Asia in the Heart, World on the Mind

Welcome to the Janus Silang blog tour! Si Janus Silang at ang Tiyanak ng Tabon is a new Filipino young adult novel written by Edgar Calabia Samar and published by Adarna House . We're kicking off the blog tour with a cover reveal and first chapter preview. Check out the cover below! Here is a blurb about the novel: Sa tournament ng TALA Online sa bayan ng Balanga, namatay ang lahat ng manlalaro maliban kay Janus. Sunod-sunod pa ang naging kaso ng pagkamatay ng mga kabataan sa computer shops sai ba’t ibang panig ng bansa. Kinontak si Janus ng nagpakilalang Joey, isa rin umano sa mga nakaligtas sa paglalaro ng TALA na gaya niya. Hindi inasahan ni Janus ang mga matutuklasan niya mula rito na mag-uugnay sa kanya sa misteryo ng kinahuhumalingan niyang RPG—at sa alamat ng Tiyanak mula sa Tábon! And ohohoho you can read the first chapter here or below! Edgar Calabia Samar will be at National Book Store SM North on May 10 at 3 p.m. Please join us for the book...

  Welcome to the second day of the Ngumiti si Andoy blog tour ! Ngumiti si Andoy , written by Xi Zuq ( /Shee Zuk/) and illustrated by Dominic Agsaway , is the winner of the 2013 PBBY Salanga and Alcala Prizes and the latest bilingual (Filipino and English) picture book from Adarna House .   In Ngumiti si Andoy , a boy named Andrew is drawing the statues in his school's heroes park when the statue of Andres "Andoy" Bonifacio , the Father of the Philippine Revolution, comes to life. Andrew and Andoy have a conversation about Andoy's parents, siblings, and wife. The book has great educational value - t eachers and parents can use it to introduce children to the hero or complement formal history lessons - but it is not overtly didactic.      For the Ngumiti si Andoy blog tour, I am interviewing both the book's author and illustrator, as well as sharing some of the illustrator's initial sketches for the book. Let's start with the...

With Holly Meade , winner of a Sydney Taylor Honor in the Younger Readers Category. =D

Out of the Way! Out of the Way! , written by Uma Krishnaswam i and illustrated by Uma Krishnaswam y (Tulika, 2010), is the story of a boy, a baby tree, a village path in India, and how they grow together. The boy grows up and becomes a father, then a grandfather. The baby tree grows into a giant tree. The village path grows into a city road. In contrast to what the title of the book suggests, the three never get in each other's way. They live together in harmony. This harmony is also seen in the layout and illustrations of the book. Each spread has ample white space set off by illustrations inspired by Indian folk art. The many, many details in the illustrations will definitely draw young readers in. They will enjoy discovering new things each time they pore over the illustrations. The illustrations are mostly in color, but are very nicely balanced with black and white portions. Here is a slideshow of some of the illustrations in Out of the Way! Out of the Way! . (Note: The text ...

This was originally posted at Into the Wardrobe on September 5, 2009. "Every student watched Chenxi and the foreigner and every one of them had something to say about it." It is April 1989 and eighteen-year-old San Francisco native Anna White is visiting her father in Shanghai. While in Shanghai, Anna, who is an artist, will learn traditional Chinese painting. One of Anna's classmates at the Shanghai College of Fine Arts, Chenxi, has been assigned as her translator and tour guide. Anna falls head over heels in love with the handsome, mysterious, and talented Chenxi. There are student protests in China while Anna is there, and Chenxi is one of the students protesting the Chinese regime. When Anna is forced to return to the United States, the protests culminate in what the Chinese government calls the June Fourth Incident, but the Western world calls the Tiananmen Square Massacre . Chenxi and the Foreigner , by Australian children's/YA author and illustrator Sally Ripp...

This was originally posted at Into the Wardrobe on May 8, 2009. Welcome to the sixth stop of the blog tour for Jan Reynolds ' latest non-fiction book for children, Cycle of Rice, Cycle of Life: A Story of Sustainable Farming (Lee & Low Books, 2009)! On Cycle of Rice, Cycle of Life (from the Lee & Low Books website ): On the island of Bali in Southeast Asia, rice farming is a way of life. The people live in tune with the natural rhythms and cycles of the water and the soil. Ingrained in their community and culture, rice farming connects them to the land and one another. Balinese farmers have planted rice using an intricate system of water sharing and crop rotation for more than a thousand years. Intertwined with their spiritual, social, and day-to-day lives, this system has made Bali a leading producer of one of the world’s most important crops. And because Balinese rice farming respects the balances of nature, it serves as a remarkable example of sustainable agricult...

This was originally posted at Into the Wardrobe on February 28, 2009. Welcome, children's and young adult book author, Ken Mochizuki! I am so glad Ken is here today as part of Provato Marketing 's big winter blog tour. :D Ken is the author of these great picture books: Baseball Saved Us (illustrated by Dom Lee and published by Lee & Low Books, 1993) Heroes illustrated by Dom Lee and published by Lee & Low Books, 1995) Passage to Freedom: The Sugihara Story (illustrated by Dom Lee and published by Lee & Low Books, 2000) Be Water, My Friend: The Early Years of Bruce Lee (illustrated by Dom Lee and published by Lee & Low Books, 2006) Ken, why do you write books for children and young adults? It was because of a classic case of serendipity, or a fortunate accident. Up till 1991, my aspiration was to become a writer of adult novels. That year, I received a phone call from a Philip Lee in New York. He got my name from his wife, Karen Chinn, who I knew while she ...

This was originally posted at Into the Wardrobe on January 23, 2009. Welcome to the last stop on the Sydney Taylor Book Award Blog Tour! Every year, the American Association of Jewish Libraries recognizes the best in Jewish children's literature by giving the Sydney Taylor Book Awards to books that exemplify the highest literary standards while authentically portraying the Jewish experience. This year, one of the Sydney Taylor Honor Awards in the Younger Readers Category goes to Engineer Ari and the Rosh Hashanah Ride by Deborah Bodin Cohen , with illustrations by Shahar Kober ( Kar-Ben Publishing , 2008). Using simple yet effective drawings, a light palette that is fresh and elegant, and balanced use of space, illustrator Shahar Kober shows us Engineer Ari's train ride to Jerusalem. During his journey across Israel, Engineer Ari collects goodies to celebrate the Jewish New Year and learns an important lesson about friendship and forgiveness. Engineer Ari and the Rosh Hash...