Reading from Delroy in the Marog Kingdom and Beautiful Blackbird

The Montessori School in Montego Bay invited me to do a book reading on April 23, 2015. Since some of the children there are only 3 years old, I decided to read a book more suited to that age group than Delroy in the Marog Kingdom, which I read to the older children.  

I chose Beautiful Blackbird by Ashley Bryan which lends itself to actions in which the children can take part.

 I wrote out the story on 5” x 3” cards, so that one of the children could hold up the book for the others to see the delightful pictures. It also enabled me to maintain eye-contact with the children and show them the actions. These included a flap-flap-flapping of their wings, beak to beak – peck, peck, peck and a dance called the show claws slide. I had a feather handy to ‘paint’ the birds with spots, large and small, and stripes close together and far apart.

There are several possible follow-up activities to this reading. Younger children can be given birds  cut out of different coloured cartridge paper to paint with dots and stripes, and paste on to a larger picture. If the larger picture includes a lake, they could match the birds with their mirror images. Older children can draw birds and cut out their shapes. Children can be involved in a discussion about what is on the outside not being an indication of what is on the inside.

Crab Catcher at Treasure Beach

All children can be set a challenge to name and recognize Jamaican birds. They could start this activity before hearing the story. How many of the birds are found only in Jamaica? How many of them and which ones are migratory (here for only part of the year). What does migration mean? Where do the birds go in the summer (or the winter)? What colour are the birds? Are any of them only one colour? How many of them have markings of black on them?  What do birds eat? What connection is there between the shapes of their beaks and the food they eat? Make a humming bird feeder out of a plastic bottle to hang at the location – children can make their own to hang at their homes. 

Hummingbird at a feeder

The topic also lends itself to a discussion on respect for wild life, and whether it is wrong to kill birds with a sling-shot and steal eggs from nests.  

Preparing to put the frog in the pot
Reading from
Delroy in the Marog Kingdom
at the Montessori School

Ridiculous Math Questions

Mona Reservoir, Kingston, Jamaica

I thought Math was supposed to teach children to think logically and to use their common sense in assessing whether answers were possible or not. However, when checking math homework, I came across these questions in the Grade 5 “New Integrated Approach Mathematics Workbook” by Powell, Scott and Taylor, published by PST Central Publishers (Jamaica), on page 162:

# 1. The distance around a circular swimming pool is 4.42 km. How far is the outer wall from the centre of the pool?

The answer works out to be 704 metres.  The distance across the pool would be 1408 metres – approximately 5 times the distance between the groynes at Doctor’s Cave Beach. Suppose the pool is 1 m deep,  (a safe depth since anyone getting into difficulties would otherwise drown before a life-guard could reach them), the volume of water in the pool would be 3.14 x 704 x 704 = 1,556,234 cubic metres  = approx. 1,556 million litres  or 411 million US gallons. At NWC rates, this pool would cost Ja $554,641,797.60 to fill. This is a reservoir, not a swimming pool! This distance around the Mona Reservoir is only 2.74 km!

What is the point of this ridiculous question? For children to demonstrate that they can do complicated long division sums, calculate the radius of a circle when given the circumference, and remember to (and how to) convert kilometres to metres? 

Lucea Courthouse with German clock in the tower.

#5. A circular clock in the town square is 125 m in diameter. How far is the outer edge of the clock from its centre?

My questions: What would be the weight of this clock and the mechanism used to make it work? How big is the town square? Is the clock upright or flat on the ground? If it was upright it would be about a third the height of the Empire State Building and at its widest point would fill about half a city block. How far away from it would you have to be to be able to read it? If it was flat on the ground, it couldn’t fit into a space the size of the National Stadium in Kingston, Jamaica. What would be the use of such a clock, anyway? By way of comparison, the dials on Big Ben, one of the biggest clocks in the world, are 7 metres in diameter.

The purpose of this ridiculous question is for children to demonstrate that they know that the radius of a circle is half the diameter and that they can divide 125 by 2. Surely there must be a more sensible way for children to do so. Why not asks a question about the clock in Lucea town square? This book claims to have an integrated approach, why not include some interesting history too? The clock, in the shape of a helmet worn by the German Royal Guard, was intended to be a gift from the people of Germany to the people of St. Lucia. By mistake it was sent to Lucea, Jamaica which had ordered a smaller clock from the same company. The people loved  the clock and raised the extra money to pay for it. The clock was installed in the tower in 1817.

Writers of math text books and teachers, please write sensible problems with realistic measurements that children can relate to, and that can show how math is used in everyday life. These ridiculous questions must surely alienate students who already have a negative attitude towards math. 

