[Repost] May 2014 List: Parents Must Read & Red Mud Top 10 Children’s Books of the Year Voting Opens

These are some seri­ous entries! Note that the vot­ing dead­line is a lit­tle ear­li­er this year, on Octo­ber 15th. Don’t miss out! :)Orig­i­nal address:May 2014 List: Par­ents Must Read & Red Mud Top 10 Chil­dren’s Books of the Year Vot­ing Opensauthor:Hong­ni­ba Vil­lageRed Mud Vot­ing Web­site:http://www.hongniba.com.cn/fumubidu

May 2014

Nature Love Series 11 (20140501)
Pho­tog­ra­phy by Shuichi Kubo; Jun­fu­mi Nanao; Trans­la­tion by Li Dan
Hebei Juve­nile and Chil­dren’s Pub­lish­ing House 2013
Rec­om­mend­ed rea­sons:
The book, divid­ed into 11 vol­umes, fea­tures the fol­low­ing tale in “Hard­work­ing Work­er Ants”: “The cher­ry blos­soms are in full bloom. The cam­phor ants, nest­ing near the base of the cher­ry trees, are dili­gent­ly repair­ing their nest. But the petals gen­tly drift down…” Unlike oth­er pho­tog­ra­phy-based pop­u­lar sci­ence books, “In Nature” feels as fresh and pure as its name. Its bal­lad-like text and beau­ti­ful images offer a sub­tle appre­ci­a­tion of the beau­ty of nature, mak­ing you feel as if you were tru­ly immersed in nature. The images are all pho­to­graph­ic, rang­ing from micro­scop­ic close-ups to macro­scop­ic vis­tas, each cap­tur­ing the agili­ty of small insects in nature. The sto­ries are live­ly and engag­ing, and they incor­po­rate sci­en­tif­ic knowl­edge, mak­ing this an excel­lent series for intro­duc­to­ry sci­ence books.

Author Jun Nanao plans and writes pic­ture books, chil­dren’s fairy tales, and sci­ence books. His major works include the “Col­or­ful Nature” series, “Which Came First, the Chick­en or the Egg?”, “Do Morn­ing Glo­ry Vines Curve Left or Right?”, and “Poop­ing Is So Com­fort­ing.”

Suit­able read­ing age: 3 years old and above

Mimi the Lit­tle Fol­low­er (20140502)
Text by Zhou Yifen; Illus­tra­tions by Chen Zhiyuan
Hebei Juve­nile and Chil­dren’s Pub­lish­ing House 2013
Rec­om­mend­ed rea­sons:
This book is one of the six pic­ture books in the “Mimi Series”. It vivid­ly depicts the inter­est­ing sto­ries and episodes of Mimi as her moth­er’s lit­tle fol­low­er.
The six pic­ture books in the “Mimi Series” were pro­duced over six years. Their amus­ing sto­ries and pic­tures clev­er­ly reflect chil­dren’s thoughts and keep them com­ing back for more.
Author Zhou Yifen, a moth­er of two, has worked as a chil­dren’s book edi­tor for over ten years and has won the Gold­en Tri­pod Award for Best Edi­tor-in-Chief. Her pic­ture book, the “Mimi Series,” has been ranked in the top 10 of excel­lent chil­dren’s books and has sold copy­rights in over ten coun­tries. “Dong­dong’s First Flight” won the “Good Books for Every­one” Chil­dren’s Book of the Year Award. “Lit­tle Ball Lis­tens to Folk Music” won the Gold­en Melody Award for Best Chil­dren’s Music Album and the Bing Xin Chil­dren’s Lit­er­a­ture Award. Illus­tra­tor Chen Zhiyuan has won numer­ous awards, includ­ing the Nation­al Teach­ers Asso­ci­a­tion’s Chil­dren’s Book of the Year Award, the Pub­lish­ers Week­ly Chil­dren’s Book of the Year Award, the Japan Library Asso­ci­a­tion’s Book of the Year Award, and the Top 10 Excel­lent Chil­dren’s Book List.

