Tuesday, May 26, 2009

ack!

I just discovered that our domain, windowsill.net, has expired. This will probably get cleared up pretty quickly. In the meantime, this alternate address can be used: http://www.armory.com/~web/

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review: Hello World



Hello World written and illustrated by Manya Stojic. Scholastic, 2002 (0-439-36202-4) OOP (scheduled to be reprinted in paperback in 2009; many used copies available online)

This picture book could hardly be simpler, yet grabbed me instantly with its potential to inspire interesting discussions about language. Aside from a short introduction, each page is just a large illustration of child's smiling face, the word "hello" in an identified non-English language, and a phonetic spelling. But the way the words are grouped makes it very easy to see intriguing similarities in spelling and/or pronunciation between different languages. Several African, Indian and Asian languages are grouped to show the complete opposite -- that their words for hello are totally disparate from each other. The historica, political and geographic reasons for all this may be too complex to share with young children, but just the idea that even people from the same country may not speak the same language is a useful one. There's an index of languages but unfortunately no information on where each one is spoken.

Fingerpaint style illustrations focus entirely on the children, each of whom is visually distinctive in some small way. I particularly like the vast variety in skin tones; no child looks exactly like another. There's no other detail, and for the most part Stojic avoided outfitting the characters in any ethnically typical (or stereotypical) ways, keeping the focus on what they have in common: their welcoming smiles. (2-4)

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"that's one way out of high school"

While browsing for something else, I came across this listing for a book called Hello Cruel World: 101 Alternatives to Suicide for Teens, Freaks and Other Outlaws. I don't know if it's any good, but just the idea is so wonderful I had to mention it.

Blog reviews:

remember who you are (author interview)

The Honeyed Knot

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