Rasco From RIF

A “Must Read” for Summer 2010

May 31st, 2010

Our guest blogger Mitali Perkins (right) with The Duchess? Yes!

When I first joined Twitter I was immediately drawn to the tweets and subsequently the blog of a person named Mitali Perkins…her blog is located on Mitali’s Fire Escape which has this byline: A safe place to think, chat and read about life between cultures. Given RIF’s multicultural literacy campaign, I was intrigued by these introductory remarks as well as what I read daily in her 140-character tweets and her blog posts. I learned she is an author who has said “One of life’s greatest joys is to create spaces where children feel safe, welcome, and beloved. Stories are one such space.”  

Mitali and I have never met in person nor spoken even over the phone; but I know her to be one of the most thoughtful people in this literary world I inhabit most of my waking hours. Recently I read her book to be released July 1, Bamboo People. I was transported to Burma and experienced the lives of two child soldiers and their families who are on opposite sides of the conflict there. What an excellent book for all of us adults to read ourselves and then to discuss with children in the upper elementary grades, the target audience for the book. I invite you to meet my friend Mitali, a mother, wife, author and caring citizen of the world who was born in Calcutta and has lived around this world; she currently resides in Newton, Massachusetts with her husband and twin sons.

Mitali was most recently in the “blogosphere news” last week when she was a speaker at the BookExpo America 2010 annual Children’s Book and Author Breakfast.  She both wowed the audience with her mirrors and windows speech in relation to her life, her writing and her reading past and future AND she had pictures made with the Duchess!   One additional note before you meet or renew below your friendship with Mitali; she is the person who started the Twitter Book Birthday Parties – a “HURRAH!”, a celebration of new books for kids, tweens or teens on their birth or release date! 

Thanks so much for inviting me to share about my book, Bamboo People, Carol. I’m honored to be featured on Memorial Day weekend, as the book is about a soldier who discovers the power of courage and honor during a time of war.

Bamboo People is set in modern-day Burma (also known as Myanmar). Slightly smaller than Texas in size, the country shares borders with India, China, Bangladesh, Laos, Thailand, and the Bay of Bengal. It’s a land of diversity, with over 100 languages, several religions, fertile plains, and rugged highlands.

Did you know that Burma used to enjoy one of the highest literacy rates in Southeast Asia, and was once described as the “rice bowl of Asia?” Sadly that didn’t last. Today about 90 percent of Burma’s people live at or below the poverty line, and the country’s health system is ranked second worst in the world. About 10 percent of children die before the age of 5, and the literacy rate has been plummeting each year.

How did the region’s “rice bowl” become a place of suffering, disease, and hunger? It’s a sad story of injustice and corruption, and you may read more about it here.

I wrote Bamboo People to be a window into Burma’s tough, tense situation. During the three years my husband, children, and I lived in Chiang Mai, Thailand, we visited the Karenni refugee camps along the Thai-Burma border. I was astounded at how the Karenni kept their hopes up despite incredible loss, still dreaming and talking of the day when they would once again become a free people. I was impressed, too, by how creatively they used bamboo. Homes, bridges, transportation, weapons, food, storage, irrigation—all these and more depended on the resilient, lavish, and ecologically efficient bamboo plant. I began to think about that plant as an excellent symbol for the peoples of that region.

During that time I also began to understand how tough life is for Burmese teenagers. Only about a third are enrolled in school, and most can’t find jobs. According to international human rights organizations, Burma has the largest number of child soldiers in the world, and that number is growing. These young soldiers are taught that the Karenni and other ethnic groups are the cause of the problems in their country and are rewarded with money and food if they burn, destroy, torture, and kill ethnic minorities.

I hope to compel my young readers to imagine themselves in such situations. I want them to connect with the boys in the book — Chiko, a bookish Burmese who is forced to fight in the army against his will, and Tu Reh, a refugee who saw the Burmese burn his family’s house and bamboo grove before escaping to a refugee camp.

In my travels far and wide, I’ve learned two things: all people feel powerful negative emotions, but we all face choices when it comes to acting on them. What would you do if your mother were hungry and your only option to feed her was to fight in the army? What about if you saw soldiers burning your home and farm while you ran for your life? Wouldn’t you be terrified, like Chiko? Wouldn’t you be angry, like Tu Reh?

To promote peace and democracy in Burma or to help refugees fleeing from that country, please browse bamboopeople.org. There, I provide resources, an educator’s guide and suggestions for involvement.

Filed under: Guest Blogger

Tags: Bamboo People, Burma, Charlesbridge Publishing Inc., Memorial Day, Mitali Perkins, Myanmar