the term “eco- flows of commodities, capital, corporations, cosmopolitanism” to describe the effects of communication, and consumers all over the globalization on humanity’s evolving relationship world,” but as a river of stories flowing freely across with place. As Greta Gaard (2010) and others the globe (76). The collection’s “Foreward,” by have pointed out, however, an eco-cosmopolitan His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales, makes perspective can mask the social inequalities— clear that this local and global flow of narrative is centering on race, gender, class, sexuality and offered as a response to the increasing pressures species—that jeopardize certain communities’ afforded by environmental crises, “from climate interactions with their local environment. The change to the depletion of natural resources and “contour lines” employed by Cindi Katz are more eco-systems, and from food security to unsus- helpful in producing a “topography” of the land- tainable population growth.” The collection rests scapes of children’s fiction (1229, 1228). Such a on the understanding that stories can affect “how topography—or mapping of spatial features— we see our relationship with Nature” and thus encourage us “to think about the kind of future” we wish ourselves and our descendants to inherit …how can a text mediate between (“Foreword”). a sense of earth on a local level The collection’s focus on environmental crisis and the much larger and more invites an ecocritical reading, addressing the ways in which global concerns are mapped onto encompassing “collective life of the the local landscape. The tension between local planet”? and global exhibited by the collection raises an important series of questions. In a world in which addresses the ways in which social practices relating to globalization underpin environmental In a world in which climate representation. The question becomes: how can a text mediate between a sense of earth on a local change disproportionately affects level and the much larger and more encompassing certain peoples and ecologies, does “collective life of the planet”? a common earth motif mask social The Commonwealth Education Trust’s collection, A River of Stories: Tales and Poems from Across and environmental inequalities the Commonwealth, illustrated by Jan Pieńkowski under the banner of commonality? (2011), takes the notion of a “collective life of the planet” as its starting point and embeds that climate change disproportionately affects certain point in its central motif: a river of stories flowing peoples and ecologies, does a common earth between Commonwealth nations. Such fluidity motif mask social and environmental inequalities is set against the abiding presence of a common under the banner of commonality? Does such a earth, an earth that is not simply the only earth motif free individual organizations, governments, to which humanity has access but also an earth or nations from responsibility for the earth’s shared by all nations. In its focus on the natural care? A more pertinent question for this collec- world, and particularly the world’s waters, the tion, perhaps, is whether such commonality is a collection reveals a preoccupation with story’s product of the same imperial ideologies that have capacity to retain a localized sense of place while resulted in a shared colonial history for a set of crossing national borders to reach a global child disparate countries ranged geographically across readership. The collection thus offers an alterna- the globe? Such questions feed into Katz’s delin- tive reading of global expansion by envisaging it, eation of “doing” a topography, which she defines not as a force driven by a free-market economy, or as carrying “out a detailed examination of some what Luke and Tuathail term the “friction-free part of the material world, defined at any scale

2 | bookbird IBBY.ORG Our Common Earth from the body to the global, in order to under- whilst still retaining its integrity. This attention stand its salient features and their mutual and to the local and particular is a response to the broader relationships” (1228). To “do a topog- fragmentation or homogenization of identity raphy” of A River of Stories is to map such “salient often noted as an effect of global expansion. features” and to reveal the collection’s underlying The global earth, by contrast, is one that preoccupation with the consumption, depletion calls attention to the imbalanced distribution of and disposal of natural resources. The answers wealth and privilege that results in non-western to the questions posed above—if answers are to peoples and fragile ecologies bearing the effects be found—arise through contemplating the ways of climate crises (Mies & Shiva). Friends of the in which such an ecoconscious preoccupation Earth International defines “climate debt” as “a can prompt a collective understanding of envi- special case of environmental injustice” whereby ronmental crisis and a commonality of human industrialized countries accrue “ecological debts” response. as a result of over-consumption. These “debts” are brought to the readers’ attention in the tales Fiji and Barbados: Consuming that employ interlocking discourses of consump- the Common Earth tion and depletion to reveal the vulnerability of The fifty-four tales and poems of the collection the poorest nations to environmental disaster. are caught in tension between a local and global Awareness of the increasing fragility of much of understanding of human identity. A bioregional focus on the local valorizes connections to particular landscapes—the frangipani trees of Samoa, for instance, or the veld of southern Africa—and appears particularly attuned to the experiences of women and children. This local earth is one that encourages a felt and lived connection with the environment, circumscribing the human race within daily earth-centered rituals such as cooking (Malawi), cleaning (Tonga), bathing (Vanuatu), and collecting water (Botswana). It is an earth that retains voice and agency through the water gods (Nigeria), ice kings (Canada), river fairies the developing world provides the darker antith- (Uganda), and sea devils (Grenada) who manage esis to the “collective life” understanding of a common earth. These tales are underpinned by The fifty-four tales and poems an awareness of weakening relationships between humans and the earth and a fear that the natural of the collection are caught in world will demand retribution. tension between a local and global The tales in the collection from Fiji and understanding of human identity. Barbados—small island states suffering from rising sea levels—draw attention to the environ- the world’s meteorological cycles and who advo- mental consequences of resource depletion and cate respect and reverence for the natural world. human greed. Pleasant DeSpain’s retelling of The traditional myths incorporated in the collec- the traditional tale “Cooking with Salt Water” tion embody unique and collective understand- from Fiji is set in a fictional time “long, long ago” ings of Commonwealth landscapes and of the when the Pacific islands were under the gover- capricious workings of natural phenomena. These nance of “the great chiefs Sun and Sea” (18). An tales render the earth capable of performing as old woman, Amara, learns that her village has backdrop to the “collective life of the planet” run out of salt and leaves her mountain home to

IBBY.ORG 51.1 – 2013 | 3 Our Common Earth

journey down to the sea to collect salt water in the hope that her cooking will be “the envy of everyone in the village” (18). Having collected a gourd-full of water on the high tide, Amara looks back at the sea from midway up the mountain and sees the water at its low tide level. Shocked that her actions have caused the sea to shrink, Amara returns the “stolen” water and travels back to her village empty-handed (21). Exploitation of the natural environment—however trivial—is here envisaged as theft underpinned by human ignorance. Since Amara’s father died when Chief Sea “swallowed him up” in anger, the capacity of the sea to consume or be consumed is central to this ideological portrayal of island existence (18). In Fiji, where the very real threat of rising sea levels is a daily reality for the island’s inhabitants, such a focus on consumption argues for a direct correlation between practices of consumerism and the safety and security of low-lying coastal regions. Amara’s decision to steal from Chief Sea—motivated by a desire to be the “envy” of the village rather than to provide sustenance for the wider community—feeds into current discourses of capitalist self-actu- alization that reward the self-advancing individual rather than those who demonstrate selflessness, community spirit, or a drive for collective empowerment. That Amara must learn to “cook without salt…just like the other villagers” suggests that this leveling of humanity in the face of nature’s retributive “anger” is not only deserved but also a necessary step to ensure a more respectful and sustainable relationship with the planet (21). An adapted extract from Timothy Callender’s “The Legend of the Golden Apple Tree,” told in Barbadian Creole, is similarly preoccupied with consumerist discourses that invest the earth with monetary value. On the tropical island of Barbados where an enormous fruit tree bears apples the color of gold, an islander named John Ibo heads out to sea and is captured by pirates. The pirate Captain hears John Ibo murmuring in his sleep about golden apples and forces the islander to take him to the tree on which they grow. Having arrived in Barbados, the Captain is devastated to find that the golden apples are a type of fruit and, worse still, that the remaining pirates have stolen his ship and are disappearing over the horizon. The Captain ends his life at the end of the hangman’s noose with “neither gold nor golden apples now” (68). Pieńkowski’s accompanying illustration shows the Captain lying on the ground, golden apples raining down around him. The image is enigmatic—is the Captain kicking apples into the air or are they pummeling him from above?—and serves to position the reader at an angle closer to the absent

4 | bookbird IBBY.ORG Our Common Earth tree than to the pirate and his failed commodification of the apples. Like the tempting fruit of the Garden of Eden, the golden apples of this Barbadian tree are the environmental symbols of human greed. This focus on gold is a poignant reminder of the centrality of economic factors in determining the extent to which a particular ecology bears the effects of crisis. The tree with golden apples—through the Captain’s eyes—takes on a quasi-mythical status that renders it “better than the goose that laid the golden egg” (67). Both the tree and the goose are defined through their economic use-value to humans rather than their intrinsic natural worth. Maternal language is used to gender the egg- laying goose and the tree that “bear[s] once a year” female (67). The Captain’s desire to “settle down, and farm golden apples” is thus a form of systematized exploitation of female reproduction (68). The Captain’s lack of respect for humans and nonhumans alike thus gives his awareness that he is living “on borrowed time” an ecological emphasis: “He know night does run till daylight catch it. He know that the longest day got an ending, that time longer than rope but shorter than elastic, and that the sand in the hour-glass going soon run out” (67). Viewed in light of an ecology threatened by over- consumption, this intimation of impending doom is re-inscribed as the plight of Mother Earth itself.

The Bahamas and Malta: Disposing of the Common Earth In its wider drive to promote sustainable relationships between humans and the planet, the collection offers representations of the common earth as a space shared not only between nations but also between species. The wider ecological web in which humans are enmeshed is evoked in traditional anthropomorphic tales that explore human values through the lens of animal behavior and that personify the elements in explication of nature’s meteorological patterns. The common earth of the collection harbors nosy elephants (Swaziland), clever tortoises (Tanzania), brave monkeys (Malaysia), and cunning chameleons (Nigeria); it is an earth in which rain and fire (Namibia), sand and stars (Papua New Guinea), and wind and river (Guyana) struggle to maintain ecological balance. Since mythical renditions of the historical landscape are often closely tied to particular spatialities, they can reflect what Richa Nagar terms the “uneven geographies” of global politics (32). These uneven geographies are especially visible in the ecologies that are most frequently and most damagingly subject to environmental pollution. Through a visible concern over waste and disposability, the collection renders the common earth motif an ambiguous referent for shared responsibility in light of the “toxic discourses” of globalization (Di Chiro 200).

IBBY.ORG 51.1 – 2013 | 5 Our Common Earth

Ashley Saunders’s poem from the Bahamas, underpinned by the awareness that western chil- “The March of the Hermit Crabs in the Rain,” dren living in urban areas often have only limited undertakes an uncomfortable integration of access to the natural world. When a young boy, human and natural habitats. In stanzas arranged Sumed, passes the seashell he has found on the diagonally across the page, hermit crabs leave beach while visiting his grandmother around their hiding places at the approach of rain and his multicultural school classroom, each child march across the beach under cover of shells listens to the shell and recounts the sounds they “found washed upon the shore” (41). These shells hear inside it. These sounds—including dolphins range from a perfume bottle cap to an old clay jumping, fishermen with oars splashing, birds pipe under the witty proviso that “finding a shell singing, the wind in the trees, dogs barking and that fits isn’t / always that easy in life” (41). This children playing—prompt Sumed to conclude humorous rendition of the creatures’ use of objects that “[t]here must be a bit of my granny’s village thrown into the sea as waste is underpinned by a caught in the shell” (25). The class’s collective more unsettling awareness that the over-produc- interest in Sumed’s shell and their combined tion of goods in industrialized countries often efforts to interpret the sounds inside it suggest has damaging consequences for the environment. that such an imaginative investment in the Human waste in the form of non-biodegradable natural world unites children of differing back- garbage results in the crabs quite literally bearing grounds. Not only does the natural scene remind the burden as they “settle for” a bottle cap or pipe. Sumed of his “granny’s village” but also recalls for Dith Tu trees “like the ones back home”; the The class’s collective interest in natural world has the capacity to inspire feelings of familiarity that surmount cultural and Sumed’s shell and their combined geographic borders (25). “[G]rown-ups”—noted efforts to interpret the sounds inside in child’s register—are “calling to the children it suggest that such an imaginative to be careful,” watching over them fondly as they play and swim; the earth gains an associa- investment in the natural world tion with the protective role of older generations unites children of differing and the wisdom and knowledge passed from one generation to the next (25). The children’s use of backgrounds. sensory perception to call forth this alternative “But what does it matter?” the reader is asked in image of environmental harmony adds a sense the final stanza, under the assurance that “To of “magic” to their otherwise formal interaction hermit crabs it’s all the same” (41). We might with the world (25). question whether this dismissal of the crabs’ Yet while the natural world is given continuity polluted habitats is as comical as Pieńkowski’s and dependency by its association with “my gran- accompanying illustration in which crabs wander ny’s village,” it also reveals a failure of “grown-ups” across the bottom of the page bearing tea cups, to nourish childish visions of a common earth old boots, beer jugs and a cowboy hat. If same- (25). The teacher dismisses the natural sounds in ness is taken as an indication of collective expe- the seashell as a product of the children’s over- rience, one might further question whether this active imaginations and drops the shell into the representation of commonality is successful in classroom fish tank before rushing the children engendering a sense of shared responsibility or out to play. Her refusal to accept the children’s whether it encourages a collective apathy towards creativity functions as an effective dismissal of continuing abuse of the local landscape. their imaginative engagement with the environ- Saviour Pirotta’s Maltese story “Do You ment. Such a conclusion relegates the natural Believe in Magic?”—a tale about a shell that world to a traveler’s trinket or transient curiosity, is similarly found washed up on the shore—is easily thrown away by its human collectors. That

6 | bookbird IBBY.ORG Our Common Earth the teacher later takes the class “out to play” is the “common earth” of a globalized world. Such ironic in the context of her earlier dismissal since commonality is more uncomfortable still when the reader might question what kind of “outside” viewed through the lens of Britain’s imperial world will be left for the children to inherit (25). history and the postcolonial heritage that most The tale warns of the dangers of segregating the Commonwealth countries share. natural world from human conceptions of iden- However, while commonality can function tity and selfhood; if the natural world—in the as a tool for promoting imperial ideologies and form of the seashell—can remain beautiful and for dislocating humans from the local landscape, isolated within the confines of the classroom the ecoconscious narrative trajectory of A River fish tank, it can attract the children’s gaze but of Stories renders this interpretation redundant. not their interaction. Such an image calls atten- The collection rests on the understanding that tion to the sense of ecological dislocation often children are capable of making ethical choices experienced by urban communities. The tale inti- in relation to their interaction with the environ- mates an underlying anxiety that, in the context ment. A reading of this collection in the context of increasing globalization, a sense of belonging of worsening environmental crisis points not only to the local landscape is no longer an attainable to the tales’ increasing relevance to a modern goal; it is already a nostalgic construct. child readership but also to the capacity of the common earth motif to provoke a sense of shared Conclusion: A Turn Towards the “world responsibility in the struggle for planetary health. as a whole” The two common perspectives in the critical Through a focus on local and literature on globalization that Anthony D. King identified two decades ago—“the rejection of global understandings of human the nationally-constituted society as the appro- identity, the collection foregrounds priate object of discourse” and “a commitment the discourses of disposability and to conceptualizing ‘the world as a whole’”—still underpin contemporary conceptions of human consumerism that often underpin community (ix). Cartographic historian Denis our interactions with the earth. Cosgrove (1994), however, has pointed out that the concept of the “world as a whole” can provoke To “do a topography” of the landscapes of A two competing representations of the planet: the River of Stories is to uncover the ways in which “whole earth” and the “one world.” The former— countries across the Commonwealth conceptu- associated with fragility and vulnerability—high- alize their relationship with the natural world. lights human responsibility for care of the earth; As Katz contends: “[r]evealing the embeddedness the latter—associated with “the expansion of a of [social] practices in place and space in turn specific socio-political order across space”—erases invites the vivid revelation of social and polit- political boundaries and establishes financial, ical difference and inequality” (1228). Through media and communications networks in their a focus on local and global understandings of place (290). Neither of these planetary images is human identity, the collection foregrounds the free from a sense of human ownership: “[b]oth discourses of disposability and consumerism that interpretations insist on the globality of the image, often underpin our interactions with the earth. both are inattentive to the specificity of their The collection’s turn towards “the world as a cultural and historical assumptions; and, in prac- whole” thus functions as an attempt to achieve tice, both obscure local perspectives on the world the encompassing vision of stories wrapped in their claim to speak for a common humanity” protectively around a fragile globe. Such an (288). The “common humanity” of the “world as image is elegantly relayed in Abena P.A. Busia’s a whole” shares an uncomfortable resemblance to poem “Mawu of the Waters” from Ghana, about

IBBY.ORG 51.1 – 2013 | 7 Our Common Earth

a creator goddess “[w]ith mountains as my footstool / And stars in my curls” (137). The goddess’s transformation into the world’s waters— capable of nourishing a parched and thirsty earth—can be read as indicative of the need to nourish the “collective life of the planet.” Through use of a discourse of shared responsibility that transcends cultural and geographic borders, the poem calls attention to the importance of valo- rizing human connection to the natural environment not as a pursuit defined by nations but as a universal human endeavor. In a world of increasing dislocation from local community, this is an idea not without hope. In Pieńkowski’s accompanying illustration, the silhouetted goddess tiptoes, as if dancing, across the rounded globe. With a river curving away towards the horizon through a bank of blue, purple and yellow flowers nestled in green grass, the image inspires hope in humanity’s capacity to tread lightly upon the earth. The common earth of this Commonwealth collection thus engenders a sense of collective responsibility rather than disengagement from our planetary home.

Works Cited

Children’s Book Curry, Alice, ed. A River of Stories: Tales and Poems from Across the Commonwealth. Illus. Jan Pieńkowski. London: Commonwealth Education Trust, 2011. Print.

Secondary Sources Cosgrove, Denis. “Contested Global Visions: One-World, Whole-Earth, and the Apollo Space Photographs.” Annals of the Association of American Geographers 84.2 (1994): 270-294. Print. Di Chiro, Giovanna. “Polluted Politics? Confronting Toxic Discourse, Sex Panic, and Eco-Normativity.” Queer Ecologies: Sex, Nature, Politics, Desire. Eds. C. Mortimer-Sandilands and B. Erickson. Indiana: Indiana UP, 2010. 199-230. Print. Dimock, Wai Chee. “Literature for the Planet.” Globalising Literary Studies. Ed. Giles Gunn. Spec. issue of PMLA 116.1 (2001): 173-88. Print. Friends of the Earth International. “Climate Debt: Making Historical Responsibility Part of the Solution.” Web. 19 September 2012. Gaard, Greta. “New Directions for Ecofeminism: Toward a More Feminist Ecocriticism.” ISLE 17.4 (2010): 643-665. Print. Heise, Ursula. Sense of Place and Sense of Planet: The Environmental Imagination of the Global. New York: Oxford UP, 2008. Print. 8 | bookbird IBBY.ORG Our Common Earth

King, Anthony D, ed. Culture, Globalisation, and the World-System. Binghamton: Department of Art and Art History, State U of New York and Binghamton P, 1991. Print. Katz, Cindi. “On the Grounds of Globalization: A Topography for Feminist Political Engagement.” Signs 26.4 (2001): 1213-1234. Print. Luke, T., and Tuathail, G. “Global Flowmations, Local Fundamental- isms, and Fast Geopolitics.” Unruly world: Globalization, Governance and Geography. Eds. A. Herod, G. Tuathail and S. Roberts. London: Routledge, 1998. 72-94. Print. Mies, Maria and Vandana Shiva. Ecofeminism. Halifax, NS: Fernwood, 1993. Print. Nagar, Richa. “Mapping Feminisms and Difference.” Mapping Women, Making Politics: Feminist Perspectives on Political Geography. Eds. L.A. Staeheli, E. Kofman & L.J. Peake. New York: Routledge, 2004. 31-48. Print.

Images from A River of Stories © Jan Pieńkowski.

lic o b f Dogodogo is a collection of personal stories told by Isaac, Moses, Edward, u

Amos, Aloys, Rajabu, Dickson, and Emmanuel. What began as a p a

i e strategy to practice the past tense in the first person by telling stories led R 2009 n to the production of this emotional collection: the individual and collective T a experiences of street children in Tanzania. Although the stories are different, a n z they share common themes of pain, loss, and rejection. The book is written by Kasia Parham, a volunteer teacher of English at the Dogodogo center, compiled from the children’s oral accounts. Dogodogo means “little” and is a common Kiswahili term used in Tanzania to refer to a child. Parham allows the children to tell their own stories of how they endured poverty, hunger, domestic violence, child labor, and deprivation of basic necessities. Kasia Parham The children recount how they ran away to Dar es Salaam to escape their harsh lives, but when they got to the city, realized that, to most of the Dogodogo: Tanzanian Street adults, they were invisible. Although the children tell their heart-rending Children Tell Their Stories stories of hardship, they also exhibit a resolve and determination to find a better future: as they put it: “[w]e survived the streets, we can survive, Dar es Salaam: Macmillan Aidan, 2009 we can manage”. The children have not only told the stories, but also 49pp. ISBN 978-0-230-72212-5 illustrated parts of the book, showcasing some of the talents that have been (non-fiction, 12+) harnessed by the Dogodogo center. Lilian Vikiru

IBBY.ORG 51.1 – 2013 | 9 Social and Indiv-

The Indian children’s film industry lacks the attention enjoyed by its adult counterpart, commercial cinema, yet several Indian films for and about children have created a distinct space for themselves. This article examines four Indian idual Hope in Indian Children’s Cinema Children’s Indian in Hope idual Heal the World, Make It a It a Make World, the Heal Better Place: children’s films that delve into contemporary socio- by Jayashree Rajagopalan political issues, contrast individual hope with social despair, and end with the onset of social hope through children. In the process, they highlight the romantic ideologies of redemption and reform in Indian children’s literature and cinema. ndia is known to be the world’s largest annual producer of films. Given this fact, it might be easy to assume that children’s films An aspiring PhD scholar and children’s- fiction writer, Jayashree Rajagopalan is occupy a sizeable share in this annual production. However, an ESL-certified academic editor and the Indian children’s film industry does not receive the attention works with a pioneering editing firm in I India. During her second master’s degree enjoyed by commercial or mainstream cinema such as Bollywood, in Children’s Literature from Macquarie which produces films in Hindi, Tollywood, in Telugu, Mollywood, University, Sydney, she developed a keen interest in different forms of Indian in Malayalam, or Pollywood, in Bhojpuri. The bulk of Indian children’s literature, particularly films. films are concerned with stock themes that appeal to an adult

© 2013 by Bookbird, Inc. Heal the World, Make It a Better Place audience—romantic love, lust, fantasy, adultery, violence, vengeance, morality, devotion, humor, relationships, friendship, or betrayal—often combining all into one masala film masala( , in Hindi, is the mixture of spices and condiments that lend Indian cuisine its distinctive flavor). In these films, children mostly feature as an element of comic relief or as stock characters who symbolize innocence, or they are used to reveal the softer side of an aggressive hero’s personality. In Mr. India (1988), which is very popular among children, the protagonist Arun is a poor but phil- anthropic adult who adopts abandoned orphans and, with their help, tackles an anti-social villain. In the love story Raja Hindustani [Indian King] (1996), the boisterous Rajnikanth functions as the passionate hero’s cute sidekick. In the blockbuster Kuch Kuch Hota Hai [Something Happens] (1998), eight-year old Anjali fulfills the wishes of her dead mother and plays cupid between her widowed father and his estranged best friend from college; as the narrative progresses, the entire focus shifts to her father’s romantic escapades. Although non-mainstream cinema in India experiments with a broader range of themes and film- making techniques, not many films include children. Children’s films are rarely discussed in the media, except when they involve popular actors (e.g., Aamir Khan’s In spite of receiving little Taare Zameen Par [Stars on Earth], 2007), are showcased at international film festivals (e.g., commercial backing or success, Rajan Khosa’s 2011 release Gattu), or win acco- several Indian films for and lades (e.g., Vishal Bharadwaj’s 2002 release about children stand out from the Makdee [Spider]). Indian cinema is largely for and about adults. crowd by adopting an idealistic, Where, then, is the child in Indian cinema? Do and occasionally postcolonial, filmmakers who treat themes and aspects related to childhood stand a chance? For as grim as this standpoint: they present children reality sounds, there seems to be a ray of hope. as primary focalizers and radical In spite of receiving little commercial backing or action-takers. success, several Indian films for and about children stand out from the crowd by adopting an idealistic, and occasionally postcolonial, standpoint: they present children as primary focalizers and radical action-takers. They delve into themes inspired by socio- political realities, revealing ideologies that are essentially hopeful and that herald the onset of social reform through children. In what follows, I extend Roberta Trites’s outline of American novels of social hope— “that admit the possibility of reform” and convey the message that “with self-improvement, you can improve the world” (3)—to Indian children’s cinema to look at four such films in three Indian languages. Santosh Sivan’s Hindi film Tahaan (2008), set in a war-ravaged valley, portrays how Tahaan, the child protagonist, chooses a path of non-violence. Jayashree Kanal and A. S. Kanal’s Chota Sipahi [Little Soldier] (2005, in Hindi) portrays a child’s perspective on, and struggle against, colonialism. In his Gujarati production Harun-Arun [the two names of the child protagonist] (2009), Vinod Ganatra explores Hindu-Muslim

IBBY.ORG 51.1 – 2013 | 11 Heal the World, Make It a Better Place communal conflicts and places his protagonist choices the children make, particularly those at the center of religious intolerance and fanati- that place their own lives in danger. Tahaan is cism. Ramchandra P. N.’s Kannada film Putaani set in the picturesque northernmost Indian valley Party [The Children’s Party] (2009) is about a of Jammu & Kashmir, which has been a hotbed unique partially-empowered children’s faction of militant activity. The film traces eight-year- that thwarts the vested financial and political old Tahaan’s struggles to retrieve his favorite interests of adults to solve various rural prob- donkey, Birbal, who has been sold by his poor lems, including alcoholism. These films place family after the disappearance of his father and the child at the center of their cinematic narra- sudden death of his grandfather. In a powerful tives of growth. They chart the progress of the opening, Sivan’s self-reflexive statement sets the protagonists in particular and society in general mood: “This film is a fable with fictitious char- from individual and social despair to hope and acters and non-fictitious incidents.” The initial reform. Thus, these films support the expecta- credits are displayed against a series of animated tion that children’s cinema tends to be optimistic brushstroke images of nature: a donkey, and a and conveys the possibility of positive change young boy, each distorted by drops of randomly through affirmative action. splashed red paint. This coloring symbolizes the bloodshed that has tainted the valley’s pristine beauty and many innocent childhoods. A child (Tahaan) dressed in a rather oversized Kashmiri robe shouts “Birbalaaa,” his call echoing through the pale, snowy terrain that spreads out as far as the eye can see. At once, the child’s insignificance and helplessness against the icy surroundings are highlighted. What the eye cannot see the ears can hear and the mind can imagine: Tahaan’s cries, the eerie silence as he enters a deserted zone, and the sudden echoing sounds of shelling convey the dangers with which he is faced. Sivan establishes Tahaan as a fable by using the donkey as a “dolly” to film point-of-view shots and zoomed-in frames of Birbal’s eyes, ears, and nose that indicate what he sees, hears, feels, and senses. The result is an insider’s view of Birbal’s world. Tahaan’s interactions with the adults around him are shown using high-and Many Lives at Stake: Tahaan and Chota low-angle frames, indicating his powerlessness. Sipahi Tahaan encounters a group of children enacting The storylines of Tahaan and Chota Sipahi a militant shootout; the children have imitated are situated in life-threatening circumstances the violence in minute detail, from choosing where violence is a part of daily life. The soci- weapon-like branches to drawing fake beards. eties to which the child protagonists belong The fact that Tahaan does not react to any of have witnessed military and communal strife for this, casually addressing them as “militant bhai” many years. There is no escape from the tyranny [brother militant] while they play dead, exposes of terrorism in Tahaan or from colonial domi- the sheer banality of the violence that has perme- nation in Chota Sipahi. Both films engage their ated the lives of Tahaan’s people. Later, Tahaan child protagonists in life-threatening military spots icicles around a tree’s frozen roots, which action and emphasize the consequences of the bear a striking resemblance to weapons. This

12 | bookbird IBBY.ORG Heal the World, Make It a Better Place defining cinematic moment seems to indicate Portuguese colonial domination. The opening that even nature has started participating in and sequence of the film portrays a child in fisher- responding to the bloodshed in the valley. man’s clothing frolicking in the sea, simple fisher In a desperate attempt to retrieve Birbal, folk, and the oppressive manner in which the Tahaan befriends Idrees, a teenage militant, Portuguese treats them. The use of low-contrast and unwittingly becomes his aide by accepting a lighting reveals the natural simplicity of the suspicious looking parcel and hand grenade for primary characters and their actions. The entire safekeeping. To the viewer, Tahaan’s life seems film is shot like a stage play, with most of the to be spiraling out of control. The gravity of his characters facing the audience, that is, the camera. situation is conveyed through shallow-focus shots Partial close-up frames of characters allow the where he struggles to conceal the grenade like a audience to view the facial expressions and body precious object. Tahaan does not realize that his language of the characters closely, thus bringing decision to befriend and help Idrees will place his out the thematic and emotional elements of the people in great danger; a few days later, Idrees narrative. Dialogue and plot also take precedence asks him to fling the grenade at the Indian army over complicated cinematographic techniques. camp. Just as Tahaan is about to follow Idrees’ instructions, he spots his missing father; Birbal and his friend also walk toward him at the same time. The sight of his loved ones leads to a frantic epiphany that changes Tahaan’s life. He recoils in horror as he realizes the implications of the Tahaan is replete with symbols of war and peace, of degradation and reform. It conveys the possibility of change—in a valley that faces terror every day, a child can choose to reject violence. horrific act he almost committed and drops the grenade into a river instead. Tahaan’s journey indicates his growth from helplessness and self- Jozé belongs to the simple but hardworking concern to empowering awareness and a sense Goan fishermen’s community and is unaware of of social responsibility. Tahaan is replete with the political unrest in Goa. His parents “don’t symbols of war and peace, of degradation and want to get involved in the freedom struggle. reform. It conveys the possibility of change—in Such jobs are not for poor people.” Although a valley that faces terror every day, a child can his parents cannot afford his education, Jozé choose to reject violence. is rewarded with free schooling after rescuing Young Jozé of Chota Sipahi does not need a drowning schoolchild. He zealously guards an epiphany to realize his mission of fighting his secret hideout—a hidden cove—where he for freedom. Inspired by Surekha Panandikar’s encounters Mangesh, a.k.a “Clever Fox,” a novella Bridge at Borim (1999), Jayashree Kanal freedom fighter. This encounter functions as the and A. S. Kanal’s Chota Sipahi is set in the early ideological turning point in the narrative of Chota 1960s, when the Indian coastal territory of Sipahi. At once, it becomes clear that Jozé will Goa was liberated from a long and oppressive play a part in Goa’s struggle for independence. He

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devours the book Mangesh gives him, titled The Establishment of Swaraj [self-governance]. Gradually, his ignorance changes to acute awareness of the colonial domination of Goa. Throughout the film, medium long-shot frames are used to ensure that Jozé is fully visible to specta- tors within and outside the frame—he is not powerless; he has opinions of his own, and makes his decisions himself. It is significant that Jozé plans Mangesh’s escape following a dance-troupe’s performance during the Hindu festival of Ganesh Chaturthi. Ganesh Chaturthi was popularized by Indian freedom fighter Lokmanya Tilak to espouse unity and nationalism during the British rule. The performance, a staged story within the cinematic narrative, abounds in metaphors of colonization, freedom, and disguise. A fisherman’s innocent daughter is captured by a scheming stranger—an outsider—and yearns for freedom; the naïve daughter and her kidnapper symbolize Goa and its capture by the Portu- guese, respectively. Later, Mangesh hands Jozé a small Indian flag and asks him to “keep it close to your heart”: a symbol of the larger country of which Jozé yearns to be a part. In the climax sequence, Jozé overhears the Portuguese scheme to blow up the Bori Bridge and foil the Indian army’s attempt to take over Portuguese forces. Jozé realizes that this move will thwart Goan liberation and he decides to help the Indian army. Extreme long-shots show him swimming across the vast river, narrowly escaping gunfire. Jozé manages to warn the Indian army who change their entry route into Goa. Thus, what begins as a long era of oppressive colonization in Chota Sipahi ends as “Operation Vijay” [victory] due to the fearless determination of Jozé. A concluding deep-focus shot shows Jozé unfurling the Indian flag. The ideology in Chota Sipahi is nationalistic and borders on extreme romanticism: freedom from colonization is essential and children can play a part in this liberation. Jozé is now the Little Soldier: his life is no longer his own; it belongs to his motherland.

