Caribbean Children's Fiction

Today's Food for Serious Thought

2012-02-06T08:41:00.002-05:00

Here's an excerpt from an article in the Vancouver Observer
Since we don't do much of this kind of research in the Caribbean (that I know of) we have to look at the trends elsewhere and match these to our own observations. Check out the article
http://www.vancouverobserver.com/blogs/new-education/2012/01/30/parenting-advice-how-make-teenagers-read-book

Based on research over the last 20 years teenagers that don’t read books are less likely to attend college, have reduced language skills, experience depression more frequently then non-readers and have lower paying jobs. That is a lot to be alarmed about. Research also notes that reading fiction has significant benefits to the brain including increasing attention span, developing empathy, improving overall social cognition and enhancing reasoning ability. Reading books benefit our teenagers in so many ways.

Six Impossible Things

2012-01-19T15:56:00.003-05:00

I follow a number of interesting blogs, one of which is Random Thoughts by Bish Denham, a children's writer. I was just reading her post on Alice in Wonderland- the movie

http://bish-randomthoughts.blogspot.com/search/label/Alice%20in%20Wonderland

in which she says:

the thing I took home with me, that will stay with me the longest, is this lesson from Alice: that she imagines at least six impossible things every day. And I thought, what a great writing prompt!

She lists her 6 impossible things and got me thinking about what I would choose,. so, here goes

Snow in Jamaica

Moving sidewalks- no more traffic

Self-repairing body parts

Knowledge injections - no more schooling

Thought travel -think of a place and you are there

Peace on earth ( very tongue in cheek that)

Some of these are already in science fiction.

Share your 6 impossible things

Underwater sculpture park in Grenada

2012-01-17T18:36:00.000-05:00

What stories for children could you weave around these fantastic images?

Porty, Atty and Ram ( hilo reader)

2012-01-16T12:12:00.005-05:00

Okay, so one of my pressing interests for the new year is to write

stories in the hilo (easy reading) category especially for boys to encourage them to read. This is the first part of one of the stories I have in mind. I welcome your comments. Remember that this category means high interest stories for older children reading below grade level. Type face, size and illustrations will help to carry the story

I just borrowed this to help pique your interest

Porty, Atty and Ram

Nigel, Adam and Omar became friends from the first day of high school. They were the only students from their old school who were in this new school. They lived in the same community. The boys had not really been friends before, but in this strange, new school they stuck together, looking out for each other. Their homeroom teacher started calling them the Three Musketeers.

When they asked the teacher why she called them the Three Musketeers, she told the class to look it up on the Internet. They found that the Three Musketeers were three heroes from a famous book by the same name The Three Musketeers. This book was written by Alexandre Dumas. It seemed to be a pretty cool story about guys with swords who got into a lot of fights. They didn’t really mind when the children started calling them Athos, Porthos and Aramis.Those were the names of the characters in the book.

The other children would soon have stopped calling them these nicknames, but in their craft class the teacher taught them how to paint their names on buttons which they would be allowed to wear. The three friends painted their new names: Nigel became Athos; Adam became Porthos and Omar became Aramis. Pretty soon the children only used these names for them. And pretty soon, too, these names were shortened to Atty, Porty and Ram.

They also adopted the motto of the Three Musketeers in the book - "All for one, one for all."

In the mornings, they waited for each other by the school gate.The students could not enter the classroom until the bell rang. They used the time to catch up on news. Sometimes they helped each other finish homework, and sometimes they played a little football if they were early enough.

One Thursday morning, Porty was late. Atty and Ram were just about to run inside, because the bell had already gone, when they saw him rushing through the school gate.

“Hey,” he called to them.

“How you so late, man?” Ram asked, as they hurried along the corridor to their classroom.

“Have something to tell you,” Porty answered. His face was serious, but there was no time to talk. They walked briskly into the classroom. However, to their surprise and relief, their homeroom teacher was not yet in the room.

The boys took their seats. Ram and Atty looked curiously at Porty. They wondered what it was he had to tell them, but the teacher had separated them . They sat in different rows and dared not make her find them out of their seats. Miss Charles was very strict, and loved to give detentions.

More minutes passed and still Miss Charles did not come in. The students began to get restless. The class monitor, Gabrielle, was just about to start devotions when Miss Charles entered the room. She told Gabrielle to continue and stood with a very serious look on her face while they sang two verses of a hymn, read the scripture passage for the day and said prayers.

When they were all seated, Miss Charles addressed them.

“I am sorry to be late. You know that’s not my style. But something has happened and I need to talk to you about it.”

She sounded so serious that some of the students began to get nervous.

“Last night,” she began, “thieves broke into the canteen. Some things were stolen and the place is a mess. We have to spend the morning cleaning it up, so there will be no lunch from the canteen today. Gabrielle will take your orders and lunch will be brought to the classroom. You can only order patties or pizza and box juices.”

A buzz of excitement went through the room.

“They break down the door, Miss?’

“How they get in?”

“Security never see them?”

“The police come, Miss?”

All the students were asking questions at the same time.

Miss Charles held up her hand for silence.

“That’s what worries us,” she said. “As you know, the canteen is well secured with burglar bars. Nothing was broken, so it looks like it was somebody who had the key.”

“An inside job,” Porty thought. H e turned around to look at Atty and Ram. They nodded to him and he knew that they were thinking the same thing.

