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Adult books
The Beast Sleeps with Me: Revisiting the Places where Classic Stories Take Place, [U.S.] Liam Henigan/ by Pan Yawei/ Translation, Bass | Beijing United Publishing Company March 2022.
Where do the classic stories that have been passed down from generation to generation take place? The authors of the book found that most of them take place in forests, on islands, in the wilderness. He takes readers back into the many familiar classics of children's literature, including novels and picture books, related to nature and the environment. For example, Max's imagination of wild animals in "Beast Country" is actually an encounter with the wilderness, and Miss Potter's "Peter Rabbit" series is a tribute to pastoral life. Among the many stories around the world, dense forests are considered to be paradoxical habitats, whether animals or plants, and the natural ecosystems constructed by them, hiding the author's memories of the environment in which he lived as a child and his unique understanding of nature when he created the story.
But the book is not written by a critic of children's literature, but by an animal biologist. He confirmed the saying that what comes to mind is what you see. He accompanied his two children for many years, read them bedtime stories, and found that he could tease out the complete "environmental knowledge" from those books, so he combined his childhood reading experience and re-read these books to write this review collection equivalent to interpreting classic children's literature from the perspective of nature and the environment. Analyzed more than 50 classic children's literature works (most of which are in the "must-read" list of children's literature) in the "metaphors of nature" that we may never have noticed.
Although the author has always emphasized the hope that children's stories can help everyone regain their love of nature, the author's many reviews of children's literature from a cross-border perspective are also refreshing. Re-reading ancient stories gives the author a new understanding of some of the emerging works. This also shows that classic stories are not only children's books, but also a source of creation for the next generation of authors.
"Playing the Shape Game", [English] Anthony Broncho Brown / by A Jia Dong Haiya / Translation, Inspiring Culture | Beijing United Publishing Company March 2022.
It is a personal biography of Anthony Brown, written by him with his son Joe Brown. Unlike other biographies, the book is framed like a thick magazine, not only beautifully crafted, but also focuses on the connection between Anthony Brown's personal life and his work, with more than 200 illustrations throughout the book, readers can see the creative stories behind classic picture books such as "My Dad" and "My Mom", how Anthony Brown went from a young creator to a brilliant picture book writer, and the various run-ins that the picture book publishing process has to go through.
The title of the book, "Playing shape games," was Anthony Brown's creative secret. As a child, he and his brother Michael often played this painting game together: one drew a shape, and the other turned it into a painting. At the heart of Anthony Brown's playful, infectious work is this childhood game. In this book, Anthony Brown also details the creativity that the game brought him, how his childhood experiences, reading experiences, thinking about the real world and painting skills combined into a beautiful picture book.
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picture book
Ryoji Arai Poetic Fantasy Picture Book Series (all 3 volumes), Ryoji Arai / Author / Illustrated Daiyu / Translation, CITIC Publishing Group, March 2022. Age of readability: 3+
This set of 3 books is "Today's Me, I Can Go Anywhere", "The Apple Tree in Tyrol" and "Cosmic Egg". The publisher accurately defined these three books with different contents but the same style of painting as "poetic fantasy", in which all the tension comes from the bright colors in the illustrations. Even reading them, you can watch the illustrations themselves and then match the story. They stimulate the imagination and follow the author's unbridled brush to any beautiful and warm world you yearn for.
Author Ryoji Arai was shortlisted for the 2022 Hans Christian Andersen Award for Illustrator this year. Winner of the Lindgren Memorial Award in 2005, the jury described him as "radiant and spontaneous, with colours flowing in his hands in an almost musical way". He has also published many of his works in China, such as "Mr. Happiness", "When the Day Comes, Open the Window", "Sun Organ" and so on. But there are some works where he only draws illustrations, and the text writer is someone else, such as the "Late Night Fart Contest" series.
Why? Adam Rex/Author Claire Keane/E, Wang Lin/Translation, Fantasy Nation | 21st Century Publishing House Group, March 2022. Age of readability: 3+
Adults usually don't have much time to ask themselves "why" repeatedly, but if there is a two- or three-year-old child who has just spoken fluently, adults will often be asked "why" until a philosophical epiphany arises: the real cause is not the reason I thought at first. This book is to borrow a little girl's "why" like a repeating machine, so that a "bad person" gradually realizes his true intentions.
The little girl met Dr. X-Ray in the mall who claimed to rule the world, and people were frightened, only the little girl was very curious about why Dr. X-Ray was doing this, so she began to ask, "Why?" Every time Dr. X-Ray gave an answer, the little girl could ask another "Why" on this basis, until Dr. X-Ray also began to ask herself "Why?" ”
The Curious Garden, by Peter Brown/ by Sun Huiyang/ Translation, Dandelion | Guizhou People's Publishing House, March 2022. Age of readability: 3+
"Environmental protection" is a common topic in European and American picture books, and in recent years, such picture books have also been shortlisted for various children's book awards. The book is about a boy who walks into a deserted garden during an urban adventure and is determined to help bring it back to life. Although he poured too much water at the beginning and cut the branches of the plant, fortunately, the vitality of the plant was also very strong, giving him enough time to explore how to water the plant. There is also a hidden curiosity in the child that helps him to keep trying and making mistakes and constantly growing.
In the process of learning to be a gardener, the boy also found a lot of interesting little knowledge. Plants usually wake up first after "hibernation"; plants also like to visit old objects and forgotten corners... Soon, many gardeners like little boys appeared in the city, and finally the city was full of greenery.
The story is based on an elevated park on the west side of Manhattan in New York City that was converted from an old railway, and the government had planned to demolish the deserted railway, but the citizens of New York city converted the place into a park, which greatly changed the abandoned railway. Author Peter Brown's illustration of "The Carrot Monster" won the 2013 Caddick Honor Award.
If You Want a TreeHouse, by [American] Carter Higgins/ by Emily Hughes/ Illustrated by Kairo/ Translation, Heart Delight read | Changjiang Children's Publishing House, April 2022. Age of readability: 3+
For children who love tree houses, this book can satisfy all their imaginations about tree houses. In the eyes of children, the quilt, wardrobe, and large boxes can all play the role of a treehouse, and perhaps adults will also want to have such a private territory.
There should be plants in the tree house, bookshelves, swings, snacks, in short, whatever you like in the tree house. The book delicately paints every detail in the tree house and the happy life of the children in the tree house. But after reading it, don't be sad, how come there is no such big tree around us, and we can build such a tree house.
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Popular science picture books
Poop Past: A Fantastic Journey of a Chocolate Bean, by Milada Rezkova/[Czech], [Czech] Lukáš Urbanek Jacob Kashe/E, Zhang Han/Translation, Wave Blossom | Tianjin People's Publishing House February 2022. Age of readability: 7+
Popular science picture books about the digestion of body and food for young children are more common, but this is a popular science book for children above elementary school age, turning the process of digesting food into a fun adventure story.
Under the guidance of the spirit of wisdom, the protagonist Chocolate Bean experiences thrilling obstacles such as caves, tooth cliffs, and esophageal drifting along the way, and makes some good friends with quite characteristics, such as tongues. I also saw some "grand scenes" in the human body. There was also a difficult time - diarrhea, which eventually turned into poop and fell into the toilet.
Edit | Shen Chan
Proofreading | Li Ming