India
Mukand and Riaz
By Nina Sabnani
Mukand and Riaz. Nina Sabnani. Tulika Books, 2007.Co-published with National Institute of Design, New Delhi. ISBN 9788181463432. 32 p. (Ages 5 and up). Picture book.
Set against the background of India and Pakistan’s partition, Mukund and Riaz is a gripping tale of friendship accompanied with appliqué art, a fabric art style commonly done by women of both Sindh in Pakistan and Gujarat in India. Would pair with Land of the Cranes by Aida Salazar. The author is an associate professor at the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, where she is pursuing her doctoral research in the area of storytelling, with focus on Kaavad tradition in Rajasthan. She was inspired by the memories of her father and initially made Mukund and Riaz as a film for Big Small People Projects, Israel that won the certificate of merit from Tokyo Broadcasting System, Japan. This is the short film on Mukund and Riaz. [mi]
China & Taiwan
China
Monkey King: Journey to the West
By Wu Cheng'en, Julia Lovell (Translator)
Monkey King: Journey to the West. Wu Cheng’en. Translated by Julia Lovell. Forward by Gene Luen Yang. Penguin Books, 2021. ISBN 9780143107187. 339 p. (Ages 12 and up). Epic.
A new translation of a Chinese classic – “one of those books that if you grow up in China, you know the story,” says China scholar Jeffrey Wasserstrom. Abridged and rendered in colloquial English by University of London professor Julia Lovell, it traces the rollicking adventures of a shape-shifting monkey superhero with a penchant for mischief. Naturally pairs with Gene Luen Yang’s graphic novel, American Born Chinese, which employs scenes from the Monkey King. [dj]