Review: Emily Knight I Am by A. Bello

Image: a-bello.com

Thirteen year old Emily Knight is the daughter of a famous warrior, Thomas Knight, in an alternate version of Britain where warriors have magical powers and fight against the forces of the evil Neci. At the beginning of the book, Emily's rebellious older brother, Lox, is struggling with the pressure to live up to his famous father and ambivalent about Thomas's motivation in encouraging him to become a warrior too. Lox decides to run away, and is met by a mysterious figure.

With her mother dead, and Thomas off hunting for Lox, Emily is also rebelling, getting into trouble for shop lifting, while living with a foster family. Then her family decide to send her off to warrior school, where she can better learn to control her powers and channel them for the good. However, a mysterious figure is also hanging around the school. Who is the mysterious figure? Can Emily learn to control her powers? And can she stop herself from fighting mean girl Tanya?

This is a fun read for children 9+ from a very young author- A. Bello is only 24, and she wrote the original version of this book when she was only 12! If the book is reminiscent of Harry Potter- a magical school with teleporting teachers, a magical game that is a cross between tag wrestling and dodgeball with fire, an evil force wanting to destroy the school- then it is, but then Harry Potter is reminiscent of many other classic children's books. It's great to read a fantasy novel with multicultural characters, and I'm glad to see that A. Bello is writing a sequel. However, I did find some typographical errors and some inconsistencies, and I would hope that good editing would eliminate these in future editions. 

I am grateful to the author for sending me a review copy of this book. The opinions expressed in this review are my own.

Review: Year of the Dog by Grace Lin

Image: gracelin.com

Pacy is a Taiwanese-American girl growing up in upstate New York. The book opens on the eve of Chinese New Year, the year of the Dog, and her family (older sister Lissy, younger sister Ki-Ki and her parents) are preparing. She learns that the year of the Dog is a year for friends and family, since dogs are faithful and loving, but also a year for self discovery. As Pacy's year progresses, she makes a new friend, discovers more talents and learns from her mum and extended family to value her heritage, but also to be herself.

Pacy is a lovely character, who is conflicted- she feels to Taiwanese to be American, but too American to be truly Taiwanese. There are some great chapters that explore this: for example, another girl's horror when Grace (as Pacy is known at school) wants to try out for the part of Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz: "You can't be Dorothy. Dorothy's not Chinese!" When her class is entered into an illustrated story writing contest, Pacy can't think of anything to write. She is encouraged to "write what she knows", but with no models of Chinese-American culture (Lin explains in an afterword that when she was growing up, Taiwan was not recognised by the USA) she can't find her story. This is a lesson for all of us involved in promoting children's literature to children: it is so important for children to be represented in the books that they read.

This is a great chapter book for readers 7+, especially, but not exclusively, for British Asian children. I think it would be a useful book to read with children to discuss any mixed heritage. I loved it.

Gong Hei Fat Choi to anyone celebrating Chinese/ Lunar New Year tomorrow!

Maybe it's because I'm a Londoner...

That I love books about London! 

Image: foyles.co.uk

Catherine Johnson's A Nest of Vipers is a thrilling adventure story set in a lawless and brutal 18th Century London. Young Cato Hopkins is being brought up by a gang of "coney catchers", confidence tricksters overseen by Mother Hopkins, who claims that she bought Cato from Newgate Gaol for a few pennies. The Hopkins "family" (Addy, who can pass as a boy and part fools from their money at cards; beautiful Bella, who has been parted from lovelorn young aristocrats at the altar- for a price; escaped slave Sam and Cato, who has been sold into slavery, but can crack any lock going, especially if there is something valuable on the other side of the lock) are famous among the London Underworld, and live at the Nest of Vipers pub east of Drury Lane, London. They pride themselves on only conning those deserving the con, especially slave traders.

But things are getting too hot for them in London, and Mother Hopkins is ageing. She has a dream to retire to Bath. Bella wants to marry Jack, who with Sam is in the Sedan chair business, and want to go straight. And surely Addy can't pass as a convincing boy much longer? In order to buy a house, Mother Hopkins plans one last con trick. But when she involves proud Quarmy, the son of a West African king, his unfamiliarity with their cons and his love-sickness for his former tutor's daughter may prove the family's undoing...