Young Diplomats to the Rescue: Harun-Arun and Putaani Party Harun-Arun and Putaani Party deal with social inequalities caused by religious communalism and alcoholism, respectively. In both films, adults who choose to ignore their ability to reason consider the children powerless, and this leads the children to question notions blindly followed by adults. Unlike their counterparts, Jozé and Tahaan, the child protagonists in these two films resolve their dilemmas through peaceful and diplomatic means, using reason to highlight the adults’ idiosyncrasies and to take power into their own hands. Their choice of action literally changes people’s mindsets, thus conveying children’s potential to bring about socio-political reform. In Harun-Arun and Putaani Party, character development, narration, and interpretation are an important part of the cinematic narrative. Harun-Arun is the story of a boy with two names, one Muslim and one Hindu. An introductory narration sets the historical perspective:

14 | bookbird IBBY.ORG Heal the World, Make It a Better Place during the India-Pakistan partition of 1947, thousands of Hindus and Muslims voluntarily migrated between the two countries and others were forcibly moved. The violence and carnage they witnessed in the process created a rift between Hindus and Muslims. Harun- Arun reflects the undercurrents of this horrific communal history. The film is set in the Thar Desert region shared by India and Pakistan. Rashid Suleman is a former migrant who illegally returns to India through the desert. Rashid is with his grandson, Harun. The opening sequence of the film portrays Harun and Rashid journeying across an empty, endless desert. Rashid hums the Guajarati translation of Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore’s Bengali composition Ekla Chalo Re [Walk Alone: my translation]: “If no one responds to your call, carry on walking alone.” Harun sings a classic Bollywood song Mera Joota Hai Japani: “My shoes are Japanese, my trousers are English, the red hat I wear is Russian, yet my heart is Indian” [my translation]. Both songs reflect the thematic undertones of the film. Ekla Chalo Re exhorts the listener to deal with the difficulties in life with dogged determination, particularly when there is no support from anyone around. This song is often quoted in the context of major social or political movements. Mera Joota indicates an acceptance of global influences without tarnishing the nationalistic spirit. It gained popularity both in India and internationally, especially for its communist leanings. Later in the film, Harun fights his battle against religious intolerance alone and discards differences associated with religion and nationality to embrace humanity as his faith. While travelling through the desert, Rashid and Harun are separated, and Harun meets and befriends three children who hear his name incorrectly and call him “Arun” (a Hindu name) instead: The Muslim boy from Pakistan becomes Hindu in India. Thus, boundaries and religious labels are dissolved as the children prioritize the humanitarian act of protecting Harun. Harun gradually wins over Valbai, the children’s mother, through his affectionate and resourceful nature. Valbai’s affection for Harun is put to the test when she discovers him openly offering Namaaz (the Islamic prayer ritual) in her house. In a dramatic slow-motion sequence, the audience sees Valbai drop her earthen water pitcher, highlighting her shock and dilemma—a Muslim boy in a Hindu household. A horrified Valbai reacts violently and Harun fails to understand this:

Harun: How am I at fault?…I thought, over here, people refer to “Harun” as “Arun.” Valbai (enraged): How can you think so? Don’t you see the difference between “Harun” and “Arun”? Harun (desperately pleading): What difference does it make? Whether you call me “Harun” or “Arun,” it will still be me. It is one and the same. [My translation]

IBBY.ORG 51.1 – 2013 | 15 Heal the World, Make It a Better Place

Valbai realizes her folly and reconciles with deals with substance abuse at the rural household Harun. However, the villagers accuse her of level and covers the larger argument of a child’s being a traitor and Harun, a spy. Throughout ability to reason with adults. Ramchandra P. N. the confrontational exchange between Valbai reveals that his child protagonists “have discus- and the villagers Ganatra keeps all the charac- sions and dialogues through which they want to ters within the frame, including Harun; he forms get themselves heard. The subject matter of the an important part of the change that is to come. film itself is that they are in a conversation.” Shot The villagers decide to test Valbai’s integrity by in realistic documentary style in a rural setting, forcing her to place her hands in boiling oil—an the film opens with a dedication: “To the chil- ancient practice based on the superstition that dren of Keradi and to all the socially organized only the innocent remain unharmed. Harun and children of the world.” The rural setting is estab- Valbai’s children are shocked at the adults’ lack lished in several panning crane shots, and in of perspective. A poignant high-contrast frame shows Valbai’s children and Harun anxiously huddled around her on the night before the test. Harun cannot tolerate the injustice and decides Ganatra makes no attempt to mask the hopeful ideology in Harun- Arun. He challenges the mindless physical, emotional, and spiritual violence inflicted by religious intolerance by placing Harun, a child, at the center of the conflict. to save Valbai and enlighten the villagers. Following his instructions, Valbai’s children offer hot tea to the villagers without glasses and coax them to drink the tea directly from several important sequences dialogue precedes cupped palms, a recommendation that is rejected the visual—the viewer hears the children speak or immediately. Harun gently reminds them that reason before seeing them. “Putaani Party” refers if hot tea can burn their hands, the boiling oil to a self-elected children’s wing in the Gram will certainly scald Valbai. Valbai is spared, the Panchayat [village governing body] of Keradi superstitious custom banished, and Harun is district in the south Indian state of Karnataka. reunited with her. Ganatra makes no attempt to Ramchandra P. N. has based this fictional film mask the hopeful ideology in Harun-Arun. He on his 2007 documentary Makkala Panchayat challenges the mindless physical, emotional, and [Children’s Governing Body]. His illuminating spiritual violence inflicted by religious intoler- documentary showcases five children’s groups in ance by placing Harun, a child, at the center of Karnataka that drive reforms in their respective the conflict. villages. One group actually organized a move- The reformist ideologies in Tahaan, Harun- ment to ban the distribution of illicit liquor. Arun, and Chota Sipahi are unmistakably nation- The adolescent members of this party—Anil, alistic or communal. By involving children in Geeta, Gaarya, Hussain, and Chandru—take politics, Ramchandra P. N.’s Putaani Party pres- seriously their empowerment to drive social ents a completely different kind of idealism that change. They are supported by “Neelu teacher”

16 | bookbird IBBY.ORG Heal the World, Make It a Better Place and the Panchayat head “Deshpande Sir.” Desh- rupees annually on alcohol alone. The children pande’s willingness to help them is driven by his know that they will not be heard by the adults political interests and desire for publicity. From and decide to voice their opinions at a public the outset, it is clear that while the adults are forum. Instead of showing the staggering figure corrupt and harbor selfish interests, Neelu and to the fickle Deshpande, Geeta shares their find- the children use organized political power to ings while giving a speech in honor of a visiting introduce reform. Neelu is perceived as a trouble- Health Minister. She makes her point when she maker despite her genuine support of the cause says, “Some of us don’t have school uniforms. of the Party. “Ideology is always a matter of poli- Some of us don’t have textbooks. Streetlights tics,” and it “consists of the ideas that support don’t have bulbs in them. We have taps, but no and empower particular segments of society” water comes out of them. Our roads are unsur- (Nodelman and Reimer 80). Ideologically, this faced, yet we spend 28 lakh rupees on liquor.” film underlines an observation often made in chil- This definitive move leaves the adults speechless; dren’s literature criticism: the sense of power that they have no choice but to take the matter seri- is characteristic of adulthood is in fact verified ously. In a final frame breaking moment, Geeta’s and maintained through the control of children. gaze shifts to the audience outside the frame. She Although children are capable of forming their looks into the camera lens and demands, “Can own views independently, Deshpande mocks you do something about this?” This powerful them—“Within a few days you have learned the question undeniably addresses Indian households language of our village governing body”—and that deal with the grim reality of alcohol abuse. sarcastically lauds Neelu: “You’ve trained them By subversively challenging the ideologies of the well, teacher!” Anil’s father, too, thinks that since adults, this Putaani Party shows faith that it is the formation of the kids’ committee, “our chil- possible to change, and that the children are here dren have become uncontrollable.” to drive this change. The ugly side of adult hypocrisy and moral corruption comes to light when the Party tackles Fighting the Odds: Children Lead the the serious issue of substance abuse. The children Way see Gaarya’s father in a drunken stupor. Gaarya’s The four award-winning films I have analyzed father spends the family’s hard-earned money on are bound thematically rather than temporally alcohol. The children realize that their village and each betrays the “sincere humanist convic- is at the mercy of alcoholism as there are many tion that children’s literature can contribute to others like Gaarya in their village. When Anil the conceptualization of a better society” (Joosen discovers that his father runs an illicit liquor- and Vloeberghs ix). The cinematic narratives in producing unit to supplement his income as a these films operate at two distinct ideological grocer, he chooses to support his committee. levels. At one level, by situating children within His sense of responsibility highlights the hope specific social and political issues, the four films that each child ideally should harbor to prog- explore how children can develop an under- ress toward an ethical, peaceful, and optimistic standing of their agency in society and in relation future. In another political move to discontinue to the adults around them. At another, thematic the children’s anti-alcohol movement, Neelu level, these films contrast individual hope with is transferred to another village. To the adults, social despair and end with the promise of social it seems as though the storm has subsided and hope, thereby highlighting romantic ideologies they have regained control. However, the chil- of redemption and reform (Joosen and Vloe- dren are persistent, albeit passively. Under the berghs ix). Indian children’s cinema upholds this pretext of a cleanliness drive, they collect liquor romantic ideology by presenting the possibility bottles and sachets, calculate the cost of each, of transformation through and by a child. This and discover that their village spends 2,800,000 reform can be brought about despite authoritarian

IBBY.ORG 51.1 – 2013 | 17 Heal the World, Make It a Better Place

attempts by adults to overshadow the brilliance and redeeming qualities of childhood. Adults need not always control children, because children are capable of seeing beyond everyday assumptions; they can visualize a world without social inequalities and moral corruption; they can make their own choices. This optimistic and transforma- Indian children’s cinema tive approach adopted by some Indian children’s upholds this romantic ideology film makers can in fact be viewed as an indication of the impact that reforming Indian cinema by presenting the possibility of for and about children can have, compared to its transformation through and by a adult masala-garnished counterpart. Indian children’s cinema is not unlike the child—frequently child. This reform can be brought marginalized, surviving against all odds, calling about despite authoritarian attention to itself as a powerful area of expression attempts by adults to overshadow in its own right, and with immense potential to bring about positive change at the individual and the brilliance and redeeming social levels—as illustrated by the films studied in qualities of childhood. this article.

Works Cited

Children’s Films Chota Sipahi [Little Soldier]. Dir. Jayashree Kanal and A. S. Kanal. CFSI. 2005. YouTube. Web. 25 Aug. 2012. Gattu. Dir. Rajan Khosa. CFSI. 2011. DVD. Harun-Arun. Dir. Vinod Ganatra. CFSI. 2007. YouTube. Web. 25 Aug. 2012. Makdee [Spider]. Dir. Vishal Bharadwaj. Percept Picture Company. 2002. DVD. Putaani Party [The Children’s Party]. Dir. Ramchandra P. N. CFSI. 2009. YouTube. Web. 25 Aug. 2012. Taare Zameen Par [Stars on Earth]. Dir. Aamir Khan. UTV Home Entertainment. 2007. DVD. Tahaan. Dir. Santosh Sivan. iDream Production. 2008. YouTube. Web. 25 Aug. 2012.

Bollywood Films Kuch Kuch Hota Hai [Something Happens]. Dir. Karan Johar.Yash Raj Films. 1998. DVD. Mr. India. Dir. Shekhar Kapoor. Narsimha Enterprises. 1988. DVD. Raja Hindustani [Indian King]. Dir. Dharmesh Darshan. Fame Motion Pictures Limited. 1996. DVD.

Secondary Sources Joosen, Vanessa, and Katrien Vloeberghs, eds. Changing Concepts of Childhood and Children’s Literature. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Press. 2006. Print.

18 | bookbird IBBY.ORG Heal the World, Make It a Better Place

Nodelman, Perry, and Mavis Reimer. The Pleasures of Children’s Literature. 3rd ed. Boston: Allyn and Bacon. 2003. Print. Ramchandra, P. N. “Director’s Statement.” Putaani Party. Web. 28 October 2012. Trites, Roberta S. Disturbing the Universe: Power and Repression in Adolescent Literature. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press. 2000. Print. “Welcome: Director’s Statement.” Putaani Party [The Children’s Party]. Mar. 2003. Web. 10 Sep. 2012.

The title of this picturebook by the Cypriot author Marina Michaelidou- Kadi and the award-winning German illustrator Constanze von Kitzing l is as enigmatic as the smile of the little girl on the front cover. What is it ub i c p that makes Semeli smile? Semeli seeks the source of genuine happiness o e by asking her mother and friends, searching in books, and questioning her f R 2011 grandfather. What makes people smile? He wisely does not give her a clear C answer; trusting her critical abilities, he simply tells her that “something y s different makes each person smile,” leaving her space and time to rethink p r u and investigate. A conflict over a coveted red bicycle and a wounded puppy helps her decide. In this high-quality edition, published by the Bank of adi Cyprus Cultural Foundation, the reader is taken on a journey through a Marina Michaelidou–K young girl’s changing understanding of the world. The book’s colorful To chamogelo tis Semelis illustrations initiate a symbolic play with hidden red hearts, keeping the [Semeli’s Smile] reader searching for them throughout the book, and implying an answer to Semeli’s Smile is a story about valuing love and affection Illustrator: Constanze von Kitzing Semeli’s question. Cyprus: Bank of Cyprus Cultural over the superficial pleasures of materialism. In our consumer–driven Foundation, 2011 societies, it gently reminds the child reader that true happiness cannot be 40 pp, ISBN: 9789963429196 bought, and instead can be found by caring for others. (picturebook, 5+)

Christina Christodoulou

IBBY.ORG 51.1 – 2013 | 19 The Child-Poet Gwen Gwen The Child-Poet

Gwen Cope enjoyed a significant reputation as a gifted Australian child-poet throughout the 1930s. Nevertheless, her two collections remain unacknowledged in the history of Australian literature despite their popularity. This article situates Cope’s fairy-poetry against the ideological backdrop defined by adult fairy-poets of the 1930s to reveal fundamental discords between the child- poet writing her vision of fairy-folklore and the “She flings her elfin dreams dreams elfin her flings “She of mystery”: Cope in the Land of “Australian Faery,” Faery,” the in Land ofCope “Australian 1931–1939 canonical writers who aimed to re-conceptualize by Nicole Anae “ faery-lore” in the interests of Australian national literature.

rofessor J. J. Stable speculated in his preface to The High Road of Australian Verse (1924) that, while there were few giants among the people of Australia, her contemporary poets were paving the way for the literary giants soon to appear (Brisbane Courier P 1 5 Oct. 1929: 27). Indeed, the literary world in which ten-year-old Gwen Cope published her poetry collections for children a decade Dr. Nicole Anae lectures in Secondary later was a landscape dominated by literary giants contributing to English and Arts Education at the University of South Australia, Adelaide. the genre. Mary Gilmore, Zora Cross, Annie Rentoul, Ida Rentoul Her research interests include children’s Outhwaite, Mary Durack, May Kidson, Mabel Forrest, and Pixie literatures, Shakespeare, theatre history, and the interplay between the Arts, O’Harris were just a few of the many female poets to realize a sense literature, and cultural literacies. Her work of national identity through fairy-lore verse. The iconic Australian appears in Australasian Drama Studies and Australian Humanities Review, among poet, Dorothea Mackellar, in her address on “Faery Poetry” in 1927, other journals. proposed that “Faery” designated “the collective name for all those © 2013 by Bookbird, Inc. “She flings her elfin dreams of mystery” beings that are mentioned in literature, under the guise of different names, such as elves, goblins, brownies, trolls, sprites, and leprechauns” (4). Female poets of the first three decades of the twentieth-century recognized and popularized what Zora Cross coined “the land of Australian faery” in highly admired poems imagining uniquely Australian settings. A critic reviewing Joan and George Mackaness’s new anthology of Australian poetry, The Wide Brown Land (1935), described the poetry by women comprising thirty- percent of the collection as “dainty ditties about laughing elves and russet goblins with magic red caps and silver buckles—the fairy poetry—of romance that delights imaginative childhood everywhere” (Brisbane Courier 19 Jan. 1935: 12). Particularly well-known exponents of the 1900s to the 1930s included Ida Rentoul Outhwaite, acclaimed as “Official artist to Her Majesty the Queen of Fairyland” (Adelaide Mail 6 Oct. 1934: 3). Other collections of fairy poetry include Mabel Forrest’s collection of narrative fairy-verse Green Harper (1915), Zora Cross’s The City of Riddle-Me-Eee (1918), Pixie O’Harris’s Fairy Book: Stories and Verse (1925), Ruth Bedford’s Fairies and Fancies (1929), Mary Gilmore’s “The Fairy Man” (which appeared in The School Magazine 1 Mar. 1928), and May Kidson’s various fairy-poems such as “Fayre Layde of the Lake (South- West Caves, Margaret River)” (1923), “Rhyme of Miss Seven Years Old” (1926), “My Ladye Orchid” (1926), “Fairyland Today (Lake Cave, Margaret River)” (1927), and “If” (1939), among many others. It was within this literary landscape that Gwendolyn Marie Jean Cope created her fairy-poems for children:

Laughter and magic, joy of flight It was within this literary Burn in the radiant birth of landscape that Gwendolyn Marie light … Oh World of Magic—the heart of me Jean Cope created her fairy-poems Throbs with the gladness of for children Life to be. (“Youth”)

The Sydney Morning Herald published her first poem in 1931 and over the next eight years published over 34 of her poems and one short story. Cope’s two collections published by Angus and Robertson—Under the Joy of the Sky (1936 & 1939) and Fairy Verse for Little Folk (1937)—were both illustrated by one of Australia’s most recognizable author/illustrators, Pixie O’Harris (1903–1991). A reviewer commenting on the latter collection suggested that O’Harris’s illustrations for Cope’s poems showed “almost as much imaginative power as their creator,” thereby raising Cope to the same footing as her well-established adult counterparts (Advertiser 20 Feb. 1937: 10, emphasis mine).2

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Fairy Verse for Little Folk attracted critical claims that Cope’s poetic voice was as distinctive as her authorial vision. While one named her “Australia’s youngest authoress,” another proclaimed that the book “teems with elves, pixies, gnomes, and fairies brought to life from the mind of a child as no adult could picture them” (Adelaide Advertiser 20 Feb. 1937: 10). “This very charming book of verse about fairies” noted another, “would not shame an adult, much less the lass of 13 years who is its author” (Courier- Mail 15 Nov. 1938: 1S). Critics praising her poetic abilities suggested, “she is a natural versifier, and sufficiently near the nursery herself to appreciate its demands,” while another concluded, “A lyrical sweetness is understandable in a young mind, but a power of poetic organisation such as hers is almost unbelievable. She has the true modern poet’s eye for unexpected juxtaposition of imagery and laconism of technique” (Sydney Morning Herald 24 Dec. 1938: 6; 31 Oct. 1936: 12). Another critic asserted, “ To have a collection of poems published at the age of 13 is sufficiently remarkable in itself, but when those poems are of an extraordinary degree of technical excellence and emotional integrity, it becomes astounding” (Sydney Morning Herald 31 Oct. 1936: 12). Importantly, one literary commentator staked a claim for Cope’s voice and her subjectivity in the statement, “These poems are written by a child for children” (Adelaide Advertiser 20 Feb. 1937: 10). Indeed, another made twin associations between Australian identity and the project of literary renewal through fairy-verse: “[Cope’s] poems have a real touch of lilting pleasure and through them runs that magic of fairyland… I am glad to know that Australia has a girl so youthful able to produce such a delightful book of children’s fairy verse” (Mercury [Hobart] 6 Mar. 1937: 8). Another critic claimed her poems “show amazing skill in construction and a wonderful lyrical sense for so young a poet” (Mercury 3 Jun. 1939: 9). Gwen Cope’s later obscurity is worthy of further examination given that her work was so patently well received by the critics of her day. …Cope countered the broader aims This article re-reads Cope’s collections against of literary authenticity undertaken highly canonized items of fairy-verse written by by adult poets by realizing tropes adults for children. I argue that Cope countered the broader aims of literary authenticity under- of the fairyland-theme “as no adult taken by adult poets by realizing tropes of the could picture them.” fairyland-theme “as no adult could picture them.” Additionally, Cope’s fairy-poems were by their very nature literal works of the symbolic voice that adults conceivably sought to replicate. Therefore, the authority of Cope’s voice as a child fairy-poet similarly complicated the larger agenda attempted by adult poets of the genre. These writers sought to articulate and define the

22 | bookbird IBBY.ORG “She flings her elfin dreams of mystery” aesthetic and literary qualities of fairy poetry in Australia in response to renewed efforts to realize and revitalize a distinctively Australian literary tradition.

The Canon: “The authority to speak in the name of a nation” For David Carter, “Australian literature” is a term that attracts various meanings, definitions and social forms “for establishing cultural and intellectual authority…not least the authority to speak in the name of a nation” (20). The fairyland theme took on greater significance in the 1930s for two central reasons: as a genre open to envisioning “Austra- lian-ness” in poetry that afforded Australians “insight into the underlying motives of our national aspirations” (Stable vii), and as a means to rewrite the place of Australian literature within a literary landscape where British Arthur reigned “in his unquestioned place as the supreme king of Fairyland” (Ward & Waller 44). Commonwealth writers such as Ola Cohn, for instance, expressly promoted her literary character “Stout Heart” as much a rival to the ubiquity of Peter Pan as an Austra- lian fairy equivalent to the prototype: “‘Writers in Australia,’ she said, ‘have been in the habit of calling too much upon English fairies, such as Peter Pan’” (Burnie Advocate 19 Jan. 1934: 2). A specific literary agenda displacing imported conceptualizations of the fairy-image had its roots in the 1830s. This concern emerged in response to what Brenda Niall acknowledges was a particular characteristic of the period—that “for the greater part of the 19th century the literary perspective from which Australian scenes were created was predominantly that of the outsider” (1). Adult faery-poets a century later sought to emphasize the centrality of the faery-genre in the corpus of Australian national literatures from within: “to-day both pictures and books are being produced that have a truly Australian perspective, atmosphere, and colouring. In no branch of literature is this more manifest than in the dainty fairy stories” (Brisbane Queenslander 27 Oct. 1923: 3). Dorothea Mackellar asserted that “Faery” represented a key term defining a particular tradition of Australian national literature in the period. “It would be difficult to contemplate a national poetic literature even in future years” she said, “that had in it no place for faery poetry” (4). Critics called for creating “a type of [fairy] folklore indigenous to Australia, and essentially suited to Australian surroundings” (Villette 15). Other editorials claimed the significance of this genre and the aesthetic importance of its imagery as an issue of canonicity in claims that “In these days, fortunately, the young Australian can have a fairly wide choice of the delightful stories that are essentially Australian in colouring and atmosphere, as truly national in fact as are the art of [Arthur] Streeton and the poetry of [Henry] Kendall” (Queenslander 18 Nov. 1922: 3). So important was the fairyland trope in qualifying Australian Commonwealth literature that examples of the genre were sent to Queens, Duchesses, and celebrities in America and elsewhere as testimonies of

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Australian nationalism in literature and poetry. a child-poet, was one notably unique quality that Copies of Hume-Cook’s collection Australian set her apart. By extension, Cope’s poems develop Fairy Tales (1925) were sent to the Queen, and a voice of oratory that traces a shifting trajectory Outhwaite’s Fairyland (1926) with an inscrip- of life perspectives from childhood to girlhood as tion by A. McLaren was gifted to the Duchess of a unique chronological collection. Cope’s works York for her infant daughter, the Princess Eliza- track the increasingly “real-life” demands and beth, in 1927 (Brisbane Courier 12 Apr. 1927: 24). obligations of life from a child’s own perspec- A wedding gift of a desk of Australian woods tive. Thus, hers was a voice that adult poets could decorated with gum-nuts was made to the Duke only yearn to replicate. This abstract from Cope’s and Duchess of Gloucester from the people of poem “The Haven” (1934) presents a snapshot of the Australian Commonwealth in 1936. The gift an eleven-year-old’s concerns: was presented by the then Australian Minister of Commerce Dr. Earle Page who explained to When the strain of school is over—and no the Duchess the place of gum-nuts within the grind of homework looms literary tradition of Australian fairy-lore thanks I travel down to Athol where dreams evolve— to works such as May Gibbs’ Australian fairy-lore and blooms story of 1918 Wattle Babies (Australian Women’s Where the quiet peace of dawning, brooding Weekly 9 May 1936: 39). Indeed, Gwen Cope’s o’er the myriad trees two collections also contributed to the exporta- Brings contentment, sweet and tranquil—to tion of a distinctly Australian literary aesthetic troubled hearts brings ease.3 of nationalism. Copies were similarly sent to the Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret, and the great “The Haven” also accentuates Cope’s accord with American baritone with the New York Metropol- the prevailing literary trend to attach profound itan Opera Company, Lawrence Tibbett, report- emotional ties to a mythologized and idealized edly purchased copies of Cope’s collections during Australian landscape. Cope replicates this char- his Australian tour in 1938 to send to his children acteristic as demonstrated in adult fairy-poetry (Courier-Mail 15 Nov. 1938: 1S). but makes it truly her own. Many poems emphasize the atmosphere of a bush-land setting while Gwen Cope’s Australian Fairyland: simultaneously constructing an enchanted world “Gnomes and fairies brought to life from imbued with immense potential for personal the mind of a child” autonomy and subjective freedom. This abstract Cope’s canonical obscurity illustrates that from her poem “Kurrajong” (1935) is an example: achieving recognition in the history of Australian national literature extends beyond the owner- Mystic gorges where the rolling vapours ship of one’s collections by princesses or celeb- up silent, ’cross the craggy, goblin graels— rities. Exploring her absence thus necessitates Soft murm’ring winds that play among the identifying the key features of her fairy-poems Branches,— that set her works apart. I begin with the unique Or swell like thunder in the roaring gales… literary and aesthetic qualities specific to Cope’s Oh ’witching place of lovely mountain beauty, re-writing of the land of Australian fairy-lore. The magic of thy song has caught my heart,— Cope’s fairy-verse was certainly influenced by And like a leaf upon an ebbing river, 4 adult traditions. Many of her poems borrow the I drift—and dream myself of thee, a part. conventional repeated four-line, rhymed stanzas of traditional Christian hymns with lines that “The Haven” and then “Kurrajong” a year rarely depart from a four-beat meter. Yet the fact later show a growing intellectual maturity as well that she wrote mostly lyric poems, characterized as an authorial coming-of-age. Where the first by the voice of a single speaker, usually herself as invests nature with solitude and quiet escape, the 24 | bookbird IBBY.ORG “She flings her elfin dreams of mystery” second situates the child-poet-as-observer within in a fantasy world in which they can ‘master’ the a dream-like sphere of shadows, “mystic gorges” drama of trauma and survival” (Odden 132). It and “goblin graels.” The latter is typical in that was a desire which Cross claimed for herself. “The Cope never quite abandons the tropes of her bush world,” she wrote, “was far lovelier than the faerie-poems even as she grows older and begins garden of my babyhood. It was, indeed, fairy- adopting alternate world-views. Her poetic realm land—now, purgatory” (1). This passage exemplifies imagines a geographically-enchanted land in what Richard Flynn has termed a kind of “cross- which elves, fairies, pixies, and gnomes seem to writing”—one in which “For the cross-writer, personify the land itself: poetry involved a complex fusion of the child and the adult in which the mature artist, in making Softly o’er sand and spire and towering hill the poem, renders the child’s ‘capacity for wonder’ Pouring a shimmering radiance on the sea articulate” (62). This kind of “dialogic” writing Silent she glides, and o’er the makes possible the conversation between the poet’s moon-drenched world “adult-self ” and the poet’s “remembered child-self.” She flings her elfin dreams of The writing of Gwen Cope needs to be read within mystery. (“Enchantment” 1936) this context.

Cope’s positioning of the child-subject within Her poetic realm imagines a her realm epitomizes another key literary and geographically-enchanted land in aesthetic quality specific to her unique re-writing of the land of Australian fairy-lore. Cope’s poetic which elves, fairies, pixies, and fairy-lore displaces adults entirely as outsiders. gnomes seem to personify the land Adult figures in fact rarely appear at all. The literary perspective from which Cope realizes itself her vision of Australian fairy-lore predominantly Cope arguably renders the voice of the adult positions the adult as a kind of absent inter- redundant in articulating a world in which the loper. We simply do not see this kind of creation child-poet’s self was in direct dialogue with a self of Australian fairy-lore emerging in the verse not remembered but one temporally present. Cope’s forms by adult poets who positioned themselves “I” was a unique speaking-subject quite distinct in within—“inside”—the poetic visions they created voice and authority to the “I” of adult poets. It is by for an imagined, idealized child. “Here lives in design that the fairy-verse form of the 1930s envi- rhyme a teasing little elf,” wrote Cross, “And sioned a particular form of Australian folklore in here the girl I was at just her age” (4). Kidson’s which the primacy of the adult voice underscored “My Fadye Orchid” similarly positions herself in the legitimacy of its utterance. Many accounts of her faery-world: “I was just where I liked best to canonical fairy-poets emphasize their capacity to be, in the bush-shadows trying to forget I was “read the child” while seemingly displacing the a mortal child…no one to say ‘do’ or ‘don’t’ and agency of the child herself as both voiceless and ‘if’ or ‘but,’ and all those nasty little words which somehow passive. Mackellar was claimed to have make life not—not Fairyland!” (West Australian “the freedom of faery; she can read the heart of 7 Jul. 1916: 41). O’Harris too positions herself a child” (Sydney Morning Herald 8 Jan. 1927: 10). as orator in her fairy-world poems: “One day I Bedford wrote “almost exclusively from the view- met a Fairy Man, / And he sang songs to me—” point of the child-mind she loves to study” (Asterisk (Sydney Morning Herald 14 Jul. 1937: 13); “Magic 11). And one critic claimed of Mary Rattenbury’s little fairy bells / In my heart the memory dwells” fairy-poem “The City of Lost Souls” that “Here is (Sydney Morning Herald 14 Jan. 1933: 9). something of the unspoiled imagination of child- The appropriation of the fairyland theme was hood which is yet close to essential things” (Central one way that adults could legitimately “participate Queensland Herald 24 Sept. 1936: 14).

IBBY.ORG 51.1 – 2013 | 25 “She flings her elfin dreams of mystery” The Child-Poet in the Land of Literary Giants The primacy of the adult voice in faery-poetry reveals how Cope crafted her visions of Australian fairy-lore within a specific cultural and literary moment in the history of Australian national literature. Re-reading Cope as a child-poet who had strayed into a restricted literary terrain peculiar to the 1930s assists in theorizing the reasons behind her canonical anonymity. When Agnes Rose-Soley wrote that the “Australian child has no fairy lore of its very own” (9), she could well have been referring to the fact that no Australian child-poet had been formerly recognized as writing the tradition from the child-poet’s viewpoint. Yet Rose-Soley was one critic who espoused the potential of child-poets to contribute to redefining Australian literature with its own unique “lore.” Appre- ciating the child’s capacity for imagination, suggested Rose-Soley, was the key to realizing the conception of this literary recovery: “Knit her children unto her with poetry evoked from the ghosts of a silent past. Only then will her literature enthrall them. They will cherish it, cleave unto it, glory in it, spread it abroad, perchance add to it” (9). Various critical commentaries of the day acknowledged Cope’s contribution to this country’s fairy-verse tradition. Her fairy-poems remained characteristic of the favored application as deployed by adult poets—that is, as “the poetry of escape”—but Cope tailored this motif in very specific ways to accord with the cultural climate of the 1930s. It is no coincidence that her fairies often figure as rescuers who moti- vate “escape” and transport the child to another realm beyond the harsh realities of real life (Courier-Mail 19 Jan. 1935: 12). Magical beings typi- cally appear before the child-poet during the night or in times of solemn reflection and offer the child access to avenues of imaginative escape peopled with beings of iridescent brilliance and ethereal kindness. A nocturnal fairy appears at her window sill in “The Fairy’s Visit” (1934) and invites the child to visit “A far-off wondrous valley, which no one had ever seen” to meet the Fairy Queen and Bluebell:

When dressed, I hurried down the stairs into the garden dark Guided by the fairy’s lantern, gleaming red like a radiant spark We started on our pilgrimage to reach the mystic vale.

This heroic casting of the fairy was perhaps a response to grappling with the confronting intensity of a nation facing WWII. A reviewer in Australian Town and Country Journal claimed that “children people their fairyland, weaving romance round their toys, and building up an ideal world in which everybody is interesting and everybody is happy” (26). An editorial entitled “Re-Enter the Fairies” in Lady’s Pictorial was as timely in 1910 as it was in the 1930s with the claim that “nurtured

26 | bookbird IBBY.ORG “She flings her elfin dreams of mystery” on fairy-tales, and, consequently living apart in a wonderland of its very own, what little lad or tiny maiden would think of aeroplanes, the possible invasion of England by the Germans, and so on” (Queenslander 5 Nov. 1910: 4). Indeed, Cope’s poem of 1939, “Outward Bound,” paints a vivid image of a floating magical ship commanded by an unseen magical crew that augurs escape with “The song of the anchor” and a cry of “Ship Ahoy”:

And our hearts are freed from their narrowing bands To dream of the glories of hidden lands! Till the harbour’s cleared…on her shingly strands The sea shouts—“Outward Bound”!

That Cope’s fairy-verse appeared to distill real-life cultural anxieties about war from a child’s perspective transforms the significance of her collection and the authority of her voice as truly unique. Critics applauded her voice and aligned the collection itself with the broader literary aims earmarked for the Australian fairy-lore genre: “We may feel in this utilitarian age that fairies and all the religions of magic belong to an old and useless past, but so long as children exist so long will fairies remain a potent force and an impelling instinct” (Mercury 6 Mar. 1937: 8). Claims such as this only emphasize the peculiarity of Cope’s current absence from the history of Austra- lian literature. Re-reading Cope as a child-poet of the fairy tradition who had strayed into a restricted literary territory reconciles the obvious disparities between the supportive critical reception she enjoyed throughout the 1930s and her present-day canonical obscurity. The canonizing of “local fairylore” by adult poets (Sydney Morning Herald 23 May 1936: 12) concerned the revival of the faery-verse form to instill “Australian-ness” into a folkloric tradition and “forms part of the contemporary glorification of the land as the basis of a national tradition” (Inglis Moore 69). For Rose-Soley, the strengthening of a distinctly Australian faery-lore tradition held the key for cultural recovery: “The story the wind soughs through the trees, the legend drop- ping from eucalypt branch, the torch of the aboriginal burning in the flame tree, the wall of the maiden falling down the waterfall. Dream, heroes, goblins, gods—give Australia her past” (9). Cross idealized this project of giving Australia “her past” as occurring within a figurative terrain—“the land of Australian faery”—in which adults themselves could re-envision a specific context of literary authenticity: “In every bush home the mother is tempering the old tales just as in every city school every good teacher is counteracting the bad old tales by tales of her own intentions. A very real world of faery is growing up in spite of

IBBY.ORG 51.1 – 2013 | 27 “She flings her elfin dreams of mystery” the old tales, many of which were never intended flutter through the air / Of a kind you will not for children” (1). find elsewhere” (“Beautiful Fairy” 1933), where This canonical terrain thus left no room for the “scarlet flame” of a new day dawning is “fash- the voices of actual child-writers and Cross’s ioned in a fairy mould” (“Dawning 1934), and quotation represents a fitting cautionary tale of where youth itself embodies “Laughter and magic, the dangers faced by the child fairy-poet entering the joy of / flight” (“Youth” 1939). Her realm also this fairyland populated by literary giants of represented a legitimate authorial world peopled the Australian fairy-folkloric tradition. Cope’s with real-life characters of her own creation: collections sit uneasily within the landscape as Cope appeared at the Australian Author’s Coro- writing—and indeed re-writing—the “land of nation Ball of 1937 “in a spangled blue frock, and Australian faery” within a literary terrain which carrying an immense red rose above her head Cross herself believed had already passed out of portray[ing] a fairy character from her own book infancy and was moving into maturity. of verse, ‘Fairy Verse for Little Folk’” (Sydney Morning Herald 12 May 1937: 4). Silencing the Giants: A Child-Poet Rewrites the “land of Australian faery” Cope’s dismissal of adults from her magical faery realm proves significant in pinpointing the literary points of her departure from the canonical map set by adult poets. Cope’s alternative tale of the land of Australian fairy-lore centralizes Cope’s alternative tale of the land of Australian fairy-lore centralizes the voice of the child and silences the voice of the figurative adult intruder. the voice of the child and silences the voice of the figurative adult intruder. This silencing perhaps stands as a metaphor for a figurative shutting-out of the turbulent world of adults and their gestures of violence and the stark reality of impending war then defining the mid-to-late 1930s. It was in Cope’s utterances of exclusion and seclusion that her fairy-poetry envisioned a realm exclusively for children. The prohibition against grown-ups Gwen Cope envisioned for children a child’s entering her faery-land dominion was perhaps fairy-lore realm as no adult poet ever could. aptly captured in Rose-Soley’s claim to adults She “exercised her juvenile imagery when she that “The child’s mind is a little kingdom, the was from five to nine years old; at an age when door whereof is barred to your maturity” (3). fairy folk are their friendly best” (Elliston i). The Cope’s world of “the fairy and the doll” (Sydney authority of her voice as a speaking subject by and Morning Herald 24 Dec. 1936: 6) is one where for children articulated both literary and cultural only a child can truly imagine and identify with tropes beyond the authorial possibilities of adult “Elves and Pixies dancing / In the bright moon- poets. Meaning in Cope’s fairy-verse relied on light” (“A Happy Sight” 1931), where “Butterflies its power to “speak” as a child to other children. 28 | bookbird IBBY.ORG “She flings her elfin dreams of mystery” Thus, her “fairies remain a potent and impel- Works Cited ling instinct in the creation of happy images” (Mercury 6 Mar. 1937: 8) as much as her magical Children’s Books books—Fairy Verse for Little Folk and Under the Bedford, Ruth. Fairies and Fancies. London: A. Joy of the Sky—privilege, affirm, and immortalize & C. Black, 1929. Print. a path to discovering a child’s conceptualization Cope, Gwen. Fairy Verse for Little Folk. Sydney: of the Australian fairy-lore realm that may yet Angus & Robertson, 1936. Print. merit greater recognition in the annuals of this —. Under the Joy of the Sky. Sydney: Angus & country’s canonical literatures. Robertson, 1937. Print. —. “Youth.” Australian Women’s Weekly 27 Aug. Notes 1938: 18. 1. Unsigned and untitled newspaper reviews Cross, Zora. The City of Riddle-Me-Eee. Sydney: and commentaries are cited in full in-text Angus & Robertson, 1918. Print. and not in the Works Cited. Forrest, Mabel. Green Harper. Brisbane: Gordon 2. The color illustration by Pixie O’Harris and Gotch, 1915. Print. comprised the front page of the Australian Hume-Cook, James. Australian Fairy Tales. Women’s Weekly’s 1937 special section entitled Melbourne: J. Howlett-Ross, 1925. Print. “Home Maker” (25 Dec. 1937: 41): “This Mackaness, Joan S. and George. The Wide Brown clever Australian…specialises in illustrating Land. Sydney: Angus and Robertson, 1949. fairies and goblins to delight the hearts of Print. little folk”. O’Harris was one of the best- O’Harris, Pixie. The Pixie O’Harris Fairy Book: known and most loved exponents of fairylore Stories and Verse. Adelaide: Rigby, 1925. Print. in Australian literature. She was a staunch Outhwaite, Ida Rentoul. Fairyland. Melbourne: advocate of the form’s intellectual and Ramsay, 1926. Print. creative merits for young readers and voiced Stable, Jeremiah, Joseph. The High Road of Austra- her opinions publically on radio and in print lian Verse: An Anthology for Australian Schools. media, including writing her personal view Melbourne: Oxford UP, 1924. Print. in response to the backlash against fairytales in the Australian Women’s Weekly claiming, Secondary Sources among other things, “my heart goes out to Asterisk. “Child Verse in Australia.” Sydney the poor little mites whose parents are so Morning Herald 15 Jun. 1935: 11. mundane that they do not know the way to Baldick, Chris. The Oxford Dictionary of Literary ‘make believe’” (Australian Women’s Weekly 23 Terms. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2008. Print. Dec. 1933: 17). Bellis, Natalie, Graham Parr and Brenton Doecke. 3. “Athol” is a reference to Athol Bay, Sydney “The Making of Literature: A Continuing (Sydney Morning Herald 30 Jun. 1934: 11). Conversation.” Changing English 16.2 (2009): Cope’s poem, “The Picture” paints a picture 165–179. Print. of “Sydney, seen from Athol” (Cope Under Carter, David. “Literary Canons and Literary 28). Institutions.” Southerly 57. 3 (1997):16-37. 4. The version of this poem in Sydney Morning Cross, Zora. “Australian Child-Literature.” Herald (25 July 1935: 23) is different from Chronicle and North Coast Advertiser 10 Feb. Cope’s other poem of the same name in her 1922: 1. Print. book Under the Joy of the Sky (Cope Under 56). —. “Modern Books.” Maoriland Worker 11.180 (26 May 1920): 4. Print. Elliston, Norman. “Foreword.” Fairy Verse for Little Folk, Sydney: Angus & Robertson, 1936. Print. IBBY.ORG 51.1 – 2013 | 29 “She flings her elfin dreams of mystery”

Gilmore, Mary. “The Fairy Man.” The School Magazine. Education Department 1 Mar. 1928. Print. Hendrick, Philippa. “Fairy Lore: Does It Make The Child ‘Slack’?” Bris- bane Queenslander 1 May 1926: 4. Print. Flynn, Richard. “Randall Jarrell’s The Bat-Poet: Poets, Children, and Readers in an Age of Prose.” The Oxford Handbook of Children’s Literature. Ed. Julia L. Mickenberg. New York: Oxford UP, 2011. 53-70. Print. Hughes, W. H. “Forward.” Australian Fairy Tales. Ed. James Hume- Cook. Melbourne: J. Howlett-Ross, 1925. i-ii. Print. Inglis Moore, Thomas. Social Patterns in Australian Literature. Berkeley: U of California P, 1971. Print. Jones Lewis, W. “The Arthurian Legend.” The Cambridge History of English and American Literature. Vol. 1. Eds. A.W. Ward and A.R. Waller. New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1907. Print. Kidson, May. “Fairies.” Perth Sunday Times 20 Jan. 1927: 38. Print. —. “Fairyland Today (Lake Cave, Margaret River).” Perth Sunday Times 27 Mar. 1927: 40. Print. —. “Fayre Layde of the Lake (South-West Caves, Margaret River).” Perth Western Mail 22 Feb. 1923: 30. Print. —. “If.” Perth Sunday Times 2 Jul. 1939: 22. Print. —. “My Ladye Orchid.” Perth Western Mail 7 Jul. 1916: 41. Print. —. “Rhyme of Miss Seven Years Old.” Perth Sunday Times Oct. 1926: 38. Print. Mackellar, Dorothea. “Faery Poetry.” Sydney Morning Herald 1 Mar. 1927: 4. Print. Niall, B. Australia Through the Looking-Glass: Children’s Fiction, 1830– 1980. Melbourne: Melbourne UP, 1984. Print. Odden, Karen. “Retrieving Childhood Fantasies: A Psychoanalytic Look at Why We (Re)read Popular Literature.” Second Thoughts: a Focus on Rereading. Ed. David Galef. Detroit: Wayne State UP, 1998. 126-151. Print. O’Harris, Pixie. “Fairy Bells.” Sydney Morning Herald 14 Jan. 1933: 9. Print. —. “Fairy Man.” Sydney Morning Herald 14 Jul. 1937: 13. Print. Reid, Ian. The Making of Literature: Texts, Contexts and Classroom Prac- tices. Norwood: Australian Association for the Teaching of English, 1985. Print. Rose-Soley, Agnes R. “No Fairy Lore. Australia’s Literary Need.” Sydney Morning Herald 31 Dec. 1927: 9. Print. —. “From the Child’s Point of View.” Sydney Morning Herald 5 Oct. 1925: 3. Print. Villette. “What Are Little Girls Made For?” Mercury [Hobart] 19 Dec. 1936: 15. Print.