“The strange thing is that the key is kept in the principal’s office and was still there when the canteen staff came in this morning,” Miss Charles continued.

“Somebody make a spare key, Miss,” a student said loudly.

Miss Charles sighed. “ Anyway, just give Gabrielle your orders quickly so that we can arrange for the food to be brought in.”

For a few minutes the class was busy writing their lunch orders and after that lessons started in earnest. It wasn’t until lunchtime that the three musketeers got a chance to discuss the situation.

` 2

Atty, Porty and Ram were sitting on the bench under the ackee tree in the school yard.

“How you know they break into the canteen?” Atty asked Porty between bites into his patty.

“I didn’t know,” Porty answered.

“ I thought that was what you said you had to tell us.”

“No. Is something worse.”

“What?” Ram asked, anxiously.

“ You remember Shanique Devon, who used to go to our old school?” Porty asked.

The other boys nodded.

“They can’t find her since Tuesday.”

“What! She run away?” Ram almost spilled his box juice.

“They don’t know. Her mother says she never come home from school Tuesday evening. They all put her picture on TV.”

“She was always a strange girl. What you think happen to her?”

“ I was thinking,” Porty said. “Like how we are the Three Musketeers, maybe we can do some detective work and find out what happen to her.”

“No way!” Ram exclaimed. “That is police work. Suppose is kidnap them kidnap her. Man with gun and things.”

Atty also looked as if he didn’t want to get involved.

“Suppose it was your sister, you wouldn’t want to try to find her?”

“What we can do that police can’t do?” Atty asked.

“ You know how people ‘fraid to talk to the police. Maybe somebody at her school know something about her. We can start by asking the children.’

“And if we find out anything we tell the police, right?” Ram said. His face showed that he was worried.

“Of course,” Porty said.“Agreed!”

They each put out a hand one on top of the other and said the motto they had adopted. “All for one, and one for all!”

Just wondering

2012-01-06T15:39:00.003-05:00

I am just wondering how us older ones can keep up with the language nuances.I saw this as part of a newspaper report on how the people in our new New Prime Minister's constituency were celebrating her swearing- in ceremony at Kings House

One young man summed up the optimism of the gathering by holding aloft a can of 'tin boom' (tin mackerel).

Now if I were to refer to tin boom in a children's story ???????????

Recently, I heard a young girl giving testimony at a church service and admitting to deliberately waiting on
'the music bus.' Our people language is very vibrant and fluid. While I immediately understand music bus, (the buses that play loud music and lewd songs, despite the law) I will have to ask somebody why tin boom.

Lists of best children's books for 2011

2012-01-05T14:19:00.002-05:00

From: http://randomhouse.tumblr.com/post/13119041969/the-best-of-the-book-lists

I won a competition!

2012-01-04T09:16:00.001-05:00

Me receiving the prize at Kingston Bookshop in Jamaica

Hope you have all started the new year on the right footing. I did.

I had forgotten that I had entered the competition on facebook to identify the author of the opening passage from a Caribbean book until I got a notice that I had won the prize of £25 (book token) from Macmillan Caribbean books!

The question was:

Which classic Caribbean novel opens with the following line?

‘The tongues in the lane clack-clack almost continuously, going up and down the full scale of human emotions, human folly, ignorance, suffering, viciousness, magnanimity, weakness, greatness, littleness, insufficiency, frailty, strength.’

The passage is from Roger Mais' classic story - Brother Man.

My book choices are

Time Swimmer by Gerald Hausman

The Chalice Project by Lisa Allen-Agostini

(both from the Island Fiction series)

Brother Man by Roger Mais (to replace my lost copy)

The Girl with the Golden Shoes by Colin Channer

Thanks Macmillan

I wonder if this means I will have a good year winning competitions? LOL

new year wishes

2011-12-28T09:50:00.001-05:00

My New Year resolution is to

WRITE! WRITE! WRITE!

What's Yours?

Best wishes for a really good year everyone

Happy Christmas

2011-12-15T10:25:00.000-05:00

Have a Happy and Holy Christmas Season everyone.
Thanks for following my blog posts during the year.
Love to you all
Hazel

Launch of Diane Browne's new 'tween' book

2011-12-02T07:26:00.004-05:00

Carlong link

Congratulations to Diane Browne for the launch of her new book Island Princess in Brooklyn at the Tom Redcam library reading room- now the Joyce Robinson Room, yesterday (December 1). It was one of those warm, intimate gatherings where many people knew one another.

Readings from the book were done by 7th grade girls from St. Andrew High school to enthusiastic applause. A solo item on pan was given by a St.Andrew High past student, Bianca Welds. Diane herself is a proud past student/teacher of St. Andrew High, as she keeps reminding the rest of us.

It was an event, everyone agreed, which would have made Princess in the story (that's her real name) very proud.(This speaks to the strength of the characterization of Princess. Readers see her as very real.)

Approval of the story was given in several forms- from the CEO of Carlong, Carl Carby admitting that he had read it through twice and thoroughly enjoyed it; to the Director General of the Jamaica Library Service, Patricia Roberts, saying she intended to get a red coat just like Princess on the cover. (She emphasized that she was not joking).

The main address was given by Dorothy Noel, Publishing Manager of Carlong in her usual scintillating style. She emphasized the importance of local literature for our children and the need for support from the public and the Ministry of Education..

