In Search of Children's Books Featuring Filipino Characters

The title pretty much speaks for itself. Do you know of any?

As a Filipino-American child who was an avid reader, I never saw a book with a Filipino characters in it. This was in the 1970's. Keep in mind, I never specifically looked for books with Filipino characters. But as much as I read, I do think it's telling that I never encountered one. And yes, I would have remembered it if I did. We are very excited when one of our own is featured or mentioned in any type of media. Back then, there were so few that we were excited when we heard that a celebrity was even just part Filipino.

Having begun my teaching career in Oakland, CA, multiculturalism and ethnic diversity were hot topics among the teachers I met, as well as my classmates while I was in grad school. We were asked to make a list of children's books featuring ethnically diverse characters. I was pleasantly surprised to see that there were more books with Asian characters than I remembered seeing as a child. Among them were:

Grandfather's Journey by Allen Say
How My Parents Learned to Eat by Ina Friedman
Jackie Robinson and the Year of the Boar by Bette Lord
Hush! A Thai Lullaby by Minfong Ho
The Lotus Seed by Sherry Garland

And this list goes on.

Yet, children's books with Filipino characters where not readily found. 

I do not consider myself to be well-versed in multicultural children's literature, nor am I someone who would get on a soapbox and push my ethnic diversity opinions on others. But I am an American-born Filipino, who happens to speak better Spanish than Tagalog. And when I became a mother, I knew I wanted them to love reading as much as I did. I also knew that I wanted them to be proud that they were part Filipino and part Okinawan-Japanese.

Thus began my search for books featuring Filipinos began. And it's still going.

So far, I've found the following:

Willie Wins by Almira Astudillo Gilles 
Cora Cooks Pancit by Dorina K. Lazo Gilmore 
Tall Story by Candy Gourlay
My First Book of Tagalog Words by Liana Romulo

This was my favorite book to share with my kids!

Finally, I don't necessarily think that multicultural children's books need to explain cultural differences -- though I think that would be cool. I do love the idea that a children's book tells a story that all children can enjoy, and have characters with whom all children can identify -- but they also just happen to be Filipino.

Do you guys have any books I can add to my list? Let me know!

YA Highway Road Trip Wednesday

It's time for YA Highway's Road Trip Wednesday!
This Week's Topic is: Good for a laugh: who is your favorite comedian or funny book and/or movie?

I don't know if I have one favorite comedian as much as many -- Lucille Ball, Dick Van Dyke, Robin Williams, Jim Carey, Adam Sandler, Tim Allen, Ellen Degeneres, and Will Farrell...the list can go on and on.

As far as favorite funny book...as a child, it was Judy Blume's Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing and Shel Silverstein's Where the Sidewalk Ends.  As an adult, my mom and I enjoyed reading anything by Erma Bombeck.  And as a teacher, I've added Sideways Stories from Wayside School by Louis Sachar, as well as books by Andrew Clements to the list.

Favorite funny movie?  The one that almost ALWAYS comes to mind is The Princess Bride.  I think Rob Reiner is a genius, and there are SO MANY memorable lines!

I got this image from here

• Hello, my name is Inigo Montoya.  You killed my father, prepare to die.
• He's only mostly dead.
• Inconceivable!
• As you wish.

Yes, this list can go on and on, too.

Thanks for the Road Trip, YA Highway!  I think it's time I go dig up this DVD and make plans to watch it this week!

Turkish Delight Anyone?

So last Wednesday's YA Highway Road Trip got me thinking.  The topic was about opening your "Fantasy Bookstore", what would it look like, what would you sell.  Of course, I would sell children's books of all genres; picture books to young adult.  Several people posted about including a cafe in their Fantasy Bookstore -- which I totally would do that too.  One person said she'd sell cupcakes in her children's bookstore -- which I think kids and parents would DEVOUR!

Not sure if other people suggested this in their posts, but  my husband and I then started discussing the idea of a cafe in our children's bookstore that served foods that were featured in or inspired by children's novels.  We decided that having an entire menu to create, serve, and maintain everyday would be too complicated, and it would take away from our focus on books and children's literacy.  So we came up with the idea to feature ONE ITEM every day (or once a week?), print out a calendar, and use it as an incentive to have people come in and visit the bookstore.

With that concept in mind, we came up with these foods inspired by children's novels...

• Turkish Delight -- from The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
• Green Eggs and Ham -- from Green Eggs and Ham (of course)
• Haystacks (confection made from fried chow mein noodles, butterscotch chips and peanut butter) -- from How to Eat Fried Worms
• Butterbeer -- Harry Potter
• Pumpkin Pasties -- Harry Potter
• Oatmeal (Gruel)-- Oliver Twist
• Lamb Stew with Dried Plums -- Hunger Games
• Dauntless Chocolate Cake, Candor Ice Cream, Erudite Fizzy Drinks -- Divergent series
• Cloudy with a Chance of Spaghetti and Meatballs -- Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
• Stone Soup -- Stone Soup
• Pancakes, Cookies, Muffins -- If You Give A Mouse A...