30 | bookbird IBBY.ORG Fake Lore or Folklore? or Lore Fake MountainThe and the Devil: of the World in South African Children’s World the in of South Literature

Table Mountain, beneath which nestles South

Africa’s “Mother City,” Cape Town, whose A Wonder history is given briefly, has not featured much in South African children’s literature, although it is mentioned in the epic poem by Portugal’s national poet, Camões, and the adventures of Baron Munchausen. A much-loved exception has been the story of how Table Mountain got its by Tanya Barben cloud and why its companion, Devil’s Peak, was so named. This article discusses two older versions of this tale alongside more recent books written for children, in which Table Mountain and/or Devil’s Peak play a role. ape Town, known by some as South Africa’s “Mother City,” has been in international news recently. It has been recognized by CNN as one of the world’s ten best-loved cities, as Tanya Barben is the University of Cape one of the five “best cities in the world” by the Condé Nast maga- Town’s Libraries' Rare Books Librarian. Her C duties include the care of the South African zine, and has been designated the world’s Design Capital for 2014. Children’s Literature Collection. One of her It is also known for its high crime rate and the rampant inequality pleasures is walking her dogs on the lower that divides its populace on an economic and racial basis. The city slopes of Table Mountain, even during a nestles between the iconic Table Mountain, recently voted among howling South-Easter. © 2013 by Bookbird, Inc. The Mountain and the Devil: Fake Lore or Folklore? the seven natural wonders of the world, and Portuguese, Antonio de Saldanha, who referred Table Bay. The mountain boasts a floral kingdom to the mountain that guards the bay as Taboa da of over 600 species while the number of species Cabo, the Table of the Cape. English and Dutch growing on the Cape Peninsula rivals that of the ships, among others, visited Table Bay to take on whole of Great Britain. It is the recreational park fresh water and gather wood sorrel (oxalis), which of thousands and is venerated by all. grew in profusion and served as an antidote to the The mountain and the area round it, the Cape dreaded scurvy causing so much havoc amongst of Good Hope, have been part of the European their crews. These visitors adopted “The Table” as imagination ever since the Portuguese explorer, the name of the familiar flat-topped mountain, Bartholomeu Dias, rounded what he called for this is how it presents its northern aspect to the “Cape of Storms” in 1488. It was renamed onlookers from the sea. the Cape of Good Hope after Dias’s successor, Overall, the range is made up of several more Vasco da Gama, opened the way for Europeans rocky projections. The one on its eastern flank to the riches of the Indies. The national poet of the Dutch first named Windberg or Windy Hill, Portugal, Luis de Camões, in celebrating these although earlier English visitors had called it King achievements, wrote in The Lusiadshow the Charles’s Mount or Herbert’s Mount (named by Titan, Adamastor, is banished from Olympus to Sir Thomas Herbert). Flanking the Table on the be imprisoned forever at the Cape in the form of west are Lion’s Head and Lion’s Tale (now Signal the mountain that straddles it. This punishment Hill, once named the Sugar Loaf). The mountain is not only for his part in the Titans’ rebellion is also known as the “Old Grey Father of colo- against Zeus, but also because he dared to court nialism and the Silent Witness of apartheid” and the nymph, Thetis, who had also caught the eye the “Watcher of the South” (Nicolaas Vergunst of the sexually avaricious Olympian. Adamastor 16). Of course, these names totally ignore the is the guardian of the Cape and, as such, wreaks fact that the indigenes had their own name for revenge on any human being who dares to invade Table Mountain: Hoerikwaggo, or Sea Mountain, his territory. The Titan, despite his classical appropriate for a grey protuberance of granite connotations, is a sixteenth-century Rabelai- and sandstone that seems to rise straight out of sian invention about whom the first example of the sea. “fake lore” around the famed promontory sprang The Dutch East India Company (Vereenigde up. Adamastor appears once again in Rudolf Oost-Indische Compagnie or VOC), under Erich Raspe’s Travels and Surprising Adventures Commander Jan van Riebeeck in 1652, estab- of Baron Munchausen, in which this remarkable lished a refreshment station at the mouth of a traveler explains how Table Mountain became perennial river, the Camissa or “Sweet Water,” flat-topped and how Adamastor disappears into which rose on Table Mountain and emptied itself the deepest reaches of the mountain, never to be into the waters of the bay. The settlement became seen again. known as the KaapscheVlek or Cape Hamlet, The Cape of Good Hope’s human history but by the end of the eighteenth century visitors goes back many thousands of years, to when writing home were referring to it as Cape Town the region’s First People, the hunter-gatherers (Kaapstad in Dutch). known as San or “Bushmen,” inhabited it. Later One might well ask what the above has to do settlers were the pastoralist KhoeKhoe, referred with South African children’s literature. Very to as “Hottentots” by the Dutch, who moved little, regrettably, for very little fictional has been around the area with their cattle in search of written about the mountain for young readers. good pasturage. The Portuguese lost interest in One notable exception is the tale of why the name the Cape after an incident when one of their own the Dutch settlers gave to the Windberg was soon was killed during an attempt to abduct a Khoe replaced by its current appellation, Devil’s Peak, child and steal some cattle. It was, however, a and how the cloud that so often covers the Table

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(known appropriately as “the Tablecloth”) was pipes formed a thick white cloud (the Tablecloth) formed. The presence of the Tablecloth is indica- and henceforth the Windberg became known as tive of the Southeasterly wind that is considered Devil’s Peak. The tale Varley refers to was the a curse to visitors whether on land or at sea. The work of Ian Duncan Colvin, an ultra right-wing residents of the city are a little more equitable, journalist who worked in Cape Town from 1903 for to them the wind is also known affection- to 1907. “How Table Mountain Got Its Cloud” ately as “the Cape Doctor” as it cleans the streets appeared in his South Africa (1909), one title in (through which it blows with a vengeance) and the “Romance of Empire” series, and no doubt provides welcome relief from the summer heat. as part of the nation-building project that culmi- Jan Pietersz Cortemünde, who visited the Cape nated in the establishment of the Union of South Africa in 1910. In Colvin’s version, the pirate …the cloud that so often covers the Van Hunks wins the contest, but exposes his opponent as the Devil who whisks him away in a Table (known appropriately as crash of thunder and a flash of lightning. All that “the Tablecloth”)… is indicative remains are the empty peg and pipes and “a spot of the Southeasterly wind that scorched bare of herbage” (163). Although not written for children, this is considered a curse to visitors Faustian tale, in which the stakes, according to whether on land or at sea. The Van Hunks’s smoking companion, are his “soul residents of the city are a little more against the kingdoms of the world” (Colvin, 159), has become part of the canon of South African equitable, for to them the wind is children’s literature. It has been retold and also known affectionately as “the embellished many times for both adult and child readers. Colvin asserted that his account had its Cape Doctor” as it cleans the streets origin in the Malay Quarter of Cape Town where and provides welcome relief from men who had been to Mecca could explain how the summer heat. Table Mountain got its cloud, an assertion that has been accepted by many. There is, however, in December 1672 (the height of the South- no evidence to support this contention. In fact, Easter season), wrote that the mountain was also it would appear that the tale was Colvin’s inven- called “Devil’s Mountain” for “when the clouds tion, one that fits the definition of “fakelore” and strike it, they call forth a horrible roaring and is probably not entirely original. growling, which is often heard three hours before “Fake lore” (later “fakelore”) was a neologism the wind is felt” (16). Another visitor, Willem coined in 1950 by American folklorist, Richard ten Rhyne, remarked the following year that the M. Dorson, to describe the “presentation of “wind generally comes in great gusts and that it spurious and synthetic writings under the claim is always blowing, as if this were the kingdom that they are genuine folklore” (7). Richard A. of Aeolus”; he added that “the mountain which Reuss clarifies this by adding that “in more casual is continuous with Table Mountain is always conversation the term is apt to be used to mean vomiting forth a gale, and is hence called Devil’s any folk or folksy tradition that is popularized or Peak” (97). becomes a commercial (financial) success” (305 A tale, or legend “peculiar to the Cape” n. 5), while Alan Dundes articulated Dorson’s (Varley 45), explains the origin of the Table- objection to cases “in which an individual first cloth. It tells of how the pirate, Jan van Hunks, fabricated material and then had the audacity to engaged in a smoking contest with the Devil on claim that it was pure, unadulterated oral folk- that part of the mountain known then as the lore” (6). For Dorson, there was an undeniable Windberg. The smoke that billowed from their dichotomy between folklore (which was good)

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and fakelore (which was evil) (6). Colvin’s claim that his Van Hunks story was based on a Malay tale is exactly what Dorson was protesting about. It is acknowledged, of course, that a definition of folklore is elusive (see Dan Ben-Amos), yet Dorson and his successors clearly exclude Colvin’s story from the category of folklore. Versions like Van Hunks and the Dark Stranger (1990) and Van Hunks and His Pipe (1966) were published with children in mind and translated from English into Afri- kaans and vice-versa. The latter was retold in Afrikaans by a well-known writer, Leon Rousseau, and translated into English by Nancy Baines. Here the story is expanded, and all the idiosyncrasies and inequalities of early Cape society described. Other versions have been published in collections of South African stories, such as Jay Heale and Dianne Stewart’s African Myths and Legends (2001) where it appears as “Van Hunks and the Devil,” as it does in Madiba Magic: Nelson Mandela’s Favourite Stories for Children (2004) and in Traditional Stories of the Afrikaner People (2007). Madiba Magic has also been translated into Afrikaans and Xhosa, two of democratic South Africa’s nine official languages. The Van Hunks version in this collection, originally written in Afrikaans by Annari van der Merwe, is described as dating “from the early years when the Cape of Storms was still circumnavigated by sailing ships and the settlement at the Cape was Dutch colony” (79). In Van der Merwe’s version, neither of the two contestants is willing to admit defeat and so the competition continues still, except in winter “when it was too cold to stay sitting up there” (82). In summer, however, when the Tablecloth covers the mountain, “people still look up to the mountain and say to each other, ‘yes, today Van Hunks and the devil are really smoking up a storm’” (82). This conclusion is also used in Van Hunks and the Dark Stranger, in which Kathleen Milne ends her tale thus:

Every time the South Easter whips through the streets of Cape Town and you look up at Table Mountain to see its cloth of cloud billowing over the edge, you can be sure that the devil and Van Hunks are competing against each other yet again. For, as you know, the devil hates to lose and hell will freeze over before Van Hunks ever lets him win. (34)

Perhaps it is inconceivable that the Perhaps it is inconceivable that the Devil could get the better of a man? Devil could get the better of a man? Interestingly enough, Dante Gabriel Rossetti had on his deathbed in 1882 completed something he had begun writing when he was eighteen. The Ballad of Jan van Hunks was not published until some decades after Rossetti’s death (in The New Review in January

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1909). It describes a fatal smoking contest between a Dutchman (no pirate in this version, but a heartless miser), Jan van Hunks, and the Devil, who carries his opponent off to Hell. The action is set in Europe and has no linkage at all with the Cape. The inspiration for this work was a story, “Henkerwyssel’s Challenge” that appeared in a “periodical named Tales of Chivalry” which Rossetti enjoyed reading as a boy. Sarah Dickson, in the “Forward” to John Robert Wahl’s edition of Rossetti’s ballad, adds that “the author of a book on South Africa printed a prose version, as if it were a folk tale of the Cape” (Rossetti x). Wahl’s edition is based on a manuscript of the ballad acquired, appropriately, for the Arents Tobacco Collection. “Henkerwyssel’s Challenge” was published in other journals, including Winter’s Wreath and the 1824 volume of Friendship’s Offering. In this story, the name of one of the smokers is given as Peter van Funk. Colvin’s editor has doffed his hat to Rossetti’s poem by stating in an editorial note that Colvin’s story was made available to him several months before the publication of Rossetti’s ballad. Whether this is so we will never know. It does, however, seem somewhat coin- cidental that one of the protagonists in Colvin’s story not only has the same name as Rossetti’s character but also has a wager with the Devil over the smoking of a pipe. Unknown to most South Africans is the existence of another account about how Devil’s Peak was named, one that preceded Colvin’s by sixty-one years and is abso- lutely grounded in the history of the Cape. Charles Aken Fairbridge, Cape attorney, book collector, and benefactor of the South African Public Library (now the National Library of South Africa), writing under the pseudonym of H. van Plaaks, published in the 1848 issue of The Cape of Good Hope Literary Magazine, “Dirk van Splinter: A Legend of the Devil’s Peak.” The author claims that this account of a meeting between Dirk van Splinter, a former pirate but now in the employ of the Company, and a stranger, is detailed in the journal of Barendz Weiland, chaplain to the Commander of the Cape, Jan van Riebeeck. The journal, he claims, is housed in the Dessinian Collection of the Library, and, despite the fact that it is virtually indecipherable, can be perused by anyone with the permission of the Librarian. This delightfully wry account explains that Dirk, having wasted all his piratical gains among his friends in the taverns of Rotterdam, seeks employment in the Company and is appointed bombardier, his role being to protect the newly-built fort from the depredations of the local population and lions. Bored, and eager to regain his wealth, he decides to search for gold in the interior of the country, this being the mountain closest to him, namely, the Windberg. He obtains a day’s leave on the strict understanding that he will be back an hour after dark, and labors up the mountain carrying his pipe and tobacco, his rations, a stout stick and a goodly quantity of his favorite alcohol.

IBBY.ORG 51.1 – 2013 | 35 The Mountain and the Devil: Fake Lore or Folklore?

Needless to say, no gold is found, he consumes Dirk van Splinter, and, fortified by the his rations, drinks heartily from his cask, and authority of the first Colonial Chaplain, falls asleep, waking up long after sunset. The never speak of the hill where Dirk met wind has begun to howl round the mountain, but the strange smoker by any other name Dirk’s fear of being attacked by wild beasts quite than the Devil’s Peak (79). overtakes his fear of being keelhauled because he is AWOL. A small, dark, grizzly-bearded man Barendz Weiland certainly existed. He is who seems to know his most intimate secrets mentioned in Van Riebeeck’s Journal as Willem approaches him. After some chatter, they decide Barentssen Wijlant, not as a chaplain, but a sick- to share a pipe and the keg that Dirk has brought comforter, someone who comforts and attends with him. Dirk is intrigued by the fact that his to the needs of the sick and in the absence of a companion draws a glowing object from behind minister offers up prayers and reads sermons on his back, which he uses to light his pipe. The Sundays. He did not keep a diary detailing the smoke that issues from the bowl of his pipe does affairs of the Cape until 1659, as Van Plaaks/ not dissolve into thin air but gathers round the Fairbridge suggests, and there is nothing like it head of the stranger in a thick white cloud that in the Dessinian Collection. In fact, he left the eventually spreads itself over the gap between the Cape for Batavia (now Indonesia) in 1656. That Windberg and Table Mountain until it eventu- no diary exists is not unexpected, but it is evident ally covers the Table as well. Dirk’s curiosity as that the writer has given his readers a delight- to the nature of the glowing object gets the better fully whimsical tale that is so compelling that of him, and he thumps it with his staff. It is then one would like it to be true. revealed to be a tail, and Dirk realizes that his Is there a connection between the two Van companion is the Devil himself. Dirk summons Hunks tales and that of Dirk van Splinter? It up all the courage of a Dutchman and smashes seems more than likely that Colvin (despite his fist into the Devil’s face. The Devil disap- his editor’s disclaimer) knew of both Rossetti’s pears, and a clap of thunder and a blow from an recently published work and Fairbridge’s narra- unknown hand knocks out Dirk. He is found the following day by a party sent out to search for …it is evident that the writer has him. He shows them proof and the location of his surprising adventure: an empty keg, his pipe, and given his readers a delightfully a “patch of burnt herbage.” He is hauled before whimsical tale that is so compelling the Commander and his Council to whom he that one would like it to be true. recounts his experience. After the Council carefully considers his story, he is called before them tion of the bombardier’s experience. In fact Wahl again, promised a seat on the Council and threat- (a Capetonian who made a study of Rossetti’s ened with being cashiered and keelhauled if he works) asserts that even if Colvin’s story had tells of his encounter with the Devil to anyone. been written before the publication of Rossetti’s The credulous Weiland believes all that he is told. Ballad, as a well-read man Colvin would probably Fairbridge ends his light-hearted tale with the have seen a reference to it in Rossetti’s published following: diaries and letters which had been edited by his brother, William, and then “borrowed both for though government from the days the name and the theme for his own purposes” of…van Riebeeck, to our time, perversely (Rossetti 18). Certainly it was not an old Malay persists in calling the mountain in all folktale, but one that would fit into the defini- official documents “the Windberg,” the tion of fakelore. As for the Dirk van Splinter good citizens of Cape Town devoutly story, A.M. Lewin Robinson, South African believe the marvellous adventures of Librarian, suggests that it is hard to believe that

36 | bookbird IBBY.ORG The Mountain and the Devil: Fake Lore or Folklore?

Colvin was ignorant of it. Fairbridge could not story, Table Mountain features relatively infre- have known of Rossetti’s work, and his story’s quently in South African children’s literature, connection with it is rather tenuous. although there are many stories featuring the Despite Colvin’s apparent plagiarism, it is streets and suburbs of Cape Town. In the past his story that has captured the imagination of fifteen years, only a few books set on the slopes of thousands, and it even appeared in an episode of the mountain have been published for children, Albert Coates’s opera, The Table Cloth, performed Danger on Devil’s Peak being one of them. Noted as part of the celebrations for Cape Town’s 1952 writer of children’s books, Lesley Beake, has Tercentenary. Cape Town sports a Van Hunks written a work of speculative fiction for young restaurant, and Van Hunks Pumpkin Ale is adults in which the mountain features. Remem- available for sale, the bottle’s label bearing an bering Green (2009) is set in 2200. It envisages a account of the old pirate’s wager with the Devil. world in which the ice has melted and sea levels In a recent book written for nine-to-fourteen- have risen. Table Mountain stands above the waters as an isolated island, inhabited by Tekkies who cling to a lifestyle that has long since vanished. Their resources are running out and the land that was once Africa—known as Out— is burdened with a massive drought. The River People who live in Out have shunned twenty- third century technology and follow a simple way of life based on an ancient knowledge that enables them to survive. This is what the Tekkies want, and will use any means to acquire it, even if it requires human sacrifice. The Giants’ Picnic (1997), written and illustrated by Sue Woodward, is aimed at the much younger child and gives an entirely new take on the mountain and its cloudy covering. When the world was young and unformed two giants from “Somewhere Elsewhere” landed on the earth to have a picnic. They found a perfect picnic spot on a table with a pure white cloth. They laid out their food and drink on the cloth, but their lunch disappeared into that tablecloth which was, of course, a cloud. They soon found themselves year-olds, Glenda Jager’s Danger on Devil’s Peak enveloped in mist, roared out their disapproval (2010), Ben visits his aunt during the school like thunder, and jumped off the earth, “leaving holidays. She tells him the story of Van Hunks their picnic fossilised now in the rocks of the and the Devil and introduces him to a playmate, table with the pure white cloth” (20). Jaftha. The boys find Van Hunks’s old tobacco Alex D’Angelo’s Asmodeus: A Forkful of Tales box and this sets them off on a number of adven- from Devil’s Peak (1997) is a delightful collection tures, including a search for the spot at which of stories about a junior demon who is sent by Van Hunks and the Devil met. In fact, the tale of the Devil himself to set up a new branch of Van Hunks and the Devil is intertwined with the Hell at the Cape, as it was well-known that that boys’ escapades on Devil’s Peak, enabling both region of the world had enough sinners in it to the old pirate and the mountain to come alive. warrant the establishment of a regional office. Other than in the retelling of the Van Hunks D’Angelo weaves into his story tidbits of early

IBBY.ORG 51.1 – 2013 | 37 The Mountain and the Devil: Fake Lore or Folklore?

Cape social history, told tongue in cheek. Asmodeus, unfortunately, is not entirely up to the task and finds that those very same sinners whom he is expected to control often outwit him. He learned to his cost that “some of them were tougher than him and quite a few were cleverer. In fact the Cape is full of tales about folk who out-ran or out-thought or simply out-smoked him, like the old pirate Van Hunks, for example, who smoked with Asmodeus on Devil’s Peak until Asmodeus had a mouth like a tar-barrel and had to run away to be sick” (3). Here, as in the Dirk van Splinter tale, a visitor to the world from Hell is no match for a man. There could, of course, be another explanation to the name given to the former Windberg, which has nothing to do with the wind that howls over it. Peter Kolb (Kolben) was a German visitor to the Cape in the early eighteenth century who wrote a detailed and surprisingly sympathetic account of the social life and customs of the KhoeKhoe. He mentions that at night a large glowing red carbuncle could be seen on the mountain, resembling a crowned serpent in the imagination of many (13). Perhaps this is what the native inhabitants took to be the Devil and passed that on to their Dutch usurpers, with ordinary folk, rather than officialdom, taking it up in the name of the mountain. This we will never know for sure, unfortunately, as no KhoeKhoe remain in Cape Town except as their very much-integrated descendants. These people of the Cape were either destroyed by a series of smallpox epidemics or fled northwards, away from the whip of their Dutch masters and colonialism. The mountain that Kolb refers to, however, is Table Mountain. Kolb does say that the names given to Windberg or Devil’s Peak, however, are because of “the terrible South-East wind, caus’d by a white Cloud. … From this Cloud, the South-East Winds issue as from the Mouth of a Sack, with inexpressible Fury, shattering the Houses” (19). Whatever the case, it is Colvin’s story that, regardless of its origin, has been retold and adapted and become a much-loved tale in a part of the world Sir Frances Drake described as “the fairest Cape in the whole circumference of the globe.”

Works Cited

Children’s Books Beake, Lesley. Remembering Green. London: Frances Lincoln, 2009. Print. D’Angelo, Alexander. Asmodeus: A Forkful of Tales from Devil’s Peak. Cape Town: Tafelberg, 1997. Print.

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Jager, Glenda. Danger on Devil’s Peak. South Africa: Eazi Study Publishers, 2010. Print. Milne, Kathleen. Van Hunks and the Dark Stranger. Cape Town: Anansi, 1990. Print. Rousseau, Leon. Van Hunks and His Pipe: Traditional Tale of the Cape. Cape Town: Howard Timmins, 1966. Print. Van der Merwe, Annari. “Van Hunks and the Devil.” Madiba Magic: Nelson Mandela’s Favourite Tales for Children. Cape Town: Tafelberg, 2002. 79-82. Print. Woodward, Sue. The Giants’ Picnic. Cape Town: Discobbolos, 1997. Print.

Secondary Sources Ben-Amos, Dan. “Towards a Definition of Folklore in Context.” The Journal of American Folkore 84.331 (1971): 3-15. Print. Colvin, Ian Duncan. “How Table Mountain Got Its Cloud.” South Africa. London: Jack, [1909]. 155-164. Print. Cortemünde, Jan Pietersz. Adventure at the Cape of Good Hope in December 1672. Transcribed and ed. by Henning Henningsen. Trans. and annotated by Douglas and Vera Varley. Cape Town: Friends of the South African Public Library, 1962. Print. Dorson, Richard M. “Fakelore.” American Folklore and the Historian. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1971. Print. Dundes, Alan. “Nationalistic Inferiority Complexes and the Fabrica- tion of Fakelore: A Reconsideration of Ossian, the Kinder- und Hausmärchen, the Kalevala, and Paul Bunyan.” Journal of Folklore Research 22.1 (1985): 5-18. Print. Fairbridge, Charles Aken (H. van Plaaks). “Dirk van Splinter: A Legend of the Devil’s Peak.” The Cape of Good Hope Literary Magazine 2 (1848): 65-79. Print. Kolb, Peter. The present state of the Cape of Good Hope: Volume 2. 1731. New York: Johnson Reprint Company, 1968. Print. Reuss, Richard A. “‘That Can’t Be Alan Dundes! Alan Dundes is Taller than That!’: The Folklore of Folklorists.” The Journal of American Folklore 87.346: 301-307. Print. Robinson, A.M. Lewin. “Charles Aken Fairbridge and his Library: II. Literary and Bibliographical Work.” Quarterly Bulletin of the South African Library 9 (1954-1955): 32-49. Print. Rossetti, Dante Gabriel. Jan van Hunks. Edited from the original manuscripts by John Robert Wahl. New York: NY Public Library, 1952. Print. Ten Rhyne, Willem. “A Short Account of the Cape of Good Hope and of the Hottentots Who Inhabit that Region.” The Early Cape Hottentots Described in the Writings of Olfert Dapper(1668), Willem Ten Rhyne (1686) and Johannes Gulielmus de Grevenbroek (1695). The original texts with translations into English by I. Schapera and B. Farrington. 1933. Cape Town: Van Riebeeck Society, 2012. Print.

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Varley, Douglas Harold. “Adventures in Africana.” Quarterly Bulletin of the South African Library 4 (1949): [39]-84. Print. Vergunst, Nicolaas. Hoerikawaggo: Images of Table Mountain. Cape Town: South African National Gallery, 2001. Print.

Did the earth really move? J.O de Graft Hanson introduces the reader to two curious siblings, Kofi Taatna and Esi Nworaba, and their cousin Ebow Kobena. Through these brave young children the writer throws light on the legends of Ghana, the beliefs of the people of Moree in particular and Ghanaians in general in the ancestors’ and the peoples’ reverence b pu l i for the gods and the elders. e c

The People from the Sea R year olds that combines a fictional narrative with legendary is storiesa novel of for 9-12 2009 o

how the people of Asebu, a village near Cape Coast in the Central Region f G of Ghana, and Akatakyiwa, a village also in the central Region, came h into being. Originally published in 1988, it has recently been re-released a n a for a modern child readership. J.O de Graft Hanson fuses his narrative with traditional stories and myths as well as legendary songs to paint a vivid picture of Ghanaian belief systems centering on some of the historic events of the Central Region. The novel ends with the earthquake that shook Ghana in 1939, demonstrating the power of natural events to shape a culture’s traditional beliefs. In this well-written novel for children, the J.O. de Graft Hanson child characters are active participants in the events, suggesting children’s capacity to play a significant role in creating a better society for all. The People from the Sea

Rose Blankson Austin Tema: Ghana Publishing Corporation [1988], 2009 89 pp. ISBN 9964-1-0469-3 (novel, 9+)

40 | bookbird IBBY.ORG Information Books, 2001-2010 Australia’s Pownall Eve Award for Paranoid Prizing: Prizing: Paranoid Mapping Each year, the Children’s Book Council of Aus- tralia (CBCA) administers a number of Book of the Year Awards, including the Eve Pownall Award for Information Books. The books chosen by the CBCA constitute a contemporary canon of Australian children’s literature, and serve to both shape and reflect current educational policies and practices as well as young Australians’ sense of themselves and their nation. This paper reads a by Erica Hateley selection of award-winning Australian non-fiction children’s literature in the context of colonialism, curriculum, military myths, and Aboriginal perspectives on national history and identity.

History is always selective—you never hear the whole story—and there are many myths about Gallipoli. (Davidson Scarecrow 2) Erica Hateley is a lecturer in the Faculty of Education and a member of the Children hassan Hage asserts that the “core element of Austra- and Youth Research Centre at Queensland lia’s colonial paranoia is a fear of loss of Europeanness or University of Technology in Australia. She is the recipient of an Australian Research Whiteness and the lifestyle and privileges that are seen to Council Discovery Early Career Researcher emanate directly from them. This is a combination of the fragility Award and is currently researching G Australian children’s book awards. of White European colonial identity in general and the specificity © 2013 by Bookbird, Inc. Paranoid Prizing of the Australian situation” (419). This colonial • Style of language and presentation; paranoia can be traced through a range of popular • Graphic excellence; cultural formations, including contemporary • Clarity, appropriateness and aesthetic Australian children’s literature. Each year, the appeal of illustration; Children’s Book Council of Australia (CBCA) • Integration of text, graphics and confers awards and honors-listings to fifteen illustrations to engage interest and books for young people across five categories: enhance understanding; Older Readers, Younger Readers, Early Child- • Overall design of book to facilitate hood, Picture Book, and the Eve Pownall Award the presentation of information; for Information Books. First awarded in 1946, • Accuracy with regard to the current the CBCA Awards are clearly connected with the state of knowledge. (“Awards” 1-2) conscious forging of a national culture immediately following WWII; and “the symbolism of a As is often the case with literary prizes, the new cultural beginning being made with books criteria for the Eve Pownall Award for Informa- for children, rather than for adults” (Macleod 3). tion Books are at once comprehensive and amor- They do so by identifying the best or most desir- phous—the telling qualification “may” suggests able forms of Australia’s past, present, and future, that they are compulsory and optional for the and linking such visions with modes of national judges. The criteria emphasize form and content subjectivity. Using Hage’s concept of colonial to the degree that they might be measured objec- paranoia, this paper considers the relationship tively, and it is apparently not the remit of the between prize-winning books and educational CBCA to select texts on the basis of curricular agendas in the ongoing revision and renewal of policy, ideological content, nor discourses of national myths for Australia in the early twenty- nation. Nonetheless, the CBCA are conscious of first century. the widespread reliance on the Awards lists for curriculum resourcing. Indeed, the 2002 CBCA The Eve Pownall Award for Information Judges’ Report explicitly referred to “[r]ecog- Books nising that the Notables [the CBCA’s longlist] Although not often included in critical debates, often acts as a buying guide for primary schools” non-fictional texts overtly seek to shape young and admit that this effect informed the judges’ readers’ understandings of their national context reactions to the books submitted for their consid- and their own location as national subjects. Thus, eration (“Children’s” 3). the books named as winners or recipients of National Myths honors of the Eve Pownall Award provide a snapshot of which facts and whose fictions are salient …I am interested in how in shaping the contemporary Australian nation. sanctioned non-fiction children’s Since 1993, the Eve Pownall Award for Informa- tion Books has been an annual category within texts may function as a national the CBCA Awards:1 children’s literature. 1.2.5 The Eve Pownall Award for Infor- mation Books will be made to outstanding Rather than focusing on the (somewhat arbi- books which have the prime intention of trary) criteria for the Award, I am interested in documenting factual material with consid- how sanctioned non-fiction children’s texts may eration given to imaginative presentation, function as a national children’s literature. Such interpretation and variation of style. As books provide young readers with an historical general guidelines, the Judges may consider understanding of their nation, balancing histor- the relative success of the book in balancing ical accuracy with opportunities for reader iden- and harmonising the following elements: tification: “they aim through subjective retellings 42 | bookbird IBBY.ORG Paranoid Prizing of the national myths, to be sources of national The need for high-quality, accurate non- pride and identity, to provide the underpin- fictional texts for young readers in Australian nings for children’s sense of belonging” (Shavit schools is particularly strongly indicated by the 124). The Eve Pownall Award books serve as an inclusion of three cross-curricular priorities in example of national myth-making, achieving the national curriculum: Aboriginal and Torres what Bourdieu calls the “truly ideological effect Strait Islander histories and cultures; Asia and [which] consists precisely in the imposition of Australia’s engagement with Asia; and, Sustain- political systems of classification beneath the ability (ACARA). Imaginative engagement legitimate appearance of philosophical, religious, with these priorities can aid in the development legal (etc.) taxonomies” (170). As “Australian of young Australians as capable of recognizing national identity narratives [tend to] privilege and valuing multiple ways of being, being not elements of non-Indigeneity, whiteness, mascu- just Australian, but human. These priorities may linity and heterosexuality,” it is pressing to even contribute to a widespread privileging of consider the ideological effects imposed within ethical citizenship within Australian and global and by children’s literature as a cultural land- contexts. scape that both reflects and shapes anxieties of Although the cross-curricular priorities aim national identity (Elder 6). to achieve a widespread discursive shift in the meaning of Australian culture, it is difficult not Curricular Concerns to discern the resonance between these cross- In Australia, the CBCA notables, shortlists, curricular priorities and the three elements of honors and awards not only attract attention but colonial paranoia that Ghassan Hage argues as also convey “legitimacy.” While it would be inac- specific to Australian colonialism: curate to suggest that educators rely exclusively on the CBCA lists, it makes sense that Austra- First, it should be noted that what- lian educators and librarians turn to the Eve ever traces of colonial confidence exist, Pownall lists for resourcing quality non-fiction built as they are on genocidal practices, children’s literature into the curriculum. This is they remain haunted by these constitutive perhaps especially true in the current Australian deeds. […] educational context which has seen the expendi- Another factor that has bred colonial ture of federal funding under the title “Building uncertainty is an Australian-specific sensi- the Education Revolution” (BER) as part of tivity to and awareness of the impossibility an economic stimulus package commencing in of fully colonizing the natural environment. 2009, frequently made manifest in the building […] Finally, as is well known, because of of new school libraries (Department of Educa- its distance from the mother country and tion, Employment and Workplace Relations because of its geographic location, Austra- [DEEWR]); the 2011 tabling of a report lia’s early settlers, or at least those who had resulting from a Senate enquiry into “school the power to shape the identity and culture libraries and teacher librarians in Australian of the settlements, constructed Australia schools” (Commonwealth of Australia); and, the as an isolated White British colony in the current development and roll-out of a national heart of a non-European (read also uncivi- curriculum (Australian Curriculum, Assess- lized) Asia-Pacific region. (421) ment and Reporting Authority [ACARA]). Such governmental actions are examples of the In line with Hage’s critique, ACARA’s cross- kinds of forces brought to bear on educators that curricular priorities seem to reinscribe fears of require the inclusion of quality children’s litera- Aboriginal “revolution,” Asian “invasion,” and ture in educational practice, but do not neces- the capacity of the Australian natural environ- sarily define what quality children’s literature is. ment to obliterate humans.

