■ Editor's Note
If you can only choose one recommendation in the children's books you have read in 2021, which one will you choose?
This article is compiled from the main author of "Sanlian Life Weekly", the editor-in-chief of "Junior" magazine, and the author of "About Life, Everything I Know Comes from Children's Books" Chen Sai participated in the dialogue when he participated in the podcast program "East becomes West Long", talking about the impressive good children's books he read in 2021.
Introduction of guests
Chen Sai
Graduated from the Department of Journalism and Communication of Peking University, he is currently the chief writer of Sanlian Life Weekly and the editor-in-chief of Sanlian's "Teenager" magazine for the enlightenment of young people's thinking. He is the author of "The Spirit of The University" and "About Life, Everything I Know Comes from Children's Books".
1
"I'm an Itchy Bear"
Who am I? This is a question that everyone has ever been curious about, and it is one of the three ultimate philosophical questions of philosophy. What wonderful things will an itchy bear find in its journey to find itself? In this philosophical story, you will find that every process of finding yourself will be a journey to find the soul! This is a picture book for the enlightenment of the first understanding of philosophy, leading children to know themselves, to understand the world, and to feel the changes from abstraction to concreteness.
A Jia: "I am an itchy bear" is about that once upon a time there was an itch that tickled and tickled very much, and it scratched and scratched, rubbed and rubbed, and turned into an itchy bear. Then it found itself with a note in its pocket that read, "Are you me?" It needs to prove that "I am me" and get three clues to find answers: "I am a very good bear", "I am a happy bear", "I am still a very beautiful bear".
I especially want to recommend this book to children because it explores a question with a child's mindset: How do you become yourself? To figure out who we really are, we need to accept ourselves as we really are. Is it because it accepts itself and becomes itself? Or does it become itself and then accept itself, which sounds like a game of logic. When it questions itself, it's a ridiculous thing to do. In its search for answers, it encounters a lot of strange characters similar to Alice in Wonderland. In the process of interacting with these characters, when others say "you're great" to it, its response is: "I already knew." "It's a story I especially enjoy sharing with kids this year.
A lot of times, we get labeled. How to decide for yourself "what is me" from these labels is a proposition that hits me very well.
2
The Field Cook and the Half Soldier
Totot was a skilled field cook who traveled from army to army, always following the winning side with his accurate intuition. His battlefield survival wisdom stems from the fact that he has a cold and treacherous heart like a big fish in the deep sea. For Totot, it was the war that fed him, and as long as there was a war, the soldiers would have to fill their bellies, so he hoped that the war would continue to be fought, and the war was his whole world. Until one day, a little boy named George, who had lost his legs, appeared in his kitchen, breaking his peaceful life and changing everything...
When the war was finally over, Totot returned to his hometown, which had been almost forgotten by him, and found himself losing the familiar battlefield world, but regaining that warm heart.
Chen Sai: I was shocked when I first saw this book. There are some places in the book where the scale can make people hesitate; I can't help but ask myself: Is it okay to show it to children? Part of the responsibility of children's books is to protect children from seeing what the real world is like; part of the responsibility is to let children see what the real world is like. So when he saw that in "The Field Cook and half a creep", the creep George was cut off in half due to his disability, and the cook Totot gave him a nickname "Half George", he felt that this nickname was very cruel, and it put the cruelty of war in it. At the end of the day, this book is extremely gentle, but at the same time extremely cruel, and these two qualities are intertwined, and it is indeed a strange book, but I would still recommend it to thirteen or fourteen-year-olds, and I think they can read such a book.
3
"A Big Rock Fell from the Sky"
There was a location, it was nice, almost perfect and made one not want to leave as soon as one stood there. But who could have predicted that a boulder in the sky was falling, and it would soon fall impartially into this position!
This story about the big stone falling from the sky continues the absurd and reasonable creative logic of the picture book master Jon Klassen, allowing people to read and think about human nature, fate, friendship, and the future that no one knows in the funny story...