Diane Browne's address 'Princess in her own Words' can be read on her blog at
http://dianebrowneblog.blogspot.com/2011/12/princess-in-her-own-words.html
.
From all the anecdotes coming in, there's no doubt about it: the book is a hit. The main theme - how to fit into the new environment in Brooklyn, having been brought up by Granny in Jamaica for thirteen years - resonates with many Jamaicans. Its lively dialogue and presentation of teenage anxieties told in Princess's own words will be familiar to and entertain the 'tween' readers.

I add my exhortation to those of all the speakers. "Buy the book, nuh!"
http://carlongpublishers.com/view_book_details.php?id=217&sid=32&lid=3

Memories of Christmas

2011-11-12T08:55:00.003-05:00

What memories will today’s children have of Christmas? I wonder. Is it still such a special season for them?

I grew up in Kingston, and my memories of Christmas are still magical. So many things were special only to that season:

– Getting up in the early morning darkness, getting dressed and running to catch the first bus to attend 5 o’clock Christmas morning service on Higholbourn Street – the air seemed to have a special coolness and tingle that it never had during the rest of the year

– The Christmas carols lustily sung by the congregation more casually dressed than it would be for Sunday service

– People greeting one another with seemingly real joy after the service

– Walking to the down town area for the last of Grand Market on the streets and being mesmerized by the stretch of toys, people, excited children, the noises of fee-fees, bursting balloons, vendors calling attention to their wares, some crying from tired or disappointed small children who didn’t get the toy they wanted

– drinking it all in with the knowledge that this wouldn’t happen again for another lo-o-o-o-ng time. (By the way, Santa figures were few and far between then, making it easier to believe in his magic, even if he didn’t visit us since we had no chimneys.)

I remember getting a small replica of a coal stove, a balloon and a fee-fee at Grand Market one year. Another year I got a new doll – priceless! Usually there would be a Christmas hat with streamers or pretty paper frills. Those were all the toys I might get as any extra money was spent on new curtains for our room (rooms as things got better financially) and special food for the day.

And what special food it was. Breakfast could be slices of ham, ackee and saltfish, maybe crisply fried fish, fried eggs, fried dumplings, special hard dough bread shaped like a bird – I was allowed to break off and eat the head, washed down with orange juice or chocolate ‘tea’.

A quick tidying of the house would be followed by helping with the preparations for Christmas dinner – another feast of rice and gungo peas, ham, fried chicken – I don’t remember the other meats as these were my favourites. There would be macaroni and cheese, fried plantain and, of course, sorrel (without rum for the children) and Christmas cake. People would drop in, either invited or not, and share the meal for there was always, just for this day, plenty to go around and be left over for supper. Some would be put in a container and sent for less fortunate persons in the area. Nobody had to go hungry on that day.

Afterwards, everybody would be slightly cross-eyed, the adults from the added rum in the sorrel or just from being overstuffed with food. I remember going to sleep until late afternoon, then getting up to play with my toys. I was an only child but usually there would be other children visiting and we would show off on one another, playing outdoors as there was no television to keep us locked up inside.

Sometimes we would visit other people. Nobody had expensive gifts to share, but people gave what they had. My mother reared chickens and ducks at one stage, and she would send me with one or the other – alive – to the home of some important person in her church who lived nearby. As I grew older, I got increasingly embarrassed about this. I am not sure that these important persons appreciated it either. But, generally, the day would be one of goodwill and friendliness, even for those who could be quite miserable the rest of the year.

A really good Christmas day would be topped up with a visit on the road by a jonkunnu band, mesmerizing us with the drum and fife music, colourful costumes, and sending most of us children scurrying away from the devil’s ‘fork’ or the policeman’s baton, or worse – the horsehead figure which would snap in the most frightening way. So many things were special to Christmas.

At the end of one very good year, I got a wristwatch for Christmas. I didn’t need any other gift – that was really special because I had got into high school –quite an achievement in my community at the time. By that time we were beginning to put up a Christmas tree, complete with ‘snow’from a can and blinking lights sent from America by a cousin.

What does the modern child expect for Christmas? I guess some traditions remain – the visits by family and friends, the extra special meals – but so many things I would have regarded as out-of- this- world are now so commonplace that I wonder what is now special for Christmas? I hope, at least, the goodwill and extra friendliness remain a very strong part of our (new) traditions

Congrats - JCDC Medal winner

2011-11-04T09:30:00.002-05:00

I am so proud of my student from my last writing class, Stephanie Lloyd. She won a gold medal and trophies in the Jamaica Cultural Development Commission's annual Literary Competition for "outstanding writer" (2nd in JCDC's creative writing competition) and "best intermediate short story writer" with a story she started in the class. The course is too short (8 weeks - 4 for adults stories and four for children -2 hours twice weekly) to teach the basics of language use, so those who come in with a good command of English invariably gain more from the class.

Congrats, too, to three other past students who got certificates in the Merit and Honorable Mention categories. By next year they should be in the medal categories IF they continue practising writing.
Great job guys.

Senior Assistant Manager at Pelican Publishers, Latoya West-Blackwood (right), presents the Outstanding Writer trophy to Stephanie Lloyd, at the Jamaica Cultural Development Commission’s (JCDC) creative writing competition awards ceremony held on Wednesday (Nov.2) at the Knutsford Court Hotel.