Now let me be CLEAR.  We do NOT have any plans whatsoever of actually doing this.  But it was fun to imagine! :)

Any other ideas to add to this list?

My Evolution as a Bookworm

There is an event in my life as a mother that happens on occasion.  It is known as "Organizing the Kids' Bookshelf."  I don't know why I do it.  It's actually not that bad.  The real problem is that there isn't enough room on their bookshelf for their books.  Right now, it looks like this.

They have many more books contained in baskets around their room, and even more in their beds.

At six and nine years-old, they are at that funny stage where one is still into the picture books, and the other is delving into chapter books.  They are also still attached to their favorite books we read when they were babies -- which I think they get from me.  Which brings me to the topic of this post...

I happen to have a lot of vivid memories of my childhood -- as early as when I was 2-3 years old, living in the small Navy town of Oak Harbor on Whidbey Island in Washington.  As I sort through my memories, many of them are related to books.

And as I sorted through my children's books, I found MY favorite books among them.  Yes, I am so fond of my books that I still have them.  These books have been in my possession since the early 1970s.

My favorites as a pre-schooler were these:

I especially LOVED The Ear Book, and wanted my dad to make popcorn just because of it.

We moved to San Diego just before I started Kindergarten, and my favorites then became these:

I loved it when my dad read How Fletcher was Hatched and Miss Suzy and especially Eighteen Cousins (because I was the youngest of 34 grandchildren on my mom's side and 26 grandchildren on my dad's side -- but that's a different post altogether).  The Pied Piper was completely intriguing to me -- albeit a little creepy.  And I lived vicariously through Splish Splash because my mother NEVER let me do that.

When I got old enough to read more complicated stuff on my own, one of my favorites was this birthday present, given to me when I turned 7:

 My love for reading the dictionary started when I was about 7 years-old.  My husband and co-workers still find me engrossed in reading the dictionary or an atlas or random articles on Wikipedia.  Yes, I openly admit that I am a book nerd. 

I recently read a post on a blog by Mr. Schu that made me think.  I always encourage my students and own children to read.  We talk about the kinds of books they enjoy, and I make recommendations based on that.  I have never really reflected on the books I enjoyed reading in elementary school.   I had a mix of popular favorites and some relatively obscure titles:

• picture books about this horse named Blaze -- I grew up in a horse town outside of San Diego, horse trails around our homes and school
• anything by Judy Blume -- especially Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing (the first book to make me cry, believe it or not) Superfudge, Blubber, and Starring Sally J. Freeman as Herself.  I credit Judy Blume as being the one to fuel my love for reading.
• anything by Madeleine L'Engle -- A Wrinkle in Time, A Wind in the Door, and A Swiftly Tilting Planet
• Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Patterson
• Mandy by Julie Edwards (aka Julie Andrews -- the Julie Andrews)
• A Little Princess and The Secret Garden by Francis Hodgson Burnett
• Beat the Turtle Drum by Constance Greene
• The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis
• From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler
• The Story of Helen Keller  (this is probably how I got in to deaf education)
• Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH
• A Cricket in Times Square
• Charlotte's Web
• Anne of Green Gables
• The Witch of Blackbird Pond
• The White Mountains (Tripods series) -- THIS was intense, I think this was probably the first book that hurtled me into the YA genre.  Anyone else remember this series?

And there were these, which were not necessarily my favorites, just noteworthy enough because of all the books I read, I remembered these for some reason:

• Champions Don't Cry
• My Robot Buddy by Alfred Slote
• The Lancelot Closes at Five (knock-off on From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler)
• The Little House series (I tried to like these...but found them very boring.  I blame the TV series)

I could probably add more titles to both lists if I thought long enough, but these were the ones that came to mind when I thought of it.

Hmmm...learning a lot about myself as a reader.  The things I enjoy reading today as an adult are not that far off from the things I enjoyed reading as a child.  I'm still a bookworm, or booknerd, or whatever you want to call it.

What were some of your childhood favorites?  Feel free to chime in!

What happens to good intentions?

So that box of wonderful books I intended to read?  Didn't happen.  I could give you a gazillion reasons why.  But really, I got caught up in the holidays, and in researching writing (as in writing middle grade or YA lit.)

I have always wanted to be a teacher.  Always.  I played teacher when I was 8 years-old.  I made floor plans of my classroom.  I created classroom schedules.   I "taught" my stuffed animals.  I even made attendance sheets.  But...

I have a secret.

