26124: Raber: (reply) Re: 26110: Fouche: (reply -- ask) Re: 26099: Morse (ask) Re: 26075: Jrigdon: (reply) Re: Walton (Discuss) RE: 26021: JRig (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: PM Raber <raber88@zoominternet.net>

Have you seen the coloring book "Bel peyi mwen" by Elizabeth Turnbull?   Inside 
the book there is the e-nail address e-mail : books@bhm.org  The pictures show 
common Haitian country scenes like ladies washing and cooking, men breaking 
rocks or working their gardens, market scenes etc... downside is that the 
captions are in English and the picture would not be suited for the pre-school 
age to color as they are too intricate.  This is not very important as the 
pre-school age does not usually respect coloring lines anyways.  You are better 
off giving them blank sheet of paper.  I know some American parents are 
completely opposed to coloring books anyhow. They say it kills the creative 
instinct.   If you are trying to keep kids occupied they come in quite handy 
though.  Most girls especially love coloring books.
As far ar books to read, there is a shortage of culturally relevant books for 
Haitian children.  As a child, I delighted in reading the series "un bon 
exemple" which also comes in English as a "Valuetale" by Ann Donegan Johnson. 
I was able to obtain used copies for my children as they are no longer in 
print.  I still re-read those children's books and enjoy them.  They have the 
following 20 or so  titles:

The value of believing in yourself (Louis Pasteur)
The value of determination (Helen Keller)
The value of Helping (Harriet Tubman) and so on with honesty, sharing, giving, 
foresight, kindness, trust, courage, imagination, fairness, learning, 
responsibility, understanding, love, dedication, friendship, humor, curiosity, 
saving, fantasy, patience, caring, respect. 
The books use great figures in human history to teach children these values in 
an illustrated book.  My dream is to one day see such a series in Creole (or 
bilingual) for Haitian children using ordinary great Haitians.  There would 
have to be a rule that the person must be dead or at least past age 70 and not 
already be in any Haitian history school book..    It could be anyone that has 
displayed a certain value and made a difference in the community.    There 
could be a farmer, a teacher, an artist,  a doctor, a maid, a businessman 
etc.... People who basically put people first instead of power and money. 
Haitian children need to learn that they each can grow up to make a difference. 
I have witnessed with my own eyes, struggling families who lovingly cared for 
additional non-related children.   I have seen indigent people sharing out of 
their meager garden.  Teachers continuing to teach even when they had not been 
paid for months.  I am sure those kinds of people have always been around.  The 
writer could accept name submissions and go to the person's community and 
interview the granmouns and all those who felt the silent impact of those great 
Haitians.  I myself am fascinated by some of the activists of the first half of 
the 1900's.  Some of the women who marched for women's voting rights or those 
who dared be the first to go to high school or medical school,  were real 
giants who went on to leave large positive footprints on Haitian society (Dr. 
Yvonne Sylvain for example).   I can remember my physics teacher (Mr. St 
victor) from high school.  He taught school at several locations to kids of 
various social classes for as long as he could.  He not only taught physics but 
most of all, demanded high quality work in  a loving but firm manner that made 
you try your very best.   Many of the books published by Deschamps are nice but 
they tend to be fairy tales, or center about popular themes like carnival. 
Most of the ones I have read would not get published in the US children's 
press.  The story telling is rather weak.  The illustrations on the other hand 
are very well done.  It would be wonderful if a great writer (and researcher) 
could get together with some of those good illustrators.   Anyone who has read 
the French series "Asterix" will understand that the writing is just as 
important as the illustrating in illustrated books and comic books.  After the 
Asterix writer died, the illustrator continued on alone.  Those more recent 
Asterix books are obviously of an inferior reading quality.  Calvin and Hobbes 
writer/illustrator Bill Watterson also was very well aware of that.  When he 
ran out of writing ideas, he quit his daily comic strip despite great pressure 
on him by his publishers to continue on (i.e big money offers).   He could have 
continued since he had name recognition but he did not want to compromise on 
quality.  There is such a thirst for Haiti relevant children's literature that 
just about anything can be published at this point.  Why not make it great 
literature?  If such books are successful, the series could spin off into many 
directions.