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It is framed at the beginning and the end with Cato in Newgate, dictating his story to the Ordinary, the gaol's chaplain. More detail about Ordinary's accounts can be found on the Old Bailey Online website. The historical detail is rich: accounts of London pubs, coffee shops, pie shops and the houses of the wealthy is finely drawn, and never overwhelms the pot, which rushes along like an 18th Century episode of Hustle. The use of thieve's cant also enriches the story (as it does, for example, in Georgette Heyer) and since Cato is often reproved for using it, it adds to the authenticity but doesn't make the dialogue less comprehensible for young readers. Like the best sorts of historical fiction, we are able to enter the world of a young Black boy in 18th Century London, learning more about his times and also about why our world is the way it is. Highly recommended for 9+.

I reviewed Catherine Johnson's Brave New Girl here. She's a fabulous writer; make sure you read her in 2013!

Bansi and Nina- two magical stories

I've written recently about how important I think it is that children see themselves represented in books, and how important it is that teachers have books that represent the children in their classes. So with this in mind, I'm really glad to share these books with you this week. They are both about children with Indian heritage, but they are not worthy "issues" novels- a teacher friend of Asian heritage characterises a lot of books featuring British Asian families as "Saris and samosas stories"- they are great fun.

Image: Goodreads.com

Nina and the Travelling Spice Shed by Madhvi Ramani is a lovely book for 6+. Nina's parents are from India, but Nina feels wholly British. She gets a bit fed up with her dad constantly comparing her to Indian children. One day she is late for school, and discovers that all the "good" countries her class are to research for their class project are gone, and she'll have to research India.

Nina is really fed up, and goes to her eccentric aunty's house. There, she is sent to the spice shed in the back garden to get some turmeric, when she discovers that the shed is in fact a travelling shed, which whisks her off to India! Here, Nina learns about the mystic sadhus in the Himalayas, about Bollywood in Mumbai and about the tigers of West Bengal!

This is a delightful book for children developing the stamina to read chapter books. It's funny and enjoyable, and great for dispelling stereotypes about India. I can imagine that children of Indian heritage would really enjoy reading about a girl like them, but also children of other heritages would enjoy it too.

Image: hive.co.uk

Bansi O'Hara and the Bloodline Prophesy by John Dougherty (author, poet, songwriter, library defender and all round Good Egg)- Bansi O'Hara is on her way with her Irish father and Indian mother to visit her Granny O'Hara in Ireland. She's really looking forward to her first trip to Ireland. Little does she know that her visit is also being anticipated by some magical peoples in Ireland. Bansi is descended from magical beings on both sides of her family, and engineering her presence in the magical land of Tir Na N'Og would fulfil a prophesy bringing incredible power for whoever brings her there. So Pogo the Brownie and a shape shifting Puca called Tam are sent by the good Fairy People to protect her, but the Dark Sidhe are seeking to capture her. 

But on Bansi's first night at Granny O'Hara's house, Conn, a boy who can change into a wolf, crashes through the bedroom window, trying to capture Bansi. It is Midsummer, when the barriers between the mortal world and Tir Na N'Og are thinned, and the Lord of the Dark Sidhe has sent Conn to bring her to him. Luckily, Bansi doesnt just have Pogo and Tam to look after her. She has Granny O'Hara and her best friend, Nora Mullarkey, to look after her, and speeding around in Nora's Morris Traveller, they set out to prevent the Lord of the Dark Sidhe, before sunset on Midsummer's Eve.

Exciting and hilarious by turns, this is a brilliant book to read aloud to children 7+. I would also use it for guided reading or have it in my book corner for independent reading in school. I think it would be particularly good in a culturally diverse classroom, particularly one with children of mixed heritage. I have already recommended it to a friend whose little cousin is being excluded by friends due to her mixed heritage. A fantastic read. 

(I have posted both these reviews on Goodreads as well. I want as many people as possible to buy these books, including schools and libraries!)

An Illustrated Year: So Much! by Trish Cooke

Most of my teaching career has been in culturally diverse, inner city schools. I started training as a teacher 20 years ago last month (where has the last 20 years gone?) and of course, one of the most important duties of a Primary school teacher is to ensure that the children in their care make progress with their reading. However, I found that we can make sure that children learn their letter sounds and apply that knowledge to words- this is a relatively easy job- but making children want to read is far more tricky. Over my teaching career I have become more and more convinced that young children must see themselves and their cultures presented to them in books, as well as the cultures of their peers.

