"The Day the Flood Came"
In addition to the COVID-19 pandemic, this summer vacation is also worrying about floods and fires caused by extreme heat in many parts of the country. There is also news of children drowning every summer, looking around the world, and some countries are experiencing war. Some people say that picture books for children are always about beautiful things, but in fact, picture books are also telling children what disasters are in a less tragic way.
When people encounter disasters, their instincts are often first, and they will show their abilities that are rarely shown in ordinary times, the first book in this issue, the little girl knows for the first time on the day of the flood that her father not only swims but also rows. And after the disaster, it takes a long time to heal the psychological scars, the second book in the book list, "The Day the Accident", Joe and his good friend Tony swim together, Tony drowned, Joe can not face this truth, the heart fell into guilt and suffering.
Some disasters are more regional, and Japan will be more alert to the volcanic eruptions mentioned in the booklet. There are also disasters, such as fires, that often occur suddenly in a casual way in familiar places. Everyone knows what fire is, but not necessarily what fire is all about.
In order to show the struggle between human beings and disasters from multiple perspectives, we have also added a book reviewing some of the major disasters (including shipwrecks, air disasters, tsunamis, infectious diseases, etc.) in this issue. The types of books range from picture books for young children to novels for teenagers, as well as popular science books.
Disaster is relentless, but it can also bring us to think differently than ever before. Children's books cannot cut into the topic too deeply, but they can let children see the whole picture of the world we live in, and they have already planted the seeds of loving themselves, loving the environment, and loving our homeland in their hearts.
flood
"The Day the Flood Came"
Lu Weier / Author · Painting
Small movable type | Jiangsu Phoenix Children's Publishing House, July 2020
Age of readability: 4+
In the summer of 1998, the Yangtze River, Nenjiang River, Songhua River and other river basin areas experienced a huge flood. The author of this book, Lu Weier's hometown in Hubei, is in the front line of flood prevention and rescue. When she grew up, Lu Weier became an illustrator, and after collecting materials from many sources, she created her first picture book on this theme.
The story is in the first person, and more than half of the story is used to recreate the flood from the perspective of a child. "I" was a four- or five-year-old girl who was arguing with her sister over a book when the flood came. She was at first curious and amused by the flood that had flooded the first floor of her house, but was filled with fear when she was accidentally swept away by the floodwaters. Fortunately, dad rescued her and made a "boat" with the materials available at home, and the family rowed the "boat" away, and rescued other people and animals along the way...
The book is full of life in the 1990s, and they are also Ruvel's childhood memories. In "my" home, there are tiger calendars, burning mosquito coils, checkers, paper boats, graffiti on doors... Especially when the sisters argued, the words used by the sister to stab the sister: "You are superfluous" and "Daddy originally wanted to give you away", which was also a common "joke" in that era. But after experiencing the flood, the family was fortunate to be still together, the sisters were relieved of their previous suspicions, and the little girl's heartfelt words "No one is superfluous" became the finishing touch of the book.
Swimming drowning
"The Day the Accident Happened" (Bilingual in Chinese and English)
Marion Dane Bauer / by Zou Jiarong / Translation
Inspiring culture | Hebei Education Press, August 2011
Age of readability: 7+
The novel, which won the 1987 Newberry Award of Honor, tells the story of a boy who experiences emotional changes and mental suffering after a good friend drowns and dies.
Tony and Joe have very different personalities, one daring to take risks without thinking about the consequences, and the other calm and cautious. One day Tony pulled Joe on a bike ride to the dangerous Starvation Rock climbing. Joe was afraid but reluctant to go out of his way. Halfway down the road, Tony suddenly changed his mind and wanted to swim in the river. This time Joe was willing to go because it was at least more certain for him to swim than to climb. However, after being launched, Tony disappeared. Despite Joe's best efforts, he was unable to save his best friend. After Tony's death, Joe is in a state of panic, self-blame, and pain, but he does not have the courage to tell the truth...
