"Run Crazy".
Each issue will be a simple categorization of books, so that readers can find books that interest them. This issue is classified as adult books, picture books, popular science encyclopedias, humanistic history and bridge books. Friends who need to buy these books can pay attention to the brand side of each book and go to the brand stores of major platforms to buy genuine books.
The children's book market is rich in variety, each book list is difficult to exhaust the good books, welcome to the WeChat group (plus book reviewer WeChat kanbooksa) and share with us the good books you have read.
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Adult books
The Smartest Kids in the World
Amanda Ripley / by Wang Shaobo / Translation
CITIC Publishing Group May 2022
This is a book published in 2013 by amanda Ripley, an American nonfiction documentary author and journalist. Compare the differences between education in the three countries and the United States in the local high schools from the three American high school students who traveled to South Korea, Finland and Poland for a year-long exchange, and thus explore what kind of education systems can produce the best children. But the survey also surprised him to find that every country has certain problems in education, and teachers in various countries are more or less dissatisfied with exams, principals and parents, and complain frequently. The Chinese edition of the book was first released in 2015 and has been out of print for some time since then, before being reprinted this year.
The three American high school students in the book serve as the eyes and ears of the reader, taking us to other countries. The author wants to criticize education in the United States for being too lax and fragmented by comparison, but we can also see the similarities and differences between the four countries of the United States, South Korea, Finland and Poland in mathematics learning, progression routes, examination systems, after-school cram schools, teacher selection, and parental participation in children's learning. The authors argue that Finland is the best education in these countries because it combines the advantages of American and Korean education.
Last year, the documentary of the same name, The Smartest Kids in the World, adapted from the book, aired overseas, once again expressing deeply and strongly the educational reflections brought about by the collision of different cultures. This time, four U.S. high school students traveled to South Korea, Finland, the Netherlands, and Switzerland, where director Droz Tragos filmed in each country from 2018 to 2019 and witnessed their "completely different" educational paths from U.S. schools. What is important and meaningful to the child? Maybe they can only see themselves when they are in another culture.
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picture book
"Run Crazy"
[United States] David Korver / By Illustrated Ajia / Translation
Days slightly | Beijing United Publishing Company June 2022
Age of readability: 3+
How long have you not gone out and run wild? Maybe by opening this book, you can find that long-lost feeling.
The sky is sometimes blue and sometimes rainy, the sun is sometimes smiling and sometimes hidden, running forward barefoot, letting go of everything, unrestrained, racing with rabbits, stepping on mud pits, meeting beetles, feeling the hot sand and the coolness of the sea, daydreaming on the surface of the sea...
It's just, how long have we not gone out like this and gone crazy?
The Last Tree
Emily Haworth-Booth/Author/Illustrated by Li Pengcheng/Translation
Inspiring culture | Hebei Education Press, May 2022
Age of readability: 4+
The book uses the idea of an image novel to highlight the last tree with a simple story, which is not only a silent protest of the environment, but also sets off the barriers of the human heart. The alienation of man from nature often also implies the alienation of man from man.
The story begins with a group of friends looking for a suitable place to live until they see the first tree. Thanks to this forest, they can build houses from trees and make fires for warmth. Slowly, they are building porches and fences again... However, as the fences are built higher and higher, their defenses against the world around them become more and more high.
It seems that only children are not burdened by the inexplicable tension and suspicion of the adult world, and when there is only the last tree left, they play happily around the tree, so that the last tree becomes the first tree.
The book's illustrations combine colored pencils, crayons, and watercolors, somewhat reminiscent of Quentin Black's style, giving a sense of closeness and ease. Author Emily also claims to be very fond of Roald Dahl and is influenced by it in the creation of her story. She graduated from the University of Cambridge, UK, taught at the Royal School of Painting in London, teaching comics, graphic fiction and illustration courses, and was shortlisted for the 2020 Kate Greenaway Award.