Suit­able read­ing age: 2 to 6 years old

Eye (20140503)
(Poland) Ivana Chimier­s­ka, trans­lat­ed by Ming Shu
Relay Press 2013
Rec­om­mend­ed rea­sons:
A pair of holes on a page: What are they? Oh, eyes! Turn the pages and dis­cov­er that the pupils are actu­al­ly flower sta­mens, but­tons on clothes, and holes in elec­tri­cal out­lets… This unique, award-win­ning pic­ture book fea­tures exquis­ite illus­tra­tions and ele­gant style. Its qui­et nar­ra­tive reveals the author’s pro­found reflec­tions on the mean­ing of “eyes.” Its con­cise yet wise sen­tences encour­age us to open our eyes, love, observe, and reflect on the every­day world we see, and to cher­ish every beau­ty we see as a pre­cious gift.

The author, Ivana Chmielews­ka, is Pol­ish. Her works are known for their nov­el fab­ric col­lages, diverse col­or­ing tech­niques, and imag­i­na­tive, cre­ative, and philo­soph­i­cal­ly pro­found con­tent. She has twice won the Best Chil­dren’s Book Award at the Bologna Chil­dren’s Book Fair and is con­sid­ered one of the most inno­v­a­tive artists in the field of chil­dren’s pic­ture books.

Suit­able read­ing age: 2 years old and above

Rel­a­tives are here! (20140504)
Text by Cyn­thia Lau­rent (UK); Illus­tra­tion by Stephen Gem­mell (US); Trans­lat­ed by Qi Yangyang
Com­ic Book Pub­lish­ing House 2013
The rel­a­tives drove their old cars, tra­vers­ing thou­sands of miles and moun­tains, final­ly lurch­ing into our yard. Then came the hugs! Big hugs! There were no extra beds at home, so sleep­ing crammed togeth­er was an unusu­al expe­ri­ence. They stayed for week after week, eat­ing all our straw­ber­ries and munch­ing on all our water­mel­ons, and then they were ready to leave…

The author Jane Cyn­thia Lau­rent has pub­lished more than 100 books, among which those that are loved by chil­dren include: “Old Things in the Moun­tain” and “This Year’s Gar­den”, which won the 1983 Calde­cott Medal.
Illus­tra­tor Stephen Gem­mel­l’s “Where the Buf­faloes Are” won the 1982 Calde­cott Medal.
Suit­able read­ing age: 3 to 8 years old

Big Ques­tion (20140505)
Text and pho­tos by Wolf Ebruch (Ger­many); trans­la­tion by Yuan Xiaoyi
Bei­jing Unit­ed Pub­lish­ing Com­pa­ny 2013
Rec­om­mend­ed rea­sons:
Who am I? Why am I here? Where do I come from? Why am I… When chil­dren ask these seem­ing­ly endear­ing and philo­soph­i­cal ques­tions, how do adults respond? As chil­dren gain more life expe­ri­ence, the 100,000 whys replay them­selves day and night in many homes… Chil­dren pos­sess an inex­plic­a­ble pow­er, a pow­er filled with wild and uncon­strained ques­tions, some­times even ques­tions adults them­selves haven’t con­sid­ered care­ful­ly.

Wolf Ebruch is a world-renowned chil­dren’s book author and illus­tra­tor. His paint­ings are char­ac­ter­ized by his unre­strained, child­like lines and quirky, com­i­cal shapes. His most pop­u­lar work among read­ers of all ages is “Who Pulled on My Head?”

Suit­able read­ing age: 3 years old and above

A Mon­day morn­ing (20140506)
Yuri Shule­vac (USA); Trans­lat­ed by Peng Yi and Yang Lin­gling
 Twen­ty-First Cen­tu­ry Pub­lish­ing House 2013
Rec­om­mend­ed rea­sons:
One Mon­day morn­ing, the king, queen, and prince came to see the lit­tle boy, but he was­n’t home. Every day after that, they brought new mem­bers: the roy­al guards, the roy­al cook, the roy­al clown—everyone—but the boy was always gone. It was­n’t until Sun­day that they final­ly met. It turns out they just want­ed to say “hel­lo” to the lit­tle boy. This unique and artis­ti­cal­ly expres­sive paint­ing reveals the play­ful and col­or­ful inner world of a child.

Yuri Shule­vac, a renowned Amer­i­can pic­ture book author, began draw­ing at the age of three and nev­er put down his brush. A ran­dom doo­dle he made while on the phone inspired Yuri to cre­ate his own pic­ture books. In 1963, he pub­lished his first pic­ture book, “The Moon in My Room.” His co-authored work, “The Fool and the Space­ship,” won the Calde­cott Medal and three oth­er Sil­ver Medals.

Suit­able read­ing age: 3 years old and above