Best of
International

2001

Thirteen Senses


Victor Villaseñor - 2001
    When asked by a young priest to repeat the sacred ceremonial phrase "to honor and obey," Lupe surprises herself and says. "No, I will not say 'obey'. How dare you! You don't talk to me like this after fifty years of marriage and I now knowing what I know!" After the hilarious shock of Lupe's rejection of the ceremony, the Villaseñor family is forced to examine the love that Lupe and Salvador have shared for so many years -- a universal, gut-honest love that will eventually energize and inspire the couple into old age.

Dan Eldon: The Art of Life


Jennifer New - 2001
    He left a lifetime of adventures that continue to inspire. Raised in Kenya, he took numerous expeditions across Africa that helped him to understand and love the continent. Through his safaris and benevolent crusades--and with interludes of study and work in the US and London, and trips around the world--he crafted a philosophy of curiosity, creativity, adventure, and charity. Intensely visual, like the life it describes, Dan Eldon: The Art of Life is more than a biography. It is an exploration of one man's will to take in everything life has to offer; an example of a life lived for art, and art experienced as lif

"Let's Get a Pup!" Said Kate


Bob Graham - 2001
    After her cat, Tiger, dies, Kate needs another companion to love, someone to keep her feet warm at night. "Let's get a pup!" she proclaims as she bounces in bed with Mom and Dad. The young parents are quite cool with the idea and scan the papers until they find a Rescue Center. There they find a wide assortment of pooches: "sniffers, sleepers...fighters and biters...happy dogs, sad dogs." And then they see Dave. Dave is perfect -- small, cute, and brand-new. Content to leave with the new member of the family, they spot another dog, Rosy, who is old and gray and can barely stand up. But, as Graham so beautifully states, "she radiated Good Intention." Now they want Rosy too, but they can't save every dog, right? So, they reluctantly leave. That night the family can barely sleep, and only due in part to Dave's crying. They know what they have to do -- they go to the shelter and get Rosy.Graham uses pen-and-ink and watercolor to reveal the close-knit and very hip family. With Mom's tattoo and nose ring, and Dad's ear-pierced, funky look, this parental duo reflects the times. And their house, filled with the tiny details that make up our lives, makes for cozy reading. Uneaten toast on the counter, with shoes and toys strewn on the floor, will be familiar to young readers who don't have Donna Reed as a mother. Graham's signature watercolors are a perfect match for this easygoing and loving group. The text also complements the pace of the story. When they see their new pup, the name "Dave" is in bold, and is the only word on the page. And when they leave Rosy behind, white space and a minimum of words convey their heartbreaking decision.With expert storytelling and humorously endearing illustrations, Graham once again creates a loving family with unconventional folks. Their love of pups, and each other, is sure to tug at the heartstrings of every young reader. (Amy Barkat)

Calling You


Otsuichi - 2001
    Tokyopop Fiction presents Calling You--a unique, beautifully written, and truly unpredictable collection of stories.A girl creates a cell phone in her imagination, which she uses to communicate with others...A young boy discovers his new friend has the power to heal others--and together they learn about true friendship and sacrifice...A miraculous flower proves the eternal power of love can combat the tragedy and horror of a deadly train accident...Connected with Otsu-ichi's hit manga, Calling You, this collection is certain to delight readers who enjoy heartfelt, supernatural mysteries.

A Movie in My Pillow/Una pelicula en mi almohada


Jorge Argueta - 2001
    Young Jorgito has come to live in the Mission District of San Francisco, but he hasn't forgotten the unique beauty of El Salvador. Young Jorgito has come to live in the Mission District of San Francisco, but he hasn't forgotten the unique beauty of El Salvador.In his first collection of poems for children, poet Jorge Argueta evokes the wonder of his childhood in rural El Salvador, a touching relationship with a caring father, and his confusion and delight in his new urban home. We glimpse the richness of Jorgito's inner world and dreams-the movie in his pillow.Artist Elizabeth G�mez perfectly captures the indigenous beauty of El Salvador, the sadness of the war, and the joy of family reunion in San Francisco. Her paintings, with their brilliant colors and striking details, fill every page with authenticity and charm.