"Sparkling Glass Shoes"
Jane Goodwin/ by Anna Walker/ Illustrated
Li Danlei/Translation
Wave blossoms | Sichuan Fine Arts Publishing House, June 2022
Age of readability: 3+
If a child loses something he loves, the usual reaction of the parents is to count down the children, and then the well-behaved child will remind himself with guilt not to lose the thing again. But "Shining Glass Slipper" gives us a different kind of inspiration.
Twinkle always wears clothes that her brothers can't wear, and only new shoes are completely her own. Although her mother had told her not to wear her newly purchased crystal shoes to a picnic, Twinkle still wanted to wear it every day. During a picnic, she and her brothers went on an expedition and accidentally dropped a crystal shoe into the water, which drifted away along the stream.
When encountering such a thing, mothers love to say: you should wear old shoes to go out. But children don't like to hear that the most. The brothers suggested that Twinkle make a flowerpot with the remaining shoe or hang it on the window as a wind chime. In fact, these ideas are not bad, but Twinkle still only wants to wear crystal shoes, even if there is only one. So she went to school wearing two different shoes, so can Twinkle withstand the different eyes of her classmates? Of course, no problem, because mavericks have long been accustomed to the gaze of others.
This book is not only about a child who bravely insists on doing what he likes, but also lets those bystanders who love to count the maverick children see that people do not necessarily have to live according to the rules of the set, and sometimes mavericks will have unexpected gains. So the ending of this story is very happy, and Flash actually found another crystal shoe.
"It was a cat! 》
[Italian] David Dalí / by [French] Margary Cravey / E
Feng Jing / Translation
Magic is like | Guangxi Normal University Press, March 2022
Age of readability: 4+
The book uses the classic narrative of a speculative detective novel in which a group of rats surround Jojo who falls to the ground, and one of the rats with a magnifying glass and a very detective-like mouse concludes that the cat killed Jojo. His reasons are: First, cats like to eat mice; Second, the cat barked in the neighborhood all night last night; Third, there are claw marks on the walls.
These reasons may seem invulnerable, but they do not stand up to questioning. Just as another mouse kept pointing out the loopholes of the "Great Detective", Jojo woke up, and because of the stereotype of cats, everyone forgot to ask the most important question when Jojo fell to the ground, and immediately went to suspect the cat.
The story did not end, just as everyone was celebrating Jojo's "death" and resurrection, a small mouse rushed forward and shouted: "The cheese is gone!" "Who did it this time?" A new round of reasoning has begun...
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Popular Science Encyclopedia
The Life of a Poor Worm: A Brief History of the Earthworm
[Italian] Noemi Wola / by Chen Jingjing / Translation
CITIC Publishing Group July 2022
Age of readability: 5+
After the summer rains, we can often see the bodies of earthworms lying in the middle of the road. As you walk past them, you can't help but wonder why they're running down the road. But this is the genetic setting of earthworms. In this interesting earthworm science book, the author defines the earthworm as a poor insect, so more than 200 pages of the book explain and imagine the interesting life of the earthworm "poor".
For example, earthworms rarely appear in popular science books and are talked about, which may be because their lives are plain, born as small bugs, still small bugs when they die, and have not experienced the feeling of becoming a butterfly for a moment! Although they are all over the world and have a wide variety, they all seem to look exactly the same in the eyes of human beings! They are also as busy as bees and ants every day, but they have never received any praise, two earthworms digging in the soil all day, accidentally touching a piece but looking at each other, not knowing what they are digging!
The most peculiar ability of the earthworm is its tail, if broken, it can turn into two earthworms! Other than that, no one knows what the earthworm's tail is of! The author arranges many interesting activities, thinking, and trying to change the earthworm with a long tail to help the earthworm release its inner cry: want to become useful! Of course, if you can, earthworms also want to have a better home, free from thunder and rain... Finally, the author wrote a "Lightning Weather Behavior Guide" for earthworms, of course, this guide is also suitable for children.