Children's Books from or about Africa

This is the first of a series of posts I am writing for persons who would like to purchase multicultural books for Jamaican children, and would appreciate suggestions about what is available and appropriate. I hope that this list will also be useful for teachers, librarians, book distributers and corporate donors. This post has 20 books from and about Africa. I have been somewhat arbitrary in my selection, mainly from the website of Africa Access Review. One post cannot cover this vast continent, so there will be a part 2 at some point.

The first 10 books on the list are for younger children (aged 4-7), but not for them to read on their own, because of the level of vocabulary, the sentence structure and the concepts. They are, however, ideal for reading aloud and for discussion.    

1.     Ais for Africa by Ifeoma Onyefulu (Puffin Books 1997)  – good information about Nigeria, suitable for Jamaican Basic Schools.  Ifeoma Onyefulu has written many more beautifully illustrated books for this age group.

2.     The Magic Gourd by Baba Wague Diakite (Scholastic 2003)  - a folktale from Mali about kindness and generosity. Good for reading aloud to 4 – 7 year-olds. 

3.     A Gift from Childhood by Baba Wague Diakite (Groundwood Books 2010) - a story about traditional village life in Mali. 

4.     KenteColors by Debbi Chocolate (Walker Children’s 1997) - about the traditional kente cloth of the Ashante people of Ghana  

5.     Handa’s Hen by Eileen Browne (Candlewick 2011) – a simple counting story set in Kenya.   

6.     Catch That Goat by Polly Alakija (Barefoot Books 2002) – set in Nigeria, a goat gets away and runs through the town’s market. Grade 1 children should be able to read this simple story on their own. Younger children could tell the story from the illustrations.

7.     Babu’s Song by Stephanie Stuve-Bodeen (Lee and Low Books 2003) – with the help of Babu, his mute grandfather, Bernard is able to go to school.

8.     Muktar and the Camels by Janet Graber (Henry Holt and Co 2009) – living in an orphanage on the border of Somalia and Kenya, Muktar remembers the time when he lived with his family and the camels.  This book would also be of interest to older children who could read it for themselves. 

9.     Zeraffa Giraffa by Quarto Generic (Frances Lincoln Children’s Books 2014) – the amazing  true story of  Zeraffa, a giraffe who was sent as a gift by the Ottoman Viceroy of Egypt to King Charles X of France in 1826. 

10.  Circle Unbroken by Margo Theis Raven (Square Fish 2007) – the story of how the art of basket-making was taken from Africa to the Carolinas. Is there a similar story of the way in which the art of basket-making was brought to Jamaica?  

   The following 10 books are suitable for children aged 8-12 to read on their own.

1.     Sundiata:Lion King of Mali by David Wisniewski. (HMH Books for Young Readers; 1999) In the thirteenth century, Sundiata overcame physical handicaps, social disgrace, and strong opposition to rule the West African trading empire of Mali. A good book for teachers to read aloud to grades 2 & 3 children, and for older children to read on their own. 

2.     The Other Side of Truth by Beverley Naidoo (Harper Trophy 2002) – 2 children are smuggled out of Nigeria when their mother is killed in political unrest. The difficulties they face as refugees in London.  This story won a Carnegie Medal UK and many other awards.  

3.    Nelson Mandela The Long Walk to Freedom by Chris Van Wyk and Nelson Mandela (Macmillan 2009) – an abridged version of Nelson Mandela’s autobiography. 

4.     The No.1 Car Spotter by Atinuke  (Kane Miller Book Pub; June 2011) – No 1 is bright, plucky and resourceful – a fantastic character for Atinuke’s new series. 

5.     How the Leopard got his Claws by Chinua Achebe (Candlewick Press 2011)  – a fable about the dangers of power taken by force.

6.     The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind by William Kamkwamba (Dial Books for Young Readers 2012) - the true story of how this author, as a teenager, built a functional windmill from junkyard scraps in Malawi.  

7.     Pharoah’s Boat by David Weitzman (Houghton Mifflin Books for Children 2009) - the story of how one of the greatest boats of ancient Egypt came to be built.

8.     Seeds of Change – Planting a Path to Peace by Jen Johnson (Lee and Low Books 2010) - tree planting movement in Kenya spearheaded by Wangari Maathai and other women, and opposed by government and multinationals. 

9.     Bintou’s Braids by Sylviane Diouf  (Chronicle Books 2001)– a young girl in West Africa is in a hurry to grow up, but she learns that she must earn her braids. 

10.  Mystery of MeerkatHill by Alexander McCall Smith (Anchor 2013) – one of several children’s detective stories, about Precious Ramotswe, set in Botswana. 

