Framed by Poetry

Framed by Poetry by Stefan A Nicholson (Cyberwit, India) PB RRP US$15 ISBN 9789388329249

Reviewed by Dianne Bates

With a sub-title ‘A gallery of chosen poems from my collection,’ this is a compilation of 81 selected poems for a wide range of audiences, including children. Cyberwit says on its AIS, ‘The poet for the most part uses matter-of-fact, everyday words instead of artificial and ornamental vocabulary’, and this is indeed one of the most attractive elements of the collection.

Standing up for issues such as climate change, poverty, prejudice, and social injustice, Nicholson’s poems have titles such as ‘The Last Human,’ ‘Remembrance Day’ and ‘Moment in Time.’ The style of poems varies as widely as the subject matter with prose poems (‘The Promise’), rhyming poems (‘The Writer’), free form (‘Last Autumn Leaf’), cinquain (‘My Dog’), and haiku (‘Poetry Is’).

Overall, in this collection one often sees the versatile poet drawing on his emotional intelligence as he explores his own life experiences and his reaction to the world around him. His social conscience is evident in numerous poems such as ‘First Call’, a prose poem about a child living in poverty. He asks, ‘Why do they live and die this way, while others look away?’ To this he adds, ‘We fight for just equality, freedom from domination. Yet we sacrifice ordinary quiet lives and soldiers from each nation.’ This sensibility is demonstrated, too, in ‘Clouds of Glass,’ with lines such as ‘Cultivating greed without compassion for the hungry poor’, and ‘… deplete everything living, for the greed of man.’

The poet’s personal experience is evident in ‘Denying Self’ which begins with ‘I know a place where we belong – together’ and continues to address a loved one. Alongside romantic poems such as this and poems with a social conscience, Nicholson also writes quirky and humorous poems. In ‘Moon’, he begins with, ‘The man in the moon is standing on his head, /Or maybe it’s a woman, as some modern gals have said.’

‘Musical Life’ is another eccentric poem with lines including (in capital letters), words to do with music such as, ‘I could eat a PIANO FORTE with a TUBA mayonnaise and a FLUTE of champagne to STAVE off my hunger.’

There is no doubt that this collection should appeal to a wide audience, including children. Nicholson has spread his wings wide and with Framed by Poetry adds to his oeuvre which includes 15 novels and non-fiction books for both adults and children.

Copies of the book can be purchased from the publisher (Cyberwit.net) and Amazon.

Lion: A Long Way Home

Lion: A Long Way Home by Saroo Brierley (Penguin Books) PB RRP $16.99 ISBN 9780143784760

Reviewed by Dianne Bates

By the time this review appears here in the Buzz Words’ blog, the story told in this book for readers aged 9 to 12 years, will have been seen by thousands of Australians in cinemas where it has screened as a major motion picture.

At the age of five, Saroo Brierley became lost on a train in India. Unable to escape the carriage he travelled in alone, he spent many hours until he arrived in a foreign city where he had to survive on his wits. After numerous adventures he was taken to an orphanage in Calcutta from which he was adopted by the Brierly family in Tasmania Australia. Despite being happy in his new home, Saroo kept memories of his mother, sister and two brothers but he could never remember the name of his home town. He spent hours staring at a map of India in his room and when he was an adult, working in his adoptive father’s business and with an Australian girl-friend, he began to pore over satellite images on Google Earth seeking out landmarks he remembered.

By looking at train tracks leading into Calcutta, Saroo was able to restrict his search zone to ‘only’ 962,300 square kilometres – over a quarter on India’s landmass, in which lived 345 million people. How on earth could he be expected to rely on his memory at the age of five and yet find four family members nearly 25 years later? The incredible thing is that Saroo succeeded by eventually being able to locate childhood sights of an overpass, a bridge over a river and a train station!

This is a fascinating book because Saroo’s life story is fascinating – and certainly inspirational, showing readers how it is possible to achieve success through relentless perseverance. Saroo is reunited with his mother, brother and sister. He learns that the night that he disappeared, so too did his teenage brother Guddu (who he was to find out had been killed). On seeing him, his Indian mother called out ‘Sheru’ – even his first name was mispronounced differently!

This is a simply told story of winning against immeasurable odds and is sure to be enjoyed immensely by keen readers.

Pattan’s Pumpkin

Pattan’s Pumpkin by Chitra Soundar illustrated by Fran Lessac (Walker Books) HB RRP $27.99   ISBN 9781910959442

Reviewed by Ashling Kwok

Pattan’s Pumpkin is an Indian flood story, reminiscent of the traditional Noah’s Ark tale. It is the story of Pattan, a kind and caring man who stumbles upon an ailing flower and decides to plant it near his hut and nurture it back to life. Pattan watches the flower gain strength and its yellow flowers blossom in the glorious sun.

One day, to Pattan’s surprise, he notices that the flower has transformed into a magnificent pumpkin that is bigger than the goats, bigger than the elephants, and is actually so tall that it reaches the summit of the mountain.

When a terrifying storm arrives and the waters rise, Pattan’s quick thinking and imagination help him devise a clever plan that enables him to rescue the whole village from impending disaster.

Pattan’s Pumpkin is written by well-known author, Chitra Soundar, who was born and raised in India, a place where traditions, festivals and mythology are a way of life. Over the years, Chitra has produced a wonderful array of books in various genres.