Creole (patois/patwa) versus Standard English

2011-11-02T10:59:00.003-05:00

Our Language Dilemma

Creole (patois/patwa) versus Standard English – the debate continues.

It spills over into writing stories for our children. Some persons, especially the educators, frown on the use of creole in the stories as the children have to learn to use Standard English to pass exams using Standard English. (They speak it – don't let them have to read it, too )

But, more and more, it seems, the creole is the preferred form of speech for many Jamaicans and there are children coming from homes and communities where very little (if any) Standard English is spoken.

Here’s an anecdote. A friend brought her gardener’s two children to church one Sunday morning. They were visiting from a deep rural area. During the sermon the boy, about 10 years old, began to fidget and look distressed. When she asked him what was wrong, he answered, “Me nuh unnertan a wud de man a say.”

Translation, “I don’t understand one word the man is saying.” What are the implications for learning?

We do have two languages.

For the fiction writer, using the creole, or not, presents peculiar problems. Realistically, the writer cannot present a scene on a playfield, for example, and have the children speaking Standard English. They wouldn’t. So what to do? How to represent the reality without offending the gatekeepers? Very often the writers take a sort of middle ground. What is written in the story is a sort of no man’s land with a mix of the Creole and Standard, keeping as close to the Standard as is feasible. Since there is no standard way of spelling the creole words, most use phonetic spelling, or use the Standard spelling of an English word supposing that the creole speaker will interpret correctly. (in the creole). It is sometimes very confused and confusing.

Another problem is that the creole is very fluid. There is a range of usage, some with words seemingly close to Standard English, which creates the impression that the creole is merely ‘broken’ English.

Also, usage differs from parish to parish and from speaker to speaker, so persons will complain that the written creole is not authentic because they are not familiar with a particular form.

I was struck by the language problem again just today when writing a story. I had written this piece of dialogue:

“They all bringing flowers and laying it around the statues now.”

Deeper creole would change They to them(dem). But the problem with meaning is not the difference between them and they but with the word all. A standard speaker would be inclined to believe that the sentence should read – ‘They’re all bringing flowers ....’. A creole speaker would understand that all in the sentence I wrote does not mean all as in everybody, but they are now bringing flowers, or they’ve started bringing flowers...

Of course, the problem intensifies when we think of selling to the overseas market.

I was privileged some years ago to ghostwrite a story for the popular Beacon Street Girls series - Katani’s Jamaican Holiday by Annie Bryant

This is about a girl from Boston, USA, with Jamaican ancestors, visiting Jamaica with her grandmother. The series is meant for American ‘Tweens’. When I consulted the editor about using the creole, she agreed that the flavour would not be authentic if there was no creole usage on the streets and in experiences with the local people. I got around some of the problem, by having the American teen, Katani, ask for explanations. This had to be done judiciously, so that it didn’t become tedious or slow down the story.

When the book was published, some USA children commented that they found the creole difficult. Others were comfortable with it. A few who had Jamaican parentage were thrilled to see it in the story – but I was happy to see that even those who found the creole a bit difficult to understand still enjoyed the story.

I loved Charles Dickens’ stories and devoured them as a child. I didn’t understand all the Cockney speakers, but I could follow the stories.

Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn presents similar language difficulties for children here, as teachers soon discover. The last time I taught Huck Finn in a school, I had the class dramatize parts of the story using our creole. They did a good job of it, showing that they understood the story. Children are remarkable people.We very often underestimate them.

An additional challenge is that how language is used often indicates social standing, an issue we might not want to emphasise in children’s stories.

I have no answers to the present situation with our language(s).I wish I could be here many years into the future to see how we resolve the issue. Probably then, Jamaicans will be regarded as truly bi-lingual, moving with ease between both languages and frowning on neither.

As I was about to post this, I read about this conference:

As part of its Conferencias Caribeñas 9 lecture series for the 2011-2012 academic year, the Institute of Caribbean Studies of the University of Puerto Rico-Río Piedras (UPR-RP), invites the academic community and the general public to the lecture “Research on Multi-Lingualism and Cultural Diversity in Small Island Societies: The Case of Aruba,” by Dr. Lydia Emerencia (Director, Center for Research and Development, University of Aruba).

Aruba is a smaller island than Jamaica where most people speak the four main languages: Papiamento, Spanish, English and Dutch.

There might be some lessons there for us in Jamaica.

2011-11-01T12:42:00.000-05:00

My thanks to Peepal Tree Press for including the fact that I won a Silver Musgrave Medal in their latest newsletter. Adam Lowe also put in the page reference for reviews of Singerman, my collection of short stories published by Peepal Tree in 1991.And all of a sudden I am back into writing for adults. The creative process is really a strange one.

Reviews http://www.peepaltreepress.com/review_list.asp?au_id=10

Purchase Singerman from Amazon or from Peepal Tree

Using story books to introduce Literature

2011-10-28T10:39:00.003-05:00

When geocities closed down their free hosting of websites, I thought all the information would disappear. I am seeing now that they are restoring access to websites they hosted. Below is a link to a page from my former site, which gives basic information on how to assess literary quality in books for grades three to seven. Students in the lower grades in Jamaica do not study 'Literature', this being part of their Language Arts courses. From anecdotal evidence, however, it seems that teachers are sometimes at a disadvantage in helping their students to appreciate the literary quality of the books they recommend their students to read, so they can move beyond merely saying 'the book is interesting/nice etc'. The children, of course, do not have to be bombarded with all of this information. It is aimed at the teachers. Please make judicious use of it.

