Fiction - Asian People, Places & Cultures, Fiction - Basic Concepts, Fiction - Family Life

I See the Sun in Nepal

Name: I See the Sun in Nepal
Author: King, Dedie , Inglese, Judith
ISBN: 9780981872094

by King, Dedie, Inglese, Judith

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Overview

I See the Sun in Nepal, one of the I See the Sun series, takes place in a rural village in Nepal. The young girl in the story lives a traditional life with a familiar daily routine: chores, going to school, playing with friends, and spending time with her family. Readers will recognize the similarities as well as the differences between their own daily life and the culture of Nepal. The ordinary activities of life, to which we all relate, are described in simple prose and vivid collages of colorful paper, drawings and photography of Nepal. Bilingual in English and Nepalese (Devanagari). Includes country overview and glossary of unfamiliar terms. A portion of sales are donated to The Learning Centers in Bandipur, Nepal. For ages 5 and up.

Synopsis

I See the Sun in Nepal, one of the I See the Sun series, takes place in a rural village in Nepal. The young girl in the story lives a traditional life with a familiar daily routine: chores, going to school, playing with friends, and spending time with her family. Readers will recognize the similarities as well as the differences between their own daily life and the culture of Nepal. The ordinary activities of life, to which we all relate, are described in simple prose and vivid collages of colorful paper, drawings and photography of Nepal. Bilingual in English and Nepalese (Devanagari). Includes country overview and glossary of unfamiliar terms. A portion of sales are donated to The Learning Centers in Bandipur, Nepal. For ages 5 and up.

About the Author, King, Dedie , Inglese, Judith

Author, Dedie King, a Peace Corps volunteer in Nepal, also taught school there. She travels extensively and has spent a considerable amount of time, not as a tourist, but immersed in many cultures, living with families who open their homes to her. Judith Inglese, illustrator, creates ceramic murals for public spaces when she is not illustrating children's books.

Judith Inglese, the illustrator, has been designing and fabricating ceramic tile murals for public environments for more than thirty years. Her commissions include libraries, schools, hospitals and municipal and institutional buildings like the National Zoo in Washington, D.C. Her murals often focus on the play and imagination of children as well as cross-cultural exchange and community. Illustrating the "I See the Sun" series has given her another medium for examining these themes and celebrating children around the world.

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Editorials

Children's Literature - Kip Wilson

This book follows the daily routine of a Nepalese girl and her family in a typical hillside village as she goes about her activities from dawn to dusk. The lively, first-person narrative will draw in readers, as will the colorful cut-out images depicting the girl in her surroundings. We join the unnamed girl as she has breakfast, does chores, goes to school, and comes home for an evening with her family. Along the way, King introduces us to some important Nepalese vocabulary, including the words for family members and some food, and she includes a helpful glossary at the back of the book as well. Readers might be intrigued by the Nepalese version of the text included on each page with the English equivalent. The handwritten Nepalese gives it a rather rustic appeal that might make the book seem more handmade than a typeset publication, but it seems to blend well with the images. Overall, this book offers a tantalizing peek into another way of life very far away from home that will come across as both foreign and universal to American readers. Reviewer: Kip Wilson

Children's Literature - Uma Krishnaswami

"At dawn I see the sun," begins the text of this simple bilingual (English-Nepali) picture book. "It paints the mountains pink and gold." The present tense narrative leads the reader through a single day in the life of a child in rural Nepal. Breakfast, school, and play are the elements of this day that will seem familiar to many readers. Less familiar scenes are folded right in as well: the milking of the water buffalo, Ama carrying lentils from the field to dry in the sun, and the sound of men playing the harmonium while they sing songs from religious books. Hand-lettered Devanagari script carries the Nepali version of the text, claiming equal space on the page. Inglese's multi-media collage illustrations employ cut paper, drawings, and photographs of the region. At times the pictures are luminous, as in the "snowy mountain" image. As well, the Nepali text on this spread has a charming lilt impossible to convey in more workaday English, begging the question of whether a bilingual audio version would not make a compelling addition. The production values of the book seem to fall slightly short of American publishing standards. It's hard to justify the choice of hand-lettering versus a more traditional Devanagari print font, and there are a couple of minor design flaws. Still, this is a rare find indeed in a marketplace that by and large overlooks the narrative and cultural riches of the Himalayan region of South Asia. Reviewer: Uma Krishnaswami