IBBY.ORG 51.1 – 2013 | 43 Paranoid Prizing

Mapping as Metaphor Writing about Australian children’s non-fiction books produced by Eve Pownall and others in the mid-twentieth century, Clare Bradford notes that “drawings, maps, charts and photographs which purport to work as conceptual pictures, explaining history in a realist or scientific mode” predominate (101). She explains further that “[n]arra- tives of exploration loom large in Australian children’s histories of the 1940s and 1950s, generally in conjunction with maps, which plot not only the journeys of explorers but also epistemologies of space and distance” (103).2 Mapping, then, may be understood as a metaphor for the cultural work of children’s literature in the past and present. Maps make visible and attempt to manage anxieties about time and space. They seek to fix both in order to render the subject (who makes or who uses the map) as agentially mobile within time and space, rather than subordinate to ever-changing moments and places. Epistemologies of space and time can be traced in twenty-first century Eve Pownall Award titles’ engagement with Aboriginal Australian history and Australia’s military history. Explicit manifestations of colonial/white paranoia are unlikely to be published by mainstream children’s book publishers, and even if they were, they would be unlikely to find themselves the recipient of the CBCA’s seal of approval. What does seem to have taken place in recent years, however, is an encoding or displacement of this paranoia into the “supreme national story” of Anzac (Seal 7). In its first usage, ANZAC is an acronym for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps, but has been adapted through consistent linguistic use as a noun—Anzac—to refer to “a member of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps during World War I” and, more generally, “a soldier from Australia or New Zealand” (“Anzac”).

Australia’s Anzac Myth A tradition of military history, popular and political discourses, and active mythologizing has established a powerful web of narrative and symbolic associations that can be called the “Anzac myth.” The Anzac myth structures, and is structured by, the annual observance of Anzac Day (April 25) in Australia: a national day of mourning for, and commemoration of, all Anzacs who have served, and especially of those killed in service. This date marks the historical cornerstone of the Anzac myth: the Allied landing at Gallipoli on April 25, 1915. This myth describes a privileged mode of subjectivity, and a set of behaviors or characteristics that shape the subject’s engagement with the world (especially, but not exclusively, in international military engagements): 44 | bookbird IBBY.ORG Paranoid Prizing

toughness, steadfastness, egalitarianism, a tendency towards theft, looting and light fingers, a distinct lack of respect for army hier- archy and the officers who represented it, and a resulting lack of indiscipline […] counterbalanced by a profound respect for the Empire, the monarch and the “old country.” (Seal 11)

A persistent aspect of the Anzac myth that indexes particular modes of social agency is the inscription of normative gender and a privileging of homosociality:

While the digger would come to be presented in the Anzac tradition as possessing the virtues of courage, resourcefulness, egalitarianism and independence that contribute to his soldierly prowess, it is the notion of undying loyalty to one’s mates that both distin- guishes the digger’s Australian-ness and his ability as a warrior. Thus it is in the concept of mateship that the national-military myth most powerfully incorporates both the imperatives of the warrior and of the nation. (Seal 78)

Tellingly, the perpetuation of these mythologies of masculinity, homosocial bonding, and nationalism efface a range of structural inequalities—especially along lines of gender, sexuality, and race—which continue to shape Australian culture and society today. Twenty-percent of the Eve Pownall books under consideration here are Anzac texts: Anthony Hill’s Soldier Boy: The True Story of Jim Martin, the Youngest Anzac (2001), Patrick Carlyon’s The Gallipoli Story (2003), Leon Davidson’s Red Haze: Australians & New Zealanders in Vietnam (2006), Peter Macinnis’s Kokoda Track: 101 Days (2007), and Mark Greenwood’s Simpson and his Donkey (2008). In these books, “Australian” is a Anzac narratives can, without relatively uncomplicated subject position, defined controversy, encode the ideal Aus- as much by its difference from foreign enemies and from the colonial authority of the British, as tralian body (and subject) as white a discrete subject position. Anzac narratives can, and male. This is not to say that without controversy, encode the ideal Austra- these works are homogenous, to- lian body (and subject) as white and male. This is not to say that these works are homogenous, tally positive, nor univocal, but the totally positive, nor univocal, but the category category of “Australian” remains of “Australian” remains relatively stable across relatively stable across them. them. The Anzac myth provides a template for identity which makes “Austra- lian-ness” a positive and definite set of characteristics, disembeds it from the threats of colonial guilt and the Australian physical environment,

IBBY.ORG 51.1 – 2013 | 45 Paranoid Prizing and plots relations with other nations as martial victory. What has been identified as “a profound hollowness at the centre of the Australian experience [because] all of Australia’s military under- takings have been conducted in faraway places” becomes positive in contemporary ideological discourse (Seal 171). Anzacs will not be over- whelmed by outsiders: they will travel beyond Australia’s shores to defend the nation (as land, state, and idea). Once there, neither the Austra- lian environment nor its original inhabitants can defeat them. Even more specifically, in the Gallipoli texts by Hill, Carlyon, and Davidson, there are clear efforts to convey historical information (implying an unknowing readership), supported visually by maps and, often, photographs from the Austra- lian War Memorial. Although the implied reader is assumed not to know about historical specifics, they are usually assumed to have prior knowledge of the Gallipoli myth. For example, Carlyon writes: names of the soldiers who wrote them. David- son’s Scarecrow Army (2005) is predominantly a The Gallipoli legend is so ingrained that third-person narrative, but each chapter opens separating facts from myths can be diffi- with a “What if you were there …” first-person cult. We all learn about the Anzacs when vignette. For example, Chapter Three opens with: growing up. We are taught that Simpson was brave and that the British got it wrong. Aegean Sea, 25 April 1915 Both statements are true enough, but the What am I doing here? No way I wanna be most powerful tales of Gallipoli are about in this boat crammed with 40 tobacco stinking men you don’t often hear about any more. soldiers and the sun not even up. For weeks (Carlyon 168) I’ve been waiting for this day to arrive. Now I don’t know why I was so impatient. (37, The construction of an always-already “Austra- emphasis in original) lian” reader here signals as strongly as any concrete historical data in The Gallipoli Story the under- “Anzac” becomes a subject position at once histor- lying attempt to extend and develop a particular ically specific and generally available through vision of Australian culture and subjectivity. imaginative empathy. Seal notes, “the concern All of these Gallipoli texts encourage direct for the inculcation of appropriate knowledge identification with one or more Anzac soldiers. and values in the young is a continual theme of This personalizes history and myth, and also the Anzac mythologizing process” (126). Simi- gives the appearance of de-politicizing the war. larly, Elder argues that “the emotional weight of Hill follows the experiences of Jim Martin, the [Gallipoli] narrative also makes it effective the youngest known Anzac to die at Galli- in terms of pedagogy and as a site for instilling poli. Carlyon peppers his narrative with “in disciplinary practices of good citizenship” (246). the trenches” detail, quoting from a wide array Given ACARA’s educational agenda and Hage’s of Anzac letters and diaries, and including the critique, I am especially interested in the possible 46 | bookbird IBBY.ORG Paranoid Prizing relationships between this mode of mytholo- (in part, I argue, as a way of avoiding engage- gizing and “Australia’s engagement with Asia.” ment with Asia, and as an example of Hage’s The historical and political facts of World colonial paranoia), then a simultaneous return War II and the Vietnam War locate Anzacs at of the repressed (or, in Hage’s terms, haunting) war in and with Asia. Two photographic images narratives of Aboriginal Australian histories in particular serve as metonyms for these texts’ and cultures can be seen in the Eve Pownall engagement with Asia. In Macinnis’s Kokoda awards of the twenty-first century. Richly illus- Track (2007), a photograph shows two infor- trated works such as Elaine Russell’s A is for mally dressed Anzacs physically handling an Aunty (2000), Papunya School Book of Country and Australian flag. The caption reads “Australian History (2001), Christine Nicholls’s Art, History, soldiers raise the Australian flag after forcing the Place (2003), and Maralinga: The nA angu Story Japanese Nankai Shitai out of Kokoda Village” (2009) disrupt too-neat mythologies of Austra- (Macinnis 158). This image is explicitly coded as lian history and subjectivity. symbolizing military triumph, and can further be read as a neocolonial “victory” over Japan in Asian territory. In turn, such triumphalism may be juxtaposed with representations of Anzac experiences in the Vietnam War to index more recent anxieties about Australia’s ambivalent location (literal and symbolic) within Asia. Leon Davidson’s Red Haze (2006) offers a sustained and self-reflexive narrative of Anzac participation in Vietnam. Serving as a visual metonym for the far less confidently colonial logic of this historical narrative is a photograph showing two shirtless Anzacs jumping “into their weapon pit after an enemy alert was sounded” (Davidson Red 97). Read individually or as components Elaine Russell’s autobiographical alphabet of a culture-text, such works reveal a range of book, A is for Aunty, uses a colonial construct ongoing tensions about Anzac myths, Australian of “order” (the alphabet), but does so in order to subjectivity and agency, and Australia’s relation- disrupt any orderly colonial narratives of indige- ship with Asia. nous experience. As the book proceeds from A to When read against such conflicting ideas Z, readers are offered visual and verbal texts that and images, it is unsurprising that the majority juxtapose Aboriginal ways of seeing with colonial of military history texts prized recently by the strategies of subjugation. So, for example, “M is CBCA is focused on Gallipoli, which offers a for Mission” faces “L is for Lagoon,” where the coherent and self-contained narrative of Anzac lagoon shows both a perspective on the natural mythology. However, even beyond military environment and modes of understanding it history, it should be noted that Kokoda Track and (without dominating it), the Mission is a mapped Red Haze are the only two books (out of thirty and a mapping space wherein residents are Eve Pownall winners and honors in the first subordinate to institutional power (for a fuller decade of the twenty-first century) to comment reading of this book, see Lunt). Similarly, “T is on Asia at all. for Teacher” demonstrates the ways in which the colonial schooling system offers physical restraint Aboriginal Australian Perspectives and constraint. The school depicted on this page If an uncanny return to national origins is being is overseen by a figure of white authority and, staged in the repetition of the Gallipoli myth readers are told, is valued primarily for the literal

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nourishment it provides: “The best things about school were the small bottles of milk we drank every day and the vegetable garden” (np). There is no sense that any pedagogical or curricular experiences are valued by the speaker, presumably because they are disconnected from the valued culture and experience of the community that the school is supposed to serve. Papunya School Book of Country and History (2001) is the result of a curriculum project at Papunya School to give students a meaningful education. Towards the end of the book, readers realize that they are reading one of the outcomes of an explicit educational agenda: “At Papunya we now know about schools and now we will make decisions about how and what we want the children to learn. Tjulkura will sit outside and behind Anangu to assist and work with Anangu teachers, students and administrators” (40). Beyond this Papunya School Book explicitly initial, important goal, Papunya School Book of addresses colonial policies and prac- Country and History is now widely available to non-Papunya readers, and reading this book tices that have shaped Australian offers a perspective on Australian colonial history history, but which have not al- that makes the erasure or effacement of Aborig- inal experiences impossible. ways been addressed by Austra- Papunya School Book explicitly addresses lian schools. Such practices include colonial policies and practices that have shaped the appropriation of land being Australian history, but which have not always been addressed by Australian schools. Such described as exploration and the practices include the appropriation of land being forced removal of Aboriginal people described as exploration and the forced removal to Missions where original lan- of Aboriginal people to Missions where original languages and cultures were intended to be guages and cultures were intended erased in favor of Anglo-Australian language and to be erased in favor of Anglo-Aus- culture. Many Australians now know about the tralian language and culture. history of the Stolen Generations—a term used to describe the forced removal of Aboriginal children from their families to be assimilated into dominant, White Australian culture (Australian Government). Papunya School Book not only addresses such issues from an Aboriginal perspective, but makes clear the effects of educational colonization:

At this time [1960], children were not allowed to speak their own language at school. They were meant to learn only the whitefeller way of doing things. Teachers were very strict, and the Tjulkura did not talk to the community about how it wanted the children to learn. The education system did not recognise that Anangu elders and families had been teaching children since the Tjukurrpa. Teachers did not recognise the learning that the children brought from the community. They did not value learning about country. (Papunya School 30)

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Papunya School Book of Country and History enacts a productive opposi- tion to such policies, and offers an antidote to some of the educational fictions which accompany, enact and transmit colonial paranoia. If “the very act of naming geographical entities implies a power over them” (Harvey 419), then Papunya opens by taking back power, as a full- bleed map incorporates colonial place-names such as Alice Springs and Hermannsburg, but privileges language groups such as Warlpiri and Pitjantjatjara as markers of location and identity (Papunya School 2-3). The hybridity of this map indexes a much deeper sense of hybrid nationality and subjectivity. Regardless of their cultural location, Papunya invites readers to consider the role of curricular materials in coming to know the self and the other. It offers a palimpsestuous approach to mapping that represents and enacts its wider approach to education. It may not be a coincidence that where the Anzac texts are openly and straightforwardly didactic, the Indigenous texts combine their social- izing and acculturating elements with a critique of normative education. That is, the Anzac books are “for” education where the Aboriginal books are “about” education. Indeed, the very existence of books such as Papunya speaks to the necessity of open, thoughtful curricular enterprises. Readers are told, “At school we learn two ways—Anangu way and Western way” (45). It seems to me that the ACARA cross-curricular priorities are reaching out for such multiple educational perspectives, and I can only hope that colonial paranoia does not undermine the potential benefit to the current and future citizens of Australia. I also hope that the CBCA continues to prize the multiplicities of works such as Papunya, which teaches (among many lessons) that curricular goals need relevant and appropriate resources, and that Australian history, culture, and subjectivity need reconsideration rather than recapitulation.

Notes 1. The first Eve Pownall Award was presented to Nadia Wheatley and Donna Rawlins’s My Place (1987) in the year of Australia’s bicentenary, 1988. This first award was administered by the family of Eve Pownall, who was a highly regarded creator of children’s non-fiction literature in the twentieth century and an active member of the CBCA throughout her adult life. The award has since been absorbed within the CBCA Awards roster (“Winners”). 2. It is beyond the scope of this paper to consider issues of sustainability, but at least thirty-percent of the Eve Pownall books of the twenty-first century seek to negotiate anxious relationships with the Australian environment via stories of exploration, mapping, and empirical, scientific knowledge of flora and fauna.

Works Cited Children’s Books Carlyon, Patrick. The Gallipoli Story. Camberwell, VIC: Penguin, 2003. Print. IBBY.ORG 51.1 – 2013 | 49 Paranoid Prizing

Davidson, Leon. Red Haze: Australians & New Bradford, Clare. “Picturing Australian History: Zealanders in Vietnam. Fitzroy, VIC: Black Visual Texts in Nonfiction for Children.” The Dog Books, 2006. Print. Presence of the Past in Children’s Literature. Ed. —. Scarecrow Army: The Anzacs at Gallipoli. Ann Lawson Lucas. Westport, CT: Praeger, Fitzroy, VIC: Black Dog Books, 2005. Print. 2003. 99-105. Print. Greenwood, Mark. Simpson and His Donkey. “The Children’s Book Council of Australia 2008. Illus. Frané Lessac. Newtown, NSW: Annual Awards 2002 [Unsigned Judges’ Walker, 2011. Print. Report].” Reading Time 46.3 (2002): 2-13. Hill, Anthony. Soldier Boy: The True Story of Jim Print. Martin, the Youngest Anzac. Camberwell, VIC: Commonwealth of Australia. “School Libraries Penguin, 2001. Print. and Teacher Librarians in 21st Century Macinnis, Peter. Kokoda Track: 101 Days. 2007. Australia.” 2011. Web. 15 Mar. 2012. Newtown, NSW: Black Dog Books, 2012. Department of Education, Employment and Print. Workplace Relations (DEEWR). “Building Maralinga Tjarutja Inc, with Christobel the Education Revolution.” 2011. Web. 15 Mattingley. Maralinga: The nA angu Story. Mar. 2012. Crows Nest, NSW: Allen & Unwin, 2009. Elder, Catriona. Being Australian: Narratives of Print. National Identity. Crows Nest, NSW: Allen Nicholls, Christine. Art, History, Place. 2003. & Unwin, 2007. Print. Kingswood SA: Working Title Press, 2009. Hage, Ghassan. “Multiculturalism and White Print. Paranoia in Australia.” Journal of Interna- Papunya School, with Nadia Wheatley and Ken tional Migration and Integration 3.3-4 (2002): Searle. Papunya School Book of Country and 417-37. Print. History. Crows Nest, NSW: Allen & Unwin, Harvey, David. “Between Space and Time: 2001. Print. Reflections on the Geographical Imagina- Russell, Elaine. A Is for Aunty. Sydney: ABC tion.” Annals of the Association of American Books, 2000. Print. Geographers 80.3 (1990): 418-434. Print. Wheatley, Nadia. My Place. 1987. Illus. Donna Lunt, Trish. “Situating Childhood: A Reading Rawlins. Melbourne: Pearson, 2005. Print. of Spatiality in Aboriginal Picture Books.” Papers: Explorations Into Children’s Literature Secondary Sources 15.1 (2005): 59-67. Print. “Anzac.” The Macquarie Dictionary Online. 2012. Macleod, Mark. “The Book of the Year Awards: Web. 15 May 2012. The Early Years.” Reading Time 50.2 (2006): Australian Curriculum, Assessment and 2-5. Print. Reporting Authority (ACARA). “Cross- Seal, Graham. Inventing Anzac: The Digger Curriculum Priorities.” 2011. Web. 18 Feb. and National Mythology. St. Lucia: U of 2012. Queensland P, 2004. Print. Australian Government. “Sorry Day and the Shavit, Zohar. “On the Use of Books for Children Stolen Generations.” 22 Oct. 2009. Web. 20 in Creating the German National Myth.” The Sep. 2012. Presence of the Past in Children’s Literature. Ed. “Awards Titles and Criteria [for 2011 Awards].” Ann Lawson Lucas. Westport, CT: Praeger, Children’s Book Council of Australia. 2010. 2003. 123-132. Print. Web. 30 Aug. 2010. “Winners and Commended Books 1980 – 1989 Bourdieu, Pierre. Language and Symbolic Power. – CBCA.” Children’s Book Council of Australia. Ed. John B. Thompson. Trans. Gino Raymond 2011. Web. 12 Jul. 2012. and Matthew Adamson. Cambridge: Polity, 1991. Print.

50 | bookbird IBBY.ORG Word and Sound and Word Poetry: Caribbean of Power The

If anything can be said to define West Indian poetry it is that sense of an engagement with the diverse and often hidden sources of Caribbean history and culture and the determination to refashion those materials into poetry which speaks of and into the present in voices that the peoples of the region would recognise as their own. (Brown 155)

he Caribbean Poetry Project (CPP) is a unique collabo- ration between the Universities of Cambridge and West Indies (UWI), developed under the auspices of the Cambridge Centre for Commonwealth Education and funded by T by Morag Styles the Commonwealth Education Trust. It is made up of scholars with educational backgrounds from Barbados, Cambridge, Jamaica and Trinidad. Our project team soon discovered that although we may live an ocean apart, we have like minds when it comes to teaching poetry. Indeed, one of the main points of the project is to reach as many children and teachers on both sides of the Atlantic as we can, encouraging them to appreciate and enjoy Caribbean poetry. Key Caribbean poets are advisors on the project, including Kamau Brathwaite, Mervyn Morris and Olive Senior, and our partners include organizations such as the online Poetry Archive, an open access resource which enables people to hear poetry read aloud or Morag Styles is Professor of Children’s Poetry at the University of Cambridge performed, as well as to find out more about the poets and their back- Faculty of Education, and a Fellow of grounds. (TheC PP has raised funds to add a number of significant Homerton College. She divides her time between teaching and research. Her Caribbean poets, such as Edward Baugh and Linton Kwesi Johnson, publications include From the Garden to this resource). This column reflects on some of the staging-posts to the Street: 300 Years of Poetry for Children; Children Reading Pictures: from the journey we have embarked on together as we sought ways to Interpreting Visual Texts; Reading share Caribbean poetry with teachers and young people. Lessons From the Eighteenth Century: Mothers, Children and Texts; and Poetry Stuart Brown and Mark McWatt talk about Caribbean poetry as and Childhood. She is currently directing a life-affirming and spiritually uplifting body of poetry. We agree a Caribbean Poetry Project with the entirely with that assessment. Poetry can be written in elegant University of the West Indies. © 2013 by Bookbird, Inc. The Power of Caribbean Poetry standard English, or exuberant Jamaican Creole is so political that you cannot introduce it to or, like much of the work of Derek Walcott teachers or pupils without also engaging with its which weaves Caribbean inflection into classical background. European forms, can also take account of “the The history of slavery in the region is inti- popular music rhythms of the region” (Pollard mately connected to the language and rhythm of forthcoming). This poetry comes to life in spoken the poetry we hear today. When Bryan observes form and performance. As Kei Miller and others that “rhythm and sound has helped to define the have suggested, poetry is a kind of music. Indeed, poetry” of the Caribbean and that this poetry Kamau Brathwaite in his classic manifesto for includes “a medley of forms and registers in a Nation Language, The History of the Voice, insists heritage of song, speech and performance,” she is that Caribbean poetry is based on sound and that referring to the ways in which Caribbean poetry written versions of poems inevitably lose part of draws on its African heritage (Bryan forth- their meaning. By “Nation Language,” Brath- coming). The rhythms resemble those found in waite refers to the Creoles spoken by the people the music of West Africa from whence most of of the Caribbean derived from colonial and the slaves were taken, and the language retains vernacular forms of the language. Beverley Bryan residues of the slaves’ grammar when they points out that Nation Language is a political and learned to speak the European languages of their cultural term “illustrated by a variety of voices masters. This is “riddim poetics”: a politicized with different accents, registers and dialects” poetry full of beauty and entrancing rhythms, (forthcoming). We have, therefore, put orality at but which never allows the listener to forget the the heart of our project and all our workshops brutal history of the region. include performances by Caribbean poets. Kwame Dawes refers specifically to reggae as the aesthetic “which has come to shape the The history of slavery in the region creative context for much of the writing that has emerged out of the Caribbean in the last two is intimately connected to the decades” (2008:8). Through the performances language and rhythm of the poetry of reggae artists such as Bob Marley (1945-81), reggae has enabled the world to engage with we hear today. riddim poetics. One of Marley’s many remarkable “Riddim” Poetics: Where Politics and achievements was that he managed to achieve world renown without leaving Jamaica for long Poetry Meet periods. By way of contrast, many of the best Dieffenthaller describes Caribbean poetry as known Caribbean poets (including several who a young literature with an “aesthetic that runs are involved with the CPP) have left their native counter to the dominant Western tradition” (2). home for extended periods, if not permanently. Caribbean poetry needs to be read as part of a larger project of responding to the history of slavery and oppression, but also of resistance and Exile and Identity As a result of the poverty of the region, and liberation. Some Caribbean poetry enacts resis- richer publishing and performance opportunities tance through mockery, as in the calypso tradi- outside the Caribbean, many Caribbean poets tion and the work of the acclaimed poet Louise find themselves pulled in two opposing direc- Bennett, recording the vagaries of Jamaican life tions. Those who move away from their roots in Jamaican Creole. Others, such as Dabydeen’s sometimes have an uneasy relationship with their Turner (1995), mourn the loss of those who died host society that includes uncomfortable accom- during the era of slavery and expose the callous- modation to a colonial past and the need to deal ness of all those who benefitted from the slave with the realities of contemporary racism. Most trade. The content of much Caribbean poetry Caribbean poets living overseas also continue to

52 | bookbird IBBY.ORG The Power of Caribbean Poetry have a strong relationship with their own places I have lost my tongue of origin, often leading to ambiguous feelings of from the root of the old one guilt, longing and loss and, for some, a sense of a new one has sprung exile. Some of the central tropes in Caribbean poetry relate to this troubled history of exploita- writes Nichols in the voice of a former slave in “I tion, migration, separation and confused identity. is a Long-memoried Woman” (1999). Despite the “To tell you de truth / I don’t know really where I vicissitudes of history, most Caribbean people are belaang” cries Grace Nichols (2010) in her poem keen to make the most of the migration experi- “Wherever I Hang.” ence; although Nichols talks of feeling “divided For those who stay in the islands, the history to de ocean / Divided to de bone” in “Wherever I of oppression continues in a subtler form as those Hang,” she ends on a triumphant note, declaring colonisers of old make their presence felt as “the that “Anywhere I hang me knickers—that’s my more benign interlopers we call tourists” (Styles home.” Indeed, there is another side to Carib- & Bryan forthcoming). Olive Senior’s “Medita- bean poetry which employs winning strategies tion on Yellow” (2005) is a powerful exploration of humor, musicality and sound to engage and of this idea expressed in the voice of a worker at disarm the audience. a beach hotel: One of the most popular exponents of humorous poetry is John Agard who is famous I want to feel for his biting wit and mischievous use of irony. though you own Agard has become one of the UK’s best-loved the silver tea service poets. His sense of fun and the warmth of his the communion plate personality make him a great favorite with pupils you don’t own and teachers alike. Some of Agard’s poems have the tropics anymore already gained canonical status, finding their way out of adult collections and into exam syllabi. Mark McWatt’s “Variations on the Theme of “Poetry Jump-up” (1996) has become a perfor- Independence II” (2009) is even more blunt: mance standard:

Independence is that annual visitor words shakin dey waist or quasi-diplomat who explores your island words shakin dey bum in his CD jeep or rented car, who knows words wid black skin its lore and history better than you… words wid white skin “Independence” is the name of the house words wid brown skin he will build, after retirement, words wid no skin at all on your prime beach land... words huggin up words And the question is: if he hires you am sayin I want to be a poem today to cook his meals or cut his grass rhyme or no rhyme will his independence and your independence become the same thing at last? On a more serious note, though still full of fun, Agard is widely admired for poems such McWatt refuses to answer this question; he passes as “Half-Caste,” “Checking Out Me History” it over to the reader or listener to consider the (1996) and “Palm Tree King” (1982), quoted complexities involved in untangling the nations respectively: of the Caribbean from their colonial pasts. But even the most terrible of histories can end yu mean when Picasso on a note of hope: mix red an green I have crossed the ocean is a half-caste canvas

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§ Dem tell me bout 1066 and all dat dem tell me bout Dick Whittington and he cat But Toussaint L’Ouverture no dem never tell me bout dat § If 6 straw hat and half a dozen bikini multiply by the same number of coconut tree equal one postcard how many square miles of straw hat you need to make a tourist industry?

…these poems offer ideal material Although the language and ideas of these poems appear initially very accessible, they invite deep for children, both those in the engagement with ideas of identity and place, Caribbean and those elsewhere, to history and voice. They offer ideal material for engage with the varied nations, their children, both those in the Caribbean and those elsewhere, to engage with the varied nations, histories, their languages and their their histories, their languages and their cultures cultures in a less “touristic” manner. in a less “touristic” manner. Teaching Caribbean Poetry The CPP team has worked together to try to help teachers and pupils in the Caribbean and UK to understand the histories, contexts, sound, music, language and landscape of Caribbean poetry in order to explore its richness and variety. We have constructed a core course that can be adapted into workshops, events and poetry readings for any audience. The poetry extracts quoted above give some sense of the material we employ although there isn’t space for some of the more challenging examples we use. So far, we have designed the course for practicing secondary teachers or trainees, but it could be easily modified to Masters’ level and we plan to develop it for primary teachers. The course will form the basis of Teaching Caribbean Poetry which will be published by Routledge next year. During 2012, versions of the course have been taught in Antigua, Barbados, Grenada, Jamaica, St Lucia, St Vincent and Trinidad, as well as in London and Cambridge in the UK, by members of our team, working hand-in-hand with poets and sometimes Ministries of Educa- tion and exam boards. Members of the project team have taken part in arts events such as the Poetry Parnassus in London and Bim Festival in Bridgetown, Barbados, both in 2012. Our aim is to provide a highly

54 | bookbird IBBY.ORG The Power of Caribbean Poetry supportive and interactive experience for teachers, modeling ways of probing the poetry, making practical suggestions for the classroom and showing how to bring it alive in readings and performance.

“Sea Timeless Song” So what happens in a typical workshop? Here’s one example of a short, apparently simple poem that can be used with almost any age group as a starting–point. Drawing on non-stereotypical Caribbean images to make it more concrete, discussion can range around social, historical, environmental and geographical as well as literary issues. A choral reading of Grace Nichols’s “Sea Timeless Song” might be preceded by reading a memoir extract:

My imagination is stirred by my childhood. I was awakened by tropical things. Whenever I remember the country village along the Guyana coast, where I spent my small-girl days, I can’t help seeing water water everywhere. Brown silky water when it rained heavily. Fish swimming into people’s yards and children catching them in old baskets… A lot of my poems are about…back-home happenings. (Nichols, qtd. in Styles & Cook).

Hurricane come and hurricane go but sea sea timeless sea timeless sea timeless sea timeless sea timeless

Hibiscus bloom and dry wither so but sea sea timeless sea timeless etc

Tourist come and tourist go but sea sea timeless sea timeless etc

Many of the distinctive features mentioned above about Caribbean poetry can be found in this poem. We encourage starting with a geographical approach which means locating the Guyanese coast on a map and noting the position of the islands of the Caribbean looking out to the Atlantic, the Americas and Africa—and all that this config- ures about its history. Sun, sand, sea, sport, leisure and luxury may be what tourists experience, but the delights of tropical life come at a heavy price for those who live there year-round, including extremes of weather bringing devastating consequences. A literary examination of the poem and its sound shows how the rhythm of the tide coming out and coming in timelessly is reflected in the rhythm. Like a lot of Caribbean poetry, its

IBBY.ORG 51.1 – 2013 | 55 The Power of Caribbean Poetry dominant rhythm is “dactylic” (a pattern of one Language poetry within their classes, may lack strongly stressed syllable tending to be followed confidence, being unsure what it means and how by two less stressed ones) with emphatic use of it should be read aloud. They may also be afraid repetition and alliteration. While it is neither of being politically incorrect and would rather be pure standard English, nor Nation Language, it politically incorrect by omission than by teaching includes some distinctively Caribbean phrasing. it wrongly. Two other features of Caribbean poetry we While some of the work of Agard and emphasize throughout the course are a sense of Nichols might be readily accessible, the powerful place and a concern for the environment. “Sea confrontational dub poetry of Linton Kwesi Timeless Song” offers scope for discussing what Johnson is likely to challenge most teachers in it means to depend on the sea as a source of food terms of theme and language. Johnson pioneered and employment alongside the present danger of a new kind of poetry in the 1970s using modified rising sea levels. Nichols also makes reference to Jamaican English with a reggae rhythm, quickly the life cycle of the hibiscus, drawing attention gaining a wide audience through his electrifying to the beauty of Caribbean flora and fauna. We performances, musical brilliance and radical often select poems that are rooted in the phys- political message. He expressed some of “the ical environment, reflecting the “landscapes and anger and the frustrations and the hopes and the seascapes and the writer’s connection to them” aspirations of my generation growing up in this (Styles & Bryan forthcoming). These are matters country under the shadow of racism” (in Caesar with which the children of the region can easily 64). These are important ideas for today’s British engage, but they also make the Caribbean imagi- children and Johnson’s poetry can make them natively accessible to those living far away. more widely accessible. Tessa Ware of Alexandra Park School, Teaching Linton Kwesi Johnson’s Poetry Haringey (whose work I quote with her permis- in the British Classroom sion) took our Teaching Caribbean Poetry course in Cambridge with her colleague, Crispin Bonham Carter. He went on to develop a scheme of work based on Caribbean poetry which they both taught to classes of 12-13 year old students. Tessa was interested to see whether young people would be able to access the complex messages in poems by Johnson and get beyond the defamilia- rising nature of the language used. In her course assignment, Tessa talked bravely about being aware of her position in relation to these texts as a “cultural tourist,” exploring the poetry of a region of which she had no direct experience. She identified some of the key issues that UK teachers wid mi riddim grapple with in accommodating difference. wid mi rime After reading Johnson’s “If I Woz a Tap- wid mi ruff base line Natch Poet” (2002) (available on the Poetry Archive), the pupils were given this task for In British classrooms, Caribbean poetry tends homework: “Imagine a newspaper has criticized to be either absent or included in a tokenistic modern schools for teaching Linton Kwesi John- fashion. White British teachers tend not to be son’s poetry. Write a letter to the editor of the knowledgeable about the history of the Carib- newspaper explaining why you think it is impor- bean and, even if persuaded to include Nation tant to study poetry in different dialects.”

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Here are some of the pupils’ responses: This experience reminded Tessa of John Gordon’s (2004) comment that poetry is often if we no longer teach Caribbean poetry studied in school as a purely written medium to in our school then pupils will not under- take into account the forms of assessment that stand the different ways of Caribbean focus on poetry on the page, read silently rather culture and Caribbean pupils will find it as than shared orally. Dealing with the sound an offence that their poems are not good element of poetry involves bringing poetry into enough to read - when they are. the public sphere which is, of course, very similar So what’s a little difference in language, to Brathwaite’s seminal view. Tessa pointed out in the end we will understand the message that the activity the students enjoyed best was of the poem. the one that got them closest to the performa- The Caribbean dialect is very different tive elements of Caribbean poetry: “Certainly, to ours and to me it’s unique because the responses of these students showed their everyone has their own way of speaking… understanding of ‘marginalised political views,’ their engagement with ‘language variety’ and These comments suggested that studying poetry their enjoyment of the ‘community feeling in in non-standard English had intensified the live performance.’” As such, they moved closer pupils’ collective view that Nation Language to understanding the crossing-places of oral poetry was important. There was something and literary modes, and thus closer to the heart about Johnson’s assertion of his non-standard of what many of the poets are trying to achieve voice that persuaded the whole class that this was in their use of form, rhythm and language. an important aspect of poetry. One comment Tessa’s pupils may still be “cultural tourists,” but took a sophisticated view on how the poem defa- hopefully tourists with a stronger grasp of the miliarized the reader to the extent that they had poetic forms they have encountered and on the to “think more carefully” about the poem. The way to developing some appreciation of riddim pupils showed a basic understanding that the aesthetics. language used encoded culture in some way. They were also critical of implied value judg- Last Words ments about non-standard English, and aware of I have drawn in some detail on the workshops of code-switching involved in the poets’ deliberate which I have personal experience in the UK with adoption of Creole and their reasons for doing so. colleagues, Georgie Horrell and David Whitley, Similar understanding was seen when exploring and on Tessa Ware’s teaching experience. I the same issues with an older class looking at do not, however, want to give the misleading Agard’s “Checking Out Me History”: “Since impression that the CPP is Britain-focused. Far he was brought up with a British education, from it, one of our most exciting achievements to he would have learnt how to pronounce ‘them’ date has been this summer’s series of workshops correctly (sic), however he is deliberately saying in the Eastern Caribbean run by our colleagues ‘dem,’ almost saying ‘this is how it’s pronounced in Barbados and attended by a pair of teachers in my country, so I will say it like this’.” The from every secondary school in every territory in pupils were then asked to perform a Caribbean the region. Another is the setting up of a 40-hour poem in groups where they enjoyed the oppor- course for B.Ed students accredited across UWI tunity to “speak like a Caribbean person.” Actu- campuses which had its inaugural run in Jamaica ally performing it helped them to understand the 2012. emotions in the poem by considering how to read As I write this paper, the CPP is preparing certain lines and how to engage with an audi- for an international conference on Caribbean ence, so that they could “bring the poem to life” poetry, featuring an impressive line-up of Carib- and “feel the proper sense and rhythm.” bean poets, lectures from distinguished scholars,

IBBY.ORG 51.1 – 2013 | 57 The Power of Caribbean Poetry

a range of papers on varied aspects of Caribbean poetry from many parts of the world, and contributions from our entire project team. We will disseminate what we have learned together and continue the conversations further afield. There are other research and publishing initiatives in the pipeline with a wide assortment of partners, including the ambi- tion to contribute to a Caribbean-wide electronic open campus. We are looking forward to continuing this journey together. Perhaps some of the readers of this article would like to join us in promoting Caribbean poetry and supporting teachers in bringing it alive in classrooms all over the world.