Chen Sai: A Big Rock Fell from the Sky is a self-written book written and drawn by Jon Klassen. The story is very funny. When many people talk about picture books, they think that they are written for children. I have been asked before: "Is children's books something that writers who can't be first-class writers, and painters who can't be first-class painters join forces to deceive children?" My answer at the time was: "There are a few writers, if you look at their paintings or words, you will find that from any point of view, you will feel that they are first-class authors." If they don't create for adults, it may not be that they are incompetent, but that they disdain to create for adults, they prefer to create for children. ”
I think there are writers who can express the most profound things in the simplest way, such as "A Big Stone Fell from the Sky.". The cover of the book shows two strange creatures standing on the edge of a flower. Seeing the title of the book, the reader knows that a stone is about to fall, but when will the stone fall? Under such suspense, a scene of black comedy was performed. Although it seems that these characters have done nothing but walk around, the development of this story has become more and more absurd and strange. In such a simple story, time travel begins to appear, aliens appear, there are betrayals and jealousies, telling the story of fate, darkness and death. In such a small space, it is a little incredible to be able to extend such a large theme.
Later, in an interview with Jon Klasson, I saw him mention the inspiration for the book: British director Hitchcock gave an example: several people sat around a table and discussed for five minutes, and at the last moment the bomb exploded, and if such a scene was filmed, the audience would receive a large silence and momentary surprise. But if the audience knows from the outset that there is a bomb under the table and that the bomb will explode in five minutes, it creates a powerful suspense that the audience will remain restless for those five minutes. The big rock in the book is the bomb that Hitchcock said.
Such a book, it is difficult to say that it is just a joke for children, although it seems very simple, the characters, the story, the picture are very simple, but Jon Klassen can tell a very interesting story in the simplest language, while conveying a very deep connotation. The big stone means that there will be some problems in this world that you can't solve, and it will fall down one day, but you don't know when it will come, but no matter what, the days will go on. Everyone will have a different interpretation of this book.
#"Teenager" Editor-in-Chief Chen Sai's "2021 Children's Book Recommendation List"
Imperfect Story
In the "perfect pet shop" that creates the perfect pet for people, Barnabas is a failed project: his body is half rats, half elephants, and he lives day in and day out in a small bell-shaped jar in a secret lab.
Until one day, all the failed projects will be recycled as waste, And Barnabas decides to lead his other imperfect friends to escape and go to the outside world to see...
Chen Sai: The imperfect pets in "Imperfect Story" are placed in a row of glass jars and stamped with "failed products", which is a very impactful picture. This is a metaphor for everyone's self-knowledge in this era: we also put such a poke on ourselves at any time and anywhere, but this picture has never been so straightforward in front of our eyes. Is this also true of our children? Put a poke on them? Sometimes it will not be said explicitly, but it will sigh secretly in the heart, in fact, it is also stamping a "failure product" for the child. In this era of fierce competition, children may feel more competitive pressure than adults, and their ability to resist this evaluation is weaker than that of adults, and they have no ability to resist others stamping themselves.
"Pretend I Didn't See"
Hate ghosts they're starting to bully people again.
The Hate Ghost Quartet said that they wanted to help Ah Du draw, and at the same time, they scribbled paint on Ah Du's drawing paper.
Ah Du didn't say a word and let them bully.
Makoto and I, and Ah Liang are desperately painting... Pretend to be desperately painting.
If we open our mouths, next time it will be our turn to be unlucky.
We continued to pretend not to see...
Chen Sai: "Pretend I Didn't See" is a book about school bullying. In this era of high-profile school bullying, if parents have any concerns about their children, school bullying should be in the top three. Before my son's good friend was bullied at school, there was a little boy in their class who had learned taekwondo and would bully the children around him from time to time, and during that time he had his eye on the friend of the worm. After Worm told me about it, I asked him, "What were you doing when your good friend was being bullied?" Did it help him? The worm said, "I'll just pretend not to see." "I was disappointed, how could I pretend not to see? Worm worms later told me that if he went to help his good friend, the boy who bullied him would bully him in turn. At that time, because of this matter, I was also distressed for a while, and then I thought of this book, so I took it out and read it to the worm, in fact, I don't know how much he understood, but when I read it, my feelings were very complicated. Bullying is about dignity, shame, and involves many other complex emotions and feelings, such as fear, anger, jealousy, compassion, pain, guilt, and even despair.
