Magic Suitcase is on the move!

We are three more sleeps away from taking flight on another Nepali adventure. Those who have travelled with us or followed our adventures in the past will know that there is lots more going on than drinking tea (although we have had the privilege of experiencing the "three cups of tea" phenomenon each time).


This year we embark on our journey with 9 students and 5 adults. Our group of 14 from Canada is a strong and determined team and we look forwad to combining efforts with our Nepali cohorts. Led by Karma Sherpa and members of the YESS (Yangrima Ex-Students Society) group we will be visiting the village of Thakani, where we will work together to build a playground (which was the thrust of our fundraising efforts this time). Following our stay in Thakani we will trek to Sermathang, on the other side of the valley in the Helambu region, to visit Yangrima School, where our other hosts are from. Our team is prepared for the physical labour, the trek, the cultural experience and for the food! But, we are most excited about the life-long friendships our group will make, as we have.

The Magic Suitcase plays a role here as well. Last year 7 adults travelled to Helambu to work on two projects. One was to offer a 4-day sports training workshop for physical education teachers. We had 26 participants, all from Helambu schools. The second project was to build a library collection for Yangrima School. The best part of this project was purchasing the books in Kathmandu! Can you imagine what it looked like to have 7 teachers let loose in a four-storey building filled with books. We chose over 1000 books, had them transported up (2700m) to Yangrima school and sat for 2 days while we pasted cards and envelopes and catalogued each book before placing them on their new shelves. Thanks to Wintergreen and Brodart for their support.

This year's project is in conjunction with Run for Life, which collaborates with educators to deliver school-based running programs. Their Global Outreach program is an initiative that recycles running shoes and educational materials, including books, and repurposes them to rural schools in developing countries. They currently link Canadian Schools with schools abroad - in our case, Nepal. A direct school-to-school link is established via the use of smart phone technology to foster a unique learning experience for students in both communities. Please follow our journey via this link: http://schools.runforlife.ca/nepal


The Magic Suitcase's role has been to support Run for Life's initiative by finding suitable picture books in support of their varied running/literacy programs. Running Shoes by Frederick Lipp has been a "shoe-in" (pun intended!). In support of another running program called "Run Like a Girl" we recommend titles from the Planet Girl series such as Centsibility by Ellen Warwick and Stacey Roderick. Check out the art work provided by Monika Melnychuk and then visit http://www.runforlife.ca/ for the uncanny coincidence!

Gotta run... to Nepal!

Good things are happening here!

Magic Suitcase has been chose as the Bookstore of the Month at the House of Anasi Press! Check out Judy's interview at http://www.anansi.ca/

Books for all Reasons

It appears that there's a renewed interest in the picture book genre. I find that more and more teachers and educators are requesting picture books that deal with specific themes and issues. This is the kind of challenge that I most enjoy. Not only are primary teachers using this resource to read stories to their classes but junior, intermediate and even senior teachers are using picture books to deal with difficult ideas such as: depression, loss, equity, gender, racism, tolerance and even helping children understand the concept of fair trade.

When I display books at a conference I find that people are drawn to our booth for aesthetic reasons. They may initially be drawn closer by the look of the booth but they are usually lured into the booth by the beauty of the books displayed. When approached, most teachers just enjoy being left alone to immerse themselves in the books but on occasion I'll get a customer who, upon noticing only picture books, says "Oh, I teach high school". Nothing is more satisfying than when a customer is pleasantly surprised by the depth of some picture books.

Shaun Tan comes to mind when searching for picture books for older students. A new collection of two of his favourites - The Lost Thing and The Red Tree, and a John Marsden favourite - The Rabbits has just been rereleased in a stunning hard cover version called Lost and Found.

Synopsis:

A girl finds a bright spot in a dark world. A boy leads a strange, lost creature home. And a group of peaceful creatures cedes their home to cruel invaders. Shaun Tan, with his understated voice and brilliant draftsmanship, has proved that he has a unique imaginative window to our souls, and an unparalleled ability to share that opening with pictures and narratives that are as unexpected as they are deeply true.

Great loves and warm memories

Memories of spicy cinnamon hearts, cheesy sayings on heart-shaped candies and piles of heart-shaped 'be mine' card litter the desks tops of children in many classrooms today. This makes me think about what I love... chocolate, the Earth, my home.

I Know Here written by Laurel Croza and illustrated by Matt James.

Synopsis: The little girl in this story lives with her family in a trailer in northeastern Saskatchewan, where her father is building a dam. She knows everything about the place she lives -- her road, her school, the forest where she plays hide- and-seek and where the wolf howls at night, the hill where she goes tobogganing in winter . . . But the dam is nearly finished and when summer comes the family is moving to Toronto -- a place marked by a big red star on the map at school. "Have people in Toronto seen what I've seen?" the little girl asks. And with her teacher's help she finds a way to keep everything she loves about home. This simple, beautifully written story, complemented by Matt James's vibrant, imaginative illustrations, will resonate deeply with anyone who has had to leave their home, a place they love, for a new place.