I hope that the information on this page will help It makes special reference to two books Little Island, Big Adventures by Maria Roberts Squires and The Ring and the Roaring Water by Diane Browne, both published in Jamaica, and for the upper end of this age group.

The link:

http://www.geocities.ws/shandycan/Caribbean_Literature_101.html

Musgrave plaque

2011-10-21T06:53:00.001-05:00

My plaque from the Institute of Jamaica for the Silver Musgrave Medal of which I am very proud.

My Silver Musgrave Medal award

2011-10-16T16:04:00.007-05:00

I belong to a generation which often forgets to blow its own trumpet.

(Don't boast they used to warn)

So, I forgot to post my most recent shining moment – receiving a

Silver Musgrave Medal for literature from the Institute of Jamaica
on October 12^th,.until a friend asked me why I hadn’t done so.

The Silver Musgrave Medal

The Musgrave Medal is quite a prestigious honour.

Here’s a bit of its history from the IOJ’s website:

”The Musgrave Medals are awarded to selected

 persons for achievements in the fields of literature,

art and science. According to the Institute of Jamaica’s

records, the  Musgrave Medal was first awarded in 1897,

as a memorial to Sir Anthony Musgrave, former Governor

of Jamaica who founded the Institute of Jamaica in 1879.

 Subsequent to his death in 1888, the decision was taken

by the  Board of Governors of the Institute in 1889,

 to award medals annually in his honour.

The Medals then were designed  by well-known

British sculptor, Alfred Toft.”

Specifically, my award was for “contribution to children's literature

 and the encouragement of new writers”- which refers both to my

 published books/stories and my teaching of Writing Stories courses

at the Philip Sherlock Centre for the Creative Arts at UWI, Mona.

Me (left) receiving plaque from Minister of Culture Hon Babsy Grange

It was a proud moment for me.The Institute of Jamaica

 on East Street in Kingston was a place for school field trips

 to see scientific displays, the Jamaican iguana lizard

 ( before there was a zoo) and other fascinating displays.

 The auditorium was a place for musical recitals,

speech festivals and so on. I never would have dreamed

 when I participated in these exercises that I would one day

 stand on that platform to receive a Musgrave Medal.


All Awardees with the Governor General and Minister of Culture MY PUBLISHER, CARLONG PUBLISHERS (CARIBBEAN) LTD HAS PUT UP A CONGRATULATORY PAGE WITH THE CITATION http://carlongpublishers.com/view_news_details.php?id=21 My thanks to Carlong

A Snowman, anyone?

2011-09-27T08:06:00.000-05:00

My granddaughter's computer generated art at 6 years of age. Just recently recovered it from my old geocities page. Think I will write an accompanying story. At the time she said it was a snowman melting in Jamaica. Hmm! Hope she doesn't read this page. She's turning into an accomplished artist, so this would embarrass her no end. But, I love it.

Who are we writing for?

2011-09-19T09:47:00.002-05:00

This is a question I have asked before. When you are writing from a small country with specific cultural differences to the world’s leading countries, who are you writing for? Your own children or all the children of the world? A tutor once told me – when you write for everybody, you write for nobody.

Eventually, I interpreted that to mean, write from the heart about the things you know and feel and share with your own people. Write out of your culture for your culture. If your work is true, others will come to appreciate it, even if the gatekeepers try to keep you out.

As I like to tell my writing class, and this is my own viewpoint, when Bob Marley and his cronies started writing songs about the things they knew and felt, I don’t think they sat around saying — ‘them gwine love this one in Germany or Japan. This one will wow them in England.‘ I suspect that if they had passed the lyrics of some of the songs by the international gatekeepers they would have been scoffed at – Who in the rest of the world wants to hear about cooking cornmeal porridge in a government yard in Trench Town? Of course, songs have the additional benefit of the music and the singer’s voice and personality to convince and woo, but the principle is the same. They were writing/composing out of their own experiences.

So, should we be unduly worried about the voices from abroad who say our writing and illustration styles are too ‘different’? Our language and illustrations too parochial? The work won’t attract anybody abroad, including our own migrant population ( who now judge us by 'big' world standards) OR, should we continue to write for our children, illustrate for our children, interpret even other people’s realities from our own unique way of looking at things, from our own experiences and most of all from our hearts. We don’t dance like North Americans. Our music is identifiably Caribbean, so too is our cuisine.. Shouldn’t our writing and art be also? Does this make our books inferior?

I don’t think any of our writers, at this point, especially the writers of children’s stories in the Caribbean, expect any of the great financial returns that being ‘accepted’ by the ‘big’ countries might bring. So what are our rewards?

For me, it is reading for a group of youngsters and watching them get excited as the story expands their imagination and reveals things about themselves and their environment they might never have thought of.

I once watched a little boy about eight years old sitting before me with his eyes literally opening wider and wider as the story drew him in and filled his mind with new possibilities. On another occasion, it was a mother saying that her daughter would not go to bed until she had finished reading one of my books. Fortunately, it was not a very long one.

So, to come back to my initial question - who are we (who should we be) writing for? My answer is — our own children. The rest of the world writes for theirs, who will write and illustrate for ours if not us?

