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Adult books
Chinese Children's Songs
Zhu Jiefan/eds
Le Fu Culture | Morning Light Press January 2022
This 698-page book was written by Mr. Zhu Jiefan (1912-2011), a mainland folklorist, proverb and ballad scholar, and prefaced by writer Lin Haiyin, and published in Taiwan in 1977, and the simplified version was first published in mainland China.
Mr. Zhu selected 1499 children's songs collected from private memories, documentary materials, fieldwork and other means, and classified them according to "lyrical and narrative children's songs", "fairy tale world children's songs", "children's game songs" and "funny children's songs", interpreting the historical meaning behind them, so that we can see the role of children's songs in children's education and cultural inheritance.
Nowadays, people pursue scientific thinking for children's education, accustomed to giving the concept of right and wrong, many children's songs are no longer sung by people, but if we recall our childhood with books, some children's songs seem to lay a certain foundation for our understanding of the world. As oral literature, most children's songs also have a strong regionality, and only people who live and grow up in that place will feel extremely kind to them. Therefore, the collection and research of children's songs has become invaluable.
In "Reading the Local Nursery Rhymes Collection Why Read a Little "Unwilling"? 丨Comparison of Chinese, British and American Nursery Rhymes" In this article, the author mentioned a question: in addition to adding some funny time for children, what is the artistic value of most local nursery rhyme anthologies? This puzzle or this book can answer one or two.
"Childhood of Spiritual Abundance"
[Japanese] Mitsuya Anno / by Lan Jia / Translation
Love Tree | Nova Press November 2021
Each of these thin little books is not long, and it is the educational insight that Mitsuya Anno has obtained after combining her own growth experience and observing the children around her. Including "Thinking about Children", "Thinking about Learning", "The Secret of Independent Thinking", and the mental process of creating the first picture book "Wonderful Country".
The book mentions that "children are scolded mostly because they hinder the affairs of adults", but this does not mean that they make harsh accusations against their parents. The book also mentions that "the reality is that there is injustice and bullying in the child's world" and "if you are seriously bullied, I think you can not go to school", but Anno Mitsuya still believes that children need some stumbling in childhood, some humiliating and sad experiences to grow up. The same thing is said by many people, but Mitsuya Anno speaks gently and sincerely, stating what he has experienced and thought, and then asking you to think for yourself.
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picture book
"Give Me Two, Give You One"
[de] York Muller / by Liu Haiying / Translation
Magic is like | Guangxi Normal University Press, January 2022
Age of readability: 3+
This is an interesting story that takes place between Big Bear and his good friend Weasel, which actually simulates a quarrel between children. Such quarrels are often justified, and they can't argue for a reason, and finally they are inexplicably reconciled as before, but it won't be long before they will fall into quarrels...
The story is about Big Bear finding three mushrooms on his way home, and his good friend Weasel made the mushrooms ready, but two people eat three mushrooms, how to divide them fairly? In order to explain that they should eat one more, the two of them each said a lot of reasons, and began a tug-of-war, just at this moment, the fox appeared and took one of the mushrooms...
"I Love Art Museum"
[Beauty] Susan Weld / by [plus] Peter Reynolds / E
Cui Weiyan/Translation
Days slightly | Beijing United Publishing Company January 2022
The art museum should be a place where all people can mobilize all their perceptual cognition, but the introduction of artworks is always strange. This picture book uses the simplest words to restore the beauty and emotions that works of art can bring to people, so that art and people have established the most direct relationship and truly become infectious.
"It's Nice Out There"
[Beauty] Deborah Underwood / by Cindy Derby / Paint
Translated by Ajia
Red cape | CITIC Publishing Group December 2021
People who have been looking forward to being indoors for a long time, if they see the sunlight outside and hear the birdsong in the trees, they will always lament how beautiful the outside world is, but now, too many people have lost their interaction with the "outside".