Lights of the Veil


Patty Metzer - 2001
    Through mysterious circumstances, Erica Tanner meets her late sister's only child, Betul. Within hours they are kidnapped and taken to India, where an unexpected friendship with the handsome Prince Ajari complicates Erica's escape -- especially when she learns he is Betul's uncle. As friends attempt a rescue, Erica fights to fulfill her sister's final request -- Betul must not become lost in Sajah Ajari's Hindu heritage. Can the light of Christ overcome the differences holding Erica and Sajah captive? Breathtakingly paced, Lights of the Veil moves with grand adventure toward the ultimate triumph of God's truth.

Killing Fields Living Fields: An Unfinished Portrait of the Cambodian Church--The Church That Would Not Die


Don Cormack - 2001
    It is a long time since I read anything so poignant. --J. I. Packer

The Oasis: A Memoir of Love and Survival in a Concentration Camp


Petru Popescu - 2001
    Shares the romance that unfolded between Czechoslovakian freedom fighter Mirek Friedman and his wife, Blanka Davidovich, in German concentration camp Dachau 3b, and how their love survived despite threats of death.

Kuma-Kuma Chan, the Little Bear


Kazue Takahashi - 2001
    Daily chores and seasonal activities become infused with special meaning when they are performed by this adorable creature. Kuma-Kuma Chan goes about his days in contented solitude, engaged in activities such as eating breakfast, gazing at clouds, listening to the rain, writing letters, and wondering where to go with his new bag. At night he watches the sky darken and brushes his teeth before bed. He gardens in the spring, trims his hair in summer, composes a love song in the fall, and seeks a warm, sunny spot on the floor in the winter. Children and adults alike will take delight in repeating aloud the name of their new, steadfast storybook friend and look forward to spending more time in his imagined world.

True Tales from Another Mexico: The Lynch Mob, the Popsicle Kings, Chalino, and the Bronx


Sam Quinones - 2001
    Fox's victory marked the triumph of another Mexico, a vital, energetic, and creative Mexico tracked by Quinones for over six years.This side of Mexico gets very little press. . . . yet it is the best of the country. . . . people who have the spunk to imagine something else and instinctively flee the enfeebling embrace of PRI paternalism. . . . newly realistic telenovellas show the gray government censor that the country is too lively to abide his boss's dictates. . . . Some twelve million Mexicans reside year-round in the United States. . . . [so] the United States is now part of the Mexican reality and is where this other side of Mexico is often found, reinventing itself.--from the introduction.Quinones merges keen observation with astute interviews and storytelling in his search for an authentic modern Mexico. He finds it in part in emigrants, people who use wits and imagination to strike out on their own. In poignant stories from north of the border--about Oaxacan basketball leagues in southern California and the late singing legend Chalino S�nchez whose songs of drug smugglers spurred the popularity of the narcocorrido--Quinones shows how another Mexico is reinventing itself in America today. But most of his stories are from deep inside Mexico itself. There a dynamic sector exists. It is made up of those who instinctively shunned the enfeebling embrace of the PRI's paternalism, including scrappy entrepreneurs such as the Popsicle Kings of Tocumbo and Indian migrant farmworkers who found a future in the desert of Baja California. Here, too, are true tales from ignored margins of society, including accounts of drag queens and lynchings. From the fringes of the country, Quinones suggests, emerge some of the most telling and central truths about modern Mexico and how it is changing.This book expands our knowledge of modern Mexico many times over. Quinones unearths a wealth of material that has in fact gone unnoticed or been hidden.--Professor Francisco Lomel�, University of California, Santa Barbara

No More!: Stories and Songs of Slave Resistance


Doreen Rappaport - 2001
    A girl defies the law by secretly learning to read and write. A future abolitionist regains his will to live by fighting off his captor with his bare hands: "I will not let you use me like a brute any longer," Frederick Douglass vows. Drawing from authentic accounts, here is a chronology of resistance in all its forms: comical trickster tales about outwitting "Old Marsa"; secret "hush harbors" where Africans instill Christian worship with their own rituals; and spirituals such as "Go Down Moses," whose coded lyrics signal not just hope for deliverance, but an active call to escape. Boldly illustrated with extraordinary oil paintings by award-winning artist Shane W. Evans, and meticulously researched by Doreen Rappaport, this stunning collection - spanning the period from the early days of slavery to the Emancipation Proclamation - is an invaluable resource for teachers, parents, libraries, students, and people everywhere who care about what it means to be free, what it is to be human.