So Much! by Trish Cooke was published nearly 20 years ago, in 1994. I remember picking up a copy to read to the children I was teaching as a Traveller Support/ English as an Additional Language support teacher in Beeston, Leeds. It's the story of Mum and Baby, sitting at home, when- DING DONG! the doorbell goes, and relatives arrive one by one to see the baby to show him how much they love him. They want to hug, squeeze, kiss the baby- and also eat and fight him! At the end of the book, we see that the family have gathered to celebrate the baby's Daddy's birthday.

It's told in the sing-song rhythms of Dominican English, and I absolutely love this book. I love the fact that the family is an ordinary family, gathering for a celebration the way that other families do, but the family is shown playing dominoes, dancing and singing, giving the book a distinctly Caribbean flavour. We don't see outside the house, only the front room and the baby's bedroom, but the tiled hall in front of the door in one picture (when Auntie Bibbi arrives) reminds me of the one in the terraced houses in Leeds where I lived as a student and young teacher. Trish Cooke grew up in Bradford with her Dominican parents and brothers and sisters, so Helen Oxenbury may have taken inspiration from this.

I recommend this book for children around the ages of 3-6. It's lovely!

I'm looking for picture books showing Asian children in urban settings for my students who are starting their teaching practice in London schools. Please do comment if you know of any! It's a shame that in 20 years we don't seem to be moving forward in representations of diversity in picture books.

Warrior Scarlet by Rosemary Sutcliff

Image: bookdepository.co.uk

This month's theme from Playing by the Book's "I'm looking for a book about..." carnival is disability. Of course, it is a very appropriate theme given the wonderful closing ceremony of the awe-inspiring Paralympics was yesterday. I am very proud that my city has been the host to this and the Olympics, and has welcomed athletes and visitors from all over the world with the humour and creativity our beautiful city is famous for.

When Zoe announced that this month's theme would be disability, I immediately thought of Rosemary Sutcliff's  Warrior Scarlet. It is the story of Bronze Age Drem, who is 9 at the start of the novel. He lives with his mother, brother, grandfather and his foster sister Brai in a village on the South Downs. Drem is expecting to join the Boy's House, train as a warrior and earn his Warrior Scarlet cloak by killing a wolf. However, Drem has been born with a withered right arm. Overhearing his grandfather's doubts about his ability to kill the wolf and fully become a man, Drem runs away, but meets Talore the one handed hunter who convinces him that if he use a bow and arrow, he must learn to throw a spear so well that others forget that he doesn't do so by choice:

"If the thing is worth the fight, fight for it... There are ways- ways round, and ways through, and ways over"

Drem does indeed learn to throw a spear, to ride and to fight, and he joins the boys' house. However, his path to manhood and his warrior scarlet is not straight forward or easy, and he does indeed both fight for it and find ways round, through and over.

I am a huge Rosemary Sutcliff fan. Her books lyrically and vividly evoke history, and I would certainly credit them with my love of visiting historical sites. Her research was impeccable, as The Independent noted in her obituary in 1992. She contracted a form of rheumatoid arthritis as a child and used a wheelchair for much of her adult life. She wrote sensitively about disability in several of her novels, both from the point of view of her characters and partly about the often cruel behaviour towards disability in the societies she wrote about.

Warrior Scarlet is perhaps my favourite of her novels. I love that Drem's character is influenced by his disability, but it is not informed by it. In many children's books, a period of disability is a test that characters must go through in order to become better people (such as Katy in What Katy Did or Deenie in Deenie) or disabled characters have special powers (Percy Jackson in Rick Riordan's novels who has dyslexia and ADHD but is the son of a God), but for Drem, his disability is something that he must learn to manage in order to become a functioning part of his society. The adjustments that he makes and ultimately the concessions that his tribe makes allows him to do this, and after all, isn't that what the able-bodied world should be doing with people with disabilities? Shouldn't that be our Paralympic legacy?

Diversity in fantasy fiction 2: Huntress by Malinda Lo

Recently, a representative from gay rights organisation Stonewall came to my University to talk to my teaching students about combating homophobic bullying.