Congratulations

2011-09-15T16:01:00.000-05:00

My very good friend and fellow writer of children's stories Diane Browne won
the special prize for children's story in the commonwealth short story competition 2011.
Congrats Diane. It's well deserved the story can be read here Diane's story

Diane Browne

Boys again!!

2011-09-05T12:58:00.004-05:00

I hope this link to the New York Times article stays available for some time

Boys and Reading: Is There Any Hope?By ROBERT LIPSYTE Published: August 19, 2011

Boys don't like to read

“The important question is why aren’t boys reading the good books being published?”

As you will see in the article, there are several answers to this question

"Boys gravitate toward nonfiction. Schools favor classics over contemporary fiction to satisfy testing standards and avoid challenges from parents. And teachers don’t always know what’s out there for boys."

Also

"Boys don’t have enough positive male role models for literacy. Because the majority of adults involved in kids’ reading are women, boys might not see reading as a masculine activity.”

"Schools favor classics over contemporary fiction to satisfy testing standards and avoid challenges from parents" Should we be asking - What is wrong with contemporary fiction to make teachers nervous about recommendations?

Positive male role models -: When was the last time you saw a man walking with a novel he intended to read at the first available spare time? If you did, chances are he was a lecturer; or a student forced to read a novel to pass a course. Even the reading of newspapers in the home might soon be a scarce sight as many subscribe to online news instead of an actual paper.

Boys gravitate towards non-fiction. This suggests that boys are reading, but not fiction.

In my own experience with my grandsons, this is true. Both are good readers but decidedly prefer non-fiction. I have tried to get them to explain why this is so, but they can't give a coherent answer. Just that non-fiction is more interesting. So perhaps what we should be looking at is subject matter.

Boys prefer action and are less inclined to read books which emphasize feelings - what my elder grandson calls "chick books". He was curious about Stephenie Meyer's Twilight, because so many of the teenage girls at his school were walking around reading it at the slightest opportunity. He took a look at it and was quite puzzled. What is so interesting? he wondered. I, being female, couldn't explain it so that it made sense to him.

So, another challenge might be that so many of the writers today are female and we are not producing the sort of fiction that will attract male readers. Is it worth the while for our female writers to research the areas which would attract boys and use these in their fiction? Seems we wouldn't lose our female readers since it is generally agreed that whereas boys do not want to read "chick books" girls will read any interesting story - boy or girl oriented.

Another question we have to settle is why is it so important for boys to be reading fiction. if there is enough non-fiction available isn't it enough that they are reading these?

I really would like to see a Caribbean discussion on these ideas.

As to teachers not always knowing what is available for boys - I don't know who is responsible for that.

Here are a few recent titles (some not so recent) from Jamaica featuring boy protagonists or situations which might attract boys from the 8-12 age group. And there are more

LMH

LMH

Recovering our history through fiction

2011-08-27T11:55:00.005-05:00

With reference to Freedom Come by Jean Goulbourne

Carlong Publishers (Caribbean) Ltd .

History textbooks usually just give facts and information which many children find boring. Historical fiction, on the other hand, can make those facts come alive and be quite entertaining.

Hidden behind the scenes in the history texts are events ranging from fascinating and awe inspiring to scary, depressing and sometimes comedic. Wars and conquests, romance, inventions, crusades, slavery and so many other topics provide rich material for the storyteller. It’s people who make history. Authors of historical fiction make those hidden scenes come alive. A single incident or experience could be expanded into a novel by building up the background of events leading to it, and the resulting consequences.

Why haven’t we done more storytelling about our history in the Caribbean? See previous post Historical stories in Caribbean children’s books for some ideas on this.

Historical fiction can fall into two categories:

1. The setting is historical but people and events are entirely fictional.Time travel stories tend to do this e.g. there was a war, or a natural disaster at a particular time in history, but the story doesn’t dwell on the known historical characters or events. Sometimes an obscure fact in history can be taken out and expanded into a story.

2. Both setting and characters are factual with the author imaginatively expanding on aspects of the events – it could have happened, and this was probably what was happening behind the scenes that history records.

Writers of historical fiction need to remember that:

Plot must be clear and not railroaded by historical details

Historical details must be accurate

Characters must come alive

Illustrations must be relevant to the time period.

Obviously, research is a key for the writer of historical fiction who needs detail to make the story believable. The elements which make for good story are as important as the factual information – especially the use of sensory details. How did things look, taste, feel, smell and sound. These are very important challenges for the writer wanting to make the story come alive.

The author of Freedom Come, Jean Goulbourne, studied and taught history and evidently called upon her scholarship in writing these stories for children.

It isn’t often that we see slave children in stories or even in accounts of slavery. The more striking stories in Freedom Come are about slave children.

The author gives us a glimpse of what it must have been like for children in this era. In the story Cimarron! Cimarron! Goulbourne shows us two young boys taking a break from work (feeding the pigs) to play a little. The bookkeeper on the plantation catches them at play and whips them soundly. We feel the frustration of a way of life which has Alrick, the protagonist, threatening to take his life. Luckily for him, his father, who had escaped to join the free Maroons some years before, returns and rescues him and his mother. They safely escape to a better life in the mountains with the Maroons

Slaves on way to sell produce at market from Freedom Come

In a gloomier tale, The Whipping, another slave child, this time a girl, escapes through death. However, the author presents death as preferable to the slave life. In death she is welcomed by her ancestors and we get a feeling that she will be now at peace. This is a gripping first person story with details that make the slave experience come alive in personal ways. The death scene is presented as a celebration.

