Emotional Learning: How Children's Literature Teaches Us to Feel Emotions, [de] Ute Frefter et al., translated by Huang Huaiqing, Guang Qi | Shanghai People's Publishing House, July 2021.
What exactly do children who love to read get out of children's literature? This may be a thought that often flashes in our minds, but "since the world says that reading is good, let the child read it as long as he likes it", and when such a reply is generated in the heart, it immediately snuffs out our hearts that want to find out.
The book "Emotional Learning" is to help us burn that little flame of curiosity. It starts from the emotional learning of children, analyzes the children's literature that is recognized by authoritative figures or institutions (including parents, teachers, critics, scholars, publishers, librarians and various book award committees), which can be said to be a branch of the study of "emotional history" and the development history of children's literature; it can be said to be a review of classic children's literature works, and it can also be said to be the integration of two book categories for different readers, tutoring and children's literature, from the perspective of education.
Children's literature is created for the purpose of writing to a specific political, religious or social audience, some to satisfy children's desires to play or overstep their bounds, and many at the same time on multiple levels, but whether fictional or non-fiction, they are helping children learn to understand the world with emotions. Each chapter of the book focuses on one emotion: anxiety, trust, piety, compassion, empathy, love, shame, pain, fear, bravery, homesickness, and boredom, each of which is linked to other emotions, including childhood history, anthropology, reading and learning theory, psychology, and tutoring, providing a cognitive pathway for us to understand the meaning of children's literature for children.
"The Story of Xiao Bi", by [Han] Song Zhenxian, magic elephant | Guangxi Normal University Press, June 2021.
Age of readability: 5+
This is a picture book with only two shades of black and white, slightly gray and dark. Xiao Bi is a special child, he does not go to school, all day long wandering alone in the woods, walking with branches to knock his head. The children avoided him and even laughed at him. Sometimes, "I" would go into the woods and stay with Xiao Bi, but from then on, the other children would hide away when they saw "me". Will "I" become friends with Xiao Bi?
In this imperfect world, there are cruel and complex friendships between children, but this is exactly what the author wants us to think: how can we grow sincerity and kindness in such a world?
"Little Sloppy Finds a New Home", written or painted by Akifumi Sawano, | Dolphin Press, June 2021.
Age of readability: 3+
This is a picture book with a strong story, and it has a little bit of a similar idea to the 1987 animated film "The Adventures of the Dirty King" produced by the Shanghai Fine Arts Film Studio.
The little boy named Ginda is a very lazy guy, and the family is in a mess all year round. One day he saw a wild cat named TeaMaru that could customize a comfortable new home for animals and even monsters, so he also gave Chamaru his wish: I wanted to have a clean and tidy home, and then I made a mess of the house while waiting for TeaMaru to tell him that his dream had come true. But the tea pills did not come, so he went out to find the tea pills, but the result was unexpected...
It's Raining! By Linda Ashman, By Christian Robinson, Red Cape | CITIC Publishing Group, July 2021.
Rain is a ganlin in some places and flooding in some places. For some people it is a surprise and romance, and for some people it is trouble and bad.
The book advances the story with a "double picture" contrast. The picture on the left is an old man, and the picture on the right is a child, the two of them live in the same neighborhood, but it is raining, which brings them a very different experience. The old man is always disgusted, the child is always happy, until one day they meet...
The book has very little text and speaks mainly in pictures. The artist, Christian Robinson, has won the Newberry Gold And Silver Caldecott Awards for The Last Stop on Market Street, as well as several other children's book awards.
Here We Go Again! The Evolution of Regrets", [Japanese] Tadadaaki Imagi, ed., [Japanese] Fumie Shimoma, etc., Love Tree | South Seas Publishing Company, June 2021.
Age of readability: 6+
The "Evolution of Regrets" series has been published in two previous books, and this is the third book, and each page is an animal's spit card. Evolution has given them "weaknesses" that they have to accept, which contrast with the impression they usually leave on humans, and read that sometimes surprises and sometimes laughs. The first two books are about animals, and this one adds microbes and plants.
