Mr. Tiger Goes Wild

Mr. Tiger Goes Wild, written and illustrated by Peter Brown, is a charming children's book about a tiger who has grown tired of the very proper and conservative society in which he lives.  He looks very dapper in that top hat and bow tie, but Mr. Tiger just wants to be free.  When he finally starts acting on this desire, however, his friends and neighbors aren't so happy about it, and he has to leave the city.

Just from this, it sounds like kind of a sad story about intolerance, but Mr. Tiger Goes Wild has a nice ending.  The wild turns out not to be as great as Mr. Tiger expected, and he returns to the city, presumably resigned to resume his previous conformity to the society's rules about behavior and fancy dress.  To his surprise, though, all his friends and neighbors have apparently decided maybe Mr. Tiger had the right idea (to an extent) --- everyone seems to have found a nice balance between being proper and being wild, and they welcome Mr. Tiger back with open arms (open forelimbs?).

Merry Christmas, Teddy Beddy Bear

My mom was going through Christmas books, I guess to see if there were any she might take to work for her class, and she came across one of my old books:  Merry Christmas, Teddy Beddy Bear by Don E. Plumme and illustrated by Morgan, Inc.  Teddy Beddy is Adam's bear, and they do everything together.  One day, Adam's mother takes them downtown to see the big Christmas tree, and they get to look at the toys in the department store while they're there.  A sales clerk sees how shabby Teddy Beddy is and shows Adam all the brand new bears.  Teddy Beddy starts to worry - does Adam want a new bear for Christmas?

What Is Your Language?

What Is Your Language? by Debra Leventhal (illustrations by Monica Wellington) is a children's book that celebrates diversity in the world's languages.  Rather than a prose story or even a story in rhyme, Leventhal has written a simple song with a melody children will love to sing along to!  Follow along as a little boy from the United States goes on a trip around the world and meets new friends in other countries.

Most of the languages represented in this book are very common, unlike Good Morning, Good Night, which is a story in Maori, an endangered language of New Zealand.  I chose to feature What Is Your Language? anyway, because I think it's really cute and it is still relevant to the topic of Endangered Languages Week.  With this book, you and your child can learn together how to say "yes" and "no" in nine other of the world's languages:  German, French, Russian, Inuktitut (an Inuit language), Japanese, Chinese (I assume Mandarin, since that appears to be the most common dialect for second-language learners), Arabic, Swahili, and Spanish.

Good Morning, Good Night

I'm not normally one for posting more than once a day, but as I have a couple other things to post tomorrow - Halloween! - I wanted to get this one up tonight.  From 31 October until 4 November, my school (The University of Texas at Arlington) is participating in Endangered Languages Week by hosting some really great events featuring Native American, African and Polynesian languages.  I'm a student in the linguistics department, so I'm already helping as a volunteer but I wanted to do a little something of my own as well, here on the blog, to help raise awareness of language endangerment and appreciation for language diversity.  Language is a big part of cultural identity, and each language provides unique ways of expressing unique worldviews - and yet, according to National  Geographic's project Enduring Voices, a language effectively dies about every 14 days. Some communities have language revitalization programs in place, but not all.  When a language has died along with its last speakers, the world loses that community's perspective and becomes a little less diverse, a little less beautiful.  Because a part of what makes our planet beautiful and interesting is its diversity.

Anyway, enough with the lecture and on to the book I wanted to share with you all!

Go the Fuck to Sleep

Go the Fuck to Sleep by Adam Mansbach is an adult parody of children's bedtime stories. It is written in verse, and there are illustrations that, while sometimes sweet, I also think are borderline creepy. Which kind of works.

I'm not a parent, but I have had a lot of experience with young children, and while I did not use the word "fuck" back in the days when I used to babysit, the sentiment of "go the fuck to sleep already" was definitely sometimes there, so I think I can safely say that anyone who has had the frustration of trying to get a child to stay in bed and go to sleep will appreciate the humor in this book.