Photographs are used with permission.

Works Cited

Poetry Agard, John. Get Back, Pimple! London: Viking, 1996. Print. —. Man to Pan. Havana: Casa de las Américas, 1982. Print. Dabydeen, David. Turner: New and Selected Poems. Leeds: Peepal Tree Press Ltd, Jonathan Cape, 1995. Print. Kwesi Johnson, Linton. Mi Revalueshanary Fren. London: Penguin, 2002. Print. Nicols, Grace. I Have Crossed an Ocean: Selected Poems. Tarset: Bloodaxe, 2010. Print. —. I Is A Long-Memoried Woman. London: Karnak House, 1999. Print. —. Come on into my Tropical Garden. London: A & C Black, 1993. Print. Senior, Olive. Gardening in the Tropics. Toronto: Insomniac Press, 2005. Print. Styles, Morag & Helen Cook. There’s a Poet Behind Me. London: A & C Black, 1988. Print.

Secondary Sources Brathwaite, Kamau. The History of the Voice: The Development of Nation Language in Anglophone Caribbean Poetry. London: New Beacon Books, 1984. Print. Brown, Stuart. Tourist, Traveller, Troublemaker: Essays on Poetry. Leeds: Peepal Tree Press, 2007. Print. Brown, Stuart, and Mark McWatt. The Oxford Book of Caribbean Verse. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005. Print. Bryan, Beverley. “The role of context in defining adolescent responses to Caribbean poetry.” English in Education 29.1 (1995):42-49. Print. Bryan, Beverley, and Morag Styles. “The Diaspora Consciousness: Notions of Identity and Exile in British Caribbean Poetry.” Teaching Caribbean Poetry. London: Routledge, forthcoming 2013. Print.

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Caesar, Burt. “Interview: Linton Kwesi Johnson talks to Burt Caesar at Sparkside Studios, Brixton, London.” Critical Quarterly 38.4 (1996): 64-77. Print. Dawes, Kwame. Natural Mysticism: Towards a New Reggae Aesthetic. Leeds: Peepal Tree Press, 2008. Print. Dieffenthaller, Ian. Snow on Sugarcane: The Evolution of West Indian Poetry in Britain. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2009. Print. Gordon, John. “Verbal energy: attending to poetry.” English in Educa- tion 38 (2004): 92-103. Print. McWatt, Mark. “Variations on the Theme of Independence.” The Journey to Le Repentir. Leeds: Peepal Tree Press, 2009. Print. Pollard, Velma. “Understanding, Approaching and Teaching Derek Walcott.” Teaching Caribbean Poetry. Eds. Beverley Bryan & Morag Styles. London: Routledge, forthcoming 2013. Ware, Tessa. Assignment for TCP course. 2012.

Set in St Kitts in the Caribbean, this book centers around an t. Ki S t unsuspecting trio of boy, girl, and monkey on what should have t C 2008 s been an innocuous field trip with teacher and classmates to the a famous Brimstone Hill Fort on that island. The three find themselves r transported to the 18th century, captured as spies, and thrown into a i n b a fierce battle between the British and French for the Fort, built by the b e English to defend the island. Fact meets fiction comfortably in this adventure story, and the author is careful to tell us in her notes that her story is written “with a sprinkling of the truth.” Young readers will find a graphic, colorful, albeit not totally accurate, history lesson from Carol Ottley-Mitchell the 18th century dished up in this adventure of the 21st century, and will be able to easily digest the revised episode of war between Britain Adventure at Brimstone Hill and France, namely the Battle for Brimstone Hill. The tale is well- Caribbean Adventure Series Book 1 plotted and, once the young pair and pet monkey get involved and Illus. Ann-Catherine Loo become part of the battle, the action picks up and the adventure really Carol Mitchell, 2008 takes off. The narrative is a lively retelling of the sights, sounds and 93pp; ISBN 1-4392-1923-0 flavors of a significant moment in Kittitian history. (fiction, 9+) Nadhjla Carasco Bailey

IBBY.ORG 51.1 – 2013 | 59 obert McCloskey’s Blueberries for Sal (1948) can be read as an idealized fable on the subject of ethnicity. In this classic American picture book, Little Bear’s mother is “old enough Rto be shy of people, even a very small person like Little Sal,” and similarly Little Sal’s mother is “old enough to be shy of bears, even very small bears like Little Bear,” when they are mixed up together on Blueberry Hill. Little Sal and Little Bear, unlike their elders, are not shy at all, and happily accept the different versions of mother- hood they encounter. Like Little Sal with Mother Bear, very young children are either unaware of, or uninterested in, the differences in ethnicity and culture which they encounter every day. In their expe-

Flying to Pick Blueberries: Preschoolers’Two Literary withEncounters Other Cultures rience, each family has its own culture. Differences in food and in childrearing for instance, are accepted by young children as just that by Virginia Lowe family’s difference, regardless of their cultural background. My children, Rebecca and Ralph, played with Johnny, Andrew and Minos across the road, but were scarcely aware of, and certainly uninterested in, the fact that their mother spoke Greek. The cultural differences that they discovered in books, both fantasy and the simple domestic tale, were far more significant to them. Between the years 1972 and 1988, I kept a record of my two children’s responses to books, from the birth of the elder until the younger reached adolescence (Lowe 2007). In the largely mono- cultural society of Australia almost forty years ago, books were one Dr Virginia Lowe kept a record of her way, perhaps the major way, for young children to discover different two children’s book-responses for over twelve years, on which she has published ways of life to compare with their own: different countries, different extensively including a book by Routledge. customs, different languages. However, very few books were sources A children’s librarian then university lecturer, she is now an Adjunct Research of information about their own national identity. Despite the flow- Associate at Monash University, Australia. ering of Australian children’s literature which was taking place in Since 1997 she has run Create a Kids’ Book manuscript assessment agency. the 1970s, only 6% of Rebecca’s books had Australian authors (7% www.createakidsbook.com.au. of Ralph’s). The approximately 2000 books they met were mainly © 2013 by Bookbird, Inc. Flying to Pick Blueberries

American (46% for Rebecca and 41% for Ralph) and English (32% and 33%). These hardly count as other cultures in our minds, but their very differences from their own lives were significant to the children. Of the remainder, 7% were German or Dutch, 4% (6%) French, 3% Swedish and 3% authors from other countries (Japanese, Chinese, Danish, Finnish, Russian, Italian, New Zealand). Their view of other cultures, other lives, other peoples, was received from their extensive contact with the books we introduced them to, some of which foregrounded these differences; some showed everyday lives in other cultures, and some were set in the universal world of fantasy. I have detailed here some of the ways in which Rebecca and Ralph came to understand their national identity through the books they encountered.

Encounters with Other Cultures It was America which became for Rebecca at 2-10 (two years and ten months) the symbol for the exotic, for all that was wonderful and out of reach, and it happened through Blueberries for Sal. Sal is a little girl in many ways similar to Rebecca herself: she has a cat; she “helps” her mother in the kitchen; they go for trips in the car. Best of all, as Rebecca discovered with the onset of winter, her own overalls had straps “like Sal’s!” as she exclaimed, straining around at the mirror to admire them crossing on her back. Apart from her adventure with the bear, Sal leads a similar life to Rebecca’s. One of Rebecca’s regular games became “picking blueberries to bottle”: picking clover leaves into a yogurt carton in the yard. She asked “When can we pick blueberries?” The only reply possible to this was that blueberries grow in America (we had never eaten them) and that America is such a long way that you have to go by plane. Next time we saw a plane flying overhead: “Perhaps it’s going to America, to pick blueberries.” Interestingly, despite her fascination with animals, it was never the encounter with the bear that she talked about in relation to this book. Simple domestic tales, wherever they were set, inspired this interest in cultural specificities. Rebecca knew that “in England” the mail is delivered right to the door and the milkman comes into the kitchen (Hughes’ Lucy and Tom’s Day 1960), that potato chips are “crisps” and are bought in “snack bars” rather than milk bars (Vipont/Briggs’ The Elephant and the Bad Baby 1969). She knew that Stockholm celebrates Children’s Day (Lindgren/Wikland’s A Day at Bullerby 1967), and that “there’s snow at Christmas in books” (4-1). These were worlds that she recognized as having an actual existence somewhere. Like Sal’s America, one could talk about visiting them, even if it would involve a plane trip. Her response to fantasy was quite different; she tended to see this as placeless. Beatrix Potter’s world is one where rabbits and kittens talk and wear clothes (her understanding of the anthropomorphized animal characters is discussed in Lowe 1996), and Max lives in a world with Wild Things—the countries where these books originate is irrelevant. They exist in places outside the “real” world, and at some level she IBBY.ORG 51.1 – 2013 | 61 Flying to Pick Blueberries

understood this. When she was 6-4, enjoying being read the Moomin books, she entered a “favorite author” competition with a letter to Tove Jansson in which she wrote: “I wish I could go to Finland for a holiday because I want to see it because it is in the books, to see if the forest really looks like it is.” She asked to visit Finland, where Jansson lived, but not to visit the Moomins themselves; she understood that Finland was Jansson’s world, not Moomintroll’s (Lowe 1994). Rebecca spent five months in Europe from the age of four years three months, and the trip had a lasting impact on her understanding of national identity. Krasilovsky and Spier’s The Cow Who Fell in the Canal (1958) had been a favorite since she was twelve months old. Unusu- ally, this book foregrounds a country and even emphasizes its different culture and appearance. “Hendrieka was an unhappy cow” it begins. “She lived on a farm in Holland, where it is very flat.” Hendrieka falls in a canal and floats down to see the city and the cheese market. These locations are described and pictured in ways that make their difference from the familiar (familiar to the Australian child just as to the American for whom it was written) quite explicit: “The streets are made of cobblestones and the houses have staircases on their roofs.” Then Hendrieka arrives at the excitement of the cheese market which Rebecca later saw at Alkmaar. As we flew into Athens on our trip, her father waxed lyrical about Mount Olympus and the Greeks. We talked about Italy and France as we flew over them. But when we reached Holland the sun was up, and making a shining crisscross pattern of the canals. We pointed them out to Rebecca, and her face lit up. “We’re somewhere at last!” she exclaimed with delight. Holland existed for her through Hendrieka. This trip made her very aware of other cultures, and other languages particularly. We had read her quite a few non-fiction books on other countries in preparation, and some stories, like Fromm’s Muffel and Plums (1972) were so obviously European that she recognized their environment everywhere (shops and fountains in Germany for instance). So much of her literature was English that there was delighted recognition throughout “Dover” from the nursery rhyme; “Peter Rabbit lettuces” as she named the cos variety (different from our familiar icebergs); “Barba- papa’s house” in the hexagonal gazebos seen in yards; climaxing in a visit to Beatrix Potter’s Hill Top Farm, which was so like her beloved Tom Kitten (1907) that she complained that there were three pots of geraniums on the kitchen windowsill, where the book had two (Lowe 1977). Inspired by Bettina’s Dolls (1962), which illustrated and described the places where various dolls originated, we promised to buy her a doll from each country we visited. As an adult she has remarked that it was these doll souvenirs which kept the countries real and distinct for her. At home she had had several books featuring languages other than English, and her father would read words to her in French. At three,

62 | bookbird IBBY.ORG Flying to Pick Blueberries

“French” became her term for anything unintelligible: when singing nonsense words to a familiar tune for instance, she would say “that’s how you sing it in French,” and she once told me that “‘Stolen and strayed’ is French for ‘lost’” (from Milne’s “Disobedience” 1924). She enjoyed trying them out: “Bonjour happy Ralph” she said to her baby brother, quoting Fatio/Duvoisin’s The Happy Lion (1955) at 3-6, and “‘Bonhomie’ said Brownie in a slow voice” she said of her pretend mouse-companion, after reading Milne’s Winnie-the-Pooh (1926). In Germany she gabbled to a little girl she was playing with, then explained to me: “That’s German.” Ralph, three years Rebecca’s junior, displayed a quite different pattern. For one thing, because of his position in the family, he encountered a much broader range of stories at an earlier age than Rebecca had. His concentration had to be better, his range of interests more diverse, to cope with the challenges. Sometimes he queried unfamiliar vocabulary. American books were full of foreign expressions. As well as nickels and dimes, there was “jelly” for jam, “crayons” for colored pencils. One of Ralph’s American encounters was with Burton’s Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel (1938). It must be confessed that contrary to our usual practice of reading the text as it stood, we occasionally did change Americanisms to more familiar vocabulary, and he had heard the text numerous times over two years with “motor cars” being substituted for “motors.” However his grandfather read it as written, and Ralph earnestly explained that “‘motor’ is a car’s engine—is a bit of a car’s working bit,” to contrast it with its use in the text (age 4-1). Ralph’s interest was with the exotic. At three and four he was fasci- nated by the Amerindian and African tales (especially those illustrated by Gerald McDermott), by Trezise and Roughsey’s Aboriginal stories, and by similar legends of other countries. These led to quite different types of discussions, with adult explanations of who had first told the stories, and how they had been believed. Where Rebecca’s view of other cultures was shaped by minor domestic differences, Ralph’s centered on supernatural characters and their adventures in books. Ralph’s view of ethnicity was based on these stories. Here I must digress to point out again that this is almost forty years ago: in his world, dark or Asian faces were rare. Ralph used the terms “African,” “Chinese,” and “Aborigine” interchangeably to describe those characters whom he obviously gener- alized as people who look different from us and tell supernatural legends. The stories of these people were clearly imaginary (from our Western point of view). At 4-5, for instance, Ralph described Roughsey/Trezise’s The Quinkins (1978) from the pictures, before he had heard it: “This one’s Chinese, isn’t it? This one’s exotic! And it’s not real, too. All those things are painted and they come real in the book,” referring to the spirit Quinkins themselves, who are first shown as rock paintings. After

IBBY.ORG 51.1 – 2013 | 63 Flying to Pick Blueberries the second reading he continued “The Chinese only Spanish. “I’m going to learn to say things are strange. And so are they. What are they in Spanish so I can talk to him,” Ralph volun- called?” (Quinkins?) “No, those!” (Aborigines.) teered. We located Joslin’s Señor Baby Elephant, “Yes. They’re strange and so are Japanese. There’s the Pirate (1962), which has a Spanish/English three people that do strange paintings. How do text and a short glossary, and practiced “Buenos they do the paintings? Are they alive Mummy? dias amigo” and “Adios amigo.” At 4-1, Ralph Are Quinkins alive?” (No, it’s a pretend story. explained that the mother duck in Tyson and But there are real Aborigines.) Ten months later Taylor’s Barbapapa’s Ark (1974) was telling her (5-3), he was again struggling to understand. ducklings to get out of the polluted water “in We had borrowed The Quinkins and another of duck language.” A few weeks later his awareness Trezise’s from the library. In comparing them he of other languages increased as he watched and noted, of the less familiar The Rainbow Serpent listened while I worked with Johnny’s mother (1975), “Are they written by the same people?” translating the texts of several Greek picture (Yes). “They’re Australian people too.” (Yes, by an books for the kindergarten library. It was books Aborigine. Look [photo on blurb]). “Aborigines which foregrounded other cultures and other are quite beautiful, aren’t they? Though they’re languages for the children, much more than did sort of cruel.” (Why?) “Because they kill things.” their own immediate environment.

Literary Encounters with Australian Culture While books published in other countries were staple reading material, very few books were sources of information about my children’s own national identity. Of those that were written or published here, few featured Australia “as such” anyway. Rebecca’s first encounter was with the Dandenong Ranges, situated just behind her home, Melbourne. They feature in De Fossard’s Puffing Billy (1967, heard at 3-10). Ralph’s first encounter with Australia in a story (that he remembered) was very exciting: “I can’t believe this! At last! Australia! You know how it’s always America? Well, this time it’s Australia!” This was in Hughes’ The Iron Man (1968) at 5-8, and (Kangaroos and things?) “Yes.” So I explained, it was an Australia that the space-bat-angel- certainly not for the first time, about the tradi- monster almost covers in coming to land, ironi- tional way of life and killing for food. With my cally because this would have seemed remote and children, if the culture was similar, skin color was unthreatening to the (British) readers. irrelevant, so that Peter’s dark skin was ignored Several of the authors in Children’s Litera- in The Snowy Day (Keats 1966), where the snow ture and National Identity (Carol Fox, Judith itself was envied. On the other hand, Papas’ No Graham, Margaret Meek) remark on the way Mules (1967), set in South Africa, foregrounds the children’s literature presents an idealized view of prejudice the little boy encounters, so here skin the country of origin and presents the national color was recognized as an issue and discussed. characteristics at their best, so that children Kindergarten at 4-0 had brought him new have a positive view of their own country. This awareness of cultural differences and particu- idealized view was not available to Australian larly new languages. Frederick could speak children at a time when there were very few

64 | bookbird IBBY.ORG Flying to Pick Blueberries books published in this country. Even today in Fromm, Lilo. Muffel and Plums. New York: Australia, the aspects of the society to celebrate Macmillan, 1972. Print. are tolerance and diversity, which are difficult Joslin, Sesyle. Señor Baby Elephant the Pirate. concepts to get across to the young. Our children New York: Harcourt Brace, 1962. Print. knew, from conversations with their parents, that Hughes, Shirley. Lucy and Tom’s Day. London: the Aborigines were here before the white people Gollancz, 1960. Print. came, that it was their land, their country, and Hughes, Ted. The Iron Man. London: Faber, that we pushed them out. They were also aware 1968. Print. that the Europeans brought harmful exotic plants Jansson, Tove. Moomintroll Series. Trans. Eliz- and animals with them—blackberries and rabbits abeth Portch. New York: Farrar, Strauss, for example. The child growing up in a post-colo- Giroux. Print. nial world has, of necessity, to cope with an unsa- Keats, Ezra Jack. The Snowy Day. New York: The vory history. This is rarely presented to them in Viking Press, 1962. Print. books, however, as the metanarrative of picture books is of a child solving a problem alone, with Krasilovsky, Phyllis, and Peter Spier. The Cow a happy ending. John Marsden and Shaun Tan’s Who Fell in the Canal. Kingswood, Surrey: The Rabbits (1998) tells the sad story of coloniza- World’s Work, 1958. Print. tion, but was twenty years too late to be of value Lindgren, Astrid. A Day at Bullerby. London: to my children. Methuen, 1967. Print. Children accept the version of reality that Marsden, John, and Shaun Tan. The Rabbits. stories and pictures offer them, compare it with Melbourne: Lothian, 1998. Print. their own experience, and assimilate it as just McCloskey, Robert. Blueberries for Sal. New another version. So they accept that different York: The Viking Press, 1948. Print. people live different lives, believe different McDermott, Gerald. Anansi the Spider. New things, tell different stories, look different. And York: Henry Holt, 1972. Print. from these literary experiences they build a —. Arrow to the Sun. New York: The Viking basis for approaching and understanding other Press, 1974. Print. cultures and individuals when they encounter Milne, A.A. “Disobedience.” When we were Very them in the real world. Jerome Bruner has specu- Young. London: Methuen, 1924. Print. lated that “our sensitivity to narrative provides —. Winnie-the-Pooh. London: Methuen, 1926. the major link between our own sense of self and Print. our sense of others in the social world around us” Papas, William. No Mules. London: Oxford (94). Metaphorically at least children can “go to University Press, 1967. Print. America to pick blueberries”. Potter, Beatrix. The Tale of Tom Kitten. London: Warne, 1907. Print. Works Cited Roughsey, Dick, and Percy Tresize. The Quinkins. Sydney: Collins, 1978. Print. Children’s Books —. The Rainbow Serpent. Sydney: Collins, 1975. Bettina. Dolls. London: Oxford UP, 1962. Print. Print. Burton, Virginia Lee. Mike Mulligan and his Sendak, Maurice. Where the Wild Things Are. New Steam Shovel. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, York: Harper & Rowe, 1963. Print. 1938. Print. Tison, Annette, and Talus Taylor. Barbapapa’s De Fossard, Esta. Puffing Billy. Melbourne: Ark. London: Warne, 1974. Print. Lansdowne Press, 1967. Print. Vipont, Elfrida. The Elephant and the Bad Baby. Fatio, Louise. The Happy Lion. London: Bodley London: Hamish Hamilton, 1969. Print. Head, 1955. Print.

IBBY.ORG 51.1 – 2013 | 65 Flying to Pick Blueberries Secondary Sources Bruner, Jerome. “The Transactional Self.” Making Sense: The Child’s Construction of the World. Ed. Jerome Bruner and Helen Haste. London: Methuen, 1987. 81-96. Print. Lowe, Virginia. Stories, Pictures and Reality: Two Children Tell. London: Routledge, 2007. —. “‘Little Fur Coats of Their Own’: Clothed Animals as Metafictional Markers and Children as Their Audience.” Writing the Australian Child: Texts and Contexts in Fictions for Children. Ed. Clare Bradford. Nedlands: U of Western Australia P, 1996. 37-54. Print. —. “Snufkin, Sniff and Little My: The ‘Reality’ of Fictional Characters for the Young Child.” Papers: Explorations into Children’s Literature 2.2 (1991): 87-96. Print. —. “Peter Rabbit Lettuces, or Around Europe with a Four-year-old Bookworm.” Orana 13.1 (1977): 21-24. Print. Meek, Margaret, ed. Children’s Literature and National Identity. Stoke on Trent: Trentham Books, 2001. Print.

“Anne of Green Gables for boys” is how many people would describe Boy Red, which is an engaging, nostalgic depiction of rural life in 1930s Prince Edward Island, with a red-headed protagonist: but there the That similarities end. “Red” is not an orphan in search of a “kindred spirit” but a mischievous boy, one of five siblings. The solidarity between siblings—even amidst rivalries and conflict—resonates in a marvelous portrayal of family dynamics at aThat time Boy when Red families and rendershad it oro n t t to pull together in order to survive. The episodic nature of o works very well with its target audience of 8-12 year olds. RedThat revels Boy Red 2011 in childish pranks: he tricks his younger sister, who ends up getting lost; c he interferes in his older sister’s romance; and he ends up taking refuge a from a storm in the local bully’s outhouse. But when his father’s hand is n a d a seriously injured, Red demonstrates a level of maturity previously unseen by taking charge and finishing a carpentry contract in order to maintain his father’s reputation. In the final scene, Red helps a grounded airplane pilot repair his plane, earning himself a ride. The reader will glory in Rachna Gilmore what Red realizes, flying high, as he sees how all the parts of his world connect: having strong roots gives him the freedom to grow. That Boy Red

Karyn Huenemann Toronto: Harper Trophy, 2011 211 pp. ISBN 978-1-55468-459-5 (novel, 8 +)

66 | bookbird IBBY.ORG Appreciation Children’s of Literature Bahamas the from Develop a New Reading Camp: Children

ine-year-old Kenisha, a participant of the July 2010 Reading Camp, summed up her new understanding of the connection between reading and the world around her with Nthe words, “It was fun to read stories about animals, and then take pictures [with a camera] about the same animals we read about.” Before this, Kenisha’s reading instruction in her Bahamian primary school had not taught her that a book could represent her reality. Her school, located in a low socio-economic inner-city neighborhood, was attended by children whose families’ mean yearly income was less that $500 a year. For these children, reading was something that they did in school, but never in the real world. After the summer reading program, when the American teachers heard by Joyce Armstrong Kenisha’s comments, they knew that they had spent their summer wisely, and that they had helped children like Kenisha realize the importance of reading, both in their daily lives and for their future education. During the summer breaks of 2010, 2011, and 2012, Reading Camps were organized for children from a primary school in the inner city of Nassau, The Bahamas. Each summer, the school principal and teachers selected 45 students to attend the Camp; low reading scores on a test designed by the Bahamian National Educa- tional Department assisted in identifying which students would Joyce Armstrong, PhD, has taught 18 benefit most from participation in the Reading Camp. Activi- semesters of Children’s Literature courses ties were held in various classrooms in the school building and to graduate and undergraduate students. She has planned and managed six included a field trip to the beach each week. The Reading Camp Children’s Literature Conferences, as well teachers were graduate students from a college in Pennsylvania as publishing five articles about Children’s Literature. Dr. Armstrong is currently who were completing Master’s degrees in Education and who had Assistant Director, Center for Learning and at least eight years’ worth of teaching experience. These teachers Teaching at Old Dominion University in had chosen to work for the summer in The Bahamas because their Norfolk, Virginia.

© 2013 by Bookbird, Inc. Reading Camp graduate studies centered on helping children to and its animals served as stimulating topics for develop a love of reading. They were sponsored by the students to explore, thus ensuring that the a non-profit making organization—The Harvest students’ interest and motivation levels would be Foundation—which covered the costs of their high. The summer teachers gathered both fiction travel, accommodation, and meals. The Harvest and non-fiction books which would bring strong Foundation also donated and arranged a ship- content vocabulary to the theme and would allow ment of more than 1,000 children’s books to the the students to better understand the readings. Bahamian school’s library. The Bahamas was a Children at the Reading Camp particularly particularly important place for the graduate enjoyed Diane Allette & Alan Baker’s Caribbean students to expand their own learning since the Animals, Lesley Sutty’s Fauna of the Caribbean: schools in Pennsylvania have a large immigrant The Last Survivors, and Miranda MacQuitty’s population. The Ocean. The graduate students (the summer teachers) Reading is an active process that engages the and the school’s administration agreed upon the reader. Accordingly, reading comprehension is curriculum. The summer teachers then directed improved when the content of the passage relates the day to day activities. The two major goals of to the reader’s prior knowledge. Multiple-strategy the Reading Camp were to immerse the chil- instruction that is flexible in relation to the strategies dren in literacy and to increase their enjoyment used and to their implementation over the course of a of reading. All of the Reading Camp’s activi- reading session provides an opportunity for teachers ties were focused toward the development of a and readers to interact over texts (Thompson community of readers and the establishment of 30). Thus, research indicates that an interactive, a safe environment where all children, regardless multiple-strategy approach can have a positive effect of their familiarity with reading, could improve on the development of reading comprehension and their literacy abilities. Children’s literature a child’s appreciation of literature. enables children to develop their literacy skills, so Comprehension and vocabulary retention can that they can come to appreciate how reading can be strengthened when a teacher reads a book provide insights into their own and into others’ aloud to students, especially if the reading is environments, broadening their world. In Baha- interactive and if the teacher models a variety mian schools, teachers’ focus on reading skills of reading strategies, such as anticipation, using and comprehension is limited to the informa- contextual clues to work out what unfamiliar tion contained in the prescribed reading mate- words might mean, and breaking down words rial. Quality children’s literature, particularly if into smaller phonetic or syntactic units. Compre- it is relevant to the child’s experience, deepens hension occurs when readers/listeners actively a child’s understanding and appreciation of participate in intentional interaction between reading and competency in language use (Heisey the reader and the text. The use of reading aloud & Kucan 668). Through well-crafted children’s has assisted the comprehension of students in literature about topics which catch children’s the primary grades (Coyne, et al 148). Through particular interest, children improve in reading thoughtful lesson planning, teachers create ques- comprehension, and a desire to read in greater tions and statements which can scaffold their quantity is often instilled (Mullis, Campbell, & students’ reading processes by offering examples Farstrup 12). of what good readers do in order to comprehend At the beginning of the 2011 Reading Camp, a text. This planning enables the students in the summer teachers decided to select books the read-aloud experience to hear and see good for the children on the theme of the ocean, examples of ways to use their own literacy skills. following Anderson and Pearson’s claim that The first day of the first week was devoted to the existing background knowledge aids children’s establishment of small groups (8 to 10 students), understanding of new information (7). The ocean each working with one summer teacher. Most of

68 | bookbird IBBY.ORG Reading Camp

about the topic of the book; 6) literacy circles; and 7) writing about the book. For each book, this routine lasted for two to three days, with the reading aloud of the book at least twice a day. These are the activities undertaken by the students:

• Picture Walk: Picture walks were conducted by leafing through a picture book, page by page, discussing only the pictures. All components of each picture were discussed with the students and the first day centered on the Bahamian students’ predictions were made about what the and the summer teachers’ attempts to learn more book might tell us. about each other. Students were encouraged • Interactive Read-Aloud: The teacher read to share information about themselves and to the book aloud to the students, stopping express that information in drawings, writing, frequently to discuss vocabulary, plot, and short plays. Many students were hesitant at and sequence, and to ask comprehension first to do short plays; “I don’t do these, we can’t questions. learn that way,” Alex told one of the summer • Comprehension activities: Comprehen- teachers. But by the end of the day there were sion activities were designed for each book. many smiles. The remainder of the week centered Questions were developed to ensure that on the development of a daily routine of reading the students’ thinking included knowl- and writing. This instructional plan continued edge of the subject matter, application of each week, until the students had completed a the ideas within the book, and analyzing, total of six books. synthesizing, and evaluating the content A typical day included a group meeting first of each book. thing in the morning in the multi-purpose room; • Paired reading: Students were paired with students would then go to their classrooms to another child and the two of them read begin instruction. Lunchtime was a very impor- the book aloud to each other. One student tant segment of every day. For many of the read the right-hand side of the book while students, this lunch was their only meal of the the other student read the left-hand side day. During lunchtime, chapter books from the of the book. school library were read aloud to the students • Reading a non-fiction book: Each fiction while they ate. Then, at the beginning of each book was paired with a non-fiction book, afternoon session, each student group’s teacher in order to expand the knowledge base of led a short discussion of the chapter. After the the students. The book was read to the discussion time, students would design art proj- students and a discussion followed. ects or short plays to display their comprehension • Literacy circles: The students formed of the vocabulary and the concepts within the groups of three or four to discuss the book they were reading. book. Each child had a role to play as The basic activities for each book included 1) they discussed questions proposed by its introduction by conducting a “picture walk”; the teacher. The roles included Artful 2) the summer teacher’s reading, interactively, Artist, Wacky Word Finder, Discussion the book aloud to the students; 3) comprehen- Director, and Cool Connector. The duties sion activities; 4) paired reading of the book with of each role added to the discussion and another student; 5) reading a non-fiction book comprehension of the book. Students

IBBY.ORG 51.1 – 2013 | 69 Reading Camp

discussed all of the questions and one student reported on the group’s discussion to the rest of the class. • Writing: Every day, each child wrote for fifteen minutes about something from the book that had piqued his or her interest. After their writing, the children participated in an Author’s Chair activity in which the children could read their writing to the class if they wished.

On Friday of each week, a field trip to the ocean was planned. At least 30% of the enrolled students had never visited the ocean before participating in the Reading Camp. Abigail, a student, enjoyed the reading aloud of Brenda Guiberson’s Mud City: A Flamingo Story (2005), a picture book about the adventures of a flamingo. After one trip to the ocean, Abigail wanted to learn additional information about the activities of flamingos and decided to make her own book about these birds. Shyann, another student, asked: “Why are all the animals in Caribbean Animals A to Z also on the beach and in our ocean?” The three-week experience concluded with a closing ceremony designed by the school administrators. Each of the students was awarded a t-shirt, a pencil, and a certificate of attendance. The children sang their National Anthem, said the Pledge of Allegiance to the Baha- mian flag, and were led in a prayer of thankfulness. The vice-principal also engaged the children in a poem and a thank-you song. Everyone (both teachers and students) put on their new t-shirts and walked to the pavilion for a group picture. Local television and newspaper reporters were present to interview the children, the summer teachers, and the local school personnel. Jauvante, a student, commented to a reporter as she was leaving: “This is the first t-shirt that I ever owned that nobody wore before me. I will wear it every day to read in.” The two major goals of the Reading Camp were to immerse the children in literacy and to increase their enjoyment of reading. The children who attended the Camps were immersed in children’s literature for 15 days. They would not have experienced any literacy activity during this time period without the Reading Camp. Yashug summed up his experience with this comment: “This can’t be real! I never liked to read before, now I do.” Standardized tests were administered following the three weeks of the Reading Camps. There was improvement in reading comprehension indicated by all but one student during years one and two. In year three, four students showed no increase and three students’ scores decreased. But to measure the effect of the Reading Camp, one needs to look at qualitative results. In general, several factors indicate that the Reading Camps were a positive experience for all. In each year, 95% of the children boasted perfect attendance for all fifteen days. The students laughed frequently

70 | bookbird IBBY.ORG Reading Camp and (most important of all) expressed a positive change in their feelings about books after participating in the Reading Camp. “Today you gave me the reason why we read, thank you,” Justin told one of the summer teachers. “You are different from our regular teachers,” observed Julia, before thanking the graduates for coming. The children actively participated in class discussions and when the day was over, they did not want to leave the school to walk home. After the first year, when the announce- ment was made that the Reading Camp would return for a second year, over 100 children wanted to be included. The summer teachers, upon their return home, also expressed an interest in returning each summer to help the students. The Reading Camps were very successful for both the summer teachers and the children. Both groups benefited from their collective experiences.

Photographs are used with permission.

Works Cited

Children’s Books Allette, Diane and Alan Baker. Caribbean Animals. London: Tamarind, 2008. Print. Burnie, David. Bird. DK Eyewitness Books. London: DK Children, 2008. Print Gibbons, Gail. Sea Turtles. New York: Holiday House, 1998. Print. Guiberson, Brenda. Mud City: A Flamingo Story. New York: Henry Holt, 2005. Print. James, Sylvia. Dolphins. New York: Mondo, 2002. Print. MacQuitty, Miranda. Ocean. DK Eyewitness Books. London: DK Children, 2008. Print McCarthy, Colin. Reptile. DK Eyewitness Books. London: DK Children, 2000. Print Morpurgo, Michael and Michael Foreman. Dolphin Boy. London: Andersen Press, 2005. Print. Pirotta, Saviour and Nilesh Mistry. Turtle Watch. London: Frances Lincoln Children’s Books, 2009. Print. Sattler, Jennifer. Sylvie. New York: Random House, 2009. Print. Silva Lee, Alfonso and Alexis Lago. My Island and I: The Nature of the Caribbean. Saint Paul, MN: Pangaea, 2002. Print. Stewart, Melissa. National Geographic Readers: Dolphins. Washington, DC: National Geographic Children’s Books, 2010. Print. Sutty, Lesley. Fauna of the Caribbean: The Last Survivors. Oxford, UK: Between Towns Road Publishers, 1998. Print. Watson, T. I Wanna Iguana. Paradise, CA: Paw Print Press, 2001. Print.

IBBY.ORG 51.1 – 2013 | 71 Reading Camp

Secondary Sources Anderson, Richard C. and P. David Pearson. “A Schema-theoretic view of Basic Processes in Reading Comprehension.” Handbook of Reading Research 1 (1984): 225-92. Print. Coyne, Michael D. et al. “Teaching Vocabulary during Shared Story- book Readings: An Examination of Differential Effects.” Exception- ality: A Special Education Journal 12.3 (2004): 145-62. Print. The Harvest Foundation. 2009. Bahamas Chapter. Web. 1 Oct. 2012. Heisey, Natalie and Linda Kucan. “Introducing Science Concepts to Primary Students through Read-Alouds: Interactions and Multiple Texts Make the Difference.” The Reading Teacher 63.8 (2011): 666-76. Print. Mullis, Ina, J. R. Campbell, and A. Farstrup. National Assessment of Educational Progress, 1992 - Reading Report Card for the Nation and States. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education, 1993. Print. Thompson, R. A. “Balancing Vocabulary Instruction with Teacher- Directed and Student-Centered Activities.” The Balanced Reading Program. Ed. Susan Blair-Larson and Kathryn Williams. Newark DE: International Reading Association, 1999. 24-36. Print.

