India Children's Books

Oh, how to choose?!  We have a number of picture books about India on our shelf already to reflect The Whirl Girl's half-Indian heritage.  And we've been lucky to collect some from Indian publishers like Tulika Books and Tara Books on our travels to India.

I've managed to limit myself to a top five and a few bonus books.  If you're interested in finding more books, check out author Pooja Makhijani's annotated bibliography of children's literature on South Asia and the South Asian diaspora. 

As a reminder you can find all of the books that we've read (with reviews) on the Whirls and Twirls Goodreads page.  They are shelved by country for quick searches.  (You can also see what's on our current shelf on the right sidebar). 

Here's the top five for India:


Monsoon
written by Uma Krishnaswami, illustrated by Jamel Akib
This is one of my very favorite books and one that The Whirl Girl has loved since she was two.  I initially was surprised that she took to it at such a young age because it is a quiet story.  Then I realized that she loves that it is about a family, and it shows each of them throughout one day, ending with a huge monsoon rainfall.  The prose is a joy to read and the illustrations are lush and evocative.  I'm a big fan in general of Uma Krishnaswami's books.  I couldn't include them all here, but highly recommend that you check them out. 

To Market!  To Market!
written by Anuska Ravishankar, illustrated by Emanuele Scanziani
I really wanted to include a book from an Indian publisher in our list and this was my favorite of the bunch.  Ravishankar is one of the most prolific Indian children's book authors.  It shows a young girl going to an Indian market, filled with all of the colors, commotion and excitement that you would expect to see.  The illustrations are stunning and the word play is fun and memorable.

Mama's Saris
written by Pooja Makhijani, illustrated by Elena Gomez
Not surprisingly, mother-daughter stories are a big hit in our house.  This is a sweet story about a daughter wanting to dress up in her mother's saris.  The illustrations capture the vibrant colors and patterns of Indian women's clothing.  The text is both tender and realistic.

The Rumor: A Jataka Tale from India
written and illustrated by Jan Thornhill
We have to have an animal book!  This features some Indian favorites: tigers, lions, rhinos, hares, deer and boars.  According to the book, Jataka tales have been used for centuries to teach about sharing, compassion and the difference between good and bad.  The story has a great pace and the illustrations animate the scenes taking the reader above and through the jungle.

Elephant Dance: A Journey to India
written by Theresa Heine, illustrated by Sheila Moxley
This is kind of like a kid's travelogue to India, as told by a grandfather to his grandchildren.  It takes the reader all over the country, with bright and colorful illustrations.  It also has good information pages at the back.  


And the bonus books:

Anklet for a Princess: A Cinderella Story from India
story by Lila Mehta, adapted by Meredith Brucker, illustrated by Youshan Tang
A couple of months ago, The Whirl Girl entered the princess phase and she asked for a princess book.  I felt much better checking out this Indian version from the library than the Disney ones.  We read it every day for a month and finally bought a copy for ourselves.  It's a bit old for her (lots of text), but I abridge it and she loves it.

Cricket!
by Sandhya Rao
This is one of the handful of bilingual (English-Hindi) books that we have.  It has very simple text with photos of kids playing cricket all over India.  A tour of India is not complete without a look at the national sport, especially since India just recently won the Cricket World Cup.  

Aani and the Tree Huggers
written by Jeannine Atkins, illustrated by Venantius J. Pinto
This is a story of a village girl who bravely saves the trees in her area from being cut down.  It's a good continuation of themes that we read in books about Wangari Maathai and her environmental work in Kenya.  

Lily's Garden of India
written by Jeremey Smith, illustrated by Rob Hefferan
This book will be a nice compliment to planned projects with Indian flowers like marigolds and jasmine.  It is a story about a little girl who goes into the Indian section of her mother's garden and is transported amongst the plants and flowers of India. 

Lighting a Lamp: A Diwali Story
written by Jonny Zucker, illustrated by Jan Bargar Cohen
I wanted to include a book about Diwali since we will be celebrating the festival at the end of the month.  This is the best (and maybe the only) that I could find for The Whirl Girl's age group.  It gives a simple understanding of the main rituals associated with the holiday. 

Baya, Baya. Lulla-by-a
written by Megan McDonald, illustrated by Vera Rosenberry
This is a bedtime story featuring a mother and her baby, set in an Indian village.  Hindi words are intertwined throughout the text, which is almost more of a poem than a story.  The illustrations are evocative of rural Indian life. 

China Children's Books

Not surprisingly, there were a handful of great options for picture books about China.  I figured out what angles we wanted to cover and found some books accordingly.  I was hoping to find a book that explored some aspect of Chinese history, but they seemed geared toward older kids.  Still, I couldn't quite limit myself to five, so there's a top five and a few bonus books. 