The author fiercely intertwines Joe's inner conflicts in the layers of the plot, taking the reader to think about peer pressure and realize that when we make different choices, we will bring different consequences and also need to bear certain responsibilities for it.
fire
Encyclopedia of Fire
[Sweden] Charlotte Cedrond / by [Sweden] David Henson / E
Ma Wei Chen Yankun/Translation
The little mammoth | Electronic Industry Press, May 2021
Age of readability: 3+
This is a popular science book that introduces fire from all angles. From the clothing and pots and pans in the home to the forest fire, from the chemical principle of the fire to the tools to extinguish the fire, the method of escaping the fire, from the origin of the fire to the legend of the fire god, from the relationship between fire and nature to the management of dangerous chemicals for human beings, by introducing all aspects of fire, the reader has been popularized with the knowledge of fire safety and self-help.
war
Mr. Winton's 669 Children
[Beauty] Painted by Peter Sith/ Author
Du Keming/Translation
99 readers | People's Literature Publishing House, September 2022
Age of readability: 5+
In 1938, 29-year-old Nicholas Winton saved the lives of nearly 700 children trapped in Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia, but he never told the story until 1988, when his wife discovered the list of children in his archives and contacted relevant scholars. During the 1980s television show, Winton was reunited with some of the children, and the story was widely known.
Peter Sith, a Czech-American artist and winner of the International Hans Christian Andersen Prize, was born in Czechoslovakia after the war, and from an early age he often heard stories of people surviving the war. Impressed by Winton's heroic deeds, he completed the "Winton Story" by linking winton's efforts with simple words and pictorial structures to a little girl named Vera he rescued.
earthquake
Why is My House Shaking? When a building meets an earthquake
[French] Matthew Sylvand/ author
[French] Percival Barrier / Painted
Li Ying/Translation
Wave blossoms | Sichuan Fine Arts Publishing House
June 2020
Age of readability: 4+
This is a book on earthquakes and the principles of architecture. How do I build a building that won't be destroyed by an earthquake? So let's start by looking at buildings that collapse in an earthquake.
On the vast and trembling plains, the Great Chief, Egger, was keen to count earthquakes, and it seemed to be his job. At the beginning of the story, there was the 2556762 earthquake here...
Another chief, Bob, came, who did not understand the vast and trembling plains, but saw only a flat land, and he planned to build a majestic city here. But the earthquakes relentlessly destroyed his buildings, and Mr. Tabutak, Aig's trembling tablet (who was simply a seismologist), explained to him again and again the causes of the earthquakes, the structure of the earth's crust, the destructiveness of the earthquakes, and how to demonstrate how buildings can withstand earthquakes, and Bob adjusted the building form again and again, and finally built a solid building.
The Great Catastrophe of History
DK Catastrophe
Richard Pratt/ by Richard Benson/Illustrated
Liu Qian, Qiao Xuechun/Translation
Ruoqing culture | Sichuan Science and Technology Press, November 2018
Age of readability: 7+
This is a popular science book produced by the British DK company, which introduces 12 major disasters in human history, namely the Great Eruption of Mount Vesuvius, the Black Death, the Great Fire of London, the Flood of the Yellow River, the Super Blizzard, the Sanriku Tsunami of Japan, the Great Earthquake, the Shipwreck of the Titanic, the deadly Dust Storm, the Hindenburg air disaster, the deadly avalanche, and the super hurricane. The author uses a large number of powerful photographs to reproduce the specific process of each disaster.
Survive the disaster
"Surviving Disaster" Children's Novel Series (14 volumes)
Lauren Tacitus/
Fu Changyuan, Xu Kuang, Wu Jing, et al
Relay Press March 2022
Age of readability: 9+
This is a set of survival novels written for children over the age of 9, telling the story of children in disasters with wisdom and courage, creating miracles of life, 14 books are "Earthquake Night Rebirth", "Mission in the Tornado", "Escape from the Sea of Fire", "Airship Escape", "Volcano Escape", "Hurricane Rescue", "Tsunami Miracle", "Deadly Air Raid", "War Reborn", "High-rise Horror", "Shark Mouth", "Ice Sea Escape", "Grizzly Rescue", "Honey Crisis".
