#Booktube – Catching up!
Hey everyone! So, because we’re terrible at cross-promoting things, we keep forgetting to post our #Booktube episodes here on the blog. As such, here is every episode that we haven’t shared with you. Future episodes will hopefully be posted in a more timely fashion, although we can’t actually guarantee that. Another way to make sure you don’t miss these is to sign up for our newsletter OR just go subscribe to our channel on YouTube! We’re really hoping to get to 100 subs so that we can get a unique url! These are in the order we posted them, not by show (because they do occasionally reference one another!)
Bedtime Stories: The Origin of Day and Night
Bedtime Stories highlights Children’s Books with a diverse, global perspective. In very early times, there was no night or day and words spoken by chance could become real. When a hare and a fox meet and express their longing for light and darkness, their words are too powerful to be denied. The Origin of Day and Night, published in September of 2018 by Inhabit Books, is the illustrated retelling of an ancient Inuit tale, passed from storyteller to storyteller and into the loving hands of Inuit author, Paula Ikuutaq Rumbolt. Her sparse, but lyric words are paired perfectly with the contrasting illustrations of artist Lenny Lishchenko, to create a beautiful story book that serves as an excellent introduction to Inuit mythology to non-Inuit children, and with an Inuktitut language version, gives great representation to Inuit children themselves.
Bedtime Stories: The Night Monster
Bedtime Stories highlights Children’s Books with a diverse, global perspective. Every night, when the owl hoots and the shadows of the trees dance on the walls, the Night Monster creeps into Avi’s room and frightens him. One day, his sister suggests he write a letter to the monster, and Avi’s nights are not the same anymore. The Night Monster, released in the US in September of 2018 by Karadi Tales, a publishing company based in India, is beautifully written by Sushree Mishra and illustrated by Sanket Pethkar. I only wish I had a physical copy get the full measure of this wonderful story that explores fear and how you can conquer it, especially with loved ones lending a helping hand.
Bedtime Stories: Alma and How She Got Her Name
Bedtime Stories highlights Children’s Books with a diverse, global perspective. If you ask her, Alma Sofia Esperanza José Pura Candela has way too many names: six! How did such a small person wind up with such a large name? Alma turns to Daddy for an answer and learns of Sofia, the grandmother who loved books and flowers; Esperanza, the great-grandmother who longed to travel; José, the grandfather who was an artist; and other namesakes, too. As she hears the story of her name, Alma starts to think it might be a perfect fit after all — and realizes that she will one day have her own story to tell. Alma and How She Got Her Name, from Candlewick Press, is the debut of Juana Martinez-Neal as author-illustrator and, though it isn’t my typical fairytale fare for this column, there is nothing more powerful than the telling of your own story. Alma and How She Got Her Name is an important story about both how our names have histories and how we can create our own stories. Told through almost hazy artwork in soft pinks, grays, and blues, this is a story that, though told by a father, is filtered through the eyes of a very young girl, Alma Sofia Esperanza José Pura Candela. Alma is frustrated by the fact that her name just doesn’t seem to fit. And though she seems to be talking about how it doesn’t fit on the page, her truth is that she isn’t quite sure if it fits her. Thus begins her father’s tale of the people for whom Alma was named: the grandmother who loved flowers and books, the great-grandmother who dreamed of traveling the world, the grandfather who was an artist, and more. Through these stories Alma learns who her family was and her connection to them, not just through her name, but through the things that she loves herself. I was absolutely charmed by this beautiful book and it inspired me to reminisce about my own name, and those of my children, and how they forge the connections in my own family’s story. Alma and How She Got Her Name is the perfect book to open a conversation between parents and their little ones, whether their own names are from family, friends, or perhaps a favorite book. Suitable for children ages 4-8.
Childhood Review: The Jumbies by Tracey Baptiste
My mother tells me all the time that if you don’t trouble trouble, then trouble won’t trouble you. When I originally decided to start reviewing books from my childhood, I don’t think I was quite aware of how white my reading was. I mean, I did in an ephemeral sense, in the sense that publishing has long been dominated by white voices, but it wasn’t an immediate thing.
Bedtime Stories: Sing to the Moon
Bedtime Stories highlights Children’s Books with a diverse, global perspective. For one little Ugandan boy, no wish is too big. First he dreams of reaching the stars and then of riding a supernova straight to Mars! But on a rain day at his grandfather’s house, he is brought down to earth with a bump. Do adventures only happen in galaxies far away or can he find magic a little closer to home? Sing to the Moon is the second book written by Nansubuga Nagadya Isdahl and illustrated by Sandra van Doorn that I have reviewed for this column and I instantly fell in love again with the sublime partnership between Isdahl’s gentle rhymes and van Doorn’s dreamlike illustrations.