As a reminder, you can find all of the books we've read (with reviews) on the Whirls and Twirls Goodreads page.  They are shelved by country for quick searches.  (You can also see what's on our current shelf on the right sidebar of this site).

Here's the top five for China:

Lin Yi's Lantern
written by Brenda Williams, illustrated by Benjamin Lacombe
It's Mid-Autumn Festival time and we had to have a book about the festival.  I loved the story of this one, about a boy who has to collect festival items at the market.  The market illustrations are vivid and lively.  And there's a nice message about being selfless and generous.

The Seven Chinese Sisters
written by Kathy Tucker, illustrated by Grace Lin
I just know The Whirl Girl will love this book based on a folktale.  It features seven sisters who each use their own special skills to save their baby sister from a dragon.  It has just the right mix of suspense and girl power. 

In the Snow
written and illustrated by Huy Voun Lee
This book features a small boy who is learning Chinese characters with his mom by tracing them in the snow.  I wanted to do something centered around Chinese language and calligraphy and this book was a perfect fit.  It is a quiet book that features a different Chinese character on each page (tree, forest, rain, sun, moon, etc).  The evocative illustrations reflect the characters of each page.

Little Panda
written and illustrated by Renata Liwska
The animal books are always a big hit with The Whirl Girl, so we had to have a panda book.  We're still waiting for this one to come in from the library, but it got good reviews on Amazon.

Good Morning China
written and illustrated by Hu Yong Yi
This book depicts all of the activities that go on in a Chinese park, like exercising, painting doing tai chi, and playing games.  I liked the simplicity of it.  It has a distinctively Chinese feel but the idea of going to the park is universally familiar to kids.


Bonus Books:

Thanking the Moon
written and illustrated by Grace Lin
This book about the Mid-Autumn Festival is a nice compliment to Lin Yi's Lantern.  It has a simpler story, showing a family celebrating with traditional foods and activities at an evening picnic.  The illustrations are colorful and clear, and give a nice sense of participating in the festival.

Yum Yum Dim Sum
written and illustrated byAmy Wilson Sanger
We have the Indian version Chaat and Sweets which we love.  I thought that The Whirl Girl would like a book about Chinese food, since I'm reading one for the grown-up book of the month.

The Great Race: The Story of the Chinese Zodiac
written by Dawn Casey, illustrated by Anne Wilson
There's a handful of great books about the Chinese New Year, which falls in January or February, like these on a list compiled by InCulture Parent.  I liked this one, which isn't specific to the new year, but does introduce the Chinese zodiac.  Animals racing - always a hit with The Whirl Girl. 

Peru Children's Books

I'm rethinking whether it's a good idea to take The Whirl Girl with me to the library to exchange one month's books for the next. In theory, it works. She sees the "Malaysia books" go in the return slot, and helps check out the "Peru books." Poof! It's a new month, with a clear transition in her mind.

In reality, she had very little interest in being at the library and looking through books. This time I was much more organized, with a quick list of books I'd researched in advance, and I even had the call numbers of the areas where she could find and flip through related non-fiction books. But she just wasn't into it. I tried looking through shelves together. I tried sitting at a table with her and reading the pile we accumulated. Nothing worked. So we packed up and headed home quickly. I think next month I'll give it a go on my own. An antsy kid and a frustrated mom don't make for a great adventure.

How are your trips to the libraries with the kiddos?

Despite the not-so-fun outing, we are excited about our books! The Whirl Girl wanted to read her Peru books for sleepytime that night.

Also, I've added all of our books - with reviews! - onto a Whirls and Twirls account on Goodreads. They are shelved by country for quick searches. (You can also see what's currently on our Goodreads shelf on the right sidebar of this site).

Here's our top five for Peru:

Up and Down the Andes: A Peruvian Festival Tale
written by Laurie Krebs, illustrated by Aurelia Fronty
This is a nice rhyming story as individual kids from all over Peru travel to Cusco for the Incan Festival of the Sun God. It has rich, colorful illustrations, and I like that it features children (as opposed to most of our other books with animal characters). Also, there are a handful of well-written pages at the end with information about Peruvian festivals, geography and people.

Lost City: The Discovery of Macchu Picchu
by Ted Lewin
We had to have something about Macchu Picchu! (The Whirl Girl is already enjoying saying it). I probably would have preferred something a little more Inca-focused, but this is a good telling of how it was discovered. The text is a bit over The Whirl Girl's head, but it should be easy enough to simplify. It had a good sense of adventure and discovery to it.