In this novel in verse, author Lori Weber weaves together the perspectives of multiple characters with a particular focus on teens struggling to find their places in the world. The protagonist, Mark, owner of a new yellow mini car (which provides the title for the book) nt is popular, but angry and grieving the recent death of his father. His ro o girlfriend Stacey is attracted to Mark, but confused by his need for o distance and isolation. Secondary characters Mary, a shy and quiet t musician, Annabelle, a socially conscious activist, and Christopher, an 2011 a awkward, but supportive friend tell their stories too as their various paths c cross and intersect. Refreshingly, even parent characters are heard in this a n a d novel and play pivotal and realistic roles as the conflicts emerge and resolve. As we learn about the death of Mark’s cabdriver father who had fled the war in Lebanon, we come to understand the web of family and friendship that support his journey and our own. Graphic elements add interest to the book with different fonts cuing the reader to different Lori Weber character voices and periodic black and white images (airplane, moon, musical notes) adding symbolic impact. The use of multiple viewpoints Yellow Mini and powerful free verse lends itself to readers' theater performance too. Toronto: Fitzhenry & Whiteside, 2011 Sylvia Vardell ISBN: 1554551994 243 p. (YA poetry, 13+)

72 | bookbird IBBY.ORG Picture BookPicture Collection (NZPBC) theZealand in Reflected New Identity New of ZealandAspects National Differentiating: and Belonging

lthough we all use the term “national identity” confidently, defining what constitutes an individual’s or group’s sense of how they belong to a place and a citizenship is not easy. JeffriesA defines national identity as “a shared sense of belonging of a group of people that depends on a common area of named place, a common set of beliefs and values, and positive feelings for a specific named geographical area” (4). Fox defines it as the “characteristics a society (or nation) feels its members share that distinguish it from others” (44). Meeks describes national identity as a way of differentiating between “us” and “others,” and explains “the role that children’s literature plays in the development of children’s understandings of both belonging…and differentiation” (x). What all these definitions share is a rejection of a static, essentialist view of

identity (not only of national identity, but also of gender and ethnic identity) and an acceptance that national identity is forged through by Nicola Daly interactions between individuals and their environment. “People are seen as being involved in continuous negotiation of different aspects of their identity…based on the new norms, practices and situations which they encounter in their everyday interactions” (Jamarani 2). This letter examines a collection of picture books from New Zealand in terms of how they reflect and thus contribute to the negotiation of the national identity of children. To date, several researchers have indicated a strong link between New Zealand national identity and its children’s literature (Hebley et al). The recent A Made Up Place explores the reflection of New Nicola Daly is a senior lecturer in Arts Zealand identity in young adult fiction through a series of topics and Language Education at the University including sport, money, religion, history and Maori Gothic (see of Waikato, New Zealand. Her research interests lie in language teaching and the the Reviews section of this issue of Bookbird for a fuller discussion). use of picture books in education. She has Hebley’s doctoral dissertation draws attention to the frequency with collected picture books since she was a teenager, and loves reading them to her which two landscapes feature in New Zealand children’s fiction daughter. published between 1970 and 1989: seascapes (no New Zealander © 2013 by Bookbird, Inc. Belonging and Differentiating lives more that 130km from the sea), and volca- Maori ethnicity constitute 15% of the popula- noes (tectonic activity is a part of the national tion. People of Asian descent have increased 50% conscious as New Zealand lies on a fault line). since the previous census in 2001, and those of Moore explores national identity through the Pasifika descent have increased 15% (Statistics visual imagery used in The New Zealand School New Zealand). “Pasifika” is a term used to denote Journal, a magazine produced for use in New people living in New Zealand from a range of Zealand schools. She argues that, while the role Pacific nations including Samoa, Fiji, Cook of art in New Zealand has been discussed with Islands, Tonga, Niue and Tokelau. relation to national identity, illustrations have Spoken by 95.9% of the New Zealand popu- not been included in such analyses. Yet as a long- lation (QuickStats about Culture and Identity), standing publication for use in New Zealand English is the most widely used language in schools, The School Journal “has offered us many New Zealand. In 1987, the Maori Language Act ways to imagine ourselves as a kind of commu- gave te reo Maori (the Maori language) official nity of possibilities—always becoming” (23). language status in New Zealand, and in 2006 Moore shows how this idea of a community that New Zealand Sign Language was also given is “always becoming” is revealed through images official status. The use of Maori loanwords is of New Zealand’s flora and fauna, and through one of New Zealand English’s most defining references to Maori visual culture. characteristics (Deverson), and Macalister has Thus, to date, research has indicated a strong shown that between 1850 and 2000 the inci- link between New Zealand national identity and dence of Maori loanwords increased in a range of New Zealand children’s literature in a number contexts. Macalister has also recently estimated of ways including landscape (sea and volcanic), that New Zealanders generally know between visual and textual references to flora and fauna, 70 and 80 Maori loanwords. Several studies of and visual and linguistic references to Maori New Zealand picture books have shown that culture. Jeffries’s examination of national iden- these books use a much higher rate of Maori tity in New Zealand children’s picture books has loanwords in their English texts than do other indicated that this is a poor category of litera- domains such as newspapers and school journals ture for dealing with New Zealand identity. However, given my previous work with parents who reported on the importance of the picture book for developing the national identity of their children after a month reading a set of 13 New Zealand picture books to their children, I believe this warrants further investigation. New Zealand has been inhabited by the Maori for approximately the last 1,000 years, and was “discovered” by a Dutch explorer, Abel Tasman, in 1642. Whalers and sealers began traveling to New Zealand; a great deal of British activity then followed which led, in 1840, to the signing of a treaty between the chiefs of many (but not all) New Zealand Maori tribes and the British crown. The ethnic diversity of present-day New Zealand society grows with each census. The most recent census in 2006 showed that while the majority of New Zealanders identify their ethnicity as “European” (68%), people of

74 | bookbird IBBY.ORG Belonging and Differentiating

(Kükupa et al). One study in which parents were vivid watercolor illustrations of Nobody’s Dog by interviewed after reading New Zealand picture Jennifer Beck (2005), in which a grandfather books using high frequencies of Maori loan- shares with his grandson his childhood memories words to their children for a month revealed that of a pet dog who saved his life. Jo commented on parents believed these books were important in the New Zealand character of the environment the development of their children’s national iden- illustrated, including the landscapes, barbed- tity (Daly 2010). wire fences, and beach scenes. The importance of seeing the urban places of New Zealand in the New Zealand Picture Book Collection illustrations of books was also commented upon The New Zealand Picture Book Collection (He during our discussions. The depiction of state Kohinga Pukapuka Pikitia of Aotearoa) is a collec- housing and telephone poles was noted several tion of 22 English language picture books chosen times during the nomination of the Watercress to reflect New Zealand identity. The collection is Tuna and the Children of Champion Street by not available as a commercial unit, but is anno- Patricia Grace. For Saskia, the inclusion of such tated and accompanied by curriculum-related details resulted in a book which reflected realistic classroom activities on a website (www.picture- urban landscapes: they look like “our place.” This books.co.nz). In the process of nominating books story is about a tuna with a magic throat who for the collection, a series of valuable discussions travels to an inner city New Zealand street with took place concerning the ways in which New state housing and power lines. There the tuna Zealand identity is reflected in New Zealand presents gifts relating to dance to the children picture books. This paper is, in part, a report on who live there. The gifts all link to the children’s those discussions. cultural heritages: Tokelauan, New Zealand Over a period of five months, a group of chil- Maori, Cook Island Maori, English, Irish, and dren’s literature experts (an academic, an author, Samoan, and in the end the children dance a classroom teacher, and three librarians) sat together. The importance of the New Zealand down to discuss picture books from and about urban landscape in picture book illustrations New Zealand. Their goal was not to discuss New does not appear to have been commented upon in Zealand national identity per se, but rather to previous examinations of New Zealand national identify books that reflected New Zealand iden- identity and picture books. tity and to explain why each should be included in the collection. Drawing on field notes and Maori Language and Culture reflections from these meetings, I was able to Several previous studies have noted the impor- identify four major themes relating to national tance of references to Maori culture, both visu- identity: The New Zealand environment, Maori ally and textually, within a broader sense of New language and culture, New Zealand’s History, Zealand identity (Jackson et al; Moore). Within and Diversity—which I have used to arrange the the research group, Jo and Ann noted the univer- discussion below. I have used pseudonyms for sality of themes relating to Maori culture, such those who contributed to the discussions (Anne, as intergenerational relationships, evident in Alice, George, Jo, Saskia, and Timmy). several of the books nominated for the NZPBC including Haere: Farewell Jack, Farewell by Tim The New Zealand Environment Tipene. In this book, a young girl narrates the The prominence of the New Zealand environ- loss of her grandfather, Koro Jack, and then the ment has been noted in the other literature about birth of her sister’s new baby, describing Maori New Zealand national identity in children’s liter- practices around birth and death in her family. Jo ature (Hebley, Moore). In our discussion group, commented on the importance of Maori knowl- the New Zealand character of the rural environ- edge for all New Zealanders. The importance ment was mentioned in conversations about the of the use of Maori words and phrases was also

IBBY.ORG 51.1 – 2013 | 75 Belonging and Differentiating

made evident in the discussions of this book (as well as several others). The text includes many loan words from Maori used in New Zealand English. For example “I saw whanau [family] I hadn’t seen for ages, even my sister who was hapu [pregnant]” (unp.). Stiven has examined the use of New Zealand idiom as part of New Zealand culture and identity in books. In several previous studies, I have examined the use of Maori loanwords in New Zealand English children’s picture books published between 1995 and 2005 and have noted the link made by readers of these books between the use of such loanwords and New Zealand national identity (Daly, Macdonald & Daly). At a rate of 45 borrowed words per thousand words of text, the use of Maori borrowings in the NZPBC was at a much higher level than that found in many other contexts (Macalister, Macdonald and Daly). In addition to the language used and topics covered in this book, the illustrations in Haere were also commented on by participants who noted the representation of spirits and the often-unseen world in the illustrations by Huhanna Smith.

New Zealand History The importance of New Zealand’s history in the construction of national identity has been discussed by Harry Ricketts in relation to young adult New Zealand fiction, but has not been mentioned in previous work examining how national identity is reflected in New Zealand children’s picture books (Jackson et al). However, participants nominating books for this collection specifically mentioned it. Jo noted that The House that Jack Built by Gavin Bishop offers readers the opportunity to discuss New Zealand’s colonial history. This book is based on the well-known rhyme of the same name: an English settler to New Zealand in the late 18th century arrives in New Zealand and builds a business. At the same time, the effects of colonization on the indigenous Maori population and the land are revealed through clever details in the borders of the pictures.

Diversity The theme of diversity arose in the context of discussions about ethnicity, family type, and differing perspectives. Diversity is a theme that ties in with the observation that national identity is not “inherently monocul- tural”; being “tolerant, egalitarian and pluralist … may be a defining feature” (Fox, 44). In nominating The Terrible Taniwha of Timberditch by Joy Cowley, participants noted the range of cultures represented among the characters in the book. In this story, a little girl’s father warns her against playing at a local lake by telling her that there is a taniwha there (pronounced tah-ni-fah). The little girl decides to make a trap so she can see what a taniwha looks like. As she collects the materials to make

76 | bookbird IBBY.ORG Belonging and Differentiating the trap, people in the neighborhood tell her about mythical monsters from their home countries. For example, Mrs. Johnson tells her about a troll, Mr. Chen describes a Chinese dragon, and Mrs. Papadoupolos, a gorgon. In the end, Josephine creates an amazing personal image of a taniwha that blends all of the ideas she has heard about. Diversity in family types was evident in discussions of the illustrations of many of the picture books nominated. Timmy noted the representation of a split family in her nomination of Every Second Friday by Kiri Lightfoot in which two children go and stay with their father every second Friday. In using this setting, the text makes visible a family arrangement that is common for many children in New Zealand classrooms. The diversity of family types represented in the books being chosen, and the participants’ awareness of this, contrasts with unpublished findings about the domination of nuclear family groups in New Zealand picture books. However, it must be noted that no books representing same-sex relationships and same-sex parented families are included in the collection, and to my knowledge none have been published in New Zealand. In field notes and reflections, cultural diversity was the theme that was frequently raised. For example, Old Hu-Hu by Kyle Mewburn was nominated because the main character (Hu-Hu-Tu) searches for an explanation for the death of his dear friend Hu-Hu and in doing so the reader hears many different perspectives on death. For example, when Hu-Hu-Tu asks Spider where Hu-Hu is, she replies, “There’s some of him here. There’s more of him there. His blood is in the oil. His breath is in the air. I can see him in the flowers. I can see him in your hair. Old Hu-Hu’s not gone! He’s everywhere!” (unp.), while Butterfly replies: “Soon he’ll awake, born once again! He might be an elephant, a snake or a hen” (unp.). One aspect of diversity not present in the books nominated for the collection was representation of new New Zealanders, recent migrants and refugees. Despite a specific request for books representing these communities, it appears that there is also a gap in this area. Two books were suggested, but the ensuing group discussion based on the participants’ considerable experience of reading books to, and buying books for, children concluded that they were either unappealing to children or used stereotyped images in their illustrations which made them unsuit- able for inclusion in the collection.

Conclusion This paper has identified the themes evident in discussions about the books nominated to be included in the New Zealand Picture Book

IBBY.ORG 51.1 – 2013 | 77 Belonging and Differentiating

Collection (He Kohinga Pukapuka Pikitia of Aote- of some communities within New Zealand aroa). In doing so, this study provides a robust society (e.g., new New Zealanders and same-sex example of the ways in which picture books can parented families) in the picture books discussed and do reflect national identity. These themes has potential implications for the New Zealand show many similarities with themes evident in children from these communities in terms of their other studies that have examined the representa- feeling of belonging to the society in which they tion of New Zealand national identity in children’s are growing up (Meeks). It also means that other literature. In particular, New Zealand’s environ- children will have fewer opportunities to learn ment and the importance of Maori language and more about some of their classmates’ stories and culture were evident as they are in the studies by lives. Both of these are missed opportunities for Hebley, Jeffries, and Stiven. New Zealand children’s picture books to reflect Themes evident in the discussions not previ- authentically the changing nature of what it ously noted in studies of New Zealand national means to be a New Zealander. identity and children’s picture books include the importance of diversity in family units, New Acknowledgements Zealand history, and the representation of urban landscapes. The reason that these themes were not The research reported in this paper was funded by evident in previous studies may be due to the fact the Faculty of Education Research Committee. I that the present study is based on the intersecting would like to thank the six participants for their recorded perceptions of six people who were enthusiastic participation and contributions, and discussing why particular picture books should be the two anonymous reviewers for their comments included in a collection reflecting New Zealand and suggestions. I would also like to acknowledge identity, rather than an explicit examination of Marion McKoy for her calculation of the rate of what constitutes New Zealand. It is also possible use of loanwords in the collection. that concepts associated with New Zealand national identity are developing and changing Works Cited as the years pass; that is, just as individuals are constantly negotiating their identity (Jamarani) Children’s Books it is likely that communities and national groups Beck, Jennifer. Nobody’s Dog. Illus. L. Fisher. are also modifying their group identities based on Auckland: Scholastic, 2005. Print. new perspectives, influences and interactions. For Bishop, Gavin. The House that Jack Built. Illus. G. example, as colonized New Zealand increases in Bishop. Auckland: Scholastic, 1999. Print. age, a desire to review the past in relation to colo- Brown, Ben. A Booming in the Night. Illus. H. nial history, such as in The House that Jack Built, Taylor. Auckland: Reed, 2005. Print. becomes more possible. And as the New Zealand Cowley, Joy. The Terrible Taniwha of Timber- population increases in the proportion of its popu- ditch. 1982. Illus. Rodney McRae. Auckland: lation based in urban areas, urban landscapes are Puffin, 2009. Print. more frequently a part of the everyday lived expe- Grace, Patricia. Watercress Tuna and the Children riences of New Zealanders. of Champion Street. Illus. Robyn Kahukiwa. Why is it important for national identity to be Auckland: Puffin, 1984. Print. reflected in children’s picture books? Jobe notes Lightfoot, Kiri. Every Second Friday. Illus. B. in his discussion of the representation of cultural Galbraith. London: Hodder, 2008. Print. identity in Canadian picture books that “all chil- Mewburn, Kyle. Old Hu-Hu. Illus. R. Driscoll. dren should have the right to see themselves Manukau: Scholastic, 2009. Print. reflected in the books they read, such imaging is Tipene, Tim. Haere: Farewell, Jack, Farewell. crucial for developing a positive self-concept and Illus. Huhana Smith. Wellington: Huia, a sense of who we are” (80). Thus the invisibility 2006. Print. 78 | bookbird IBBY.ORG Belonging and Differentiating Secondary Sources Bainbridge, Joyce, M. “The Role of Canadian Johnston, Ingrid, et al. “National Identity and Children’s Literature in National Identity the Ideology of Canadian Multicultural Formation.” English Quarterly 34.3-4 (2002): Picture Books: Pre-service Teachers Ecoun- 166-74. Print. tering Representations of Difference.” Cana- Bainbridge, Joyce M. and Brenda Wodolko. dian Children’s Literature/Literature canadienne “Canadian Picture Books: Shaping and pour la jeunesse 32.2 (2006): 76-96. Print. Reflecting National Identity.” Bookbird 40.2 Macalister, John. “The Maori Presence in the (2002): 21-27. Print. New Zealand English Lexicon, 1850-2000.” Daly, Nicola. “Kükupa, Koro and kai: The use English World-Wide 27 (2006): 1-24. Print. of Mäori vocabulary items in New Zealand —. “Revisiting Weka and Waiata: Familiarity English picture books.” New Zealand English with Maori Words among Older Speakers of Journal 21 (2007): 20-33. Print. New Zealand English.” New Zealand English —. “‘Right here, right now’: Embracing New Journal 21 (2007): 1-19. Print. Zealand national identity through the Maori —. “Tracking Changes in Familiarity with loanwords used in New Zealand English Borrowings from Te Reo Maori.” Te Reo 51 children’s picture books.” Journal of Children’s (2008): 65-98. Print. Literature Studies 7.2 (2010): 22-37. Print. Macdonald, Daryl and Nicola Daly. “Kiwi, Deverson, Tony. “New Zealand Lexis: The Kapai, and Kuia: Maori Loanwords in New Maori Dimension.” English Today 26 (1991): Zealand English Children’s Picture Books 18-25. Print. Published between 1995 and 2005.” Journal of Fox, Carol. “Conflicting fictions: national iden- Children’s Literature Studies, forthcoming. tity in English children’s literature about war.” Meeks, Margaret. Children’s Literature and Children’s Literature and National Identity. Ed. National Identity, London: Trentham Books, Margaret Meeks. London: Trentham Books, 2001. Print. 2001:43-52. Print. Moore, Helen. “Imagining the Nation: Illustra- Hebley, Diane. The Power of Place: Landscape in tion and Identity in the New Zealand School New Zealand Children’s Fiction, 1970-1989. Journal.” Set. Research Information for Teachers Dunedin, N.Z.: Otago UP, 1998. Print. 3 (2007): 18-25. Print. Jamarani, Maryam. Identity, Langauge amd Moorfield, John, C. “Taniwha.” Maori Dictionary. Identity. A Study of Iranian Female Migrants Web. 11 September 2012. in Australia. Melbourne: Monash UP, 2012. Statistics New Zealand and Ministry of Pacific Print. Island Affairs. Demographics of New Zealand’s Jackson, Anna, et al. A Made up Place. New Pacific population. Wellington: Author, 2010. Zealand in Young Adult Fiction. Wellington, Print. NZ: Victoria UP. 2011. Print. Statistics New Zealand. “QuickStats about Jeffries, Maria “National Identity in Australian Culture and Identity.” Web. 11 September and New Zealand Children’s Literature.” 2012. Talespinner 18 (2004): 4-12. Print. Stiven, Judith. “Bridging Faultiness and Standing Jobe, Ronald. “Establishing Cultural Identity Upright.” Talespinner 20 (2005): 45-50. Print. through Picture Books.” Art, Narrative and Williams, Sandra. “The Czech Republic: The Childhood. Ed. Morag Styles and Eve Bearne. Creation of National Identity: Significance Stoke on Trent, UK: Trentham Books, 2003. of Jan Karafiat’s Broucci to Czech Children’s 79-85. Print. Literature.” Bookbird 39.1 (2001): 46-51. Print.

IBBY.ORG 51.1 – 2013 | 79 Emergent Children’s

auritius is a small tropical island east of Madagascar with a population of 1.2 million. Significantly, before colonization it had no indigenous population and, apart from Mthe occasional visits by Arab traders, was largely left alone until 1510. The first settlers were Portuguese, followed by the Dutch, the Literature in Mauritius The Triumphant Return of of Return The Triumphant the Dodo: French and finally the British, who took control in 1810. The people of contemporary Mauritius are mostly the descendents of those who arrived as slaves from Africa, indentured laborers from India, or small traders from China. Independence from Britain was attained by Sandra Williams in 1968. The lingua franca is French Creole, which is largely oral, and a number of Indian languages are also spoken. French is widely used due to an agreement to protect French culture, made between the French and the British during the handover. English is the official language for education, government, and business, but for many children, English is virtually a foreign language. Consequently, children who do not speak English outside of school are severely disadvantaged. There are current plans to use Creole in school as the language of instruction for younger children. Mauritius’s literacy rate is 85%, and teachers mainly rely on Sandra Williams lectures in English in English textbooks. If Mauritian children are to enjoy literature and Education at the University of Brighton, UK. Her research interest concerns become literate in English, local books which reflect their lives are cultural indicators of national identity necessary. Unfortunately, while books from France and the UK can embedded in children’s literature. She tutors on the M.A. in Education be found in bookshops, there are few that are local. Botelho and for Mauritian teachers at MIE which is Rudman use metaphors of mirrors and doors to explore the influ- validated by University of Brighton. ence of literature on identity formation: © 2013 by Bookbird, Inc. The Triumphant Return of the Dodo

These are powerful metaphors because they presuppose that literature can authentically mirror or reflect one’s life; look through a window to view someone else’s world; and open doors offering access both into and out of one’s everyday condition. The mirror invites self-contemplation and affirmation of identity. The window permits a view of other people’s lives. The door invites interaction. (xiii)

Children must be able to read about themselves and their lives in order to develop their own cultural identity, and this development is not easy for Mauritian children. For this review, texts were identified from three key sources: those held in the library at the Mauritius Institute of Education, titles published by the Federation of Playgroups, and those found in book shops in Mauritius. They have been written by a variety of authors and illustrators, some self-published, and produced by a range of local publishers with a few titles from large international groups. The Feder- ation of Playgroups has produced an excellent series of books for young readers. Originally developed co-operatively, they have been edited by Pushpa Lallah and published as dual language texts in English and Creole. International publishers have been involved with secondary school readers, the most successful being Macmillan’s two volumes of short stories by Ramdoyal, and a few ex-pat writers have also made contributions. There are a number of challenges when considering writing stories that bind the multicultural population together, offering a cultural landscape that is universally recognizable. First of all, there is the question of which language to select. Although children are educated in English, the mother tongue for most is Creole, with French as the other ambient language. Currently, the majority of texts are either in French or English with some dual Creole/English publications. There is also a question of how to create texts that will encompass each Mauri- tian culture. There are no common indigenous oral traditions of myth, legend, or folk tale, which often form the bedrock of emergent children’s literature. Those who came as slaves lost much of their culture on arrival as language groups were deliberately separated, and all were converted to Christianity, making it difficult to preserve cultural tradition. Indentured laborers were able to retain their language, religion, and oral tradition, but they operated in a different geographical and cultural setting. The question also arises as to how the history of slavery and colonization can be dealt with in local children’s books. Lastly, as children’s literature currently does not play an important role in developing literacy in Mauritian schools, there is not a strong demand for multicultural children’s literature. Despite these many challenges, there are books that reflect the cultures of Mauritius and solve some of these challenges.

IBBY.ORG 51.1 – 2013 | 81 The Triumphant Return of the Dodo Animal Stories but offers Mauritian reflections on the island and The animal story provides the child reader with its culture. a character with which they can identify, what- The series of dual language texts in English ever their own cultural group, and regardless of and Creole produced by the Federation of Play- whether they come from an Indian, African, or groups also features a number of distinctively Chinese background. All Mauritian children can Mauritian flora and fauna. In Lallah’s Pekoy Goes empathize with the lizard from the rainy high- Fishing / Pekoy al Lapes, a bird called Pekoy takes lands seeking sun on the beach. One creature that is distinctively Mauritian is the Dodo, rendered extinct by the arrival of the colonizers. Thus the Dodo functions as a metaphor for the destruc- tion of the island’s wildlife within a distinct local setting. Perhaps the two strongest texts featuring the Dodo are Christian Bossu-Picat’s I the Dodo, which narrates the experiences of a dodo from a first person perspective, and Jane Lagesse’s The Oldest Dodo in the World, which is based on historical events documented in Mauritius Illustrated by Allister Macmillan. In I the Dodo, the dodo advice from a paw-paw, a jackfruit, and bamboo, explains the formation of the island of Mauri- as well as a prawn and a monkey to build his boat. tius, the development of its flora and fauna, and Finally, a fisherman helps Pekoy identify reef fish. the sad extinction of the Dodo after the arrival of This story offers lessons in fishing, plus the iden- Europeans. Lagesse’s text retells the experiences tification of local flora and marine fauna. Marine of Emmanuel Altham, who visited Mauritius in animals also feature in Lallah’s Small Creatures 1628 and sent a live dodo to his brother in Essex. Go On a journey / Vwayaz ti Zanimo, where Mr The dodo, named Joseph, became a beloved family Eel, Mrs Octopus, young shrimp, and Mr Squid pet, and the author assures her young readers that the dodo is still living in a secret place in England. Other Dodo stories take different approaches, and although each tale reflects the sadness and loss of this bird that represents a sort of pre-colonial innocence, some authors focus more heavily on moral responsibility and relationships. Alladin’s The Dodo includes another extinct bird, the solitaire, which inhabited Mauritius’s sister island of Rodrigues. The tale has strong moral undertones, travel from sister-island Rodrigues to Mauritius. for in this version the two birds quarrel and ignore They are met by a tortoise who takes them to the each other instead of cooperating with one another well-known beach resort of Flic-en-Flac. More to prevent their own extinction. Koombes’s series animals also appear in the Search for the Sun / Al of picture books contains In Dodoland, where a Rod Soley by the same author, which features a boy senses that there are Dodos on an islet off the mouse, a beetle and a gecko who live on a hill in coast but cannot get to them. The picture book the rainy part of the country. Dinododo offers a conversation between adult and child with a focus on the extinction of both the Myths, Legends, and Folk Tales in a dinosaur and the dodo. Another text, In Dodoland Mauritian Landscape by Appasawmy, does not concern the Dodo itself, The myths and legends brought to Mauritius by

82 | bookbird IBBY.ORG The Triumphant Return of the Dodo slaves and indentured laborers have been trans- Colonialism formed by reference to local geographical features. The French and the English are viewed both posi- The resulting texts retain their connection to the tively and negatively in Ramdoyal’s short-stories. oral tradition by foregrounding the local. Stories In Marline, a French couple supports a local girl from the ancestral lands are incorporated into who is unloved and isolated. The Tribulations of Mr. the local cultural landscape; a landscape only James Merryweather is a cautionary tale that sati- recently populated by humans. Each tale tells of rizes a ham-fisted colonial as he fails to connect homesickness while strategically incorporating with local fishermen. In Fishing for Deer, local local geographic features into a cultural/spiritual fisherman catch deer without poaching until the landscape. French land owner, Missie Phillip, builds a fence A number of myths and legends concern the to prevent deer from running into the sea. In Le large volcanic lake known as “Grand Bassin,” Grand Solitaire, a French landowner nearly dies and many tales concern both African slaves and in his attempts to land a giant Marlin. Operation Indian indentured laborers. In Land of the Fairies, Pink Pigeon features an interfering Westerner who by Ramoydal, the reader is transported to a is responsible for the extinction of wildlife, and in time before human beings colonized the island. this story a sorcerer saves the rare pigeons. Living around the lake are fairies. When humans A most moving story is the legend of Le Morne, arrive, they are told not to interfere with the fairy which is based on historical events and tells the community. Saddened by the slavery among the tale of slaves who escaped from the sugar planta- human population, the fairies flee into the moun- tions and lived in fear of recapture. After emanci- tains. In another version of the tale, Angel Lake by pation, the police are sent to inform the runaways Ramsurrun, it is angels who watch over the lake, of their freedom, but fearing re-capture, they jump and are also disturbed by the treatment of slaves. to their deaths. Ramdoyal tells the story from the After a violent beating by his owner, a slave is perspective of an escaped slave’s family member. healed by the lake angels, but after failing to keep Mauritian history involves a great deal of difficulty the angels’ existence a secret, he is turned to stone. and hardship, but by revisiting the colonial era in The legend of Pari Taleo, a tale of Indian children’s literature, young readers have access to indentured laborers, is recounted by Ramdoyal. significant aspects of Mauritian cultural memory. It focuses on the laborers’ inability to make a pilgrimage to the Ganges. In 1897, Jhummun- Domestic Realism geer, a mystic, dreamed that he was bathing in the While animal stories, myths and legends, and Ganges and was transported to a beautiful lake, the colonial past resurface throughout Mauritian Grand Bassin. Grand Bassin is a sacred site of children’s texts, the everyday, recognizable charac- pilgrimage, and its significance in Hindu tradi- teristics of children’s lives form another branch of tion emphasizes its influential role in Mauritian Mauritian children’s literature in works of domestic children’s literature. There are also a number of realism. By locating these stories within Mauritian stories featuring the mountain of Pieter Both. geography, wildlife, and culture, young readers are These include a story by Alladin in which an able to relate to characters’ experiences and develop angry father turns a boy to stone after he falls in a sense of cultural identity. love with his daughter. The protagonist in Gopaul’s Bebbo is a dog While much of Mauritian literature based on whose adventures are told by Kumar, a twelve- historical myth features distinctive and recog- year-old boy. Through the tales of Bebbo, readers nizable geographical Mauritian landscapes, it is get a sense of middle class Mauritian life: their also clearly linked to Mauritius’s colonial history. yard, the neighbors, and trips to the seaside. Less These stories undoubtedly reflect a colonial past bucolic events include an attack by neighboring and highlight the power relationships between dogs, a burglary, and a violent death in a village. colonizers and colonized. Beppo creates a sense of superiority in this urban IBBY.ORG 51.1 – 2013 | 83 The Triumphant Return of the Dodo

Indian family over the “superstitious” villagers, and reflects some of the tensions between ethnic groups on the island. The Tamarind Boy, by Ramesh Bucktawar, mirrors aspects of the education system. Tefano, who has failed his exams, can no longer attend school but is not yet old enough to work. He is nagged and scolded by his parents, but although he lacks confidence, he has the courage to rescue a man in danger along the Black River. He is rewarded for his good deed, and gains self-esteem and familial acceptance. The Federation of Playgroups’ stories also commonly focus on aspects of domestic life. Lallah’s Marde’s Garden / Marde so Zardin concerns the importance of growing vegetables. Marde explains to a group of children how he grows his own produce, but unfortunately, his fence is weak and so stray dogs trample his crops. In the same series, The Shop Story / Zistwar Labutik features the daily routine of a small local grocery store, but the familiar atmosphere changes at night when rats and mice cavort amongst the goods. Abu in the Woods / Abu dan Bwa features Mauri- tian deer who have evolved slightly differently since they were introduced by colonists. The focalizer is Abu, who joins his game-keeper father and sees the deer for the first time. In two collections of short stories for secondary age readers—Tales from Mauritius and More Tales from Mauri- tius—Ramesh Ramdoyal presents the largest number of Mauritian domestic realist stories to date. Both books are supplementary English readers published by Macmillan for educational use. Many stories are set in the Black River area and collectively create “a series of original short stories firmly rooted in Mauritian soil, or, as is more often the case, set in Mauritian waters” (Tales iv). The tales concern such topics as the relationship between old and young in The Trap, and the effects of tourism on Mauritian values in The Uninvited Guest, both told in a familiar setting. Another recognizable aspect of Mauritius is its tropical climate, and as Mauritius is highly prone to cyclones and extreme weather, many children’s stories incorporate environmental messages. In Koombes’s picture book, A Cyclone over Black River, a group of children on a camping trip survive a powerful cyclone, and experience violent Mauritian weather.

Conclusion Local Mauritian texts are, unfortunately, few and far between. Local children’s literature is not widely recognized or valued, as the hegemony of colonialism gives higher status to publications from the West. Difficulties in developing a distinct national literature are not confined to Mauritius but are common in all post-colonial countries with a small multilingual population (Williams). Small print runs make publishing uneconomical, and state subsidy is not always available.

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There is also the question of which is the most appropriate language for publication. Carole Boch, in her discussion on biliteracy in Southern Africa, quotes Thiong’o on the negative impact school systems can have on literacy when the mother tongue is not the medium of education:

So the written language of a child’s upbringing in the school… became divorced from his spoken language at home. There was often not the slightest relationship between the child’s written world, which was also the language of his schooling, and the world of his immediate environment in the family and the community. (17)

Mauritian children continue to be educated in a language that is not their mother tongue, and Mauritian literature allows them to read about a world they recognize. The publication of the annotated bibliography I have compiled may be a small step in publicizing emerging Mauri- tian literature, and hopefully will encourage local writers, illustrators, teachers and the Ministry of Education to develop Mauritian children’s literature further.

Notes

With thanks to Anita Curpen and Nita Rughoonundun Chellepermal at MIE and Pushpa Lallah at the Federation of Playgroups.

Works Cited

Children’s Books Alladin, Abu. Short Stories from Mauritius. Illus. Salim Alladin, Ysz Yun So, and Winners of Art Competition open to Form III students of secondary schools. Mauritius: Editions Le Printemps, 2000. Print. Appasawmy, N. In Dodoland. Mauritius: Edition Le Printemps, 1998. Print. Bossu-Picat, C. I the Dodo. Mauritius: Pregraph, Les Pailles, 1994. Print. Bucktawar, Ramesh. The Tamarind Boy. Mauritius: Little Hill, 2000. Print. Dinododo. Mauritius: Federation of Pre-School Playgroups, 1991. Print. Gopaul, B. Bebbo. Mauritius: Editions Capucines, 1997. Koombes, H. In Dodoland. Text Pascale Siew. Trans. Lindsley Collen. Mauritius: Vizali, 2003. Print. Lagesse, J. The Oldest Dodo in the World. Illus. Spangenberg Becherel. Mauritius: Pierre Largesse, 2004. Print. Lallah, P. Abu in the Woods / Abu dan Bwa, Marde’s Garden / Marde so Zardin, Pekoy Goes Fishing / Pekoy al Lapes, Small Creatures Go on a Journey / Vwayaz ti Zanimo, The Search for the Sun / Al rod Soley, The Shop Story / Zistwar Labutik. Illus. Bernadette Mok Tsze Chung. Mauritius: Federation of Playgroups, 1998. Print. IBBY.ORG 51.1 – 2013 | 85 The Triumphant Return of the Dodo

Ramdoyal, R. More Tales from Mauritius. Illus. Nazal Rosunally. Oxford: Macmillan Education, 1981. Print. —. Tales from Mauritius. Illus. Nazal Rosunally. Oxford: Macmillan Education, 1977. Print. Ramsurren, P. Golden Legends. Illus. Geeta Sawhney. Singapore: Heineman Southeast Asia, 1996. Print. Wong, T. Some Short Stories According to the Times. Mauritius: The President’s Fund for Creative Writing in English, 2004. Print.

Secondary Sources Bloch, C. “Enabling Biliteracy Among Young Children in Southern Africa: Realities, Visions, and Strategies.” Global Perspectives on Multilingualism. Ed. M. E. Torres-Guzman and Joel Gomez. New York: Teachers College P, 2009. Print. 225-241. Botelho, M.J. and M.K. Rudman. Critical Multicultural Analysis of Children’s Literature Abingdon: Routledge, 2009. Print. Hollindale, P. Signs of Childness in Children’s Books. Stroud: Thimble, 1997. Print. Williams, S. J. “The Struggle to Develop a Distinctive Children’s Literature in Singapore.” New Review of Children’s Literature and Librarianship 12.1 (2006): 103-15. Print.