“There on the sands of a large and wonderful land was a crowd of black people; and the drums were beating and they were dancing; men and women, boys and girls; and the waves washed the shore and the drums beat and the trees waved their branches; and the drums beat and Ole Granpus came out of the crowds and into the sea and his hands were held upwards, welcoming me,and I knew. This was Africa. This was home.”

It is said that many slaves believed that death would carry them back to their home in Africa.The beliefs and superstitions of the slaves are skillfully woven into this story which is mostly about how the slaves themselves interacted with one another in this terrible dehumanizing era.

Slavery was an extremely harsh way of life and it is difficult to use it as a setting for children’s stories since so many of the experiences of the slaves were so painful, physically and emotionally and, no doubt, the kinds of experiences we would like to shield our children from. This collection of stories is meant for the 10 to 12+ age group.

Other stories in this collection deal with the experience of a Taino boy helping his village to celebrate with a feast to which he contributes wild ducks which we watch him catch, Taino style. Another story deals with boys in Port Royal, the famous city of the pirates. The boys learn, first hand from Peter, an old pirate, about one of the more famous raids carried out by the buccaneers - the raid on Panama City. The last story is about the heroic journey of a boy who helped to carry a message to Daddy Sharpe (now a National Hero) on the eve of the Christmas Rebellion in Montego Bay, which helped to hasten the end of slavery.

All the stories bring the history of their era alive. Jean Goulbourne has won many awards and acclaim for her literary skills as a poet and storyteller. The poetic influence can often be seen in the language of her prose. This book is a very useful supplementary reader for students of our past.

Freedom Come was a runner up award winner in the 1999 Vic Reid Award for Children’s Literature, a competition hosted by the National Book Development Council of Jamaica.

New children's book from Jamaica

2011-07-30T13:00:00.012-05:00

It's Here!

Carlong Publishers ( Caribbean) Ltd

Everybody said how lucky she was to be going to live with her mother in the USA, at last . . . but . . . her beloved granny, who is reluctant to see her go, warns: 'Everybody is talking about the American dream. Take care is not a nightmare you going to have'.

A gorgeous red coat which her mother refuses to buy for her, becomes the symbol of happiness, sophistication and success which Princess hopes to achieve in her new life. But the new life with a mother she barely knows is very challenging. ....."school is different, and everything is different, and sometimes ... sometimes I don't know what to do or how to feel."

Contact Carlong: email marketing@carlongpublishers.com
tel 876 9609366 ext 2

Historical stories in Caribbean children’s books

2011-07-06T20:34:00.003-05:00

There is not a long list of historical fiction written by Caribbean authors for Caribbean children.

Perhaps it is a psychological problem. Most of our ancestors were uprooted and alienated from their ancestral pasts by slavery, (Africans), indentureship (Indians and Chinese) and indeed it was alienation, too, for many of the Europeans who came. There are few pockets of Carib/Taino descendants- these were the original inhabitants of the Caribbean. Up to fairly recent times even the study of Caribbean history in schools didn’t exist. Oral history carried some of the stories but modernization has all but wiped out this source. So now, we have to rely on our authors to bring the past alive, as only stories can do, for our children.

Plantation life, on which the Caribbean was built, was no bed of roses; difficult even for the ruling class. Slavery was demeaning and cruel, robbing both masters and slaves of their essential humanity.

A new culture had to be forged out of the disparate elements present in the Caribbean. It has been a painful process for the many, and I think that, as a people, we would rather forget the shame and the pain.

But we can’t change history and as the popular saying goes, we have to know where we are coming from to know where we are going. But,how to deal with it, so that it is not merely sentimental, or damning, or so politically incorrect, in modern terms, that we ‘fraid of it? For example, much as we laud the Maroons for standing up to the British in Jamaica, there are still pockets of people who think that they sold out after they gained their freedom from slavery by helping the planters to catch runaway slaves - so maybe they’re not so heroic after all???

It is also difficult to emerge from the brainwashing which taught us that only European culture was valid. So our heroes couldn’t be heroic. They were ragtag blacks clad in osnaburg, and wicked in their wish for freedom from the masters who enslaved them. Their acts of defiance - poison, burning the cane fields, rioting - were ‘evil’ acts; by a ‘lawless’ people.That’s how the chroniclers of that past saw the slaves.

Can we, in our stories, give our children a concept of heroism which transcends this? Can we give them stories which equate to the Robin Hoods of the English past, or any of the other European heroes who, in one way or another, changed life for their people. Can osnaburg be made to seem as glamorous as ‘men in tights?’

Of course, in the twentieth century, we got freedom songs and freedom singers and freedom fighters who gained international respect. In Jamaica, our governments have also created national heroes out of past political activists, and have declared a national holiday when we remember them. However, and this is something I usually point out to the aspiring writers for children in my classes, most of what we give the children to read are dry accounts of their dates and the deeds which made them famous. We give them posters of lifeless faces. We expect modern children to automatically understand why (and be enthusiastic about) people who fought for freedom from slavery and for Independence for our country are heroic.. These heroes do not come alive for the modern child, not in the way that fiction could make them.

Writers like Vic Reid (Jamaica) have written compelling historical fiction for children, but we need a lot more of this.

Here are two anecdotes from my own experience. Draw your own conclusions.