How Llama Saved the Day
written by Janet Palazzo-Craig, illustrated by Craig Reasoner
This is a folk story about a great flood. It features lots of different animals from the region and has a simple, easy-to-follow story.

Love and Roast Chicken: A Trickster Tale from the Andes Mountains
by Barbara Knutson
This is another folktale, and a bit more complex. We'll see if The Whirl Girl can follow it. But it's not every day that you run across a book that has a cunning guinea pig as the hero.

We're Roaming in the Rainforest
written by Laurie Krebs, illustrated by Anne Wilson
I debated whether we should do another rainforest book this month, since we our Malaysia month had such a strong jungle focus. But our Peruvian books seemed to lean a little too heavily on the Andes, and I wanted to balance it out with another important part of Peruvian geography. Anyway, it's a good lesson that there are rainforests all over the world, and The Whirl Girl will like discovering that some of her jungle friends live in Peru too.


Here's a couple more that I couldn't find in Singapore, but would have liked to read:

Moon Rope
by Lois Elhert
This was especially enticing because it is bilingual (English-Spanish). It is a folktale featuring a fox, a mole and the moon.

The Littlest Llama
written by Jane Buxton, illustrated by Jenny Cooper
Though I think we have enough llama books (we also have a non-fiction llama book and two books from the "Llama Llama" series), I liked that this one features llamas living in their Andean environment.

Carolina's Gift: A Story of Peru
written by Katacha Diaz, illustrated by Gredna Landolt
The Whirl Girl identifies easily with stories featuring little girls. I think she would like this story about a girl looking for a present at the market for her grandmother.

Secrets of Ancient Cultures: The Inca: Activities and Crafts from a Mysterious Land
by Arlette N. Braman
A book full of Peruvian craft ideas?! Excellent. But that would be too easy, right?

Malaysia Children's Books

As I mentioned in the itinerary, it was much harder to find good and applicable books about Malaysia than it was about Kenya. But after some creative searching, we've got five (and two bonus books). Unfortunately for those of you who don't live in the region, they might be hard to track down. But you can always suggest them to your local library - maybe they're looking to expand their multicultural collection!

This month, The Whirl Girl joined me at the library and also picked out some non-fiction books on animals that live in Malaysia. She liked that process, though next time I will be more organized so I can grab my books quickly. She didn't have a lot of patience for my browsing.

Sasha Visits Kuala Lampur
written by Shamini Flint, illustrated by Alpana Ahuja
This is one in the "Sasha" series, which is published here in Singapore. Sasha visits places all over our part of the world and shares her travels with a young audience. In this book, she visits sites and markets in Kuala Lampur. I liked it because it shows urban Malaysia, in addition to the jungle stories and folktales that we're reading.

The Beaded Slippers
written by Adeline Foo, illustrated by Lee Kowling
This is another book by a Singaporean author. It offers insight into Peranakan culture, a culture that was formed when various foreign traders who came through the region for the last couple of centuries married local women. I had never heard of the term before coming here, but they are a prominent part of Malaysian and Singaporean heritage. This book tells the story of a little girl who discovers her grandmother's history and wedding traditions.

Little Sibu: An Orangutan Tale
written by Sally Grindley, illustrated by John Butler
This tells the story of how orangutans grow up and become independent from their mothers. The Whirl Girl has been very interested in orangutans lately - and we're going to an orangutan reserve in Borneo. I'm curious to see how she finds the tale of separation. I'm also reading a book about orangutans for my grown-up book.

My Mother's Garden
written and illustrated by Emila Yusof
This is a sweet, simple story about a girl playing with the flowers and butterflies in her mother's garden. It is written and illustrated by a Malaysian author, and while the text doesn't specify its Malaysian setting, the illustrations are evocative of the region. The end has an appendix with the names (in English and Malay) of the plants featured in the drawings.

Rain Forests
written by Nancy Smiler Levinson, illustrated by Diane Dawson Hearn
Since we will be going to Borneo and into the jungle (well, jungle lite), I wanted to read a book about the rainforest. There is a good list of options on The Artful Parent, one of my favorite blogs. Most of them are more Amazon-focused, so I picked this one that features one page spread on the Bornean rainforest and some good general information on rainforests. It's a little more on the factual side than the story side, but the illustrations keep The Whirl Girl's attention. Though after the first reading, I think The Whirl Girl is more scared than excited to go to the jungle. "I don't want to see snakes. Or ants. Or lizards. Or crocodiles." I can't blame her, though, I feel pretty much the same way!


