Occupy Seattle Library Needs Books

One of my most memorable book signings took place at the Occupy Seattle Library. It's located just around the corner from Elliot Bay Books, one of Seattle's finest independent bookstores. The day I visited the encampment, Adrienne Sevilla, standing on my right, had just been appointed Head Librarian three days before. The tent library has roughly fifty books. Her co-worker Darlene Nordyke, holds a masters in library science and is currently out of work, so she's donating time here along with Adrienne and others. To learn more about Occupy Seattle and how you might support them, visit http://occupyseattle.org.

Meanwhile, Occupy New York City's library lost thousands of books in a police raid. Democracynow.org reported, "In a press conference held last week, civil rights attorney Norman Siegel revealed that property taken in the raid filled 26 sanitation trucks and nearly 80 percent of the roughly 4,000 books housed in the so-called Peoples’ Library were either destroyed or never returned." For more details visit:www.deomcracynow.org

Diversity and The Danger of the Single Story

I enjoyed reading the blog archive about the recent Twitter #kidlitchat on diversity, thoughtfully archived by Greg Pincus (www.thehappyaccident.net). Issues raised during the chat included whether or not people should write outside their own cultures or gender or sexual orientation; whether or not awards should be given for books centering on different ethnicities (perhaps because this risks celebrating our differences and perhaps unwittingly creating an "other"); and others asked why there are not more main protagonists of color and/or GLBTQ.

The twitter chat left me thinking how all these questions and opinions are valid if our intentions as writers, agents and publishers are to help create a more tolerant world. A world in which no "single story" is told, to borrow a phrase from TED Talk author Chimamanda Adichie, a writer from Nigeria who grew up reading British and American literature. "Even books that come across as stereotypical have a grain of truth to them, they simply lack the complete picture," Adichie says. One of the stories this writer tells during her TED Talk is about her former professor (presumably Western) who responded as follows after reading a draft of her novel, "This is not authentically African, your characters are just like me. They are educated, middle class and drive cars." She explained that this professor, like many people around the world, have been influenced by a single narrative when it comes to describing individual African nations. To listen to her talk, click on the link below.

Publishers can help create the complete picture by publishing more than one kind of book. I often write stories set in the Middle East and therefore I am keyed into books relating to this part of the world. What I mostly see on the shelves of libraries and bookstores at home and in Europe are stories about martyrs, terrorists and the oppression of women. I recently discussed this with a librarian who looked at me and said flatly, "Well that's how it is over there!" Yet my years of traveling, living and working in several Middle Eastern and Central Asian countries have taught me that this region is not synonymous with strife. Neither is it synonymous with Islam, as there are many living there who follow other religious traditions, or are secular or atheist.

Reza Aslan, internationally renown religion scholar and author of No god, but God, often points out that contrary to what many Americans think, all Muslims do not believe the same thing. In a recent interview on Gulf News.com Reza also cautions about reading certain authors who use their celebrity status to make generalizations about places and religions and therefore create for us all, what Chimamanda Adichie describes as an incomplete "single story." To read Reza's article, visit: (http://gulfnews.com/arts-entertainment/books/islam-s-pulse-in-the-us-1.837480)

To listen to the afore mentioned TED Talk: http://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story.html

Diversity clip art from: http://www.fotosearch.com/FSB046/x29936942/

Brazilian Artist Roger Mello Inspired by Kipling

Last month I attended the 9th International Board on Books for Young People Regional Conference held in Fresno, CA. IBBY has seventy-two national sections with a secretariat in Basel, Switzerland. IBBY's newest members include Guatemala, Haiti, Serbia, the United Arab Emirates and Zimbabwe. It's projects include: The Hans Christian Anderson Awards; the IBBY-Ashai Reading Promotion Award; the IBBY Honor List, the Documentation Center of Books for Young People with Disabilities, the International Children's Book Day, as well as Children in Crisis Programme. If you would like to know more about IBBY check out this link and come join us at a future conference in the US or abroad.

One thing I really enjoy when traveling or working overseas is visiting bookstores to look at children's and adult book covers. It is such a treat to see the different styles, perspectives and mediums that artists from around the world use to convey their ideas. To my delight, the IBBY Conference brought award-winning books from around the world to Fresno so that attendees could leaf through some of the world's best literature for young people.

Roger Mello, an illustrator from Brazil spoke at this conference. His picture books have been published in many countries except the US and UK. He has been nominated more than once for the Hans Christian Anderson Award. Since he has no US publisher, Roger kindly packed a suitcase full of one of his wordless picture books Selvagem and I was lucky enough to get one. I believe it translates as Savage or Safari or perhaps Wild.

Here's an excerpt of an interview with Roger Mello that was featured on FOLHA.com:

Tell a bit about how you got the idea for the book "Wild"?

I saw a photo of a Sumatran tiger in a magazine. The image was striking, as is the tiger tried to communicate with the outside of the photo…There is almost Sumatran tigers in the jungle, this is one of the rarest species of tiger. Drew hundreds of tigers wanting to represent the expression of that tiger. I realized that the drawings turned a narrative sequence, a book…

"The Jungle Book", Kipling, appears at the beginning. This is a special work for you? Why?

I like the way Kipling makes men and animals in India to talk the same language. The boy Mowgli raised by wolves, does not belong to the jungle or belong to the world of men. It is a stranger in your home, as the Kipling, born in India, the son of English parents. Not to mention that in "The Jungle Book", the tiger Shere Khan wanders through the pages, as a threat fascinating.

The book "Wild" has no preface or afterword, no indication of the way. What is the hint that gives the reader?