1^st anecdote

When my older grandchildren were about 6 and 7 years old, I was telling them some stories from our past, notably what slavery meant. I told them about the slaves being dissatisfied and wanting their freedom. So, I asked, what do you think they did? The girl was quick to answer. “They went up to JBC to demonstrate.”

(JBC was the former government television station. She was interpreting out of her experience watching television what people did when they were unhappy with their situation.)

2^nd anecdote

Some time ago, I spent one week in Grenada, teaching writing for children, at what was then the Extra-mural Centre. I don’t know if they call them national heroes, but one of their influential political figures was T.A.Marryshow. The Centre was actually in what used to be his house, I was told. After one class when I had introduced the topic of historical fiction, some students and I were in the car park, below the building. In St. George’s, on every level you have to look up to the next. One of the students remarked that her family used to live in an area below the house. She recalled having seen Marryshow at one of the windows looking out with a ‘trumpet’ at his ear. She also said that the children used to raid the plum tree in his yard, despite being afraid of him. I pointed out that she could use this as basis for a children’s story about the life of Marryshow. Such a story would certainly bring him alive for the children. I don’t think anybody took me up on this.

I like to remind my students that all these important men (and women) would have had children in their lives in some way They would have been fathers, uncles, godfathers etc. How they did or did not interact with the (fictional) children around them would help to give them faces children could understand.

Next post I will review Freedom Come by Jean Goulbourne:published by Carlong

Publishers (Caribbean) Ltd. This book contains five stories about children in Jamaica’s

distant historical past: Tainos, buccaneers and children in slavery.

And after that I will return to a discussion of Diane Browne’s novels A Tumbling World ... A

Time of Fire and The Ring and the Roaring Water, both time travel stories which take us back to

closer historical times in the twentieth century.

Revisiting Caribbean children's book covers and illustrators

2011-06-15T21:36:00.002-05:00

LMH publishers

As a writer and editor of children’s books, I find it difficult to understand how illustrators can take on the job of creating illustrations for a story they have not read. Very often, I am told, the artists have no time to read a manuscript, just give them the art brief. I contend that, with the best will in the world, an art brief cannot capture the nuances, the mood, the essence of a story to feed the artists’ creativity, so they are sometimes surprised at the requests for changes as they do not fully understand what is required to complement the story. No wonder some persons complain that the book covers and illustrations for Caribbean children’s books are rarely exciting, and we don’t get anything new by way of technique or vision.

My other complaint is the blanket expectation that a children’s book automatically means whimsy or cartoons; and the lack of appreciation for the requirements of stories for the different age groups within the genre of children’s books. Writers often choose to specialize in writing for specific age groups, perhaps illustrators should do so too. But, since this section of publishing is not well developed in the Caribbean, perhaps there is little incentive to invest time and talent here.

What goes into the design of a book cover? Obviously the intended readership is of extreme importance. If we think of children’s books as covering the age range 0 to 14 years, we need to remember that there are several divisions within this range.

Carlong Publishers

Easy divisions

0- 3 years –picture books

3-6 years – picture books

6-8 years – picture story books/ early chapter books

8 to 12 years – chapter books/novels

12 to 14 – chapter books/ novels

These age divisions may vary for different publishers. For example, some publishers now use

9 to 13 as a ‘tween age – not quite young adult not completely past chapter books.

These divisions are necessary as guides to writers, illustrators, and readers/purchasers of books. Children's reading readiness, their interests and needs vary from one group to the next, and books should reflect this.

Can you tell, just by the covers of the books in this post, which age groups are being targeted?

Unfortunately, there is still a tendency to respond to the term children’s books as covering just the picture book ages. Whenever I am asked to read in the children’s section of any function, I point out that although I am an author of children’s books, my stories are for ages 8 and up. I was once asked to read at a morning session at a bookstore where the normal attendance was in the 6 and under age group. I had to abandon my reading plan in favour of something suitable for that age group. Fortunately, the bookstore now has an afternoon session for older children, and both audience and myself were more comfortable when I returned to read for this group.

Carlong publishers

I bring up the importance of the age divisions again, because in the Caribbean, the production of books for children is still, for the most part, in its infancy. The Book Industry of Jamaica (BIAJ) has just recently,for 2011, introduced two sections for children’s book awards- Picture books and Chapter books. Previously there was just one section.They need to consider adding a third, for the YA group (Young Adult).It is not fair to lump together books meant for different age groups in any competition. What standard criteria for judging can be used? A book meant for the YA group will differ from books for adults and should be judged separately. Notwithstanding all this, the fact is that many adults enjoy books for children, and many children

can enjoy books meant for older age groups.

Which brings me back to the problem of book covers. Book designers, of necessity must consider the ages of the intended readership. Illustrations for books in the different age ranges must obviously reflect the difference in the interests of the readers. What works for one group will not necessarily work for another.

In light of this discussion, I pose this question - who is the best judge of a good book cover?

Jack Mandora

We all know what we want a cover to do – attract readers and buyers. A good cover will also reflect the story’s purpose and appeal specifically to the target age group. In the long run, many of us use very subjective judgements, and your guess may be as good as mine.However, a good story with popular appeal will sell whether the cover has or doesn’t have outstanding artistic appeal. My guess is that many Harry Potter fans, for example, would not really care if the book cover was just plain brown paper with title and author.

Diane Browne

LMH