The illustrations by award winning artist Frane Lessac are striking and vibrant, and the colour palette is so rich that the images practically leap off the page.

Pattan’s Pumpkin is a sweet tale for readers aged 4-8 years. The text is easy to read and has a soft, gentle tone that will soothe young readers at bedtime and have them happily dozing in no time at all.

Pattan’s Pumpkin is a beautiful book and the perfect addition to your picture book library.

Eat the Sky, Drink the Ocean

Eat the Sky, Drink the Ocean edited by Kirsty Murray, Payal Dhar and Anita Roy (Allen & Unwin)

YA Speculative Feminist Anthology RRP$16.99

ISBN 9781743319789

In late 2012, Australia and India were rocked by violent crimes against young women. In Delhi, thousands protested against rape. In Melbourne, thousands stood vigil in memory of a young woman raped and murdered while walking home. The fate of all young women, what they should fear and what they can hope for, were hot topics in the media around the world. Out of that storm rose the idea for this anthology. (From the introduction)

To see a collection such as this, written specifically for young people with its feminist message by contemporary authors who crossed cultural boundaries  and set in exciting alternate and dystopian worlds and different realties hit all the right notes for me.

The anthology includes seventeen works of fiction, including a play and six graphic stories written by twenty-two authors and illustrators and set in dystopian or fantasy worlds and sometimes in distant galaxies.

Contributors were given the added challenge of working in collaboration with a partner from the other country on which they give an insight in brief notes at the back of the book.

My favourite stories include ‘Cast Out’ by Samhita Arni, ‘Cat Calls’ by Margo Lanagan and ‘Memory Lace’ by Payal Dhar; I also was immersed in the graphic story by Isobelle Carmody through the illustrative style of Prabha Mallya. In 'Cast Out', girls showing signs of magic, even in self-defence, are cast off in the ocean to die a gruesome death. The main character also finds herself in this position, and what she finds will change her life as much as it has been saved. 

Reading the inspiration behind the story which was based on conversations between Samhita Arni and her Australian counterpart, Alyssa Brugman, on feminism and consumerism gave an insight into how this story came to be. Brugman’s story ‘Weft’ is a very different, thought-provoking story showing the main character’s reflections while she is in the process of buying a full head of hair.

This is a strong contender for my favourite anthology of the year!

Yvonne Mes is a children's author. Her first picture book, Meet Sidney Nolan (Random House) is scheduled for release in October 2015. www.yvonnemes.com

A Time to Dance

A Time to Dance by Padma Venkatraman (Penguin Random House) 

                                                                                        

HB RRP US$17.99                                              

ISBN 9780399257100                                                                    

Reviewed by Dianne Bates

With starred reviews in Kirkus, SLJ, Booklist and other literary magazines, this jacketed YA verse novel comes highly recommended by numerous overseas reviewers.  It tells the story of an Indian girl, Veda, a dance prodigy who lives and breathes dance, specifically the Bharatanatyam which is complex and classical. Sadly, an accident leaves her a below-knee amputee, shattering her dreams.  

However, Veda is undeterred and in a first-person story that is believable, inventive and powerful, the reader follows this one-legged girl’s determined journey of major adjustment as she takes beginner classes with young dancers to re-learn the dance with its many different poses and stances.

Then Veda meets a young man who approaches dance as a spiritual pursuit. As their relationship deepens, Veda reconnects with the world around her, and begins to discover who she is and what dance truly means to her.

During the novel, the spiritual and religious meaning of Bharatanatyam is explored, as well as what that means for Veda and her own relationship with Shiva.

A Time to Dance is sure to provide an inspiration to YA readers who aspire to reaching for a dream, even in the face of seemingly insurmountable obstacles. Believing in oneself, perseverance, love and resilience are some of the themes explored in this strong and well-written novel.

Om Shanti, Babe

Om Shanti, Babe by Helen Limon (Walker Books)
PB RRP $ 16.95
ISBN 9781847803573
Reviewed by Anastasia Gonis

Helen Limon was the winner of the 2011 Frances Lincoln Diverse Voices Children’s Book Award. This award ‘celebrates cultural diversity either in terms of its story or the ethnic and cultural origins of its author’. And the storyline is full of a variety of sub-stories that are emotionally rich and interesting like the culture they depict.

Cass and her mum Lula have set off for India. All that Cass knows about that country is what she’s learnt from the Bollywood films she watches to improve her dance moves.

But on their arrival, nothing is as Cass had planned. The time she’d hoped to have alone doing things with her mother is snatched from her by business dealings, phone calls, and secret meetings with Vikram, her mother’s Indian associate and more than close friend.

But Cass doesn’t know about the collapse of their business. Her mother has kept many things from her, for Cass struggles with her father’s leaving, her guilt about her breakup with her friend Rachel, her loneliness, and the way she sees the world around her in general.

As always, things are not as they first appear to be. India proves to have a great influence on Cass, but only after she has met Dev and his deaf, dancing sister Nandita. Her blossoming friendship with the gifted and creative Priyanka shifts her view on life and her abilities. This gives birth to new ideas for saving the business, and an environmental conscience to fight for the mangrove swamps that developers plan to clear away to create a Hotel complex at great cost to the locals.

This is an interesting book which addresses a lot of issues. Perhaps too many, but they have been linked together fluidly to create a rich and interesting storyline.