796 (2018 #19). Nelson Mandela's Favorite African Folktales

I purchased this audiobook for my university library's collection because it won Audie Awards in 2010 for Audiobook of the Year and for Multi-Voiced Performance.  I've grown to really like multi-voiced audiobooks, so I figured this audiobook would be a winner all the way around, especially since I was looking for something short before starting a longer book for an upcoming day with six hours of driving.

Unfortunately, I was somewhat disappointed in this book - mostly because of irritations in the audio quality.  The 22 folktales are read by various celebrities, and some readers are better than others.  A number of them have a very annoying quirk of letting their voices drop to a whisper in some parts and boom out in others, which doesn't always work well in an automobile when road noise competes.  I had the same issue with the musical interludes - while the songs are great for providing a taste of the different musical styles in Africa, some are played at ear-bursting volume. It's also difficult, with the package design, to read the names of some of the narrators and titles of some of the stories, because the listings are in small print and are placed BEHIND the plastic holders for the relevant CDs.

There is a PDF available on the third disc which has a map indicating where each tale originated.  There's also a brief description of each tale and its background, along with an illustration, followed by a section on the authors (which in the case of the traditional literature tales, would be retellers).  The PDF also has the website for the audiobook, which includes extensive biographies of each of the celebrity narrators, as well as some comprehension quizzes, discussion questions, and coloring pages that can be downloaded (since this is supposedly an audiobook for children, although I think it's more appropriate for older children and adults).  A second PDF has track listings, song lyrics (five of the interlude songs are played in full on the last CD), and a helpful glossary, while a third PDF has complete track information.

I was surprised to learn that five additional tales (which apparently are in the print version of this book) are available for download by separate purchase.  At $2.27 each at Audible, I passed.

My gripes aside -  there are some very good stories in this audiobook, and most of the celebrities read them with good emoting.  My favorite was "King Lion's Gifts," a pourquoi tale that explains why certain animals look or sound the way they do.  Never heard of the reader of this tale - Ricardo Chavira - but he was quite good, especially at expressing Lion's aggravation with the other animals.  There are also fables, myths, African versions of classic folktales, literary fairy tales, and a number of trickster stories on the three discs.

The celebrity narrators all donated their time, and the audiobook publisher (Hachette Audio) donated all its profits from its sales to ANSA (Artists for a New South Africa), which in turn donated 20% to the Nelson Mandela Children's Fund.  So, definitely worth a listen.


© Amanda Pape - 2018

[This audiobook was borrowed from and returned to my university library.]

715-717 (2017 #13-15). Three More Picture Books That Caught My Eye

When I was at the public library a few days ago, looking for recent winners of American Library Association Youth Media awards, I spotted a few books on display that looked interesting, that I was pretty sure we didn't have in the children's literature collection I manage at the university.  So I checked them out:

Musicians of the Sun is similar to many of Caldecott Medalist and honoree Gerald McDermott's other traditional literature books.  Like The Princess and the Warrior by Duncan Tonatiuh, this book also retells Axtec folklore.  The Lord of the Night (the Aztec god Tezcatlipoca), sends the Wind god (Ehecatl) to bring the prisoners of the Sun god (Tonatiuh, interestingly enough) - four musicians named Red, Yellow, Blue, and Green, to the "gray and joyless," dark and silent earth.  In his author's note, McDermott said "the story became for me a metaphor for the author's journey," and that the illustrations are "in acrylic fabric paint, opaque ink, and oil pastel on paper handmade in Mexico."

Matisse's Garden, written by Samantha Friedman and illustrated by Cristina Amodeo, was published by the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City in 2014 to accompany an exhibition of the "cut-out" works from the last decade of the life of Henri Matisse.  The artist found it difficult to paint or sculpt after surgery for abdominal cancer (although this is not discussed in the book), and took up his scissors to make cut-paper collages, often on an immense scale.  Author Friedman was an assistant curator at MoMA and co-organizer of the exhibition, while Amodeo is an Italian designer.  I particularly liked the way the way the latter built in references to Matisse's other work (such as Dance) in her cut-paper illustrations.  The book features eight reproductions of Matisse's cut-paper works, some on fold-out pages to better fit the scale of some of these large works.  More details about Matisse's life and these works are in an endnote.

Ada Twist, Scientist, is the third book in a series written by Andrea Beaty and illustrated by David Roberts, that promote STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art, math) careers.  Told in rhyme, Ada Twist is a little girl who starts out quiet and observing, but once she turns three, the questions - mostly "Why?" - flow.  The fact that Ada is a female of color (and has puzzled but supportive parents) is even better for encouraging all young children to question and hypothesize and persevere.  The illustrations use watercolors, pen, ink, and pencil, sometimes on - appropriately - graph paper of different types.