The author, Lauren Tasis, is a senior editor at Story Works Magazine, a publisher of Scholars Press, and has written several works of children's literature. In the fictional story, she truly recreates the thrilling scenes of the disaster, and also incorporates some escape techniques into the story.
Science Saves Lives (10 volumes)
[U.S.] Felicia Law [English] Gerry Bailey/
[English] Leiden Neuss/E
Su Jingchun/Translation
CITIC Publishing Group Red Cape
June 2022
Age of readability: 7+
This is a set of popular science picture books for the natural geographical environment of the wild. In terms of choreography, it is a bit like "The Magic School Bus", which is to introduce knowledge in the form of a story. Scientists Dr. Qiao and Dr. Bi often go to the field to do scientific research, they will appear in different places such as the Arctic, volcanoes, deserts, etc., and they will also experience some dangers, but they can always turn the dangers around according to their existing scientific knowledge.
The full set of books consists of 10 volumes, namely "Drifting with Arctic Animals", "Escaping with Bat Caves", "Getting Lost in Sand", "Living Like Robinson", "Mountain Guide Flying Off the Cliff", "Encountering Ocean Storms", "Great Crisis in the Rainforest", "Terrible Rapids", "Watching Meteor Showers in Space", and "Escape from Volcanoes". The authors, Felicia Law and Gerry Bailey, have co-authored books such as Into the Wonderful Geometric World.
Volcanic eruptions
"The Volcano Sleeps, the Volcano Wakes Up"
[Japanese] Hagiwara Fukugu Written / Painted [Japanese] Yukio Hayakawa / Reviewed
Xu Dynasty/Translation
Tianluo Books | Beijing United Publishing Company
November 2021
Age of readability: 4+
This picture book introduces the various appearances of volcanic eruptions in an easy-to-understand way. Even the same volcano can erupt differently at different times: explosions like cannonballs, tall and long-lasting eruptions of smoke, slowly flowing lava, dangerous pyroclastic flows, landslides that collapse throughout the mountain, and so on.
The volcano in the book is based on Mt. Asama, which straddles Nagano and Gunma prefectures in Japan, and depicts four eruptions in Japan during the Showa, Edo, and Heian periods, as well as 25,000 years ago. We can feel the impact of volcanoes on human beings from the scenes of people's lives in the pictures, the expressions on their faces or reactions.
nuclear radiation
Ranch of Hope
Mori Etsuto / By Yoshida Shōryō / Eto
Song Sansan /Translation
Pu Pu Lan Picture Book Museum | Twenty-first Century Press
November 2019
Age of readability: 5+
After the Fukushima nuclear accident in Japan, the nuclear power plant was designated as a "warning zone" within a 20-kilometer radius and was prohibited from entering. One cattle breeder insisted on staying in an uninhabited town and continued to raise beef cattle that had been exposed to nuclear radiation.
These cattle can no longer be sold, what is the point of continuing to raise them? Like the cattle, the houses, the rivers, the air, and the starry sky on this side of the land seem to have lost their meaning of existence... Cattle breeders are also thinking about the value of life in self-questioning and self-answering.
Blizzard
The Great Blizzard
John Rocco / By Lee Yi Slow / Translation
Whimsical nation | Zhejiang Children's Publishing House
December 2021
Age of readability: 4+
On February 6, 1978, the New England region of the United States experienced the largest snowstorm in history. The snow fell for two full days before it stopped, and parts of Rhodes, Massachusetts and Connecticut, were buried in snow more than a meter deep. The people trapped at home gradually had nothing to eat, but fortunately, the little boy in the book had recited the survival guide, and he was the only person in the family who could walk on the snow. So he took on the responsibility of buying food and daily necessities for his family and neighbors...
The book was also based on the experience of john Rocco, who tied a tennis racket to his feet when he was ten years old and braved a snowstorm to go shopping in a store a kilometer away. He understands the psychology of children very well, describing the adventures of the little boy in the story as if it were a thrilling journey to and from the North Pole, rather than essentially just going back and forth between grocery stores and homes a few streets away.
Editor/Cicada
Proofreading/Liu Baoqing