Comment: Just last week at the OLA (Ontario Library Association) conference, I had the good fortune of hearing Laurel Croza and Matt James speak briefly about their book I Know Here. While Laurel asked members of the crowd to explain a place they loved, to the delight of those who spoke, Matt sketched these places with as much detail as they were willing to provide. These sketches resulted in broad smiles and a host of memories.

What I love about this book is the beautiful depiction (enhanced by the colourful oil paintings of Matt James) of the trailer park where she lives contrasted by the image conjured up by a trailer park setting. I love that her teacher is caring enough to suggest ways to take the place she loves with her and I love that the story ends with her move to Toronto and the feeling that it will all be okay.

Other books on love:

I Love our Earth written by Bill Martin Jr. and Michael Sampson

I Love Chocolate written and illustrated by Davide Cali

I Love the Rain written by Margaret Park Bridges.

Music to My Ears!

The Composer is Dead written by Lemony Snicket, illustrated by Carson Ellis, music by Nathaniel Stookey

Synopsis:
There's dreadful news from the symphony hall—the composer is dead! If you have ever heard an orchestra play, then you know that musicians are most certainly guilty of something. Where exactly were the violins on the night in question? Did anyone see the harp? Is the trumpet protesting a bit too boisterously? In this perplexing murder mystery, everyone seems to have a motive, everyone has an alibi, and nearly everyone is a musical instrument. But the composer is still dead. Perhaps you can solve the crime yourself. Join the Inspector as he interrogates all the unusual suspects. Then listen to the accompanying audio recording featuring Lemony Snicket and the music of Nathaniel Stookey performed by the San Francisco Symphony. Hear for yourself exactly what took place on that fateful, well-orchestrated evening.

Comments:
Written in typical Lemony Snicket style, this book personifies the instruments in the orchestra. Rich in language and humour, the composer is described as “a person who sits in a room, muttering and humming and figuring out what notes the orchestra is going to play” but, the composer is dead! “This is called decomposing.” Now, the book becomes a “whodunit” and each instrument typifies its character. The flutes were doing bird imitations, the cellos and basses are weary from dragging their large bodies around and the violas – who play the notes in the chords that nobody cares about – are often forgotten. Satisfaction does come at the end of the story when the culprit is revealed. So, “for those who want justice” said the orchestra “go to the police, but for those who want something a little more interesting… go to the orchestra!”

Playful words...

13 Words written by Lemony Snicket, illustrated by Maira Kalman

Synopsis:
Here is a word book like no other! Only Lemony Snicket could so adeptly weave such startlingly beautiful adventure out of a collection of the most essential words of all time, including Bird, Dog, Cake, Panache, Despondent, and of course, Haberdashery.

Comments:
According to Andy Whitlock from the website http://www.13-words.com/, “13 words is the perfect number to explain the essence of an idea”. With this in mind I began my search of ads and famous quotes and indeed found that often, thirteen words are all it takes. Now, take 13 random and seemingly unrelated words, and use them into create two completely different stories (which is what Lemony Snicket does in this brilliant picture book) and you have the makings of an imaginative writing lesson. The vocabulary is as rich as Lemony Snicket is unique and will inspire any creative writer to dust off their thesaurus for a writing assignment. Add to this uniqueness Maira Kalman’s interpretative illustrations and you’ll spend hours exploring the connections between the art work and the text.

Small Gifts

Immi’s Gift written and illustrated by Karin Littlewood

Synopsis:
Two children half a world away from each other are connected in an unexpected way in this timeless, fanciful story.

Way, way up north in a snow-covered frozen world, a young girl breaks a hole in the ice and fishes for her supper. But instead of a fish, at the end of the line is a small, brightly painted wooden bird. She ties it onto her necklace, next to a small wooden bear.

Day after day her fishing pole brings up more colorful surprises from the swirling sea under the frozen ice. She decorates her igloo with the beautiful treasures, and animals come from far and wide to visit with her and share stories of faraway lands. When it is time to move on, she visits the fishing hole one more time and drops the little bear from her necklace into the water.

Faraway, a young boy walks along a beach in the hot, hot sun. He throws a colorful object into the water. Then something catches his eye. There washed up on the beach is a small wooden bear...

Comments:

Immi’s world is white and cold and colourless. The vast whiteness of Immi’s world is contrasted by this tiny object that appears at the end of her fishing line. First one, then many more colourful objects follow.
Although the two children never meet, the story manages to build a bridge between the two contrasting worlds, two contrasting cultures and two similar children. It isn’t until the last page, when we see the boy in the tropics fish a small white bear trinket out of the water, that we make the connection and understand what’s happened. Even though the story is done the reader is compelled to dream up ideas of how the two will remain connected.