Homosexuality was only decriminalised the year before I was born, and the whole time I was teaching in schools Section 28 of the Local Government Act 1988 was in place. As a teacher it was illegal for me to "promote homosexuality" or to "promote the acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family unit". The viciousness of this wording made it very difficult for teachers to challenge homophobic language, bullying or exclusion of children in schools due to their perceived sexuality or the real or perceived sexuality of parents or family members. I could not, for example, have imagery of successful, happy gay people in my classroom the way I could of people of different religious or cultural backgrounds. I taught children who had gay parents or siblings and children who were quite clear that they were gay (and one boy who was insistent that he was going to grow up to be a girl) and as a young teacher it was very challenging for me that I couldn't reflect their lives in my classroom. As I became more senior and confident as a teacher, I did more to actively challenge gender stereotyping and "heteronormativity" (clumsy and awful word!) by reading stories such as Babette Cole's Prince Cinders and Anne Fine's Bill's New Frock.

Thankfully, Section 28 was repealed in 2003, but sadly some teachers still worry about the legality of challenging homophobic language and bullying in schools- under the 2010 Equalities Act teachers in fact have a duty to do so. Stonewall have some fantastic age appropriate resources (their primary resources are all about different images of families), and they have some brilliant booklists for primary classrooms.

Image: malindalo.com

Inspired by the Stonewall presentation I sought out Malinda Lo's Huntress. In a fantasy world where fairies and humans have lived alongside each other in truce for centuries, something is wrong. There has been no summer for years, crops are failing, there is hunger and discontent in the land, and there are tales of strange creatures in the Forest.

In the iron fortress of the sages, Taisin, a trainee sage, has had a vision. As a result, she and another trainee, Kaede, must travel with a small band to the land of the fairies to ask the Fairy Queen to bring back the Sun. But first they must go through the Forest, where dangers in the shape of strange creatures but also malignant magic lurk. Can Kaede and Taisin fight the feelings that they are developing for each other? and what does Taisin's vision of Kaede travelling alone to face danger mean?

This is a wonderful fantasy book, with Chinese mythological background- as I've said before, I believe that it is vitally important that young people see themselves in the books that they read. I found the relationship between Taisin and Kaede really positive: the difficulty in their relationship is not that they are two girls, but because Kaede's wealthy family want her to marry for political reasons, and Taisin must be celibate to be a sage. It's great that being a lesbian is not remarkable in their world, and I think that this would be a very positive message for any young person reading this book, whether they were gay or not. There is passionate kissing, but no explicit sex in this book. My one criticism is that there's an awful lot of crying. I'd have liked Kaede and Taisin to have had some laughter and happiness! Recommended to young adult readers of 12+.

Here's Rob Bryden reading another great Babette Cole fairy tale, Princess Smartypants.

Guest Post: Ravana, the Ultimate Bad Guy by Sarwat Chadda

I am delighted that Sarwat Chadda, author of the fabulous Ash Mistry and the Savage Fortress, has agreed to write a guest post about the ultimate bad guy, Ravana. I wrote about it here. 

Image: students.ou.edu

Ravana is the biggest villain of Indian mythology. He’s Satan, he’s Loki, he’s Hades all rolled into one. I love him.

                Indian mythology is quite unlike what’s available in the West. The boundaries between good and evil, morality, are bound by the notions of dharma, of right living. A warrior’s dharma is to kill his enemies so can achieved Heaven through war, through committing what we would view as evil deeds. One of the greatest epics of India, the Mahabharata, has a central moment when the hero Arjuna faces his enemy, made up of his own kin. Before him are cousins and friends and grand-parents that he must slay and he hesitates. It is only when his charioteer, the god Krishna, explains the nature of dharma does he resolve to fight.

                So it is with Ravana. It is his destiny to fight, to terrorise and to make war. And he relishes it. There is no doubt, not angsty whining about how unfair the world is. He seizes the world and shakes it by the throat. He has all the ambition and blood-lust and ruthlessness of any Roman emperor. He is villain writ large, writ epic.

                I love the larger than life villains because their excesses, their love of chaos, we enjoy, albeit perhaps with a frown of disapproval while secretly wishing we could be so free. They allow us, humanity, to indulge in our darkest dreams.Who wouldn’t want to be Dracula, to have power over death itself? Or the grandeur of Darth Vader? The Devil has the best tunes and the best lines. Just ask Milton.