I also found a couple of books that are for an older audience than The Whirl Girl. They are more text and less pictures, but I will try to abbreviate and paraphrase them because they offer something different than we're getting in the other books. Two bonus books:

Malaysian Children's Favourite Stories
written by Kay Lyons, illustrated by Martin Loh
This book retells nine Malaysian folk tales, featuring princesses and Malaysian animals like tapirs, crocodiles, and the mousedeer.

Payah
written by Margaret H.L. Lim, illustrated by Su Jen Buchheim
This book was written by an author from Sarawak, the Borean state in Malaysia that we will be visiting. It is about a little girl who cares for animals in her native Sarawak and features animals like the orangutan, hornbill and a mouse deer. The story is a little disjointed but offers some insight into longhouse culture and the Sarawakian living environment. It has some nice illustrations at the beginning of the book.


And here's a book that I couldn't find here, but might be easier to find elsewhere:

The Adventures of Mouse Deer: Tales of Indonesia and Malaysia
written by Aaron Shepard, illustrated by Kim Gamble
This looks like a good option showing Malaysian folktales for younger kids.

Kenya Picture Books

I was pleasantly surprised to find a good handful of books about Kenya to choose from this month. A couple come from our bookshelf and the rest are from the (amazingly well-stocked) Singapore library.

Here's our top five:

Mama Panya's Pancakes: A Village Tale from Kenya
written by Mary and Rich Chamberlin, illustrated by Julia Cairns
A story about preparing a meal for friends in a Kenyan village. I like how it shows "typical" life and how friends and families spend time together. Plus it has a recipe in the back that we can use for our cooking project!

Kenya ABCs
written by Sarah Heiman, illustrated by Arturo Avillo
The Whirl Girl is really into thinking about letters right now, so this seemed perfect. I like that some of the words and images will be familiar to her and others will be new.

Wangari's Trees of Peace: A True Story from Africa
written and illustrated by Jeanette Winter
The biographical story of Wangari Maathai, a Nobel Peace Prize winner for her work on environmental issues in Kenya. I'm always trying to find ways to expose The Whirl Girl to social justice in a kid-friendly way and this seemed like a good entry. There were a number of children's books about Maathai (see below). I'll be reading her memoir as my grown-up book for the month. And we'll be making a donation to her organization in an effort to give back to the community.

The Lonely Lioness and the Ostrich Chicks: A Masai Tale
retold by Verna Aardema, illustrated by Yumi Heo
Animals are a great entry point for kids into Kenya, so I wanted at least one book about Kenyan animals. I like that this is a Masai folk tale and I thought the story was about at The Whirl Gir's speed. I'm hoping that it ties in nicely with Under the Baobab Tree, a play we're going to see.

Papa, Do You Love Me?
by Barbara M. Joosee, illustrated by Barbara Lavallee
This is one from our own bookshelf and one The Whirl Girl already likes. It is a sweet tale that shows life among the Masai in the Serengeti, in a way that kids can really connect to.


And a bonus book:

Mama Miti: Wangari Maathai and the Trees of Kenya
by Donna Jo Napoli, illustrated by Kadir Nelson
I love the illustrations in this book, which come from African fabric. It's a nice compliment to our other Wangari Maathai book, showing how and why women planted all different kinds of indigenous trees. I'm curious to see which style The Whirl Girl relates to more - this one which explores a more micro level and our other macro-level book.


And others that you might add to your list:

Bringing the Rain to Kapiti Plain
by Verna Aardema
Another option with animals, a rhyming poem about drought and rain and how it affects animals and people living in the Kenyan savannah.

Giraffes Can't Dance
by Giles Andreae, illustrated by Guy Parker-Rees
Another one from our shelf that is a big hit with The Whirl Girl. Lots and lots of animals with vibrant illustrations and a nice story about dancing to your own tune.

Masai and I
by Virginia Kroll, illustrated by Nancy Carpenter
This story compares the lives of an African-American girl and a Masai girl. I thought the concept might be a little advanced for The Whirl Girl right now, but great in a year.

For You Are a Kenyan Child
by Kelly Cunnane, illustrated by Ana Juan
This was checked out from the library, otherwise it might be in our top five. A "day-in-the-life" story of a Kenyan kid.

More books about Wangari Maathai:
Planting the Trees of Kenya: The Story of Wangari Maathai
by Claire A. Nivola
This offers a good explanation of how and why Wangari did what she did, but seemed to be aimed at an older audience. There was also more background on the politics of her efforts.

Seeds of Change: Wangari's Gift to the World
by Jen Cullerton Johnson, illustrated by Sonia Lynn Sadler
This has great illustrations and offers a biography of her whole life, but is better for older kids.