The book is a 2021 Cadick Honorable Mention. It personifies the "outside", using the process of a little girl's gradual closeness to the "outside", using a very infectious picture to inspire our desire to make friends with the "outside". The poem-like text and pictures complement each other perfectly, and the reader can immerse themselves in it and imagine freely.
"Once — we were part of the outside, and the outside was part of us. We were intimate with the outside. Now – sometimes even when we're out there... We're still inside"... And how long have you not been outside?
A Year in the Woods
[English] Alice Melvin / Author , Illustrated by Chen Jing / Translation
Inspiring culture | Beijing United Publishing Company February 2022
Age of readability: 2+
This is an interactive flip book suitable for reading from a young age, recording the changes in the forest from January to December with exquisite pictures, not only showing the appearance of plants, but also using the flip effect to take children to knock on the door of each animal to see what is in their house, what fruits and vegetables are grown in the field...
It took the author more than a year to sketch in nature, observe the local flora and fauna, and feel the changes of the four seasons of the year before presenting this scenery with fairytale colors.
"Light on Cotton Rock"
[English] David Litchfield / Author , Illustrated by Wu Qihong / Translation
Inspiring culture | Beijing United Publishing Company February 2022
Age of readability: 5+
David Litchfield is not only adept at using digital technology to paint dreamy scenes with grand and dramatic effects, but also at telling a life-long story with a picture book.
In his first picture book, "Big Bear and piano", the bear who went out of the forest returned to the forest after half a life to find his original intention, and this latest work" "Light on Cotton Rock" is a similar story, telling the story of a little girl who came to Cotton Rock several times with her childhood dream of taking a spaceship to go to outer space. But it wasn't until she was old and her dream was finally coming true that she realized that her favorite place was always the earth. Cotton Rock was where she waited for her alien friend, and the beam of light she emitted with a flashlight was both her far away and her present.
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Humanistic history
"Teenagers Love to Read The History of the World" (published in three volumes)
The housekeeper was chirping
Hua Zhang fan | Chongqing Publishing House February 2022
Age of readability: 10+
In children's books, books that talk about world history are far less than Chinese history, and are basically imported from Britain, the United States and other countries, mainly telling world history with Western historical evolution, which is somewhat distant for Chinese young readers. This set of books is different, it is created by the Taiwanese children's literature writer Guan Qi, focusing on the development of world history into the events of the same period in Chinese history, and the writing is also simple and popular, easy to understand.
A graduate of the Department of History at Fu Jen University in Taiwan, Butler Qi has been writing for 30 years since she quit her job as a newspaper reporter in 1991. In addition to fairy tales and novels, she has also dabbled in the rewriting of classic literature and language education, and has won various awards. The 10-volume traditional edition of the book covers the Paleolithic period to the fall of the Berlin Wall. The simplified version is also 10 volumes, with 3 volumes currently published and another 7 volumes to be published.
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Popular science picture books
Dinosaurs?! 》
[Slovenia] Lena Brapp / by Bauje / Translation
Magic is like | Guangxi Normal University Press November 2021
The book introduces the 14 kinds of dinosaurs, but instead of listing the characteristics of dinosaurs directly, it sets up another character - the chicken, and on each page of the picture, the left side is the question raised by the chicken, and the right side is the answer.
The chicken is full of curiosity, his perspective represents the child's perspective, each question starts from the familiar things around him, he asked, "It is said that dinosaurs are our ancestors, why not call it 'horrible chicken'?" He also asked, "How many eggs could the biggest dinosaur lay?" Is it as big as a house? ”...... In these questions, picture books naturally lead to answers, completing the popularization of dinosaurs.
Global Adventure Stories: The Legendary Experiences of 35 "Adventure Kings"
[English] Ness Knight / ed. Qu Lan / Painting
Fun 丨Future Press August 2021
Age of readability: 7+
This is a popular science book compiled by the British explorer Ness Knight, and 35 explorers in history have been selected to tell their adventure stories. But this is not a biography, each story only chooses a certain experience of the explorer, through this side to show the tension and excitement of the expedition, as well as the composure and calmness of the explorers in the face of danger.