                Heroes are measured by their bad guys. The tougher the better. They define them. The Batman and the Joker. Holmes and Moriarty (who, if you recall, only appeared in one story ever. Now name me any other of Holmes’s opponents. Not so easy, is it?).

                Ravana is the demon king. He kidnaps the princess Sita and unleashes a war with Sita’s husband, Prince Rama. The pair are destined to face each other and their story, the epic the Ramayana is one of my favourites. It’s wildly magical as gods and monkeys and demons and the king of the birds aid or hinder Rama in his search for his wife. The story ends, of course, with a massive battle. The city of demons, Lanka, burns and Ravana defies the gods, fate and Rama ‘till the bitter end, unrepentant up to the moment of his death. His colossal evil and colossal charisma dominates the tale. He has ten heads, twenty arms and once enslaved the gods themselves. Rama has his work cut out for him.

                I’ve taken the legend of the Ramayana as the basis of my new book, Ash Mistry and the Savage Fortress. Fundamental to Hinduism is the concept of rebirth. From that idea it was a simple one to imagine that now, thousands of years after his death, Ravana is about to be reborn. But as villains come back, then so do heroes. Ash Mistry thinks he’s just a normal 13 year old boy. A bit lazy, a bit chubby and, if we’ll be honest, a bit cowardly. But it falls to him to stop Ravana and he’ll need the aid of the gods to do it. He’ll have to become more than he is and discover his destiny. His lessons will be harsh and there will be blood along the way, a lot of blood. So, if you’re interested in a tale beyond the boundaries of the west and the familiar myths and monsters of Europe, I might just have something for you.

Image: welovethisbook.com

Thank you so much Sarwat! Ash Mistry and the Savage Fortress was published on 1st March, and is available from Waterstones, Amazon  and of course independent bookshops! If you would like to win a signed copy, please leave a comment letting me know who your favourite villain is and leave an email address where you can be contacted. A winner will be chosen on 19th March.

Ash Mistry and the Savage Fortress by Sarwat Chadda

Image: welovethisbook.com

Ash Mistry is your average thirteen year old: into computer games, with an eye for a pretty girl and not as fit as he could be. He and his sister Lucky are on holiday, visiting their aunt and uncle in the holy city of Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh at the beginning of the novel. Their uncle is a lecturer in ancient Indian history at the University, but even Ash's fascination with weapons and legends isn't making up for the heat, flies and missing his friends in London. 

Then at a party hosted by the mysterious Lord Savage, Ash witnesses some very strange events. Could it be that Lord Savage is more than just an eccentric, old and very wealthy aristocrat? Could it be that he plans to open the Iron Gates that hold the demon king Ravana? and could it be that Ash is the only person who can stop him?

Ash Mistry and the Savage Fortress is the first in a new series for 8+. Annoyingly marketed as being "for boys" (why? because girls don't enjoy reading fast paced, exciting adventures set in India?) it's the latest novel from Sarwat Chadda. I'm delighted to be part of the Ash Mistry blog hop: more information soon! And, as I said here, I'm delighted that there is a fantasy novel with a British Asian protagonist.

Do check out Sarwat's Billi SanGreal series, fantastic adventure novels for 12+ about Billi, a teenager inducted into the Knights Templars in contemporary London. Billi's father is Master of the Knights Templars; her mother was Pakistani. Billi (Bilqis) and the Knights Templars battle fallen angels, vampires and werewolves, and Billi has to come to terms with her separateness from other teenagers- as well as getting into trouble for falling asleep in Geography. I hope that there are more Billi novels in the future.

Ash Mistry is published on 1st March.

Diversity in fantasy fiction

Image: laurenbeukes.bookslive.co.za

I am currently reading the wonderful adult speculative fiction novel Zoo City by South African writer Lauren Beukes. Set in an alternative version of Johannesburg, it is the story of Zinzi Lelethu December, former journalist and junkie, now a finder of lost things and 419 scammer. In Zinzi's world people who have killed are "animalled", carrying around an animal familiar as a manifestation of their guilt. Being animalled also confers special powers. This the result of a plague that spread from Afghanistan in the 1980s.

It's a truly wonderful book, I strongly recommend it, and one of the aspects I enjoy the most is the clearly identifiable African setting. The ingenuity, creativity and resourcefulness that Zinzi needs to survive  as well as the use of African languages: Nigerian pidgeon as well as a variety of South African languages and African French make the fantastical seem plausible.