Let the reader get lost in paths and discover new questions whenever you want. A book without words do not have answers but questions…

To read the rest of the interview please visit www.folha.com

To watch a video interview of Roger Mello visit: http://revistacrescer.globo.com/Revista/Crescer/0,,EMI161144-10536,00.html

Children of all ages, six-months-old to sixty-years-old would enjoy this book. I am surprised no American publisher has snapped up the rights for it, especially since it does not involve translation costs.

Roger's work can also be seen at: http://capaduraemcingapura.blogspot.com/

I hope to see his books on American bookshelves one day.

November Photo Contest

One of the things I enjoy when traveling is finding unique objects, sometimes these items are made for everyday use. The first person to correctly guess the function of this item and the country where I found this will win a signed copy of Anahita’s Woven Riddle. Please leave your guess as a comment on this blog post AND email me at writingandwandering@gmail.com with your answer.

All-American Muslim television premiere

I just learned about this new television show. It premieres on November 13th. I'm looking forward to tuning in! You can friend them on facebook.

For news about other cultural programs having to do with Middle Eastern cultures and Muslim Americans, check out Aslan Media.com

In forthcoming posts I will share what I learned at the recent USBBY conference in Fresno. I will feature artists and writers of international literature.

On Casting Book Brands

I am a member of USBBY (U.S. Board On Books For Young People) and received an email this week with a link to Worlds of Words, An International Collection of Children’s and Adolescent Literature. WOW is a part of the University of Arizona’s College of Education. An article “Creating Book Brands” by Ann Parker, University of Arizona, commends the role that independent publishers play in publishing quality literature for children. Her article dove tails with what a librarian said to me last week after having returned from traveling this summer in Montana, Washington, and Vancouver, Canada, where she browsed the YA books at independent bookstores. Most of the stores, which carried a wide variety of choices in the past, had little to offer other than the popular culture books that she often sees in chain stores or airports. She wondered if it was the economy or that the booksellers have little else from which to choose? Or both?

Here are a few excerpts from Ann Parkers article, which can be read in its entirety at: http://wowlit.org/blog/2009/12/21/creating-book-brands/

“…Tom Engelhardt (1991) published an article in Harper’s titled “Reading may be harmful to your kids,” in which he was the first voice of caution to suggest that the new corporate owners of publishing houses such as Bertelsmann (parent company of Random House) and Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation (parent company of HarperCollins) were so intent on spinning toys, clothing, and recordings off of children’s books to make more profit that “the ‘book’ has, in a sense, been freed from the page and can now be encountered in an almost unending variety of audio, video, play, and fashion formats. In the same sense, the habits of reading, listening, viewing, playing, dressing, and buying have come more and more to resemble one another” (p. 58). Books, said Engelhardt, had become just another product, and reading just another method of consumption.


“...Hade (2002) argues that there is less quality control over the books that are published since there is less attention paid to selecting quality literature. In the 1960s and ‘70s, the major markets for children’s books were school and public libraries, and books were purchased by teachers and librarians who were specifically trained in finding and selecting high quality children’s literature. Funding was available to buy books through local, state, and federal programs through such new laws like the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, passed in the 1960s.

Additionally, there were hundreds of small, independent booksellers who worked individually with their customers to determine their interests and to suggest quality books for them and their children. Today, those funds are gone, and libraries can no longer afford to buy books as they once did, so publishers must look elsewhere to make their higher profit margin. Today, that “elsewhere” is chain bookstores where often only a few staff people buy the children’s books for all of the national stores. Hade points out that, in the past, hundreds of owners of independent bookstores would decide for themselves which books to stock, based on their knowledge of their local market; now, big box bookstores like Barnes and Noble hire one person to buy books for each of its categories of children’s books for all of the Barnes and Noble stores across the country. Instead of relying on the interests of its customers, or journals that review children’s books, or librarians, teachers, or parents, this sole buyer relies on the sales records of previous books. As Hade says, these staff people are not looking for quality literature, but rather for a quick sell -– and a quick sell means a recognizable product, whether it is a book written by a celebrity or a book that has been turned into a movie on the big screen.

What does branding mean for the future of children’s books? I would argue that two things are continuing to promote the publishing of quality children’s literature –- the smaller, independent presses who are publishing more multicultural children’s books, and the increased access to quality international books, such as those found in Worlds of Words. ”


I would like to hear your thoughts on this issue.

"Tree Huggers" of Ancient India

I just finished reading the educational yet moving Curse of the Grass a middle grade novel by my friend Ira Saxena that is set in 18th century India about the Bishnoi tribe, who clung to their sacred khejari trees to protect their home and environment. Sadly, it became a bloody sacrifice.

In an email from New Dehli Ira Saxena said, "The incident portrayed in the book is a historical fact which touched me to the core. It kept haunting me while I researched the the period in history and the background of the tribe. I wanted to tell the story to suit the current generation and the characters began to take shape, the plot structure developed incorporating the events of Indian significance like marriage in the village, appearance of a saint, presence of royalty in those days. The heroine became the source of expressing my feelings. Finishing a tragic happening with a spirit of Hope was quite a challenge in terms of plotting. Its history and fiction all rolled in together."

The spiritual devotion of the Bishnoi for the earth resonated with another book I recently read by the late Jesuit Priest Thomas Berry and physicist Brain Swimme, The Universe Story. Berry calls for a new respect for ancient earth-centered beliefs, wherein compassion extends to the natural world. He sees this as the only way to move forward if we hope to live on a viable planet.