El Cucuy: A Bogeyman Cuento in English and Spanish


Joe Hayes - 2001
    You laugh. There is no such thing as a bogeyman.A sharp knock comes at the door. Nobody is around so you answer. Standing at the door is the oldest man you have ever seen—his back is hunched and one of his ears is big and red. He grabs for your arm and you know now that the bogeyman is for real.This particular bogeyman is called el Cucuy (pronounced coo-COO-ee). He comes directly from Mexico. They say with that big red ear that he can hear everything! In this cautionary tale, master storyteller Joe Hayes tells how two girls didn’t listen to their father’s warnings—just like you—and el Cucuy snatched them up. Of course, the story has a happy ending!Joe Hayes has become one of America’s premier storytellers, traveling around the country to schools, universities and professional conferences to tell stories from the Southwest. His bilingual Spanish-English tellings have earned him a distinctive place among America’s storytellers. Hayes lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico.Illustrator Honorio Robledo grew up in a small village in southwestern Mexico. His art is influenced by the Surrealists but also by the native painters of Veracruz that express through color all the riches of the region. Robledo lives in Los Angeles, California.

Bakit Matagal ang Sundo ko? / Why is my Mommy late?


Kristine Canon - 2001
    Instead, her wild imagination leads her to think of whimsical situations like riding on the back of a turtle or flying with an eagle that may explain her mothers' tardiness.Awards Grand Prize, PBBY-Salanga Writer's Prize, 2001; Grand Prize, PBBY-Illustrator's Prize, 2001

The Last Guide, A story of Fish and Love


Ron Corbett - 2001
    

Crossing Over: A Mexican Family on the Migrant Trail


Rubén Martínez - 2001
    Thousands die crossing the line and those who reach "the other side" are branded illegals, undocumented and unprotected. Crossing Over puts a human face on the phenomenon, following the exodus of the Chávez clan, an extended Mexican family who lost three sons in a tragic border accident. Martínez follows the migrants' progress from their small southern Mexican town of Cherán to California, Wisconsin, and Missouri where far from joining the melting pot, Martínez argues, the seven million migrants in the U.S. are creating a new culture that will alter both Mexico and the United States as the two countries come increasingly to resemble each other.

Beneath the Paving Stones: Situationists and the Beach, May 1968


Dark Star Collective - 2001
    Much of the Situationist creed was produced in pamphlet form and these 3 were crucial in creating the Situationist legend. They provide both an introduction to the ideas of the Situs and a provocatively seductive invitation to a life of freedom & revolt which prefigues many of the themes of today's mass protestors. Illustrated throughout with photos of the May '68 events and the graffiti that played such a famous role. The 7"X7" size replicates size of the Parisian cobblestones used by the protestors.

You Look Beautiful Like That: The Portrait Photographs of Seydou Keïta and Malick Sidibé


Michelle Lamunière - 2001
    This book presents a range of these portraits as well as excerpts from recent interviews with the artists and an essay placing their work in the context of the history of portrait photography in West Africa since its beginnings in the 1840s." These photographs are the work of Africans controlling the camera to create images of African subjects for an African audience. For both photographers the studio was a theater in which to coordinate costumes, lighting, props, and poses to help the subjects define themselves. Keita adapted the formulas of portrait photography to make unique images that reflect both his clients' social identity within the community and their enthusiastic embrace of modernity. Later, as portrait conventions and societal roles became more flexible, Sidibe's subjects took an even more active part in constructing the images they wanted to convey. In Bambara, the language widely spoken in Mali, there is an expression, i ka nye tan, which means "you look beautiful like that." Keita's and Sidibe's protraits flatter the sitters, presenting them in the best possible light.

I Am So Strong


Mario Ramos - 2001
    In 'I Am So Strong', the incorrigible wolf saunters through the foret asking everyone he meets, including Little Red Riding Hood and the Three Little Pigs, 'Tell me, who is the strongest of all?' He gets his comeuppance in a most unexpected and satisfactory way.

I Live in Tokyo


Mari Takabayashi - 2001
    In this city lives a seven-year-old girl named Mimiko. Here you can follow a year’s worth of fun, food, and festivities in Mimiko’s life, month by month. You’ll learn about the Doll’s Festival, riding the bullet train, the right way to put on a kimono, and Mimiko’s top ten favorite meals—just try not to eat the pages displaying the delicious wagashi! Mari Takabayashi evokes the flurry and enchantment of daily life in Tokyo with exquisitely detailed illustrations and descriptions. Her love for the city of her birth blooms in every last glowing vignette.