The image above is created by a South African artist, and I think captures the spirit of the book perfectly. Zinzi's Sloth is not like Lyra Belacqua's daemon (visible soul) Pantalaimon from Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials; he is a permanent embodiment of her guilt, and like guilt, is a heavy load to carry around.

I have been thinking a lot about diversity in children's literature recently. It is something that has always been important to me since I started teaching nearly 20 years ago (wow! How did that happen?). It re-appeared on my radar firstly due to reading the forthcoming novel by Sarwat Chadda, Ash Mistry and the Savage Fortress. It was so heartening to read a fantasy featuring a British Asian protagonist with fantasy derived from Indian mythology rather than European, and made me wonder why US-based authors Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni (author of The Conch Bearer) and Nnedi Okorafor (author of, amongst other books, Akata Witch) are not published in Britain, where we have so many children with Indian and African heritage. I wrote about them here. More of Ash Mistry next week.

Secondly, someone tweeted a link to this blog post on the shocked reaction of fans of the forthcoming Hunger Games film to the casting of an African American actress to play Rue. One of the contestants in the Hunger Games, Rue, is clearly described in the novel as a black girl, so it is depressing that so many (white) readers assumed that she is a white character. Rock star Lenny Kravitz has been cast as Cinna. Cinna's description in the novel is less precise than Rue's but there is no reason why a character described as having close-cropped dark hair and golden-brown eyes should be automatically be played by a white actor. I have often wondered why in post-apocalytic novels and films, both British and American, it should be assumed that only white people survived.

And then I heard Trish Cooke, British author of So Much and actress of Dominican heritage, speaking on Radio 3's The Essay on her experiences of learning to read from books only featuring suburban white families, such as in the Peter and Jane books. None of the books she read featured children growing up in  families such as hers; black, working class, with 8 children and living on a council estate in Bradford (coincidentally, the same estate as the one featured in the film Rita, Sue and Bob Too (sweary clip, watch out if small people are around!). Tricia explained in the radio programme that after a while, she started to feel that there was something wrong with her family, and it changed her from being a lively, confident girl to being quiet and unwilling to contribute in lessons at school. She was determined that her son should not have the same experience, leading her to write picture books featuring families like theirs. They are beautiful, warm stories featuring loving families; I adore them.

It seems to me that we are fortunate to have so many amazing picture books showing diverse families, including culturally diverse backgrounds, single parents, children living with grandparents- but this not being the central point of the story. However, it is disappointing that in fantasy fiction for the age range known as "middle grade" in the US (roughly 8-12) which has been a best selling genre, when minority ethnic characters appear at all, they often appear as colourful backgrounds rather than as active participants in the story- for example, Parvati Patil and Lee Jordan in the Harry Potter series who are so under-developed as characters that I struggle to name them. The only non white character developed to any degree is Cho, Harry's first girlfriend, who is mainly noticeable for her drippiness.

Does it matter? Well, as I see it, if we are concerned about the number of books that children read, then we really need to ensure that there are books that children want to read, books that reflect them and their experiences- and books from a variety of genres. Novels with diverse characters need not always be social realist. Also, white children need to see positive representations of children from other cultures, particularly children growing up in fairly mono-cultural environments. There are of course wonderful publishers such as Frances Lincoln and companies such as Letterbox Library that celebrate diversity and seek out authors to write books doing so, but more needs to be done. Perhaps the advent of digital publishing will mean that there will be more opportunities for more variety of stories to be told.

The exception to the paucity of fantasy novels published in Britain with minority ethnic characters are of course Malorie Blackman's amazing Noughts and Crosses, which is due to be dramatised on Radio 4 next Saturday. The excellent comic book blog New Readers... Start Here has a series of great posts about diversity in comics, including some great ones about Characters of Colour.

EDIT: I have realised that I left out Salman Rushdie's amazing Haroun and the Sea of Stories and Luka and the Fire of Life, both wonderful, fantastical stories using references from the Arabian Nights and Indian mythology, but with a warmth and playfulness that I find missing from his novels for adults.

An Illustrated Year 2: The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats

50 years ago this year, a little African American boy first played out in the snow in an American city.

