Book Gift Ideas for Children's Book Lovers - Everything I Need to Know I Learned from a Children's Book (Anita Silvey)

Picture books that speak volumes

Sunday, 09 December, 2012, 12:00am

Annie Hofamilypost@scmp.com

I always enjoy the challenge of finding the right book gift for my friends. This year, I think food aficionados will enjoy Melanie Dunea's My Last Supper,which comprises interviews with 50 great chefs about their choices for a last meal on earth.

For fashionista friends, there's Andrew Bolton's Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty. The cover was created with lenticular printing, so that the image changes from a haunting headshot of the clothing designer to his signature skull motif when viewed from different angles.

I have a cache of staples for lovers of children's books, and I am always delighted to discover new works. Here is a selection of anthologies.Everything I Need to Know I Learned from a Children's Book is a collection edited by former children's book publisher Anita Silvey and is subtitled Life Lessons from Notable People from All Walks of Life.

Each double page comprises the notable person's own written account of the book that deeply influenced their life, plus an image of the cover with a description of the book and its author, and a 500-word excerpt from that book. Contributors include actor Kirk Douglas and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak.

Leonard Marcus, a professor of children's literature who has written extensively about children's books and their illustrations, compiled and edited Show Me a Story: Why Picture Books Matter. I picked up a copy as soon as I saw that my beloved Mo Willems provided the illustration for the cover.

In this book, Marcus presents a question-and-answer format for his extensive and in-depth interviews with "21 of the world's most celebrated illustrators". The conversations are entertaining because they delve into the childhoods, creative processes, and personalities of these artists.

The big bonus is the rare display of full-colour plates in the middle of the book that reproduce the illustrators' sketches and drafts. The plates show how much attention and effort goes into each drawing.

The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art's Artist to Artist: 23 Major Illustrators Talk to Children About Their Art also features the perspective and sketches of children's book illustrators. There is some overlap between the artists featured here and those found in Marcus's Show Me A Story.

The difference is that, in Artist to Artist, the illustrators give advice to aspiring illustrators in the form of a letter to the reader. In addition to the letter, each artist also provides a photograph of himself as a child, as well as a photograph of his art studio. The most amusing contribution is each artist's self-portrait. Eric Carle, best known for The Hungry Caterpillar, conceived the idea for this anthology. It is a wonderful resource for aspiring artists.

One of the tips that I learned from read-aloud workshops is to read out the title and author of books. That helps children make the connection to other books by the same author.

When I became more diligent about reading aloud the names of authors and illustrators, I discovered how many of my children's favourite books, fromMother Goose Nursery Rhymes to Tiddler, are illustrated by Axel Scheffler. How could I have not noticed that the bulbous noses of Scheffler's characters are common to all these books?

The great joy of giving prominence to an author's name in a read-aloud session is to hear it repeated by toddlers.

My two-year-old generally only sings out the monosyllabic rhymes of a storybook. So it's endearing to hear her proclaim the words, "written by Robert Munsch and illustrated by Michael Martchenko".

Annie Ho is board chairwoman of Bring Me a Book Hong Kong, a non-profit organisation devoted to improving children's literacy through reading aloud to them and providing easy access to the best children's books for underserved communities across Hong Kong.bringmeabook.org.hk

Robert Munsch Munschworks

Munsch's twisted tales are an acquired taste
BETWEEN THE LINES Annie Ho (familypost@scmp.com) Apr 22, 2012
He's subversive, raucous, and unexpected. Canadian children's author Robert Munsch is not for everyone. Although I'm a big fan, I don't recommend him to all my friends because I worry that some may not appreciate the fact that none of the children in his stories make very good role models. A friend once told me that she doesn't let her son watch Elmo's World because Mr Noodle, one of its characters, always does the wrong thing (like putting his legs through a jacket's sleeves), and she doesn't want her son to imitate that. The name "Munsch" does not come up in any conversations with this girlfriend. Ironically, Munsch's best-selling story is a marked departure from the rest of his repertoire of more than 60 loud and funny stories that feature mischievous children who don't necessarily learn any lesson at the end of the story. Love You Forever has sold more than 15 million copies since its publication in 1986, and that doesn't include translated editions. I discovered this book to be a baby shower favourite after I received three copies when my elder daughter was born. It's about a mother's enduring love for her child and that child loving his mother back when she is old and sick. Few can read this story without shedding a tear or two. Smelly Socks and Stephanie's Ponytail were the first two Munsch stories that I shared with my daughter. They both feature little girls who go to great lengths to be different from other children. Tina insists on wearing the same pair of new striped socks day after day in the first story, and the second follows Stephanie's attempts to wear her ponytail in different ways so as not to look like all the other kids. We enjoyed the stories so much that I bought a four-volume collection of Munsch's stories, Munschworks, colourfully illustrated by Michael Martchenko. This collection held pride of place on my bookshelf for two years. But it was untouched while my daughter and I discovered other storybooks. It wasn't until a few weeks ago that my daughter and I started to read the collection. Munsch's stories are perfect for reading aloud because they speak so well to his audience. They contain onomatopoeic words, and plenty of exclamation marks and upper-cased words, perfectly imitating the voice of a wide-eyed, excited child. It's no surprise to learn that Munsch is a gifted and busy storyteller, and many of his tales started out as oral stories that evolved into their illustrated print versions. My daughter loves firefighters and was mesmerised by the two children who play in a real fire engine even after being told that it was strictly off-limits in The Fire Station. My own favourite is The Paper Bag Princess, in which it's the prince who is captured by a dragon and saved by his princess who uses her brains to outwit the dragon. When the ungrateful prince comments on how dirty the princess has become from her ordeal to rescue him, she decides she doesn't want to marry him and skips happily off into the sunset by herself. While there is a growing number of "modern princess" stories in children's literature today, this ending was a minor revolution for when The Paper Bag Princess was first published more than 30 years ago. Two years ago, Munsch went public about his mental health and addiction problems, sharing that he had been diagnosed as obsessive-compulsive and manic-depressive. It's sad that his output had been fuelled by substance abuse. Let's hope that he can be clean and still continue to create wonderful stories. Annie Ho is a board governor of Bring Me A Book Hong Kong, a non-profit organisation devoted to improving children's literacy