Pearson’s Stepping Stones Series

I wrote “Errol’s Taxi” many years ago and rewrote it after several rejections, so it was ready to go out again. In January 2012, on a week’s notice, I submitted it to Pearson Caribbean for consideration for their Stepping Stones Series. One year later, I received an email to say that they were interested, after which followed the editing process. In August 2013, I received copies of the book. I wanted to know where they would be available for purchase, but was informed that they would not be put in bookshops. Instead, their agents would be taking inspection copies to schools, after which the schools would put in their orders with the distributer, Carlong, with the intention that the schools would receive books for use in the 2014-15 school year.

I was interested to see what titles were in the series, their reading levels and authors. However, this information seems to be one of the most closely guarded secrets in the publishing industry. On Pearson’s facebook page, the last entry was in 2013, and the videos on that page are unavailable. To get on to Pearson’s website caribbean.pearson.com/steppingstones, you have to log in and there are no instructions for registering. All I could find out was that there were 6 levels, with 10 books in each level. They are colour coded with red being the first level.

Since I had an interest in acquiring suitable texts for emergent readers, I found out that I could purchase single copies of some of the books from Carlong. I placed my order based on titles only from what they had in stock. They turned out to be from green (for the average grade 1 reader) and blue and purple levels (for grade 2). On reading the 25 books, I found that only 5 of them had specifically Caribbean content.  

These were, at the Green Level

1.     “Selling Bread” by Melissa Balgobin  – the story of  Eric Williams, first Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago.

At the Blue Level

2.     “Save My Baby Turtles” by Lucille Wilkinson – set in Trinidad, but applicable to most Caribbean Islands.

At the Purple Level

3.     “Fish Outta Water” by Joanne Hillhouse (Award-winning Antiguan author) – an arctic seal gets transported to the Caribbean.

4.     “Ruby Chick” by Patricia Cuff (retired Jamaican Librarian) – a chicken is lured into the mongoose den.

5.     “Errol’s Taxi” by Helen Williams – Errol uses his taxi to transport goats he steals.

The other titles, while being entertaining or informative for children, are comparable in content to any series of books for beginning readers, such as Harper’s “I Can Read” series and Scholastic’s levelled readers, which are on sale in local bookshops at a lower price – Ja$550.00 compared with Pearson’s – some for Ja$940.00 or and others for $670.00.

At the Green Level are:

1.     “Chicken Licken” by Alison Hawes – a rewrite of the old story about the chicken who says “The sky is falling”. The nut illustrated is a hazel nut, unknown to Caribbean children.

2.     “Chloe the Chameleon” by Celia Warren – the chameleon turns all colours of the rainbow in her attempt to catch the fly.

3.     “Fizzkid Liz” by Linda Strachan – the inventor gets into trouble with her time-travel pogo stick.

4.     “Space Ant” by Celia Warren – lost in space, the ant finally finds there is no place like home.

5.     “The Whale in the Well” by Maureen Haselhurst – how the whale gets out of the well and what she sees.

6.     “How Does Water Change?” by George Huxley – the 3 states of matter.

7.     “Where Do All the Puddles Go?” by David Tunkin – the water cycle. Previously published by National Geographic 2003.

8.     “Night Animals” by Claire Llewellyn – bat, fox, kiwi, owl and raccoon.

At the Blue Level:

1       1.   “Bananas for Breakfast” by Jane Langford – elephants squabble over bananas. I have a problem with the illustrations, which show 5 bunches of bananas on one tree. All Caribbean children know there is only one bunch per tree, but children who’ve never seen a banana tree could be misled. This book was previously published by Rigby in 2003.
2.     “On Safari” by Claire Llewellyn – animals seen in safari parks.
3.     “Poles Apart” by Celia Warren – travels around the world with a walrus and a penguin.
4.     “The Cherokee Little People” by MariJo Moore – a Native American tale. 

5.     “The Giant Jumperee” by Julia Donaldson – Rabbit, Cat, Bear, Elephant and Frog try to find out what the terrifying thing is in Rabbit’s burrow. It is written in the form of a play, so children can act the parts. Previously published by Pearson in 2000.
6.     “Presto’s New Pet” by Damian Harvey – Presto the Wizard goes in search of an unusual pet.
7.     “Changing Shape” by Greg Pyers – animals that change shape to look different.

At the Purple Level:

1.             “King Crab is Coming” by Damian Harvey – but the fish get away before he comes.
2.     “The Rat Princess” by Michaela Morgan – King Rat wants his daughter to marry the most important husband in China, but she wants to marry Grey Rat.
3.     “Count on Your Body” by Kurt Baze – gives numbers of bones, muscles, sweat glands, hairs and other information about the body.
4.     “Living in Space” by Angela Royston – how astronauts carry out their daily activities living in a space station.
5.     “The Seven Continents” by Monica Hughes – the size, climate, people, flora and fauna of each of the 7 continents.