Image: betterworldbooks.com

Peter wakes up, and excitedly looks out of the window. Seeing the snow, he puts on his red snowsuit and goes outside. He makes footprints, hits a snowy tree with a stick, makes a snowman and snow angels, climbs a pile of snow and slides down. He tries to save a snowball for the morning, but it melts, and he is unhappy until he wakes in the morning, finds that new snow has fallen and calls for his friend across the hall to play out again.

The simplicity and gentleness of this book delighted me as a little girl. I expect I encountered it about 10 years after it was published. Many comments under the NPR website story (the audioclip is wonderful, do listen to it) state that white listeners didn't notice Peter's skin colour. I certainly did as a small girl. I had encountered picture books with black characters before, but I seem to remember that they were all quite "exotic", living in Africa or the Caribbean. This (and the other books about Peter, Whistle for Willie and Peter's Chair) didn't make an issue out of Peter's skin colour- in fact, the book was criticised by some civil rights leaders for not addressing it. However, by simply showing Peter doing ordinary things- playing in the snow, learning to whistle and coming to terms with a new baby sister- Keats shows that children can look different, but have common experiences, and I think that this is very powerful. And for black children, the powerful experience of encountering people that look like them as protagonists rather than colourful background characters is demonstrated in the clip by the teacher who wrote to Keats telling him that for the first time, children in her class were not using the pink crayons to draw themselves; an experience that I have shared in my teaching career.

Sadly, this Caldicott medal winning book doesn't appear to be in print in the UK at the moment, but is readily available second hand online. I do hope Puffin are reprinting it.

This claymation video adaptation is delightful. 

I hope your children enjoyed the snow this weekend!

The boy done good

Image: http://harrypotter.warnerbros.com/harrypotterandthedeathlyhallows/mainsite/index.html#/downloads

It's the end of an era, which started in 1997 with the publication of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone and ended in July this year with the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 2. Of course, no Evanesco spell will make the books and films vanish (at least I hope not; that would make a big hole in my book and DVD shelves!) There have been numerous articles and blog posts about Harry Potter and Hogwarts, including one outlining why Harry Potter will still be read in ten years from the always-excellent For Books' Sake, so I don't intend to make this post about the merits or demerits of Harry. However, I am firmly in the camp that says he is A Good Thing.

Firstly, because in my years of teaching experience, nothing excited reluctant readers as much as Harry. Children who would ordinarily have baulked at reading read him. Then they went on to read other fantasy; Narnia, Diana Wynne Jones, Eva Ibbotson, Jenny Nimmo's Snow Spider trilogy, Susan Cooper's The Dark is Rising series and Philip Pullman.

Secondly, because Harry's success renewed interest in these writers, some of whom were out of print, and publishers invested more in promotion. Jones' Chestomanci series was reissued with new covers, and her out of print novels were re-issued. Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy is of course wonderful without the comparison to Harry, but I wonder whether it would have got the critical attention without the comparisons, despite Northern Lights being published before The Philospher's Stone.

And thirdly, because while some of the media attention geared towards Harry Potter has been about the media attention the books and films have been getting, I am grateful for the critical attention children's literature now gains. All the broadsheet papers now review children's literature and British university English departments frequently have undergraduate modules in children's literature, even those without an Education department; this I think is crucial as children's literature is being viewed from an aesthetic perspective rather than a utilitarian one; that is the pleasure of children's literature is being examined rather than its use in teaching reading.

So where now for Potter fans? In my opinion, the books' fans are better catered for than the films'; witness the dreadful film version of The Dark is Rising; the ongoing "development" of the Artemis Fowl film (rarely a good sign), and there seems to be no second Alex Ryder or His Dark Materials film. Of course, we have The Hobbit to look forward to.

There have been lists of books for fans to go to; this one from Time (scroll down to the end of the page) and from The Guardian. However these do focus on what is often more of the same, and I responded to this discussion on diversity in children's literature. So much European and North American fantasy is of course based upon Norse, Celtic, Greek or Roman myths alongside Judeo-Christian imagery of death and redemption. Two authors I've read recently who do not come from these traditions are Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni and Nnedi Okorafor. Both these authors are now based in the USA, but Divakaruni was born in India and Okorafor in Nigeria. Once again, the joy of Twitter! I encountered Divakaruni in an article on Indian Young Adult fiction tweeted by one of the Indian tweeters I follow (sadly the link is now broken), and Okorafor via the Books and Adventures blog.