Our Forthcoming Issues:

51.2 (Spring 2013) Open Themed 51.3 (Summer 2013) Multilingual Literature 51.4 (Fall 2013) Open Themed 52.1 (Winter 2014) GLBTQ 52.2 (Spring 2014) HCA Award Nominees 52.3 (Summer 2014) Mexico City Congress 52.4 (Fall 2014) HCA Awards and Open Themed

86 | bookbird IBBY.ORG African Children’s Literature South in Quality African towards a Truly Growth The

In the mid-nineteenth century, Africans were depicted as innately greedy, bloodthirsty, brutal, despotic, lustful, and lazy; as naked, pagan, fetish worshippers and cannibals who performed grotesque and frenzied dances to hideous carved idols at the instigation of by Jay Heale and Jean Williams wizards and witch doctors; and as bizarre, barbaric, crude, queer, disgusting, wild, and indecent. (Schmidt 14)

uropean readers were thrilled to read about colonial Africa as it offered mystery and that powerful ingredient, adventure. Titles such as R. M. Ballantyne’s The Settler and the Savage Eare indicative both of a fictionalized picture of Africa and of the assumed superiority of the European over the native. King Solomon’s This article was written by Jean Williams Mines by H. Rider Haggard swiftly sold over a hundred thousand (director of Biblionef SA) and Jay Heale (an independent consultant). The aim of copies. The whole continent, it seemed, was full of jungles, wild Biblionef is to supply books to schools animals, and even wilder inhabitants. which have few or none, and to redress the present poor supply of children’s books in For many years, the writers and readers of children’s books in the “minor” languages of South Africa. Both South Africa were White, so the stories were about White children. authors are long-standing members of the In Corah’s School Chums by May Baldwin, a girl explains, “They do South African national section of IBBY. © 2013 by Bookbird, Inc. The Growth towards a Truly African Quality in South African Children’s Literature not allow coloured girls at our schools, even if legislation allowed for significantly different they are only a little coloured.”1 Kit in Kafirland levels of support for education. Each province by E. M. Green explains how Kit, who remains had its own White, Colored and Indian educa- “awfully decent” throughout, lives in a land tion departments, while the areas reserved for where “Kafirs are like children: they work well Blacks had their own “Bantu” education which enough as long as there is someone in authority aimed at achieving lower standards. At one over them. As soon as they are left to themselves time, there were 19 separate education depart- they relapse into idleness.” The paternal, conde- ments. Afrikaans became an official language of scending assumption was that Africans were South Africa in 1925. The country was declared unintelligent and only fit to appear in books as bilingual and equal status was therefore allo- domestic servants, rogues, or vagabonds! cated to Afrikaans and English. The books Another common theme in these early books of fiction approved for school use were those was that of a brave White boy accompanied by a portraying good, polite, obedient White chil- small Black companion, and indeed, White children who showed respect for authority. dren growing up on South African farms were As equal money was allocated for books in often allocated a Black child of the same age as both the main languages, there was an upsurge a companion. As recently as 1976, a book such in books written and published in Afrikaans, as Tongelo by Catherine Annandale describes and a strong South African children’s litera- such a “veldt friendship” between a White and ture began to emerge. Children of differing a Black boy, severed when the White boy goes skin color and cultural backgrounds hardly ever off to an education never envisaged for his Black met each other except in the pages of books. friend. Martin leaves Tongelo, promising that Although good money could be made if a book “No school is going to make any difference to was “prescribed” for school use, an increasing us! It will always be the same.” And the author number of subversive books were published that (whether wisely or sadly we are left to guess) refused to toe the line. Only a few youth novels adds: “But, of course, it never was quite the were actually banned, though many more were same again.” not accepted for school use, which had much The adult African in European children’s the same effect. Amongst the offenders were fiction was either portrayed as a “noble savage” The Sound of the Gora by Ann Harries, which or else a “stupid servant.” Any concept of “noble” provided a sympathetic account of the 1976 disappeared swiftly after South Africa came children’s riots in Cape Town, and Journey to under National Party rule. One stereotyped Jo’burg by Beverley Naidoo, which described character to survive too long in literature was police brutality (both novels were published in the witch-doctor, who was usually portrayed as the UK). wicked and malicious. African magic remains very real even today. The sangoma (diviner) The First Books with a Non-White and the inyanga (herbalist) are both still strong Protagonist forces within African culture. The publication of Not So Fast, Songololo!, written and illustrated by Niki Daly (1985) Separate Developments: English, Afri- was a milestone in South African literature for kaans, “Indian,” and “Bantu” Education children. This full color picture book was the Different living conditions for Blacks and first to feature a Black urban South African Whites within South Africa were set in place by child as the happy hero of his own story. What the British administration under Lord Milner. a simple story too: skipping ahead of his bulky However, it was the National government led by Gogo (grandma) a boy helps with the shopping D.F. Malan which enforced racial segregation and comes home wearing bright red tackies (called apartheid) between 1948 and 1994. The (sneakers).

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At last our literature was not restricted to stories of Black youngsters admitting a White White heroes. Quickly, we saw titles such as child into their group of friends—probably Sidwell’s Seeds about a boy living in an “informal because there were very few Black authors who settlement” (squatter camp), Day of the Giants could handle such a theme. Lawrence Bransby about a boy and girl caring for an elephant did write of a lone Black boy in a White school injured by a landmine in war-torn Mozambique, (in Homeward Bound), which Tafelberg bravely and Love, David another tale of the Cape Flats published as early as 1990. Independent schools where parents travel away to work as domestic had been allowed to admit “non-white” pupils servants. These were reality tales of underprivi- only since 1985. The book was named as the leged children living, as they did live, in squalor, Bookchat Southern African Book of the Year in in danger, in poverty. 1991, but the concept was not easy for many In 1987, the first international conference on White readers to swallow. children’s literature in South Africa, “Towards All White males who served their compulsory Understanding,” attracted 550 delegates to “basic training” with the South African Defense the University of the Western Cape. One of Force were heavily indoctrinated against the the honored guests was Dr. Lorenz Graham, swart gevaar (the black danger). Jimmy Goes to a pioneer in African-American literature. the Border by Andrew McCallaghan is an inno- Suddenly, local publishing came alive. In English cent story of a boy day-dreaming about his alone, 134 children’s books were published in father, fighting “on the border,” and making a that year, compared with 59 in 1986 and 30 in plane and a jeep and a gun out of plasticene. It 1985 (Heale 99). These included The Strollers by provoked a storm of protest: children’s books Lesley Beake, set among the street children of were not supposed to meddle in such topics! We Cape Town with the challenge of daily survival; were not ready for reality. it has been reprinted over twenty times. Tentatively, we tried stories of one White Themes never mentioned before began to and one Black child together – such as the appear in children’s books. A White boy in a Craig and Cardo stories by Debora Savage and small town school falls for a “colored” girl in Bronwen Jones’s Tristan and Thobe stories (1994- Down Street by Lawrence Bransby, producing a 95). While parents and educators considered the story of love across the color barrier; a deaf and implications, junior stories portrayed African dumb Black boy becomes visible in A Cageful children longing to go to school or learning to of Butterflies by Lesley Beake; a boy who stut- read. Although it was not South African, we ters and has difficulty communicating is given a rejoiced when we read The Day of Ahmed’s Secret, voice in My Cat Turns Autumn by Barrie Hough; set in Cairo, where little Ahmed’s great secret is and, a modern Bushman girl living on the farm that he can write his own name! of an impoverished White farmer is celebrated The first ever IBBY Congress in Africa was in Song of Be by Lesley Beake. Here, in our liter- held in Cape Town 2004. One of the keynote ature at last, was the world we lived in with its speakers was Professor Elwyn Jenkins who, in poverty and social divisions as well as the harsh his paper “Sharing Our Stories: South African physical environment. Children’s Literature in English,” emphasized:

Transition Time: The Early 1990s Children’s literature has been produced For a while, South African society and its youth in every period of South African history. literature were not sure how to handle the situa- Perhaps visitors here today will find tion of White and Black (and Indian and others) at least something that resonates with being together. There were stories about a gang your own countries’ experiences: the of White boys admitting a Black member and oral literature of pre-colonial Africa finding that he was “all right.” There were no followed by the literature of colonialism;

IBBY.ORG 51.1 – 2013 | 89 The Growth towards a Truly African Quality in South African Children’s Literature

colonial wars; and neo-colonialism; civil wars; the repressions of a harsh regime; revolution, emergence from colonialism, and the building of a new democracy for the twenty-first century. (Jenkins 5)

Democracy The amazingly peaceful election of 1994 brought democracy to South Africa and Nelson Mandela to the presidency. (Two years earlier, in 1992, South Africa had been admitted as a national section of IBBY.) The Day Gogo Went to Vote by Elinor Sisulu describes the emotive scene of the election, and its sweeping pictures by Sharon Wilson show the endless, snaking queues of people. The Group Areas Act and many other hurtful pieces of legislation were repealed. We were allowed to meet each other, even to live beside each other. But the divisive element which would take so long to solve (and has not been properly dealt with yet) was that of language. All eleven languages of South Africa were declared “official languages.” Hurray! But children whose mother tongue was a minor African language, such as SiSwati or Tshivenda or Xitsonga, had virtually no hope of encountering a picture book in their own language. There were two streams of thought: the academics who argued that little children should initially be taught in their mother tongue and so demanded children’s books in all eleven languages, and the parents who argued that they wanted their children to be able to get jobs in the “new” South Africa. For that they needed fluent English, and so their education should be largely in English. The gap in funding between White (Afrikaans and English) schools and Black (African language) schools was still horribly unequal. So one can hardly blame our publishers for failing to produce books in African languages when there was no money available to buy them! Garamond Publishers gallantly produced full color picture books, printing 1,000 copies in each of four languages: Afrikaans, English, isiZulu, and isiX- hosa. The first two languages sold; the second two did not. Many fine titles (such as The Red Dress by Dux van der Walt) initially failed to cover the cost of production. In recent years, many more books have appeared for Zulu and Xhosa readers, and some in the other African languages. One applauds the efforts of such publishers as Pan Macmillan for issuing picture books (the Giraffe series) in all South African languages as well as Portu- guese (for Mozambique and Angola) and Sesotho for Lesotho. Maskew Miller Longman’s Literature Awards for original, unpublished and untranslated fiction in all eleven languages is another major initiative to increase the number of published books.

HIV and AIDS There is no more violent reality to hit Africa than the trauma and suffering caused by AIDS-related diseases. It is estimated that, of the

90 | bookbird IBBY.ORG The Growth towards a Truly African Quality in South African Children’s Literature present 50 million population of South Africa, over 10% are living with HIV (South African Partners). The SACBIP data base (South African Children’s Books in Print) maintained on www.bookchat.co.za lists eighty titles that include AIDS as a main theme. Despite President Thabo Mbeki’s claim that he has never known anyone with AIDS, our children are not in denial: they now know all about it. There are too many parentless families for it to be ignored. At least two books need to be mentioned. Praise Song by Jenny Robson describes, in a Botswana setting, a murder connected with the utter refusal of many Africans to name or mention the disease. To admit that someone in your family has AIDS is considered shameful. To some extent, this problem has still to be overcome. In children’s literature, it is being tackled by such publications as Brenda Has a Dragon in Her Blood (2005), which originated in the Netherlands but was republished in South Africa with the support of Biblionef. Its bright text and pictures tell of a cheerful little girl who is quite ordinary except that she has a dragon called HIV and it has to remain sleeping. As indicated, there are now many other children’s books which present sensible facts and attempt to take the stigma out of the situation. Here youth literature is being used positively.

Proof of Quality The IBBY Honour Books displayed every second year on behalf of South Africa since 1994 show the high quality of book production. We have had, so far, four candidates submitted for the Hans Christian Andersen Award: Lesley Beake, Niki Daly, Piet Grobler, and Beverley Naidoo. The nearly 600 delegates who attended the first ever IBBY Congress in Africa (hosted in Cape Town in 2004) saw for themselves the vibrant children’s book scene in South Africa, as well as evidence of the still appalling lack of books in our schools. As noted by the Libraries for South African Schools, “The vast majority of schools in South Africa have no functional library. In the Province of the Eastern Cape, for example, 93% of schools do not have a library. Overall, 85% of the population of South Africa lives beyond the reach of a public library.” (South African Partners website). Of course South African publishers make sure that schools and libraries are aware of their publications, but the general public has hardly any way of knowing that new children’s books exist unless the few bookshops promote them or when they occasionally attract publicity. Teachers in underprivileged schools still have very little knowledge of the books that are available. For this reason, we are justly proud that

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such international figures, including Former President Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, have turned their attention to South African children’s literature. Madiba Magic (published in the United States as Nelson Mandela’s Favorite African Folktales, where it has also been issued as an audiobook) carries a Foreword by Mandela and thirty-two stories sourced from all over Africa. God’s Dream, written by Tutu and Douglas Carlton Abrams is a picture book about children all over the world sharing God’s dream “that every one of us will see that we are all brothers and sisters.” Both books have been made widely available in African languages. In his Foreword, Nelson Mandela states, “It is my wish that the voice of the storyteller will never die in Africa, that all the children in Africa may experience the wonder of books and that they will never lose the capacity to enlarge their earthly dwelling place with the magic of stories” (8). Now at last we can claim that we publish books about South Africa for South African children, indeed, for all the children of Africa.

Notes

1. The early publications cited in this paper are held in the vaults of the South African Library in Cape Town. Access to this archive is limited and it has not been possible to check all the page numbers.

Works Cited

Children’s Books Annandale, Catherine. Tongelo. Johannesburg: Perskor, 1976. Print. Baldwin, May. Corah’s School Chums. London: W & R Chambers, 1912. Print. Ballantyne, R.M. The Settler and the Savage. London: James Nisbet, 1877. Print. Beake, Lesley. Song of Be. Cape Town: Maskew Miller Longman, 1991. Print. —. A Cageful of Butterflies. Cape Town: Maskew Miller Longman, 1989. Print. —. The Strollers. Cape Town: Maskew Miller Longan, 1987. Print. Bransby, Lawrence. Homeward Bound. Cape Town: Tafelberg, 1990. Print. —. Down Street. Cape Town: Tafelberg, 1989. Print. Case, Dianne. Love, David. Cape Town: Maskew Miller Longman, 1986. Print. Daly, Niki. Not So Fast, Songololo! Cape Town: Human & Rousseau, 1985. Print. Green, E.M. Kit in Kafirland. London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1914. Print. Haggard, H. Rider. King Solomon’s Mines. London: Cassell, 1885. Print.

92 | bookbird IBBY.ORG The Growth towards a Truly African Quality in South African Children’s Literature

Harris, Ann. The Sound of the Gora. London: Heinemann, 1980. Print. Heide, Florence Parry & Gillilan, Judith Heide. The Day of Ahmed’s Secret. New York: Lothrop, Lee & Shepard, 1990. Print. Hough, Barrie. My Cat Turns Autumn. London: Viking, 1990. Print. Jones, Bronwen. Tristan and Thobe Go to School. Johannesburg: Ithemba! Publishing, 1995. Print. Martens, Maretha. Sidwell’s Seeds. Cape Town: Tafelberg, 1985. Print. McCallaghan, Andrew. Jimmy Goes to the Border. Pretoria: Daan Retief, 1983. Print. Naidoo, Beverley. Journey to Jo’burg. London: Longman, 1985. Print. Pieterse, Pieter. Day of the Giants. Pretoria: De Jager-HAUM, 1986. Print. Robson, Jenny. Praise Song. Cape Town: Tafelberg, 2006. Print. Rode, Linda, ed. Madiba Magic. Foreword by Nelson Mandela. Cape Town: Tafelberg, 2002. Print. Savage, Debora. Flight from Hout Bay. Johannesburg: Varia Books, 1991. Print. Sisulu, Elinor Batezat. The Day Gogo went to Vote. Cape Town: Tafelberg, 1996. Print. Tutu, Desmond and Abrams, Douglas Carlton. God’s Dream. Johannesburg: Jacana Media, 2010. Print. Van der Walt, Dux. The Red Dress. Durbanville, Cape Town: Garamond, 1996. Print. Vink, Hijltje. Brenda has a dragon in her blood. Pinelands, Cape Town: Biblionef SA & Garamond. 2005. Print.

Secondary Sources Bookchat. SACBIP. Web. 1 July 2011. Heale, Jay. From the Bushveld to Biko. Grabouw, SA: Bookchat Booklets, 1996. Print. Jenkins, Elwyn. “Sharing our Stories: South African Children’s Literature in English.” Seedlings: English Children’s Reading and Writers in South Africa. 2004. Pretoria: Unisa Press, 2012. 5-13. Print. Schmidt, Nancy J. Children’s Fiction about Africa in English. New York: Conch Magazine, 1981. Print. South Africa Partners. Web. 1 July 2011.

IBBY.ORG 51.1 – 2013 | 93 Young Irelands: Studies in Children’s Literature. Mary Shine Thompson, editor. Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2011. 186 pp. The fourth book in the Studies in Children’s Literature series looks exclusively at Irish children’s literature. Covering a range of texts from a time period that stretches from Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels to more modern texts, the essays examine how various Irish texts for children from the eighteenth to twentieth century work either within or outside concepts of Irish nationalism and British imperial Reviews identity, and also how Irish children’s books have been received in other countries. Thus, following Shine Thompson’s long introduction, which provides a potted history of Irish nationalism’s resistance to British imperialism and its influence on texts for children, the essays are divided into three groups based on their focus. The first group covers texts that can broadly be seen to support and/or inculcate the societal and behavioral norms of empire and nation, and thus, more generally, how children’s literature and other texts aimed at a young audience can be utilized as part of efforts to promote social stability (in this case, British imperialism). The essays in the second group consider texts that offer resistance to notions of nationalism and imperialism or that choose not to engage with such ideologies at all. The third group of essays focuses on the reception of Irish texts by non-Irish audiences, either in terms of the figuring of Irishness itself, or with regard to aspects of translation. In the opening group of essays, Sharon Murphy writes on Maria Edgeworth’s belief in appropriate education for future imperialists and how this belief operates in her work, and Joy Alexander considers the importance of Arthur Mee’s Children’s Encyclopedia. Both of these essays see imperialist ideas being transmitted through the process of education. In contrast, Marnie Hay discusses the counter-imperialist propaganda of “Na Fianna,” whilst Michael Flanagan discusses the periodical, Our Boys, and its use of the past to offer a sense of nationhood in the present. Finally Ciara Ní Bhroin examines retellings of the Táin and how they can also be seen to appropriate certain traditional notions of Irishness for a particular social and political purpose. In the second group of essays, Anne Marie Herron looks at the way Irishness is presented through iconography in the children’s

© 2013 by Bookbird, Inc. Reviews fiction of Kate Thompson, and Anne Markey examines how elements of both Irish and European folk and fairy tales inform Oscar Wilde’s fairy tales for children in ways that both bolster and undermine nationalist and imperial discourse. Jane O’Hanlon considers the problematic use of tropes and themes in the Narnia books of C.S. Lewis and how they can be seen to subvert the “Britishness” of the books, and Valerie Coghlan examines how three illustrators have visualized James Joyce’s “The Cat and the Devil” differently, arguing for the text’s lack of fixed interpretation and nationalist purpose. The final three essays consider how Irish texts have been considered from outside Ireland. Coralline Dupuy’s consideration of a French translation of Morgan Llywelyn’s Cold Places, focusing on how translation affects reader’s sense of place and access to themes, pairs well with Emer O’Sullivan’s essay on the problems Irish children’s literature poses for German translators, especially in terms of how vernacular speech is dealt with. Aedin Clements offers a fascinating account of the importance of Padraic Colum in helping to forge a new and respect- able Irish-American identity for children. Concluding the collection is Shine Thompson’s journey through the historical reception and impact of Gulliver’s Travels, itself a well-considered text in translation studies. Despite a footnote style that is rather difficult to follow (combining the notes themselves and bibliographic information), the essays in this collection offer some very interesting insights into Irish children’s literature and, just as importantly, suggest a number of possible directions for further studies in Irish children’s literature and its production and dissemination. In that respect, the essays also contribute to wider discussions about the figure of the child and nationhood in general.

Anthony Pavlik Bogazici University, Turkey

A Made-Up Place. Anna Jackson, Geoffrey Miles, Harry Ricketts, Tatjana Schaefer, and Kathryn Walls. Wellington, NZ: Victoria UP, 2011. 224 pp. Despite a strange cover that seemingly shows two girls in their under- wear, this fascinating book by New Zealand-based scholars who teach children’s literature discusses what is likely to be new ground for many of us: young adult literature from New Zealand. It analyses a number of topics (ranging from race to sport, the Gothic to money) and refers to many authors, including Margaret Mahy, Maurice Gee, and Witi Ihimaera. The main topic is national identity, which is connected to other issues, so Jackson, Miles, Rickets, Schaefer, and Walls analyze young adult literature from New Zealand with the apparent aim of understanding what such works say about New Zealand and about the New Zealander identity (or identities). IBBY.ORG 51.1 – 2013 | 95 Reviews

This work helps New Zealand to escape from recur frequently here, though the chapters them- being known as “just” another Commonwealth selves seem somewhat randomly ordered. In the country; the authors focus on the country’s chapter on historical fiction, Ricketts points out literature and identity in its own right, rather how historical novels for young adult readers are than as an offshoot of Britain. And yet, there is popular because“[t]he past, particularly the YA a distinct sense of confusion about where New fictional past, is a potentially safe space to escape Zealand identity lies. Is it with the English, in a to, to fantasize about, even (through imagina- sense of Englishness, whatever that might be? Is it tive games) to pretend we live in” (68). And yet, more generally European white (which is referred “[one] of the oddities of New Zealand YA histor- to as Pākehā)? Is it with the indigenous Māori? ical fiction is that until now it has almost exclu- Is it some combination sively been the preserve thereof? Is there such a of Pākehā writers” (69). thing as New Zealandness? These Pākehā writers have Or something else been inspired by British altogether? The authors— historical fiction whose and New Zealanders in nationalist/imperialist general, it seems—are attitudes have often found not sure. If it is true that their way into NZ histor- “[w]here New Zealand ical novels (73). As a result, YA authors represent the NZ historical fiction tends kind of institutionalized to focus on settler expe- management of national riences at the expense identity or invention of of Maori history. Rick- tradition proposed by etts offers an alternative [Ernest] Gellner or [Eric] explanation for this. Since Hobsbawn, then, this the Māori view time and is almost invariably in a history differently from critical spirit” (12), then Europeans, the past is not this comment suggests necessarily past but rather an ambiguous feeling a place you can return to towards national identity. easily, so historical fiction An implicit question in is perhaps a contradiction. this book seems to be: Another popular genre is there a coherent New Zealand identity? Or in New Zealand young adult fiction seems to be are there multiple New Zealand identities? The utopian and dystopian novels. Miles suggests, authors respond: “Pākehā New Zealanders are “[in] a sense, the real country of New Zealand defined at one and the same by their difference emerges out of this tradition of utopian fantasy from the English, and by their English heritage” and speculation” (88). Miles makes the case that (45). But then, in “other New Zealand books for futurist fiction is in some ways about identity and YA readers, we find similar representations of can be descriptive even if it is not realistic. He Englishness as a respectability against which New writes: “New Zealand’s YA dystopian fiction, Zealanders define themselves by their difference; then, is not simply following an international as a heritage which defines the Pākehā New fashion for such fictions; it also springs from Zealander in contrast to the Māori; as connected specifically New Zealand anxieties…about race, both to memory and to forgetting” (45). about religion, about unfulfilled ideals of social Memory and forgetting seem to be key themes justice and equality. Perhaps, in a strange way, in YA literature from New Zealand, and they the predominance of dystopias shows how much

96 | bookbird IBBY.ORG Reviews we as a nation are still possessed by the dream of ideas about texts we can use in our own children’s utopia” (110). literature courses. A Made-Up Place is strongest where it looks at Māori writing and Māori identity within YA B.J. Epstein, University of East Anglia, UK literature. As the book mentions, the Māori started to protest about the way they had been treated in the 1970s, and this has affected bicul- turalism in New Zealand. Three novels published Seedlings: English Children’s Reading and since the advent, but before the height of, bicultur- Writers in South Africa. Elwyn Jenkins. alism are analyzed with this in mind: the novels Pretoria: Unisa Press, 2012. 235 pp. Paperback. are by Maurice Gee (1989), Patricia Grace (1988), In this new collection, all the essays relate in some and Jack Lasenby (1992). Walls analyzes how way to South Africa and to children, but they do racist these books are and which characters show not pretend to offer a comprehensive introduc- racist attitudes. It would have been interesting to tion to South African children’s literature. One compare this to more recent books (although of should thus not view Jenkins’ text as a history course contemporary works are discussed in other or analysis of South African children’s litera- chapters in reference to other issues). ture as a whole, but rather allow the loose links The book also explores the genre of the “Māori between chapters to open up an initial route into Gothic,” which is quite different from what we this complex national literature. Jenkins explores generally understand the Gothic to be in Europe, a wide range of topics and, more specifically, what and questions whether it is actually a separate he calls South Africa’s “three great contributions” genre (194). Jackson suggests that for some NZ to world literature: “the folktales of its peoples; authors, it could be “the English heritage that books about its magnificent animals, plant king- haunts New Zealand,” creating a Gothic that is doms and landscapes; and stories which docu- unique to New Zealand (50). Miles explores this ment, grieve over, and celebrate our history” (5). in much more depth, first arguing that “[t]here is For example, he analyses tales by and about the a strong strain of ‘Kiwi Gothic’ in New Zealand San people. Jenkins discusses the fact that Euro- literature, film, and visual art, appropriate for a pean fairy tales are actually more easily available country whose unofficial national colour is black,” than South African children’s literature and more before going on to say that ghosts are part of the widely read, even though the San stories are in Māori tradition, whereas in Gothic works, the many ways more relevant. He suggests that a way ghosts do not belong and are used to help create forward for South African books would be to the Gothic atmosphere (194). Ultimately, Miles include “retellings of stories and creative integra- suggests that although these books “include tion of San words and lore” (32); in other words, Gothic motifs and Gothic moments, none really if South African writers would allow themselves fit the definition” (217). Still, he argues, it “is to learn about, and be inspired by, their native perhaps in these novels that we currently find YA culture, this could benefit children’s literature writers grappling most explicitly with the defini- (and, presumably, literature for adults as well). tion of New Zealand’s national identity and the Another topic Jenkins tackles is peritexts/para- ways in which that identity is being shaped by the texts in South African children’s books, and here stories we tell about ourselves” (217). he offers an interesting analysis of how the covers In sum, this fairly slim volume manages to cover of South African books are sometimes changed a lot of ground. The book offers a glimpse into when they are published abroad, which thereby a literature that few of us are aware of. Through affects how South Africans and their culture it, we can learn about what New Zealanders find are viewed. The issue here, he says, is that the important and how they approach young adult continent of Africa in general and South Africa literature, and perhaps we can also find some new in particular are portrayed in ways that reflect

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what foreign readers want to believe. Thus paratextual changes end up strengthening readers’ stereotypical views of South Africa rather than challenging them. A third subject of this book is on repeated themes/ characters, such as the honey-guide bird which has been cheated by humans and so takes out his revenge on them. Here Jenkins writes about how the honey-guide bird is depicted in children’s books and how this is relevant to South African culture and literature. He suggests that “[t] he lesson to be drawn from this is that humans should not be greedy, but should live in harmony with nature” (36). In other chapters, Jenkins discusses specific authors. In one, for example, he looks at various English-language authors who lived in and/ or were inspired by South Africa, such as J.R.R. Tolkien and Rudyard Kipling. Many readers may not know that Tolkien was born in South Africa and that some of his early memories from that country seem to have shaped his Lord of the Rings series, so this chapter provides insight into some classic works. Further chapters introduce South African writers whose names are likely be completely unfamiliar to readers outside the country, such as Nellie Finder, Pauline Smith, Cecil Shirley, and Kagiso Lesego Molope, who describes herself as an African feminist and whose books reflect this. Cecil Shirley, for example, was the author and illustrator of Little Veld Folk which “was one of the last in a tradition of illustrated books in English about little South African animals” (102). What is remarkable about Shirley is that he produced this work despite having no arms. The strongest and most interesting parts of this book are those in which Jenkins explores South African children’s literature more generally and gives overviews of particular topics, rather than those sections in which he analyses a particular text or author. Race is an ever-present subject here, and, of course, is a major subject in South African history and literature. Much of what Jenkins discusses seems to return to the idea that white writers and white topics have taken precedence in literature for children in South Africa. For instance, he notes that English language South African children’s literature was reluctant to address the rights of children exported to the colonies as child labor from the 1830s onwards, despite protests from their families until the 1960s. He draws attention to the absence of black writers for children, and notes that the white writers wrote works that were about their own privileged lives. This sense of privilege comes across clearly throughout Jenkins’ work, such as when he discusses the absence of San folk tales in English translation, as previously mentioned, as well as the inaccurate portrayal of the San by non-San writers. Jenkins is also aware of the privilege evident in the writing of Kingsley Fairbridge (1885-1924) who, Jenkins explains, conveniently forgot or deliberately ignored all non-white residents of

98 | bookbird IBBY.ORG Reviews the country and instead portrayed South Africa as an “empty land”: the perfect spot for Empire-building. Fairbridge was so popular that a statue was erected in his honor, which was unveiled by Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother. Jenkins calls Fairbridge a “visionary” due to some of his political ideas, but his literary work does seem to have been revaluated of late (95). As Jenkins further notes, the absence of non-white authors and subjects in South African children’s literature is only recently and partially being rectified. He argues that from the 1970s forward, “young adult fiction showed white teenagers coming to understand the evils of apartheid, while books for younger children that were about black people portrayed the harshness of the conditions under which they lived” (152). Jenkins’s book provides a fascinating glimpse into this country, whose preoccupations and interests are made visible through children’s literature. While the style can be inconsistent—there is some sloppy editing and a few of the sections seem out of place (such as the chapter on ciga- rette cards)—on the whole this motley grouping of essays starts to make South African children’s literature more accessible to readers living in the rest of the world.

B.J. Epstein, University of East Anglia, UK.

Racial Innocence: Performing American Childhood from Slavery to Civil Rights. Robin Bernstein. New York: New York UP, 2011. 307 pp. In Racial Innocence, Robin Bernstein engages in a discursive commentary on race, childhood, and innocence in American texts emerging from the antebellum period (the period prior to the Civil War). Bringing slave narratives and theatrical adaptations into discussion with Stowe’s seminal text Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Bernstein explores the racism and Euro- centric values implicit in nineteenth-century American understandings of childhood innocence. She recognizes that Stowe’s influential work, often linked to the spark that ignited the American Civil War, was more than a work of literature: it carried with it a material culture that cut through class, gender, and racial boundaries. Bernstein refers to Uncle Tom’s Cabin as a repertoire, as it existed as prose, parlor performance, visual art, and in other cultural forms. Throughout Racial Innocence, she offers close readings of texts and other material, particularly white and black dolls, and unpacks the implications of white supremacy implicit in the romanticized notion of the African American as childlike. Bernstein introduces the first chapter with a comprehensive analysis of the book’s cover image, a nineteenth-century advertisement for Cottolene (a brand of cooking fat), by comparing the image of the African American child to a similar advertisement for the same product depicting a young white girl. Bernstein recognizes that understandings of

IBBY.ORG 51.1 – 2013 | 99 Reviews childhood shifted in the nineteenth-century, and and black children alike. She suggests that the (white) children were no longer viewed as small black and white characters convey images of the adults, but rather as fragile and innocent beings. mixed-race child and subtly comment on issues The author argues, however, that nineteenth- of rape and miscegeny in slave-holding America. century cultural material portrayed black children Bernstein notes that these dolls were often sewn as “pickaninnies”: wild, gluttonous, and immoral by slave women in the domestic sphere, and the creatures who were unable to feel pain or respond social commentary attached to these bi-racial, emotionally to actions or events. The ability to “crotchless” dolls “was not only intellectually feel pain was a key component of childhood inno- brilliant but also angry and bitterly witty” (89). cence, and because the pickaninny was thought to Bernstein offers a deeply insightful and innovative be immune to pain, the notion of childhood inno- analysis of the well-known Topsy-Turvy doll, and cence did not transmit to the black child. Bern- foregrounds an exploration of issues of miscegeny, stein supports this argument with contrasting rape, and slave women’s experiences sewn into analyses of the violence which was encouraged this popularly well-loved toy. toward black rubber dolls In the third chapter, and the nurturing atti- entitled “Everyone is tudes promoted through Impressed: Slavery as a white porcelain dolls. She Tender Embrace from also reads the recurring Uncle Tom’s to Uncle touches shared between Remus’s Cabin,” Bernstein Eva, the pure and innocent suggests that nineteenth- white child in Uncle Tom’s century social under- Cabin, and Topsy, the wild standings of childhood and misbehaving black and its inextricable link to slave-child. The touch is a innocence masks a sexual key factor in the adoption relationship between of childhood innocence on Eva and Uncle Tom. She Topsy’s part, and Bern- contends that, had Eva stein offers an insightful been an adult character discourse on the transfer in the novel, her relation- of innocence in shared ship with Uncle Tom touches between white would have been viewed slaveholders and black as a romantic one. Both slaves. She also begins to because Eva is a child and explore the discourse of because of the way inno- racial innocence at work in the popular Topsy- cence and race are connected, she is able to Turvy doll of the nineteenth century, which she build a close friendship with Uncle Tom without carries into the following chapter. raising the issue of an interracial sexual relation- In the second chapter, Bernstein looks more ship. Bernstein also takes note of the touches and closely at the Topsy-Turvy doll—a popular double- embraces shared between Eva and Tom, espe- ended children’s toy depicting Eva and Topsy cially in performances and live-action adaptations fused at the waist and separated by a shared skirt. of the novel. She argues that these shared touches Highly popular all over antebellum America, the played a role in both abolition and endorsement Topsy-Turvy doll helped the repertoire of Uncle of the slave trade, and continues her analysis to Tom’s Cabin come to life, and Bernstein explores include Joel Chandler Harris’s apology for slavery, the problematic relationship between the widely Told by Uncle Remus: New Stories of the Old Planta- loved doll and the racial consciousnesses of white tion (1905).

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Bernstein shifts her focus from Uncle Tom’s rejection of these violent acts toward black dolls Cabin in the fourth chapter, and explores issues throughout the early twentieth century, suggest- of blackness and whiteness in Raggedy Ann. She ing that kindness toward black dolls helped de- argues that Raggedy Ann, a popularized doll- construct internalized racism and desegregate un- turned-book-character-turned-theatrical per- derstandings of childhood innocence. formance, reinstated slavery in the early twen- Racial Innocence deconstructs issues of child- tieth century as “innocent fun” by popularizing hood racial innocence using the most basic and the image of the black-faced pickaninny (193). universal object of domestic girlhood: the doll. Through a Topsy-esque representation of the Af- Bernstein’s clear, concise, and approachable writ- rican-American child, Raggedy Ann encouraged ing style makes the text a suitable resource for violence toward black dolls by propagating and re- researchers of all educational and disciplinary popularizing black-face minstrelsy. Her soft mate- backgrounds, and her lack of exclusive language riality prompted “both cuddling and abuse,” and and jargon make the book a truly enjoyable read. her ever-smiling, racially ambiguous body “enjoys Though she does rely heavily on Stowe’s Uncle being thrown, boiled, wrung out, skinned, and Tom’s Cabin, she recognizes the text’s enormous hanged. It’s racially innocent fun” (193). influence in antebellum and post-bellum Ameri- The fifth and final chapter, “The Scripts of ca, and is able to construct compelling contrasts Black Dolls,” eloquently concludes Bernstein’s re- and comparisons using other popularized texts surfacing argument throughout the text. She reas- and cultural material from the era. The navigable serts the notion that black children in nineteenth- notes section and thorough index are both useful century America were associated with the inability and reader-friendly. Bernstein’s Racial Innocence to feel pain, and uses behaviors toward black and is a valuable contribution to the study of children white dolls to reveal the violence encouraged to- and race in the slavery and civil rights periods of ward black children. Black dolls, often made from America, and her passionate and energetic writing rubber or other resilient materials, invited acts of style compels the reader to become absorbed in the violence from the white children who owned them, captivating and influential content. while white dolls, often made of cotton, silk, and other soft materials, solicited acts of love and nur- Samantha Christensen turance. Bernstein explores young black women’s University of Alberta, Canada

Response to “Review of Historical Dictionary of Children’s Literature” Bookbird 50.1 (January 2012) by Bridget Carrington 1. The review states that in the case of the Marsh award “the Appendix (283) names merely names (sic) the books that have won it, and not the original author or the translator”. This is factually inaccurate: on p. 283-4 of the dictionary, the list of Marsh Awards first gives the name of the translator, then the title of the book, then the name of the author. 2. It also states, when writing about the Carnegie Medal, “It must also be noted that neither are all the recipients of that and the other awards noted in the Appendix”—which is also innacurate—all the recipients of all the major awards are listed in the Appendix (275-289). 3. The reviewer finishes with a comment on “the latest (2008) information”—but the appendix and bibliography include material published in 2010. Emer O’Sullivan Leuphana Universität Lüneburg Bridget Carrington chose not to rebut.