I also wanted to be a writer.  My closet was filled with boxes of spiral-bound notebooks containing all of my stories.  Most of them were fanfic stuff, written before I even knew what fanfic was all about.  As soon as I got into books (about 3rd grade), I got into writing, too.  I was so inspired by the stories I read, that I wanted the stories and characters to continue.  So I continued them.  Now, series books were not exactly abounding when I was young.  There were the Little House on the Praire books, The Boxcar Children, the Chronicles of Narnia, and the "Fudge" books by Judy Blume.  My favorite was Madeleine L'Engle's Time Trilogy.  But those were about it.  Regardless, books were my inspiration, so I wrote and wrote and wrote.

Years later as a young college student, I devised this plan to teach during the school year, and write during the summer.  Great plan, right?  For someone who had NEVER ACTUALLY TAUGHT  in a classroom.  But for someone who was always thinking on the practical side, this was a logical course of action.  I figured my chances of gainful employment were greater with teaching than with writing.  And given the knowledge I had back then, I was probably right.

It's been 21 years since I graduated from college.  I've been teaching since 1998, and have been teaching at my current school since 2001. It's a unique school -- awesome environment, incredible staff -- but a lot of hard work, and not a lot of summer break.   I am happily married, and have two amazing children.  But I still have this dream of writing.

A few things helped my dream re-surface:

1. One of my students mentioned a girl's ability to fight as a quality worthy of marriage.  I blogged about it here.  It made me think about girl characters in books.
2. I was an avid reader in elementary school.  Someone very close to me is not.  This person has amazing reading comprehension skills, but is still developing fluency and reading stamina.  Some books are too long for this person, even though this person is able read it.  Just something that made me go hmmm.
3. I found out that the author of one of my current favorite reads, Divergent, is only 24 years-old.  Her name is Veronica Roth, and when I poked around her blog, I was totally inspired.  She had so many great tips!
4. I started looking up other favorite authors, and was also inspired by Jessica Day George, author of Dragon Slippers.  This inspired me, too.  She is a mom!  Like me!  It also took her nine years and 187 rejections.  (That was totally frightening -- but inspiring nonetheless).

My husband and I talked, and he has always known this dream of mine.  Our first Christmas as a married couple, he gave me a blank journal, "To write your ideas for your book," he told me.  I still have that book, but it never really got filled.  I realized I need to make the time if I want this to happen.  However long it takes.  This Christmas, he gave me a software called Scrivener.  I love it.  I'm actually using it, playing around, hashing out ideas, characters.  Maybe it will become something.  Who knows?

But I'm not giving up my day job. :)

Strong Girls

A few weeks ago, while we were reading Holes, we came across the part where Stanley Elya Yelnats' supposed interest, Myra, must decide whether to marry him or Igor.  She chooses the "pick a number" method, and the class was in uproar.

One boy declared, "That's not a good idea at all!"

Teacher:  "Well, how would you pick a wife?  What would you do?"

Boy:  "I would pick her based on beautifulness, intelligence, and if she was a good fighter."

I've been pondering this conversation quite a bit in the month since it's happened.  Funny as it sounded, those weren't necessarily bad criteria -- especially for a 10 year-old boy who is still trying to figure out the social norms of a school playground, much less something only adults usually think about.  Still, I wondered if there was something to the traits he had chosen.

Beautifulness.   Of course that would be there -- our society and media push this on us all the time.  Luckily, the maxim "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder" seems to hold true.

Intelligence.  While most would associate intelligence with academic knowledge, thanks to Howard Gardiner, we can view intelligence in a broader perspective.  Everyone has something they are intelligent in.

A good fighter.  Numerous questions came to mind:  Did he see it in a video game? Does he want someone to protect him?  Why did he, of all students, pick fighting as a trait? (He's one of the most passive, non-aggressive students I've ever met).  Regardless of the reason, it was enough for me to think, maybe he admired a girl who was strong.

With that in mind, I have a number of books I read to my class that feature strong girls as main characters.  Maybe they are strong physically, or strong in spirit.  I choose them because they are characters I admired.

The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle by Avi

The Report Card by Andrew Clements

Number the Stars by Lois Lowry



The Sisters Grimm:  The Fairy Tale Detectives by Michael Buckley



Dragon Slippers by Jessica Day George

I had to edit this post to add one more of my favorites (how could I have forgotten??)  This one was recommended to me by one of my students a few years ago.  He and I ended up competing, seeing who could finish the book first!

If you are a fan of dragons, castles, and all things fantasy, this one is for you!


Of course, Young Adult lit has some excellent titles.  While I will not read these aloud to my 4th graders, I have personally enjoyed these books immensely.

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins



Divergent by Veronica Roth



I know I've omitted so many.  Here is an article with a lively discussion on the topic.  I'm compiling my list.  What are your favorite books with strong girl characters (children's novels or young adult)?