Image: Tower.com

Divakaruni is the author of the Brotherhood of the Conch trilogy (The Conch Bearer, The Mirror of Fire and Dreaming and Shadowland). I have read the first two, and have the final book on order. They are the story of Anand, a boy who encounters an elderly man in the streets of Kolkata in The Conch Bearer . The old man is a healer, on a mission with the magical conch; he is being followed by an evil magician intent on co-opting the power of the conch for his own ends, and Anand and a street sweeper called Nisa must help defend the conch. The journey from Kolkata to the Himalayas and the adventures the trio encounter are a fairly traditional quest story, but the Indian setting is beautifully evoked, and Anand in this novel has few powers of his own. However the Hindu aspect of the story makes it stand out; the Himalayas of course are the home of the gods, and a mongoose helps Anand and Nisha at one point of the book. A Hindu god is represented as a mongoose in art.

The second book is The Mirror of Fire and Dreaming, a far more interesting book in many ways. Nisa and Anand are now settled as apprentices with the Healers in their home in the Himalayas. Nisa is taking to her studies with enoyment and ease, but Anand is struggling to find his place. Then news of danger comes from Bengal, and Abhaydatta the healer travels there with an apprentice. However Anand has a vision telling him that something has gone terribly wrong, so he steals the conch and he and Nisa travel through a portal. They are separated on the way, and Anand loses the conch. He discovers a magic mirror, and stepping through it, he arrives at the court of a 16th century Moghul emperor. The period details of the Muslim court are beautifully evoked, especially the food- expect to feel hungry much of the time while reading this book!- and the time travel aspect of the book works really well. The separation of men and women in the Moghul court mean that the devices used so that Anand and Nisa can communicate must necessarily be magical, and I was reminded of Aladdin in the parts where Nisa and Anand meet in the gardens.

Image: amazon.co.uk

The first book I read by Okorafor was Zahrah the Windseeker, a science fiction fantasy based on the planet of Ginen. When she is thirteen, Zahrah gets her first period and discovers that she can fly. She is a windseeker, but she is afraid of using her powers. Only when her fried Dari gets dangerously injured on a visit to the Forbidden Greeny Jungle does she discover the courage to overcome her conventional upbringing and the rigid propriety of Ooni Kingdom life and travel into the jungle to find a cure. I enjoyed this book; the lushness of the world Okorafor creates where computers and other objects can be grown from plants, the West African hilife music played in the market and clothing the characters wear. The book won the Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature in 2008.

Image: amazon.co.uk

Okorafor's most recent book for children is Akata Witch, the story of four young people in the Igbo region of Nigeria, who discover that they are "leopard people", that is that they have special powers. The protagonist is Sunny, who at the beginning of the book is bullied at school, partly because she is albino and partly because she is Akata, that is, of African heritage but born abroad (her family has only recently returned from the USA). The use of the term Witch of course has a different power in a West African context; I myself have taught a Rwandan child accused of witchcraft and beaten by her aunt; and Okorafor has objected to the term "fantasy" when applied to her writing, since spirits of ancestors and magic are very much part of Igbo culture and beliefs. The four young people (Sunny, Orlu, Chichi and Black American Sasha) discover that they must work together to defeat a Leopard Person who is using his power for evil and is killing children. The satisfying, world building elements of Harry Potter are here, with an alternative system of education and commerce is here. I really enjoyed this book and am looking forward to The Shadow Speaker which I'm taking on holiday.

Sadly none of these books (as far as I know) have UK publishers. I ordered them from my local bookshop for little more than the online price for Akata Witch and Zahrah. I feel that this is a pity; partly because there are so any children from the Indian subcontinent and African heritage in the UK and black and Asian children that I taught would grab with both hands books that represented their culture, but also because they are great books that any person enjoying a fast paced, inventive novel would read.

I'd recommend all these books to confident readers 10+, or a particularly mature 9 year old.

(A note on the title: it comes from a footballing cliche, team managers would often use it in interviews when being asked about the performance of new, often young, players. A significant part of Akata Witch is when Sunny's confidence is boosted by her playing in a football match; before this point she has been unable to play outside as she burns in the sun. It is also the title of one of my favourite Billy Bragg songs, co written with Johnny Marr).