The author, Tadaoaki Imaizumi, is a Japanese biologist who has loved raising a variety of animals since he was a child, and after graduating from university, he worked as an animal commentator at Ueno Zoo in Japan, as the director of the Japan Cat Research Institute, participated in many animal-related research, and worked in the field in his 70s. In the third issue of the new children's book ("Is this true?" | Children's Book New Products") We have recommended several other books of the same type introduced by Yutian Culture and written by him.
A Day of primitive man (a total of four volumes), written/painted by Duan Zhang, magical time | CITIC Publishing Group, July 2021.
This is the third installment in the "A Day in the Life of the Ancients" series. The eight books previously published were "The Emperor's Day", "The Day of the Warrior", "The Day of the Princess", "The Day of the Chivalrous", "The Day of the Painter", "The Doctor's Day", "The Poet's Day", and "The Day of the Wenchen", which won a good market reputation.
Slightly different from the previous eight books, "A Day in the Primitive Man" uses four books to talk about the life of primitive people, and the four books correspond to the clothes, food, shelter, and travel of primitive people. In the painting, the previous style is still continued, and the expressions and actions of each page and each character are different, and the lines are also very humorous. It also set up "Primitive Encyclopedia", "Wild Survival Guide", "Knowledge Sticky Notes", "Tool Making Guide" and other small knowledge.
"Different 1", written by Wu Yanan, painted by Liu Langsha, and | Tomorrow Press, July 2021.
1 Everyone can write, but everyone can write differently. What would you do if someone else didn't write like you?
The brown bear teacher taught the children to learn to write the number "1": the little crab climbed horizontally, and the "1" written was also horizontal; the bird flew around and found a branch as a "1"; the little snake would change its body shape and become "1"; there was also a hat "1", a dancing "1", a small "1"... In the face of the strange "1", the brown bear teacher did not harshly criticize and deny, but gave full affirmation and appreciation, and even, for the piglet who did not turn in his homework and fell asleep under the desk, the brown bear teacher also reminded the child in a kind way, but also maintained his self-esteem - "the piglet's 1 grew wings and flew into the dream".
The Little Angel of the Brown Family, by David Almond, Alex S. Brown T. Smith, translated by Yang Wenjuan, Tianluo | Beijing United Publishing Company, May 2021.
Age of readability: 9+
Author David Almond is a former Andersen Award winner and is acclaimed novelist and playwright in the UK. His first novel, The Angel Fell to Earth, published in 1998, won the British Carnegie Prize for Literature, and several more have since been written.
The beginning of the novel resembles a scene from the picture book 100-story bus. A driver who has been driving a bus for ten years walks on a familiar road every day, eager for something different, and sure enough, a little angel appears in his pocket. He took the little angel home and, together with his wife, named him Angelino. The little angel can't speak, but farts when he's happy.
When the little angel went to school, he began to learn many things that are very important to people, such as friendship, family affection, happiness, etc., some students in the school liked him, but the acting principal, Mrs. Moore, Professor Smyley, did not like him so much, and some people wanted to arrest him... What awaits the future of the little angel?
"Color Tricksters", by [Portuguese] Gonzalo Viana, translated by Gong Qinyi, Children's and Children's Publishing House, July 2021.
Age of readability: 4+
This is a seemingly "nonsensical" picture book, daring to go beyond the conventional, with different colors of dislocation, movement and combination to construct the picture, showing the depiction style of a retro circus, suitable for children who are full of curiosity and imagination about color.
The big tree has a white canopy, but the clouds in the sky are green, how can this be? Could it be that the uncle who painted was mistaken? And there are also a group of aunts and uncles facing our questions with enigmatic expressions...
Edit | Shen Chan, Qingqingzi, Luo Dong
Proofreading | Lucy