"The Astronaut's 24 Hours", "The Explorer's 24 Hours"
"24 Hours of Primitive Man"
Usborn Publishing Company/Editor Wang Xu/Translation
Relay Press April 2022
Age of readability: 7+
These three books are a set of interesting and story-oriented popular science comic books created by the British Eusborn Company for primary school children, taking the life of the protagonist of the story in 24 hours as the main line and infiltrating popular science knowledge into the life scene.
"24 Hours of Primitive Man" includes both the gathering, hunting and drilling wood for fire that we are more familiar with, as well as the process of making tools by primitive people, especially the scene of primitive people creating murals. "The Explorer's 24 Hours" is set in the forest to explore, and on the way to the adventure, you will learn about the diversity of plants, animals, etc. "24 Hours of Astronauts" reveals the daily work and life of astronauts in space, shows the structure of the space station, the food and scientific research scenes of astronauts, and also leads the children to a thrilling spacewalk.
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Humanistic history
The World's Longest Train Journey
[Russia] by Alexandra Litvina
[Russia] Ania Jesnitskaya / painted
Guo Xiaoshi / Translation
CITIC Publishing Group Red Cloak August 2022
Age of readability: 8+
The book was shortlisted for the German Youth Literature Prize this year, and whether it will be shortlisted will be revealed at the Frankfurt Book Fair on October 21 this year.
The longest railway in the world refers to the Trans-Siberian Railway from Moscow to Vladivostok (Vladivostok). The book's illustrators and textwriters invited children and adults in towns along the railway to chat about where they lived: where to go, where to have the best scenery, interesting places or attractions in the city, their dialect and cuisine, what they knew about the history of the train station. A total of 74 people were interviewed, and the world as they and the two authors saw constituted a unique landscape of the world's longest train journey.
This is not the first time that the two authors have collaborated, before their co-creation of "Family History" (the Chinese version has been introduced by Houlang) has won many awards, using an old house, 5 generations, 80 family members, 100 treasures to tell the sad and happy past of russia's century-old family and the vicissitudes of the country's history.
Markets Around the World
[West] Joseph Sukaracks/
[English] Miranda Sophronio/ Painted
Wu Luyao/Translation
Wave Blossom | Straits Bookstore April 2022
Age of readability: 8+
Markets come because of the trade in commodities, and this book introduces more than 40 peculiar markets in the world from the aspects of their origin, function, variety, and way goods are traded.
Some markets are like zoos, and some markets are full of food; Some markets are open-air, and some markets have domes; Things that are not common in some markets can be seen everywhere in other markets; There are also some foods that people have never heard of appear in some markets. Walking into every market, you can see a kind of customs and customs.
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Bridge Book
Go ahead, Iron Barrel! (Phonetic version)
[Sun] Furuta Ashihi / Author [Sun] Seiichi Tabata / 绘
Tian Xiujuan/Translation
Relay Press July 2022
Age of readability: 7+
This is a phonetic version of the bridge book, the author Furuta Suda's most well-known book in the Chinese market is the "first-grade big man second-grade small man" series, he can always truly capture the psychological state of primary school students, good at portraying the protagonist's emotions and conflicts. This book," Go Ahead, Iron Barrel! Contains 7 short stories, all of which take place between the boy Xiaobu and his companions.
The second of the seven stories is the title of the book, "Go Ahead, Iron Barrel!" Xiao Bu and the mighty sixth graders bet on rowing in a very shallow and shallow river. Xiaobu thought that he could make a boat out of an empty iron barrel, so he posted an advertisement in the community to collect empty iron barrels. With the iron barrel, he and his companions found that the iron barrel did not float forward, but fell into the mud at the bottom of the river. The sixth graders were laughing at him at this time, so what would Xiaobu think of? ...... Gutian Ashita takes the neighborhood familiar to urban children as a story scene, depicting the innocence and fun childhood life of children.
Editor/Shen Chan
Proofreading/Janin