There were 3 titles which I decided not to buy, so I don’t know their levels. They were:

“Art in the Past”; “The Inventions of Thomas Edison”; and “The Greedy Snake”.

About the Authors:

Most of the authors are in the UK and have written hundreds of children’s books between them. The fiction authors include

Julia Donaldson (author of The Gruffalo) ; Damian Harvey ; Maureen Haselhurst; Alison Hawes; Jane Langford; Michaela Morgan; Linda Strachan ; and Celia Warren. 

The non-fiction authors include:

Claire Llewellyn, Greg Pyers, Angela Royston and David Tunkin.

 A non-UK author, MariJo Moore, of Cherokee, Irish and Dutch ancestry is an author of numerous books on Native Americans.

All the books are beautifully illustrated, with either drawings or photographs. Illustrations are important in children’s books, because they provide interest and clues to the text. There is a tendency to refer to books by their titles and authors, even though the names of the illustrators are on the covers. The following illustrators contributed to the Stepping Stones Series:

Ilias Arahovitis, Zavian Archibald, Kurt Baze, Trevor Dunton, Emma Garner, Clive Goodyear,

Rob Hefferan, Sophie Keen, Paul Korky, Gustavo Mazali, Andy Parker, Michael Reid, Janet Samuel, Andrew Selby, Emma Shaw-Smith, Mike Terry, Sholto Walker and Woody.

Concert at Mountambrin Feb 22, 2015

There will be another not-to-be missed concert at Mountambrin on Sunday, February 22, 2015 at 2 p.m. Details are in this poster. The cost is Ja$3000.00. Information on how to get to Mountambrin is given below. 

Nestled in the cool, rain-blessed hills of Westmoreland is Mountambrin, the home of Dr. Russell Gruhlke -  optometrist/farmer, Canute Gruhlke - manager of the property, and Lesbert Lee - wood-carver. It consists of the original house where Alex Haley wrote "Roots", a number of individual cottages in unusual architectural styles, the Mountambrin Tower, with views of the Westmoreland Plains,  and the Theatre Gallery, all surrounded by luxuriant vegetation in lovingly tended gardens.

To reach Mountambrin, on the road from Montego Bay to Sav-la-Mar, take a left turn at Whithorn and drive a little over a mile up the road to Darliston. Turn left along Toad Road, signed to Mountambrin.  If you doubt you are on the right track, don't worry. After a mile you will reach your destination. Admire the views and vegetation along the way.
After parking, take the opportunity to stroll around the gardens and admire the sculptures before the concert begins.

Gardens at Mountambrin

Inside the Theater Gallery 

Promotion of Caribbean Children's Literature

On January 31, 2015, Summer Edward tweeted, “We want to bring together a community around Caribbean children’s lit. Any ideas?” I’m not sure what  she has in mind, but to me the intention of it would be to promote Caribbean children’s lit, by persuading people to sell, buy, borrow, donate, write, publish and READ books set in the Caribbean about Caribbean children.

The community includes children, parents, teachers, librarians, education officers, Ministries of Education, CXC, authors, publishers, book distributers, booksellers, corporate donors, members of the diaspora and well-wishers – in a word – everybody!

The messages I would like to get across are:

1. Children need to see themselves in books. (See comments by Summer Edwards, Diane Browne and Curdella Forbes in my blog on August 6, 2014)
2. Children who read for pleasure perform better in all subject areas (including math). See my blog of September 23, 2014)
3. Children are more likely to read a book of their own choosing than a book chosen for them by someone else.
4. There are many Caribbean titles available, but people don’t know about them, plus we need many more.

I refer now specifically to the challenge to get this message across in Jamaica, as this is where I live.

Many children don’t know that Jamaicans write books or that there are any books about children like themselves.

Parents, even if they are aware of Caribbean books, are reluctant to buy them, because they can't afford them, or know more about foreign books and think they are better, or will buy books by authors they read as a child.

Teachers are too busy trying to get through the curriculum to devote time to reading. They also prescribe a myriad of workbooks, although written by Jamaicans, are of dubious educational value, are poorly written and contain inaccurate and misleading information. They are also expensive, so parents being required to buy these have no money for books for children to read for pleasure.

Librarians are doing their best with resource restraints. The Jamaica Library Service always includes Caribbean lit in their annual Reading Competition.