Chocolat: A Screenplay


Robert Nelson Jacobs - 2001
    Within days Vianne opens a very unusual chocolate shop filled with mouthwatering confections. Her uncanny ability to perceive her customers' private desires and satisfy them with just the right confections coaxes the villagers into abandoning themselves to temptation and happiness.Reynaud (Alfred Molina), the self-appointed leader of this town rooted in tradition, is shocked that Vianne is tempting the parishioners with her delicacies. Fearing it will ruin his town, Reynaud pits himself against the beautiful chocolatiere. But when another stranger arrives, the handsome Roux (Johnny Depp), and joins Vianne in her quest to liberate the town, a dramatic confrontation arises between those who prefer the ways of the past and those who revel in their newly discovered taste for pleasure.

The Lion Children


Angus McNeice - 2001
    Travers, Emily and Angus, the three middle children, take it in turns to recount their adventures in the Okavango Delta, one of the most beautiful wildernesses on earth, where they must quickly learn to fetch water, dig their own toilet, and discover which creepy-crawlies can kill them. In a Land Rover sometimes driven by 12-year-old Travers, they track prides of lions across hundreds of miles of bush. Their classroom an open hut, they take scientific notes and record their observations of the wild life around them - zebra, giraffe, elephant, impala and much more. Written with a wonderful vividness and immediacy, this is a fascinating book for all animal-lovers, enhanced by colour photographs.

Fuzzy Math: The Essential Guide to the Bush Tax Plan


Paul Krugman - 2001
    Always the equal-opportunity critic when it comes to faulty economics, Krugman also tucks into the Democratic alternatives to the Bush plan.This little book packs a big wallop. Together with major media appearances, it puts Krugman's wisdom and steely-eyed analysis firmly at the center of the debate about how to spend upwards of $2 trillion. It may very well change the course of history.

Bowett's Law of International Institutions


Philippe Sands - 2001
    It includes analysis of the common problems faced by international institutions and their potential solutions.

Guerrilla Radio: Rock 'N' Roll Radio and Serbia's Underground Resistance


Matthew Collin - 2001
    Before Milosevic was finally ousted in October 2000, B92 would be shut down and resume broadcasting four times as, through an inspired combination of courage, imagination, and black humor—and a playlist, from The Clash's "White Riot" to Public Enemy's rap manifesto, "Fight the Power," which in sound and spirit, echoed the street fighting in which they sometimes took part—it somehow persisted in disseminating the truth. Matthew Collin knows the founders of the station well and has had extraordinary access to the key personalities and their archives. He first reported on the station as part of a feature on Belgrade's mass street protest in 1996. The book is based on in-depth, first person interviews and exhaustive background research. "Matthew Collin captures the conviction of a generation whose culture and identity were under siege...."—Independent on Sunday

Forest of Memories: Tales from the Heart of Africa


Donald Macintosh - 2001
    As always, his tales are rich with characters and humor—Laval, the temperamental but highly successful fishing baboon; Charlie, the ladies man and local footballing legend; and the beautiful Titi, who employed feminine guile to win an international angling competition.

Brazilian Popular Music & Globalization


Charles A. Perrone - 2001
    This collection of articles by leading scholars traces the history of Brazilian pop music through the twentieth-century.

Zoo Tails


Oliver Graham-Jones - 2001
    These were the animals on the sick list with which Oliver Graham-Jones was presented on his first day as veterinary officer of London Zoo. It was 1950, and the care of wild animals in zoos was in its infancy. Previously sick animals had been placed in the care of their keepers, kept from public view, and if they didn't respond to traditional medications allowed to pass quietly away. But Oliver was to change all this. A pioneer of many of the techniques now used by vets around the world, he was instrumental in building the first animal hospital, and in moving London Zoo away from its Victorian past into the high-tech world of modern veterinary medicine. In Zoo Tails, he tells us about some of the animals he cared for: what it felt like when he was faced with an escaped bear or an injured elephant; and what he did when called upon to perform a colostomy on a python, or when he was asked to fit one of the ravens in the Tower of London with a wooden leg. If a dangerous animal escaped or required urgent medical attention, Oliver Graham-Jones was always on hand, ready for any eventuality. Frequently describing himself as quaking with fear, he

Gladys Aylward Daring to Trust


Renee Taft Meloche - 2001
    Now Gladys and nearly one hundred Chinese orphans were on another daring journey, looking for safe homes away from the war in their village. The journey over the mountains was hard, and often Gladys and the children were tired, hungry, and scared. But they dared to trust God - and God helped them every step of the way.