Rasco From RIF

WEDNESDAY WINDOW: A Southeast Asian One-Shot

August 12th, 2009

On June I shared with you the blog Chasing Ray would be hosting the Southeast Asia One Shot on August 12. The site already has reviews from other blogs of several books, both chidren’s and adult, and that list will grow throughout the day. Monday of this week I shared with you four versions of Cinderella from these One Shot countries, and today on the actual date of the One Shot I share two books I have read recently from countries represented. On Friday I will write of a book from Malaysia.

When I posted about the One Shot originally a colleague told me of her fondness for Siti’s Summer which she enjoyed as a young reader, and she added, it was the book that made her interested in trying eel as a child! Written by Betty McKelvey Kalish who lived in Indonesia for four and a half years, Siti’s Summer is about a young Indonesian who goes to stay with her great-grandfather one summer when her mother and baby brother become very ill and her father is stationed with the army in Sumatra. Like any young child might be, Siti is apprehensive about taking the train alone to another part of her country to stay with an old man whom she does not remember. The train is crowded and loud, hot and dirty. But older women with families befriend Siti, and while she does so fitfully, she is able to sleep some and enjoys the food her “courtesy aunt” (her mother’s best friend) has prepared for her.

Siti is met at the train station “near the village of Bendungan not far from Jogjakarta” where a cart takes her as far as possible towards her great-grandfather’s place with admonition from the rather gruff woman driving the water buffalo-pulled cart to go “over the stream, up the hill” to find the house. And that was the beginning of becoming acquainted with the forest and river area…and coming to know as well her great-grandfather who was not the gruff old man expected by Siti. New foods, new customs, new friends (including a special monkey) all made Siti a stronger young lady and one much more understanding of other human beings and the earth.

Siti’s Summer would be an excellent read-aloud selection for middle to upper elementary classrooms as well as a good book for upper elementary students who are ready for fiction that is authentic in portraying historical cultural customs of another country…a different way of teaching “research.” The line drawings by Ipe Maaroef in this book are gentle in suggesting “how things might have looked” and are interspersed infrequently which allows the reader to complete the overall picture on an individual basis.

Written by first time novelist Pegi Deitz Shea who visited a refugee camp in Thailand in 1989, Tangled Threads is the story of 13-year-old Mai Yang who has for 10 years known only the refugee camp in Thailand where she shares a very small hut with her grandmother; this is where they escaped to live after Mai’s parents were massacred. They have very little food and clothing, must deal daily with the brutality of the camp military guards and are separated from their only relatives who moved much earlier to Rhode Island in America. Mai and her grandmother stitch story cloths or pa’ndaus during the day to have a little money.

Learning they will finally be able to go to Rhode Island makes Mai ecstatic and her grandmother quite apprehensive…but Mai soon learns in her new country there is something to learn with each passing moment, even with relatives there to assist. And Mai and her grandmother are seen as switching roles…Mai has always relied on her grandmother, now her grandmother in this new and quite foreign country called America must rely on Mai. The tangled threads always materializing in the amateur’s pa’ndaus are symbolic of Mai’s tangled emotions and outlooks and at times she wonders if she will indeed be able to stitch her life together into a picture with which she can be both comfortable and proud.

Author Shea has beautifully and realistically portrayed the American teen culture, and the battles between Mai’s cousins and their parents already in America are quite believable, as well as the temptations and barriers faced by Mai. This is a good book for mature early teen independent readers. And perhaps with some parent/teacher guidance, the book will give them a more complete perspective on the life of teen immigrants coming to America.

Be sure to check in with Chasing Ray for other entries on Southeast Asia!
Happy Reading!
Carol

Wednesday Window, featuring books and/or information which illustrate the “Windows” portion of the paper “Mirrors, Windows, and Sliding Glass Doors.”

Filed under: RIF Multicultural Literacy Campaign, Wednesday Window

Tags: Chasing Ray, One Shot, Siti's Summer, Tangled Threads