The protagonist in "Pretend Not to See" also watches his friend being bullied from the perspective of a bystander. I was wondering: Will the worm see himself in the protagonist's struggle after reading this story? Will those struggles inspire him to understand his situation? Later he told me that when the boy bullied his friend, he would go and tell the teacher. I think it's amazing that the value and energy of a book can have such an impact.
Children's University
In the world's first children's university, the most authoritative and top scientists, including Nobel Laureates, personally taught the "small college students" aged 8 to 12, who used simple and easy-to-understand, humorous language to professionally, multi-angle, and in-depth and simple to tell the children's most concerned about the problems from astronomy to geography.
The biggest feature of this set of books is that the questions in each chapter are raised by the children themselves, which improves the children's participation in the classroom, increases their attention to the content of the lessons, and also promotes the children's interest in obscure scientific knowledge.
Chen Sai: There has always been a section of humanistic science in the book news of "Teenagers", and in the past two years, I have paid more attention to books in this area. "Children's universities" are a trend that has emerged in Germany, and every year more than 50 universities and universities hold the same event, inviting children aged 8-12 to attend classes in the university's ladder classrooms. In class, children can ask the questions that interest them most, and university professors will answer them one by one. These lecturers are very knowledgeable scholars in Germany, and they respond with the utmost respect, seriousness and humor to the children's questions. One of the questions is: Why do girls always quarrel and boys always fight? The professor explained the problem in detail from a sociological point of view. The book "Children's University" will be very interesting for adults to read. This is a set of books on the humanities that I will see in 2021.
Inside the book list
"About life, everything I know comes from children's books" Chen Sai/Author
I Am an Itchy Bear [by] Oren Ravi/;[de] Wolfe Ebruch/Ebruch.)
Imperfect Story [Beauty] Terry Van, [American] Eric Van, [American] Devon Van / Author, Paint
A Big Rock Fell from The Sky [Canada] by Jon Klasson
"Pretend I Didn't See" [Japanese] Toshisaku Umeda / Author; [Japanese] Yoshiko Umeda / E
Nobody Has the Moon [Ao] By Toby Riddle
"Children's Universities, Scientists' Enlightenment Lessons for Children" [de] Ulrich Janssen / ed.; [de] Ulla Stojärner / ed.; [de] Klaus Ensicat / Drawing
A Brief History of Mankind Intellectual Cartoon [Israel] Yuval Harari/Author; [Belgium] David van der Merlen/ed.; [French] Daniel Casanaway/Ejar
Big City, Little You[plus] by Sidney Smith/ Painted
"No other country" [Macao] Chen Zhiyong / author
Bears and Wolves [Beauty] Daniel Salmili / Illustrated
"Uncle Rat Got Up Late" by Ye Guangqian/Author
The Field Cook and the Half-Soldier by Benny Lindlauf/; Ludwig Volbida/E
"I Walk with Vanessa" [French] by Cora Scott
The Wolf, the Duck and the Mouse [U.S.] Mike Barnett/Text; [Plus] Jon Klasson/Picture
"Inner City Story" [Australia] Chen Zhiyong / author
Sambet: A Painter musician [French] Jean-Jacques Sambet / Painting
Boys, Moles, Foxes and Horses
"The Little Pig of Peace" [English] J.K. Rowling / Author; [English] Jim Field / Illustrated
Goliath [English] Tom Gould/ Illustrator
"Lost and Found" [Australia] Chen Zhiyong / author
Walking Trilogy: "Walking", "Camping", "River Tour", DaWu / Painting
Blue Planet by James Honeyburne, Mark Brownlow