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Response to “Review of Contemporary English-Language Indian Children’s Literature: Representations of Nation, Culture, and the New Indian Girl” Bookbird 50.3 (July 2012) by Fawzia Gilani-Williams. I appreciate this opportunity to clarify the misunderstandings that have skewed Fawzia Gilani-Williams’s interpretation of my book and prompted her misguided conclusion that I deliberately excluded particular writers and texts, thus calling into question my findings. Readers should be aware that I explicitly state the parameters of the study and my methodology in the Introduction (pages 2-6) and that throughout the discussion, I never generalize any findings beyond the 101 books in the sample group, thus ensuring the validity of the analysis. It is also important to note that I provide Michelle Superle’s response to my review both a clear description of the difficulty I indicates it has apparently become another encountered in sourcing and accessing the example of that age-old problem of symbolic primary texts comprising the sample (due interactionism. In the spirit of sociological to limited print runs and poor distribution) inquiry, I had raised the methodological issue (page 2) and an explanation for the focus of bias in sample representation, which was on novels instead of other genres (page 3): apparently and unfortunately misinterpreted the texts I studied were limited to those I by Superle as a “baseless accusation that [she] was able to access, while I chose to focus on deliberately excluded Muslim writers.” Issues novels due to their potential to illuminate of bias in the sociology of literature are not issues related to nationhood and national personal attacks but merely its conventions. For aspirations. I am saddened by the base- the rest we nearly have a marriage of minds, less accusation that I deliberately excluded but the question remains—how representative Muslim writers; Gilani-Williams would of India were these texts in their notion of a have done better to join me in my repeated, “New Indian Girl”? emphatic questioning of the narrow, hege- Fawzia Gilani-Williams monic, and often Hinducentric, portrayals of nation, culture, and gender within the body of texts that I examine—which is precisely the position I take in framing and supporting my argument throughout the entire book (see especially pages 4 and 178). With this clarification of the parameters and focus of my discussion, I should also stress that I would welcome input from any readers, including Gilani-Williams, recommending novels “written by Indian authors living in India, the United Kingdom, and North America, and published for readers aged eight through eighteen, between 1988 and 2008” (Superle 2) that include the writers and content/themes she suggests I have excluded so that I can become familiar with these unknown and previously inaccessible texts.

Michelle Superle University of the Fraser Valley

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International Children’s Book Day 2013

The IBBY section of the United States of America—USBBY— is the sponsor of ICBD in 2013. The motto this year is Bookjoy! Around the World with poster art by Ashley Bryan and is accompanied by a poem written for the children of the world by author Pat Mora. Copies of the poster (on this issue’s back cover) and message are available from USBBY and are posted on the IBBY website under ICBD: www.ibby.org.

Bookjoy! Around the World

We can read, you and I. See letters become words, and words become books we hold in our hands.

We hear whispers Compiled and edited by Elizabeth page and roaring rivers in the pages, bears singing funny tunes to the moon.

We enter spooky gray castles, And in our hands flowering trees climb to the clouds. Bold girls fly; boys fish for sparkling stars.

You and I read, round and round, Elizabeth Page is Bookjoy around the world. IBBY's Executive Director

By Pat Mora © 2013 by Bookbird, Inc. Focus IBBY IBBY World Congress London 2012: Crossing Boundaries: Translations and Migrations The 33rd IBBY World Congress took place in London, 23-26 August 2012. The venue was Imperial College London in the heart of the museum district. The CI L was founded in 1907 and became an independent university one hundred years later in 2007. The theme of the congress was very appropriate for the College since the student body is drawn from 126 different countries. The congress opened on Thursday afternoon with a performance by the children from the Theatre Peckham. The children gave a spirited performance of scenes from Kate di Camillo’s The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane. After the welcome by the organizers and IBBY UK, the IBBY President Ahmad Redza Ahmad Khairuddin welcomed the participants:

I would like to take this opportunity of thanking you all for making a huge effort to come here to participate in this congress. I know that for many of you it has not been easy at all. Apart from the universal financial constraints, the system of getting visas continues to be an issue. I congratulate you all on your determination to be here.

The increasing difficulties presented by visa regulations was very evident this year, something that IBBY constantly lobbies against. Chieko Suemori then gave a moving résumé about the situation in Japan following the 2011 Tsunami and about IBBY’s support of the Iwate project. Though the project continues to take books and stories to the children in the devastated area, there is still much to do. The opening ceremony ended with Redza, who had the special task of bestowing IBBY Honorary Membership on Ana Maria Machado, Urs Breitenstein and Peter Schneck in recognition of their services to IBBY International. He thanked them for giving their “time and energy selflessly to IBBY and its cause and today IBBY is where it is, partly thanks to their untiring efforts.” The participants then were treated to a giant birthday cake to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Where’s Wally? Peter Schneck, Ana Maria Machado, Urs books. True to British tradition, there was plenty of tea Breitenstein and Ahmad Redza Ahmad available! After tea the UK children’s laureates Anthony Khairuddin (photo: Phil Polglaze) Browne, Michael Morpurgo and the current laureate Julia Donaldson took the stage and gave us an entertaining glimpse into their work. Julia Donaldson brought her busking past into play with music and giant fluffy ears! The presentation of the 2012 IBBY Asahi Reading Promotion Awards took place in the evening in the main hall. The Jury President Mingzhou Zhang gave the laudation praising the two winning projects:

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Abuelas Cuentacuentos, The Grandmother Storytelling Programme from Argentina, and SIPAR from Cambodia. The Grandmothers’ storytelling project, Zhang noted, “impressed the jury by its simple and original approach to reading promotion, it is easy to replicate and is sustainable over a long period. The promotion of intergeneration interaction is another aspect that gives it effective and emotional dimensions that are beneficial to both the children and the grandmothers.” From Cambodia, “SIPAR began as a Franco/Cambodian association in 1982 to help Cambodian refugees living on the Cambodian/Thai border during the Khmer Rouge regime. He said that the award was given in recognition of the work done over the last twenty years, as well as by the long-term training aspect of SIPAR that will build a book culture and thus answer a very big need for literacy in Cambodia.” Wararu Sawamura the head of the European bureau of the Asahi Shimbun presented the two winners with the award. In his speech, he said,

Both of these outstanding projects nurture sensitivity and build self-esteem in young people through reading. Tea time (Photo: Phil Polglaze) The projects serve major roles in helping children carve out bright futures for themselves. He went on to thank IBBY: I would like to express our heartfelt admiration and congratulate IBBY and its supporters for their continued dedication in promoting books and bringing the joy of reading to children throughout the world. It is our sincere hope that IBBY will continue with its good work, and we look forward to seeing the activities bear ample fruit in the years to come. The Asahi Shimbun is committed to providing our support to the best of our ability towards promoting books among young readers.

He also extended thanks to IBBY members around the world for the support that poured in following the Great East Japan Earthquake in March 2011. The professional programme began on Friday morning with an Earlybird session talking about the new media under the title Atlas to App: A Multimedia Migration. The programme continued with a two-part plenary session that covered the importance of translation for children. Emer O’Sullivan asked Why Translate Children’s Books? and gave excellent reasons why it is so important. Julia Donaldson in character Aidan Chambers and Bart Moeyaert continued with a (photo: Phil Polglaze) conversation about translation. Parallel sessions took up

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the rest of the morning covering topics related to the main theme by speakers from Germany, Japan, South Africa, Egypt, Greece, Russia, Romania, Brazil, the USA, the Netherlands, Austria, Belgium, Ireland, Spain, Canada, Slovenia, Australia, and the UK: a truly international programme! Throughout the congress, the lunch breaks offered not only eating opportunities, but also poster sessions and sponsored sessions by authors and illustrators. Friday afternoon comprised more parallel sessions, once more with a broad international flavour. The now traditional IBBY Open Forum gives IBBY members the opportunity to meet to discuss matters of common interest and get together in regional groups. The 2012 Forum included an introduction to the advantages of twinning between sections. Toin Duijx talked about the experiences of IBBY Netherlands, while Barbara Lehman gave a summary of USBBY’s twinning activities. Kathy Short from the USA and Redza Khairuddin talked about the building of inclusive Natalia Porta López and Mempo Giardinelli policies within the sections and how important is representing Abuelas Cuentacuentos the governance of the sections to their stability and receive their diploma and award from success. Ellis Vance led the meeting and then invited Wataru Sawamura (Photo: Phil Polglaze) all the participants to disperse into their regional groups. The final act of the Open Forum was to put forward six recommendations to the General Assembly that would encourage the National Sections to become stronger and more inclusive. These recommendations included: transparency and democracy within the sections’ governing bodies; the sections should have constitutions wherever possible; they should do more to be inclusive, with possibilities of the introduction of regional or state commit- tees; twinning with other sections; improvement of internal communications; and, recognising the importance of regional meetings as well as the bien- nial world congress. These recommendations were seen to enhance the sections and help to strengthen them. Parallel to the Open Forum were two important sessions: one was about translation and comprised two well-known translators translating live a passage Socheata Huot and Sothik Hot representing from a novel by the Spanish writer Eliacer Cansino. SIPAR receive their diploma and award from The other was to celebrate 20 years of Bookstart Wataru Sawamura (Photo: Phil Polglaze) with speakers who had successfully developed the programme in their countries. The last event on Friday was a performance by Galtzagorri Elkartea, the Basque Branch of Spanish IBBY. Flying Over Paper is a performance about Basque Literature for children. Saturday morning began with reports from Japan about progress made after the 2011 earthquake and destructive Tsunami. Takao

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Murayama, current president of JBBY spoke of the disaster and the subsequent projects set up to help the children and families of the devastated eastern seaboard of Japan. He drew lessons from the work of Jella Lepman after World War II:

I think there are three main points we should learn from her [Lepman]. The first is that she resolved to provide books as ‘spiritual nourishment,’ as well as food, to children through her inspirational observation of children in chaos. The second is that she maintained her will without discouragement under terrible circumstances. The third is that she discussed her ideal with her colleagues or friends over the border and established a broad base of support for children’s books.

Chieko Suemori spoke about the project that she inaugurated and which was supported by IBBY worldwide: 3.11 Ehon Project Iwate, and Hisako Kakuage drew attention to the children of Fukishima and children who have special needs. The morning continued with a fascinating talk by Shaun Tan, during which he talked about his life and his work: both cross many boundaries. He showed how his work not only crosses geographical boundaries, but also straddles reading cultures crossing genres, age groups and cultures. He grew up in Perth in Western Australia and has a feeling of being always on the periphery, a feeling that was very important to him as it lead into crossing many more boundaries. The afternoon saw the traditional presentation of the IBBY Honour List. However, the 2012 presentation was anything but traditional! Thanks to the help of Pam Dix from UK IBBY and journalist Candy Gourlay, a film of school children talking about their favourite books nominated for the excellence of their illustrations from the 2012 list entertained the audience. We are grateful to the librarians and students at St Aloysius’ College and Mount Carmel School in Islington and Stoke Newington School in Hackney for sharing their enthusiasm and enjoyment of the books with us. Thirty-two of the 169 nominees attended the presentation and received their diplomas from IBBY President Ahmad Redza Ahmad Khairuddin. The highlight of the day was the evening celebra- tory presentation of the 2012 Hans Christian Andersen Awards. The venue was the Science Museum; founded in 1857 as part of the South Kensington Museum, it gained independence in 1909 and is now world-renowned. The 2012 Andersen Jury President María Jesús Gil opened the evening and welcomed the winners, the sponsors, the jury members and the audience. Two of the 2012 finalists were also present; Roger Mello (Brazil) and Bart Moey- aert (Belgium) received their diplomas from the IBBY President. Jury President María Jesús Gil When giving her laudatio María Jesús noted, (Photo: Doris Breitmoser)

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It is very easy to say: “briefly introduce.” But, in fact, it is a hard, almost impossible challenge. How to reduce to five or six minutes the enormous work of our talented winners, two artists of the stature of María Teresa Andruetto and Peter Sís? However, let me make the attempt, relying on the indulgence of the winners. Both of them have in common an ability that is very deep, sincere, and intelligent. Both of them have lived through great difficulties during their lives. María Teresa Andruetto experienced the consequences of the military dicta- torship in Argentina. Peter Sís was born in the former Czechoslo- vakia—on the Red side, the Communist side—of the Iron Curtain. However, they have overcome all the difficulties in their paths and, through their work have, by making an ever-lasting contribution to children’s literature, given children and adults the message that we must aim for a better world.

When giving a brief summary of the jury’s deliberations, she spoke of its recognition of the talent of María Teresa Andruetto and by awarding her the medal, IBBY was “honouring her mastery in creating unique and sensitive books, which are deep and poetic, and for being an outstanding artist with words.” When talking about the Jury’s assessment of Peter Sís, she spoke of his “extraordinary originality and versa- tility as he engages his powerful imagination to create a complex and intricate visual language through the different layouts, artistic techniques and designs that he has especially created for each book, where marvellous surprises delight the reader!” The Jury President then invited author winner María Teresa Andruetto from Argentina and illustrator winner Peter Sís from the Czech Republic to come up to the stage and accept their medals and diplomas. Both winners gave moving speeches that were warmly received by the participants. Woo-Hyon Kang spoke briefly on behalf of the sponsor: the very generous Nami Island Inc, from the Republic of Korea. The evening was accompanied by a finger buffet served amongst the exhibits of old cars, steam engines and early planes. The final day of the congress included storytellers María Teresa Andruetto and Peter Sís showing from Mongolia, Wales, Ireland and Palestine; an enlight- their diplomas (Photo: Doris Breitmoser) ening speech by Patsy Aldana about how to give everyone a voice; and an entertaining talk by Michael Rosen under the title, “Migration: Towards a New Normal.” In the afternoon the IBBY General Assembly took place in the great hall. While at the same time, librarians, teachers, translators, reviewers, authors, illustrators, reading promoters, publishers, editors, storytellers and academics took part in professional meetings. Parallel sessions of speakers continued throughout the congress giving a broad range of experiences, but all the while reflecting the main theme. Altogether 107 papers were presented in 38 parallel sessions and a further 41 poster sessions were exhibited.

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Eighteen plenary speakers, eight panellists, the numerous seminar speakers and five publisher-sponsored speakers all made for an interesting and thought-provoking congress. The congress closed on Sunday afternoon with a performance by Lemn Sissay, poet and playwright (www.lemnsissay.com). The re-elected IBBY President introduced the new IBBY Executive Committee for the period 2012 to 2014. Ahmad Redza Ahmad Khairuddin went on to warmly thank the congress organizers and presented the co-directors Kathy Lemaire and Ann Lazim with a token of IBBY’s appreciation. IBBY Mexico closed the congress with a colourful and exciting glimpse of what we can expect at the 2014 IBBY World Congress in Mexico City! See you all there!

IBBY Elects Executive Committee 2012-2014 Ahmad Redza Ahmad Khairuddin (Malaysia) was elected for a second term as IBBY President. He is active in publishing in Malaysia, especially in the national, production of children’s books. In his first term as IBBY President he continued the policy of supporting grass root projects that bring children and books together. During the past two years he visited many National Sections around the world, encouraging them and urging them to become more inclusive and thus strengthen their position in the world of children’s books. In 2005 he was appointed as Vice President of the Majlis Buku Kanak-Kanak & Remaja Malaysia – the Malaysian Section of IBBY (MBBY). He is an advisor for the Students in Free Enterprise Team (SIFE) at local universities and panel judge for SIFE competitions at National level and for the World Cup final competitions. He was Chairman of the SIFE Malaysia Business Advisory Board until 2011. Linda Pavonetti (USA) and Hasmig Chahinen (France) were elected by the Execu- IBBY Executive Committee 2012-14. From left to tive Committee as IBBY Vice Presidents for the right: Ellis Vance, Angela Lebedeva, María Jesús next term. Linda is a professor and Chair of the Gil, Marilar Aleixandre, Gülçin Alpöge, Ahmad Redza Ahmad Khairuddin, Azucena Galindo Department of Reading and Language Arts at Ortega, Hasmig Chahinian, Nadia El Kholy, Kiyoko Oakland University, Rochester, Michigan. She Matsuoka, Linda Pavonetti, Akoss Ofori-Mensah teaches children’s literature, young adult litera- and Timotea Vrablova (photo: Jack Dix Davies) ture, and qualitative research methodology to undergraduate, masters, and doctoral students. Altogether, she has taught for over 25 years. Linda has published and presented papers at conferences in the US, IBBY World Congresses and other international meetings. She spent three months at the International Youth Library in Munich, Germany, researching the artistic styles in award-winning international picture books. She served as a board member of the United States National Section of IBBY (USBBY), as president-elect, president, and past president. During her term as USBBY president, she

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travelled to Nami Island, Korea and Santiago, Chile to address the need for books for all children. Linda served as IBBY Vice President 2010-12. Born in Lebanon, Hasmig holds a PhD in children’s literature from the University Paris 13 and is currently in charge of the Arab World at the International Division of the French National Centre for Chil- dren’s literature – Centre national de la literature pour la jeunesse - La Joie par les livres, a service of the French national library, which is also the seat of IBBY France. She organizes and holds training sessions for professionals in various parts of the world. She is one of the editors of the European IBBY Newsletter and is one of the administrators of the IBBY Europe Facebook page. Hasmig served on the IBBY Executive Committee 2010-12. María Jesús Gil (Spain) was re-elected as the Hans Christian Andersen Award Jury President for the 2014 awards. After her Bache- lor’s Degree in Arts in the University of Valladolid in 1981, she travelled to United Kingdom to study Language and Literature in the Universi- ties of Exeter, Manchester and Dundee. She worked at Ediciones SM for twenty years, starting as Foreign Rights Manager, and then as the Editorial Manager of the Department of Children and Young Adults for fifteen years. She also was Editorial Manager of Alfaguara Infantil y Juvenil and Altea (Santillana). She is currently the coordinator of Reading Programmes for Spain and Latinamerica in the Foundation SM. She was an elected member of the IBBY Executive Committee (1996-2000); served as President of the Spanish Section of IBBY (2009-11) and was the Chair of the 32nd IBBY Congress in Santiago de Compostela in 2010. She was a member of the Jury for the Hans Chris- tian Andersen Award for the 2008 and 2010 awards. Marliar Aleixandre (Spain) is currently working as a science education professor at the University of Santiago de Compostela, as well as an author of papers and books on argumentation and critical thinking. Marilar has received a variety of awards, in particular for her poetry and novels for young readers. She was a member of the IBBY 2010 Congress committee and was elected to serve on the IBBY Executive Committee 2010-12. Gülçin Alpöge (Turkey) gained her PhD in Psycholinguistics from the University of Istanbul in 1983 and became Professor in 2002. She is currently working part-time at the Bogaziçi University, where she teaches “Brain and Education”. Gülçin has written many articles, academic books, and designed curriculum programmes. She also writes for children. She is currently the President of IBBY Turkey. Gülçin was elected to serve on the IBBY Executive Committee 2010-12. Nadia El Kholy (Egypt) is Chair of the Department of English Language and Literature at Cairo University. She serves as Director of the National Council for Children’s Culture, and is President of the Egyptian Book Council for Young Readers. She has published a number of articles on the modern Arabic and English novel. Nadia was a member of the 2008 and 2010 juries for the Hans Christian Andersen

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Award and was elected to serve on the IBBY Executive Committee 2010-12. Azucena Galindo Ortega (Mexico) combines ongoing studies of children’s literature with reading promotion in order to expand the impact of IBBY Mexico’s programmes and projects. An important aspect of her work as Managing Director of IBBY Mexico/A Leer is to make Mexico a stronger presence among IBBY’s international sections; hosting the 34th IBBY Congress in Mexico City in 2014 is very important in this aim. Angela Lebedeva (Russia) worked as Senior Lecturer at MSUCA, at the Department of Children’s Literature and Library work for children and youth and then at the Moscow State Open Pedagogical Insti- tute named after M. Sholohov (MGOPU) at the Faculty of Journalism between 1997 and 2009. She was a member of Hans Christian Andersen Jury for the 2004 and 2006 awards, and has been Executive Director of IBBY Russia since 2002. Since 1998 she has organized the annual project Days of Russian Children’s Books Abroad. She has more than 50 professional publications in Russia and abroad. Kiyoko Matsuoka (Japan) has been a curator at the Itabashi Art Museum since 1986. In 1989 she became responsible for the Bologna Illustrators’ Exhibition in Japan and since then has collaborated with the Bologna Book Fair in organizing the world tour of the exhibition. She has organized several series of exhibitions of picture-book artists, and workshops on the creation of books for children for young artists She is also a university lecturer on the Art of Picture Books. Kiyoko was elected to serve on the IBBY Executive Committee 2010-12. Akoss Ofori-Mensah (Ghana) received an internship at the UN Fund For Population Activities in New York for six months in 1974 and went on to study for a Master’s Degree in Population Education at the University of Chicago, IL. She returned to Ghana in 1976 and in 1993 started her own publishing house—Sub-Saharan Publishers for children’s books. Akoss has served on the Ghana Book Publishers Asso- ciation as Honorary Secretary, Vice President, and as President from 2003-2005. Timotea Vrablova (Slovakia) has been a research worker at the Insti- tute of Slovak Literature of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, working on the literary culture of the 17th and 18th centuries and children’s literature since 1991. Since 2008 she has been working for Slovak Radio, and currently has a programme aimed at creative reading for children called Little School Year. Since May 2010 she has been the President of the Slovak Section of IBBY. Ellis Vance (USA) was confirmed as IBBY Treasurer. Ellis is an active member of USBBY and is currently its Executive Director. He served as IBBY Vice President between 2006 and 2008, and has been treasurer since 2008. Urs Fröhlicher (Switzerland) was elected IBBY auditor. Urs has been helping the Secretariat since 2008 with the closing of the yearly accounts

IBBY.ORG 51.1 – 2013 | 111 Focus IBBY in preparation for the annual audit. He is a licensed bookkeeper and tax advisor, who together with his wife set up the firm Fröchlicher Treuhand in 1994. Fritz Rothacher and Peter Gyr were warmly thanked for the many years they served as IBBY auditors since being first elected in 1998. Roxanne Harde (Canada) was reconfirmed as Bookbird Editor. Liz Page and Luzmaria Stauffenegger were reconfirmed as IBBY Executive Director and Administrative Assistant, respectively.

Margaret Mahy (1936-2012) Margaret Mahy was the founding patron and huge supporter of Stor- ylines, the national section of IBBY for New Zealand. She was an unflagging supporter of Storylines’ work to fostering young people's love of story and recognition of the power of language. New Zealand’s most renowned author for children, she was a prolific writer of over 300 books for the young, loved and admired world-wide for the richness of her imagination and unique creativity with language. Through her many educational readers, novels, picture books, poetry, short stories and screen-writing, she created an unequalled body of award-winning work which touched the hearts and minds of literally millions of children world-wide. Since the mid-1970s she was a star turn, often wearing her signature wig, in schools and at literary festivals. No one hearing her reciting her performance pieces Down the Back of the Chair and Bubble Trouble will ever forget her sheer joy in the magic, comedy and power of language. Margaret’s contribution to New Zealand and world literature has been immeasurable, on a par with Katherine Mansfield and Janet Frame. She was a key figure in the explosion of an indigenous children’s literature from about 1970 onwards, tirelessly carrying the torch for the growing number of fine authors who chose to write for children and create arguably the strongest genre of writing within New Zealand literature. Her honours included New Zealand’s highest, the Order of Merit, and in 2006 the world’s most prestigious prize for children’s writers, the Hans Christian Andersen Medal, as well as several honorary doctorates. By teachers Margaret Mahy receiving the Hans Christian Andersen Medal from IBBY President Peter and fellow librarians, by parents and grandpar- Schneck and Jury President Jeffrey Garrett, ents, but most of all by several generations of IBBY Congress 2006 in Macau, China children throughout the world, her unique voice will be much missed. By Dr Libby Limbrick Chairperson, Storylines Children’s Literature Charitable Trust of New Zealand

112 | bookbird IBBY.ORG Focus IBBY MARGARET MAHY, A Memory Children loved her; the weird and wonderful attire, the rainbow-hued wigs, and, above all the magic of the stories she told them. The stories of lions in meadows, of piratical mothers, a whole gamut of “shoes and ships and sealing-wax and cabbages and kings” and much more besides. She engaged the imaginations of a good two generations of our young, and not only here in our nation but all over the globe. Parents and grandparents read her tales aloud to wide-eyed and eager small listeners, and, in the way things are read, the same tales again and again as the same small listeners demanded a repeat. When she died recently she was mourned and remembered in play- ground and in parliament, in libraries and lecture rooms and countless other places. Our country had lost someone very special indeed and her passing touched many hearts. A published career as a writer span- ning over half a century is noteworthy in itself. That the prodigious output of Margaret Mahy was of such high literary quality makes that career even more remarkable. Work that gave pause for thought and contemplation by young adult and adult, minds, as well as that more than liberal sprinkling of wild and woolly, rambunctious tales for the very young is truly an incredible achievement. Mahy was honoured for her efforts; an abundance of national and international literary awards, doctorates from universities, and, of course, the Order of New Zealand; this nation’s greatest honour, restricted in number and reserved for the great and the good. She deserved them all. Margaret was a long-serving and loyal member of the New Zealand Society of Authors. She served as chair of the Canterbury branch of the society on more than one occasion and was made President of Honour of the society in 2002. She gave a speech on this latter occasion; sparkling wit, but, as always, something to think about. The children’s writing community will particularly miss Margaret. She encouraged and supported other writers for the young, she bought our books and, invariably, had us sign them; and not only that, she read them, too! She was a regular presence whenever we gathered and, it must be said, she certainly enjoyed the social aspects of such get- togethers. Not only did we admire her; we loved her and revelled in her company. It was a very small New Zealand children’s writing community when Margaret started out; little more than herself, Anne de Roo, Elsie Locke, Joy Cowley, and a very few more of us just slightly later. The numbers of us grew. Margaret was always there when we gathered at hui, festivals, Storylines events. She lent her name to the Story- lines, the Children’s Book Foundation of New Zealand, Margaret Mahy Lecture Award and medal. Margaret’s ‘lion’ adorns the medal presented to winners of the award, given for significant contribution to New Zealand children’s literature. Margaret herself was the inaugural recipient!

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Where did this woman find the energy, much I took her to task on one occasion in regard to less the time, to produce this incredible output of her wondrous poem, Down the Back of the Chair. stories and books? Over and above the obvious My small grandaughter, Isla, was at that moment output of a writer were the speeches; dozens if probably Margaret’s greatest fan. I wrote; “She not hundreds, well-crafted and delivered over the tramps around the house, Margaret, reciting years in her inimitable and highly entertaining large chunks of your immortal verse. I am sick style here and abroad to a wide variety of to death of reading it to her because she corrects audiences. Writer, and a working librarian until me on the spot if I get a line wrong or try to add 1980, solo parent of two daughters, building and an individual touch of my own. But, above all, making a home; strength of purpose, physical Margaret Mahy, Isla is MY grandaughter. Until stamina, in addition to self belief can be the only ‘Down the Back of the Chair’ I had always been answer. Grandpa Bill to her. Nine times out of ten these I first met Margaret around the time she ceased days she addresses me as Uncle Bill, and yes, she being children’s librarian at the Canterbury has checked various chairs to see what treasure Public Library in order to write fulltime, and a trove may be hidden. I have told her my will is in couple of years before I gave up teaching to do the hands of my solicitors and she’ll bloody well the same. The old Department of Education had have to wait!” assembled a group of writers in Christchurch in Over the years, Margaret’s advice to me as the hope of encouraging us to produce material writer was, if not crucial, at least invaluable at a for the Ready to Read fundamental level. On series. Margaret, the matter of speaking Joy Cowley and I engagements: “Accept ended up as a small William Taylor is a much-acclaimed them all, Bill - but sub-group within the New Zealand writer for children, and check beforehand that larger entity and we the recipient of many awards including you will be paid.” wrote stuff and tried the Storylines Margaret Mahy Medal On reviews: “You it out on each other. and Lecture Award, the Esther Glen never remember the I wrote a splendid Award, and the New Zealand Senior good ones. The bad poem about a spider Fiction Award. Amongst his best-known ones? They remain and read it out to titles are Agnes the Sheep, Knitwits, The engraved on your Margaret and Joy and, Blue Lawn, and Spider. He has recently mind for a long time.” naturally, expected a published his memoirs: Telling Tales: A When I suggested to rapturous response. Life in Writing. her that she had never Margaret, generous had a bad review she soul that she always just laughed. Years was, smiled and murmured, “Very interesting, afterwards she wrote to me; “Got a poor review Bill.” Joy, more perceptive and accurately honest, in the NY Times. Got a copy of the review last said, “Stick to writing books, Bill.” night. By tomorrow I will have stopped thinking Over the years we corresponded via cards, about it, but, mind you—this is still today.” letters, phone calls and, of course, regularly On translation and foreign rights: “You’ll get meeting up at all those places where writers were one cheque and generally not a very big one. gathered together. I have kept many of her cards, After that you’ll be lucky to get any more.” slipping them inside one of her books. Every one On the practicalities of daily life at a time of them is similarly signed; “Margaret (Mahy, when I was experiencing difficulties in regard that is!).” Given her inimitable and unmistakable to plumbing and water supply: “I’m an expert in handwriting, I always found the bracketed bit plumbing, Bill. What a pity we don’t live closer; delightfully superfluous. I could come and advise and give you a hand.”

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This reader of much erudite literature and and our hearts into the foreseeable future … and studies in the arena of science and metaphysics probably well beyond. Thank you, Margaret, and did have a more mundane side when it came to thanks also to your daughters and their families tastes in television viewing. On one occasion she for sharing you with us. extolled to me the joys of professional wrestling By William Taylor programmes. I’m unsure whether or not she wrote a story about it. Quite likely she had one Storylines (IBBY New Zealand) acknowledges in mind. the permission of the Society of Authors to A living treasure in her time on earth, now forward this article, first published in the she has gone. Margaret Mahy; you have left us a New Zealand Author in September 2012, for legacy that means you will live on in our minds publication in Bookbird.

STATEMENT OF OWNERSHIP, MANAGEMENT, AND CIRCULATION, 10/1/12 Title: DiacriticsBookbird . Pub.Pub. No.No. 0300-7162. 019-026. Frequency:Frequency: Quarterly.Quarterly. Four Four issues issues publishedpublished annually. Subscription price: $100.00$120.00 institutions, $50.00$30.00 individuals. Location of office of publication: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2715 N. Charles Street, Baltimore, MD 21218. Headquarters of publishers: Same. Publisher: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2715 N. Charles Street, Baltimore, MDMD 21218.21218. Editor: Editor: Roxanne Laurent Harde,Dubreuil, University Cornell ofUniversity, Alberta, Augustana Ithaca, NY Faculty, 14853. 4901-46Owner: Avenue,The Johns Camrose, Hopkins Alberta, University T4V Press, 2R3 2715Canada. N. Charles Owner: Street, Bookbird, Baltimore, Inc., 5503 MD 21218.N. El Adobe The purpose, Drive, Fresno,function, CA and 93711-2363 nonprofit Thestatus purpose, of this function,organization and andnonprofit the exempt status status of this for organizationFederal Income and thetax exemptpurposes status have for not Federal changed Income during tax the purposes preceding have 12 months.not changed during the preceding 12 months.

Extent and nature of circulation Av. no. copies Actual no. copies each issue single issue pub. preceding 12 months nearest to filing date A. Total no. copies printed 493 471 B. Paid circulation, mail subscriptions 156 150 C. Total paid distribution 262 255 D. Free distribution 36 35 F. Total distribution 367 381 G. Copies not distributed 126 90 H. Total 493 471 I certify that the statements made by me above are correct and complete. William M. Breichner, Journals Publisher.

IBBY.ORG 51.1 – 2013 | 115 Call for Papers: Queerness and Children’s Literature

Bookbird invites submissions for a Special Issue on queerness and children’s literature. Over the past two decades in particular, interest in the intersection between the representation of children and queerness has been steadily growing. In the past several years, several volumes have stimulated this growth: Curiouser: On the Queerness of Children edited by Steven Bruhm and Natasha Hurley (2004), The Queer Child by Kathryn Bond Stockton (2009), Over the Rainbow edited by Michelle Ann Abate and Kenneth Kidd (2011), and Innocence, Heterosexuality, and the Queerness of Children’s Literature by Tison Pugh (2011). The editor and guest editor invite proposals for articles of 4000 words which explore queerness and children’s literature. In addition, short reviews of recently published children’s literature (c.a. 300 words) or of research on children’s literature (c.a. 750 words) are warmly welcomed. Papers which are not accepted for this issue will be considered for later issues of Bookbird. Suggested topics might include (but are not limited to): • Nation, empire, queerness • Queerness and cultural difference • National children’s literature and queerness • Translation and queerness • Homophobia, violence, and/or bullying • “Innocence” and queerness • Gender, nation, queerness • Censorship and sexuality Titles and abstracts of 250 words should be sent to both editors by 15 JANUARY 2013: Roxanne Harde ([email protected]) and guest editor, Laura Robinson ([email protected]). Final articles will be expected by 15 MAY 2013. Papers which are not accepted for this issue will be considered for later issues of Bookbird. Call for Papers: “Que todos signifique todos”: Inclusivity and Mexican Children’s Literature We invite submissions for a Special Issue of Bookbird to coincide with the 34th IBBY International Congress to be held in Mexico City in 2014. We invite papers that examine texts for children from Mexico or the Latin American world as they relate to or intersect with the conference theme: “Que todos signifique todos / May Everyone Really Mean Everyone.” Proposed papers of 4000 words are invited on, but not limited to, the following topics: • Inclusivity/exclusivity • Stereotyping • Diversity • Normalcy • Participation • Belonging • Alternatives • Developments and trends • Multiculturalism • Genre, form and themes (including, but not restricted to, fantasy, realism, young adult fiction, visual texts, poetry, controversies and taboos) Abstracts of 250 words should be sent to both editor and guest editor by 1 May 2013 Editor: Roxanne Harde ([email protected]) Guest Editor: Beatriz Alcubierre Moya ([email protected]) The full articles will be expected by 1 September 2013. Please see Bookbird’s website at www.ibby.org/ bookbird for full submission details. In addition, short reviews of relevant recently published children’s literature (250 words) or research on children’s literature (1000 words) are warmly welcomed. Papers which are not accepted for this issue will be considered for later issues of Bookbird. 116 | bookbird IBBY.ORG Call for Papers: Anthology on Global Perspectives on Death in Children’s Literature How do different cultures present the concept of death to children? How is death represented pictori- ally? How is death suggested metaphorically? How do the images and metaphors in children’s books reflect contemporaneous beliefs, hopes, and fears? Are there taboos in the verbal and visual presentation of death? How is the transition made from death being something that happens to someone else to death being something that will inevitably happen to oneself? How is the inevitability of death made less fearful than it was in the past (or is it)? How are fear and fascination or appeal balanced? Often it is the elderly or animals that die: is this distancing conducive to empathy? What are the means of achieving empathy with those confronting death? This call-for-papers is for a collection of essays that would address these and other related questions. The editors are particularly interested in proposals that focus on the topic of death as a physical reality, a philosophical concept, a psychologically challenging adjustment, and a social construct. Proposals from diverse theoretical perspectives and on literature representing different genres and mediums (poetry, fiction, picture books, graphic novels, translations, adaptations) and different cultural perspectives and periods are welcomed. If you would like to contribute to this publication, please submit a 450-550 word abstract of your proposed paper and a curriculum vitae (no more than two pages) by Friday, 1 February 2013, to Dr. Lesley Clement ([email protected]) and Dr. Leyli Jamali ([email protected]).We will contact you about the status of your proposal by the end of April, 2013, at which stage we will be approaching publishers that have a special interest in children’s literature and global issues. If the editors invite you to submit a paper, it should be 18-22 double-spaced pages (including endnotes and bibliography) and would be due the end of August, 2013. Please address any queries to above editors.

Would you like to write for IBBY’s journal?

Academic Articles ca. 4000 words Bookbird publishes articles on children’s literature with an international perspective four times a year (in January, April, July and October). Articles that compare literatures of different countries are of interest, as are papers on translation studies and articles that discuss the reception of work from one country in another. Articles concerned with a particular national literature or a particular book or writer may also be suitable, but it is important that the article should be of interest to an international audience. Some issues are devoted to special topics. Details and deadlines of these issues are available from Bookbird’s web pages. Children and Their Books ca. 2500 words Bookbird also provides a forum where those working with children and their literature can write about their experiences. Teachers, librarians, publishers, authors and parents, short articles discussing the ways in which you have worked with children and their literatures, or have watched children respond to literature are welcomed. Articles concerned with a particular national issue are of interest, but should be written in a manner that appeals to an international audience. Postcards and Letters ca. 300 or 1000 words Bookbird publishes reviews of both primary and secondary sources. Brief ‘postcards’ (ca. 300 words) on individual works of children’s literature, or extended ‘letters’ (ca. 1000 words) introducing the work of a particular author or illustrator are welcomed. In addition to the full publication details, please comment on whether the works are available in translation. For further information, please contact: Roxanne Harde, Email: [email protected]

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© 2013 by Bookbird, Inc. The Journal of IBBY, the International Board on Books for Young People Copyright © 2013 by Bookbird, Inc. Reproduction of articles in Bookbird requires permission in writing from the editor.

Editor: Roxanne Harde, University of Alberta—Augustana Faculty (Canada)

Address for submissions and other editorial correspondence: [email protected]

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