The Ministry of Education has produced some very good books, such as the Doctor Bird Series, and Literacy 1-2-3, but what happens to them when they get into the schools? Do education officers follow up? When I was doing some volunteer teaching at a primary school, I was able to look at only a few of these. I understand that workshops were held to instruct teachers in how to use them. Why not video-tape these workshops and have them available on Youtube? Why not have these books for sale?

Authors want to promote their books, but cannot afford to. Publishers in Jamaica, such as LMH, Carlong, Bluemoon, and Arawak are doing what they can with limited resources. Distributers such as Novelty Trading, do promote Caribbean authors to a limited extent, especially at the Calabash Literary Festival, but they too have to focus on the bottom line. Booksellers are reluctant to carry Caribbean children’s lit because “it doesn’t sell” or “it won’t sell”. This is a Catch 22 situation as the books won’t sell if they’re not prominently displayed in the bookshops. Even when they are displayed, they are sometimes withdrawn because “they are not selling”. This was the case with the Island Fiction Series in Fontana in Montego Bay (the display is set up by Novelty Trading). In their place was a whole shelf filled with the Wimpy Kid. Couldn’t a little space have been devoted to the Island Fiction Series? Obviously they’re not going to sell if they’re not there!

Island Fiction Series was later replaced by Wimpy Kid

Corporate donors are very generous when donating books for children. Unfortunately, whoever is advising them does not recommend any Caribbean books. For example, Western Union in its  I-PLEDGE  (‘I Promise to Lend Encouragement to Develop Growth in Education) has a Reading Week when senior executives and staff from GraceKennedy, GraceKennedy agents, private individuals, celebrities and media personalities visit select schools in April each year to read to students and donate books to their school libraries. I have taken part in this initiative since 2010, and suggested that they include Caribbean books, but I have never been able to speak directly to the person who chooses the (foreign) books to send to the schools.  

Every year, Great ShapeInc visits Jamaica and brings in hundreds of boxes of books, with the help and support of Sandals Foundation. A team of volunteers spends two weeks in Jamaica distributing these books and teaching in selected schools. Many of these books are series which a publisher is no longer producing, so they are given away. Georgene Crowe and Gretchen Lee, the innovators and implementers of this programme, make sure that the books are suitable but they have no other control over what books are donated. Georgene kindly purchased a copy of Delroy in the Marog Kingdom for Kendal Primary School, where they were running part of their programme, when I went to do a book reading there. Sandals Foundation has other literacy projects in different parts of Jamaica, There is also NEET  Negril Education Environment Trust which builds libraries and donates books. I failed in my efforts to get in touch with them.

From the diaspora, Natalie Bennett runs the Granville Reading and Art Programme, which includes a Summer School for which she brings in books which have been donated. Most of these books originate out of the USA.   When I listen to Dervan Malcolm’s  programme on Power 106 on Saturday mornings, I hear of other people, such as Leo Gilling and Karlene Largie (President of  Union of  Jamaican Alumni Associations) in the diaspora who are interested in education.

One of the problems with this information age is that there is so much information that one gets deafened by it. Everybody is trying to get his voice heard. Success comes to those who have the opportunity and speak the loudest and the most frequently. Perhaps if authors can get together and speak as one voice (we did that quite well on Multicultural Children’s Book Day) and we can target key persons such as Ministers of Education, CXC, Presidents of Teachers/ Principals Associations, Presidents of National PTA’s, Board Members of Bookshops/ Book Distributers/ Publishers,  CEO’s of Corporate Foundations, Presidents of Students Unions, and Media Houses with simple, eye-catching, memorable, promotional material, (no meetings, please!) we could begin to form a community supporting Caribbean children’s lit.

  

About Delroy in the Marog Kingdom

Delroy in the Marog Kingdom: “If you look into River Mumma’s eyes, something terrible going happen to you.” Too late, Delroy remembers his mother’s warning. Is drowning his fate or is something worse in store? Becoming a marog is only the beginning. The king of these unusual frogs has chosen Delroy to succeed him, but first he must retrieve the king’s magical stone from a venomous snake. Slogging through underground caves and tunnels, Delroy is tempted to give up and wonders whether he will ever return to his former life. 
Available on amazon.
ISBN: 978-0-230-03498-3

Helen Williams (pen-name Billy Elm) has lived and worked in Jamaica since graduating from Oxford University in the UK. For 38 years she taught all ages of children. Now retired, she has taken up writing for children.  DELROY IN THE MAROG KINGDOM is her first published novel. Her other publications include a short story “Finding My Roots” in Tony Bradman’s Anthology, ALL IN THE FAMILY and ERROL’S TAXI, a reader in Pearson’s Stepping Stones Series. 

Link to Bookbag review