© Amanda Pape - 2017

[These books were borrowed from and returned to my local public library.]

712-713 (2017 #10 & #11). Two Award-Winning Picture Books

When the American Library Association announced its annual Youth Media Award recipients on January 23, 2017, I pulled the one honoree I'd already ordered earlier in the year (because it was a picture book on the 2017-2018 Texas Bluebonnet Award reading list) from the to-be-cataloged shelf at my university library.  I also went to my local public library and checked out the two picture books they had that were honorees.  I wrote about one book yesterday; here's my review of the other two.

The Theodor Seuss Geisel Award is given annually to the author(s) and illustrator(s) of the "most distinguished American book for beginning readers."  Oops, Pounce, Quick, Run! An Alphabet Caper, written and illustrated by Mike Twohy, was named as a 2017 Geisel Honor Book.

This clever alphabet book uses a single word on each page or spread to tell a simple story of a dog, a mouse, and a ball.  Mike Twohy is a longtime cartoonist whose work has been published in The New Yorker magazine and other mainstream publications.  He used India ink and felt-tip pens to create the illustrations in this book.

The Pura Belpré Illustrator Award is given to "a Latino/Latina ... illustrator whose work best portrays, affirms, and celebrates the Latino cultural experience in an outstanding work of literature for children and youth." Duncan Tonatiuh, a previous medalist (2012) and honoree (2011 and 2014-2016), had two works named as Honor Books for Illustration in 2017, one of which is on the 2017-2018 Texas Bluebonnet Award reading list.

The Princess and the Warrior is a retelling of the legend of Iztaccíhuatl and Popocatépetl, two volcanoes near Mexico City.  

The illustrations (hand-draw then collaged digitally) were inspired by Mexican Pre-Columbian art, primarily the Mixtec writing code of the 12th century.  A characteristic of this style, according to the author's note at the end of the book, is that "people and animals are always drawn in profile.  Their entire bodies are usually shown, and their ears often look like the number 3."  Tonatiuh even uses speech scrolls in his illustration (similar to speech bubbles), such as in the illustration below.

Tonatiuh based the enemy warrior in the book on the real Mixtec warrior Jaguar Claw, and uses a number of Nahuatl (Aztec) words in the book, some of which have become part of Mexican Spanish.  A glossary of these follows the author's note, and is followed by a bibliography.

© Amanda Pape - 2017

[These books were borrowed from and returned to my local public library and my university library respectively.]

543 (2016 #9). The Blue Jackal

by Shobha Viswanath

This book is a retelling of a fable from India.  The illustrations by Dileep Joshi were inspired by the art of the Warli tribe in western India.  Their paintings use only white (from rice flour) on a mud background that is often the reddish-brown color of most of the pages of the book.

The story, about a jackal who is bullied until he falls in a vat of blue dye and is treated like a king, is told in rhyme, making it more accessible for younger children.  This will be a great multicultural addition to a traditional literature collection for teachers and libraries.

© Amanda Pape - 2016

[I received this hardbound through the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program.  It will be added to my university library's collection.]

403 (2014 #31). The Legend of Saint Nicholas

by Anselm Grün,
illustrated by Giulano Ferri,
translated by Laura Watkinson

Little is known about the "real" Saint Nicholas.  The only historically certain fact is that he was Bishop of Myra (part of Turkey today) in the fourth century AD.  He died sometime between 343 and 352 AD.  Therefore, "legend" is an appropriate title, as there is not enough known about him for a true biography.

This book shares some of the folklore about Saint Nicholas, patron saint of sailors (among other groups).  While the book mentions Saint Nicholas Day (December 6) and the associated gift-giving traditions in some countries (Germany, the Netherlands), there is no mention of Santa Claus - for which I am thankful.  However, I would have liked to see a short note at the beginning or end with a simple sentence explaining where the places (Patara and Myra) mentioned in the book are, and the time period in which Nicholas lived.

Anselm Grün is a Benedictine monk who lives in Germany and writes in German.  His around-300 books have been translated into 30 languages.  Giuliano Ferri is an Italian illustrator whose work can also be found in other traditional tales such as Caspar and the Star, Ant and Grasshopper, and Little Stone Buddha.  His soft paintings are double-page spreads that are warm and inviting.

© Amanda Pape - 2014

[This unbound galley proof was sent to me in exchange for an unbiased review by the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program.]