International Childrens Book Reading

In February, the Clarke Historical Library held its sixth annual “Children’s Book from Around the World” event. During the six-hour event, 190 people stopped by the Park Library’s Baber Room to listen to over 35 volunteers from all corners of the globe read children’s books in 20 languages other than English. For the Clarke, this event is always a great opportunity to showcase the library’s collection of award-winning international children’s literature, with books from over 75 countries in over 50 languages.

For our readers, many of whom are affiliated with the Office of Global Engagement or the Department of World Languages and Cultures at CMU, the event offers other opportunities. For those who are native speakers of the language, this event is a chance for them to share a bit of their language and culture. For those who are learning the language through their courses here at Central Michigan University, they can demonstrate the language skills they have acquired through their studies. And for the whole campus, it is an excellent chance to highlight the rich diversity of languages found on the CMU campus.

In a twist this year, and to coincide with the Clarke’s exhibit, The Surprise and Wonder of Pop-up Books several readers read pop-up books in languages other than English. There were other memorable moments, such as when the Japanese 202 class took turns reading from their book so that all seven students from the class would have a chance to read. Or when one reader read in five different languages found in the same South African book – Zulu, Sesotho, Xhosa, Setswana, and Sepedi!

The Clarke appreciates the support of the Office of Global Engagement and the Department of World Languages and Cultures in bringing this event together. To view an “Art Review” segment from MAC TV about the event, take a look at their Vimeo page.

IBBY Addition 2016

by Marian Matyn

We got a foot plus addition this year, but also decided to go to the prior boxes and print out anything that came in a digital format due to some of the current formats being difficult to access. This resulted in a doubling of material. Going from box 9 forward we now have 18 boxes. The finding aid, catalog records and EAD finding aid is updated. The amended EAD finding aid will be available next month. More will be coming as part of this addition is on exhibit elsewhere.

A big thanks to Jen who helped me double check everything. All those foreign names with foreign punctuation marks requires a lot of extra checking.

Clarke International Children's Book Read-In Event

by Bryan Whitledge

On Tuesday, April 19, The Clarke held our second International Children’s Book Read-In event. During the 3-hour event, over 60 people stopped by the Park Library Baber Room to listen to 12 readers from all corners of the globe read children’s books. The audience ranged in age from 5 months to over 90 years old with many college students and several members of the greater CMU community stopping by to listen.

The books that were read came from the Clarke’s collection of award-winning international children’s literature – with books in over 50 languages, the Clarke has quite a selection to choose from. The readers read a book in their native language and provided the audience with a translation.

All of the readers did a fantastic job and the audience had the chance to hear just a little of the languages that the readers grew up speaking. It is incredible to think that all of the 11 languages we heard -- plus many more -- are regularly spoken by members of the Central Michigan University community. Being able to hear Polish, Arabic, Portuguese, Japanese, and French plus Yoruba, German, Chinese, Indonesian, Swedish, and Korean all in one afternoon was a great experience for those who attended.

For entertainment, education, and simply conversing with our international colleagues and fellow students, this event was a great way to spend a Tuesday afternoon. For some excellent photos of the event, check out the Central Michigan University Facebook page.

International Children's Book "Read In" Event

Tuesday, April 7, the Clarke will be hosting a "Read In" event in conjunction with our current exhibit featuring international children's literature. What better way is there to showcase the beautiful books in our exhibit than having these books read aloud in the language they were written in? Fortunately, on the CMU campus, we have students and faculty from every corner of the globe.

Over twenty readers reading in fifteen languages will participate in the event, which starts at 10:00 am and continues until 4:30 pm in the Meijer Gallery of the Clarke exhibit space. Books in Arabic, German, Hindi, Chinese, French, Javanese, Spanish, Yoruba, and many more will be read by native speakers of these languages. Check out this link for full details of the event. This event is free and open to the public and light refreshments will be available.

New International Children's Books at the Clarke

The Clarke is continuously growing our holdings to ensure that we have the best resources available to help researchers. Several years ago, we were encouraged by CMU professors Susan Stan and Christa Kamenetsky to expand the children’s literature materials to include international titles, especially those that have been recognized for their outstanding quality in authorship and illustration. Recently, we added many new international children’s literature titles to our collection and we would like to highlight three of them.

From Ghana, we feature Sosu’s Call, by Meshack Asare. This is the story of Sosu, a small boy who is unable to walk. One day, while the majority of the village was working in the fields, rising waters threaten the village. Sosu manages to sound the alarm and alert his fellow villagers that a flood is coming, saving the village from disaster. Sosu’s Call has won the International Board on Books for Young People’s Outstanding Book for Young People with Disabilities.

From South Africa, we have Diphoofolo. This picture book is a collection of nursery rhymes, each in one of seven different South African languages. Diphoofolo is the SeSotho word for animals and each poem highlights a different type of animal. This book is interesting because it is multilingual and has a pronunciation guide at the end to help native-English speakers say the rhymes in their original languages.

Finally, we feature Ibn Battuta, by Fatima Sharafeddine of the United Arab Emirates and illustrated by Intilaq Mohammad Ali. This story recounts the journeys of Ibn Battuta, a Moroccan scholar and explorer who kept journals of his 29 years of travel across Africa, the Middle East, and Asia during the 1300s. The book, in Arabic, reads in the opposite direction of most English language books. Despite being in a language that many Americans may not be able to read, the beautiful illustrations excellently tell the tale of one of the greatest explorers in history.

The International Board on Books for Young People, or IBBY, is a non-profit organization that connects books from all over the world to children all over the world. Among their various efforts and activities is recognizing authors and illustrators for the fantastic work they do. Our new exhibit, coming in early February, features many works by IBBY-recognized authors and illustrators, including those mentioned above.