Read! Read! Read! - An introduction to Carlong's Sand Pebbles Pleasure Series for children

All books available at Sangsters Book Stores in Jamaica, or online at 
http://sangstersbooks.com/products/children-s-books/category/caribbean


The Sand Pebbles Pleasure Series

In 2002, Carlong (well-known text book publisher in Jamaica) decided to start publishing trade books for children. They named it the Sand Pebbles Pleasure Series. I had the honour of being invited to be the series editor and so had a hand in guiding and overseeing the publication of the books.  I have had the pleasure of working with authors who are all passionate about increasing the pool of recreational reading for our children both in Jamaica and in the wider Caribbean. Some of these authors were already published, some not.

Today, there are many more books for children being published in Jamaica, but at the time there were few new ones coming out. Carlong now has eleven titles in the series spread across chapter books, short story collections and novels for children aged 8 to 14 years. Over the years, many of these books have won BIAJ awards. Island Princess in Brooklyn by Diane Browne was shortlisted for the Burt Award in 2014.

Some of you are already aware of the books in the series, but I would like to spend a few minutes introducing our titles to those  who might not be familiar with them.

The recommended ages are merely guides as we know that children's reading competence differs from one child to the next.  In all the books there are illustrations which complement the text. However, since these are not picture books the illustrations are in black and white but nevertheless very engaging.

For the younger readers ages 8 to 10 years, there are the chapter books

1. Jenny and the General by Jean D'Costa

Jenny's pet dog, Monty, is getting old. But when Jenny does not come home from school, he realizes that she is in trouble and goes to rescue her from the mad woman who had kidnapped her. Monty is a pet most children would like to have.

2. Miss Bettina's House by Hazel D. Campbell

Miss Bettina has to leave her animals behind on her little farm. A neighbour is supposed to take care of them, but the animals find that they are on their own and have to protect Miss Bettina's house from a village rascal who wants to take it over. Led by Dog, the indoor animals, Cat and Polly, together with the outdoor animals Cow and her calf, Donkey and Goat have to trick Curry Dan into leaving them alone. First, they decide to 'adopt' a homeless boy, Ernest, who takes care of them. Then they devise a very hilarious plan to scare away Curry Dan. ( When I first wrote this story, Miss Bettina didn’t return. But after I read it at a few schools, all the children wanted her to return, so the story ends with her coming back and being welcomed by all the characters.)

3. Every Little Thing Will be All Right by Diane Browne

Five short stories about children facing and overcoming everyday challenges, like – Delroy who wants to be the world's best batsman, but whose parents can’t afford to buy him a bat. Or Saffiya who wants to be a ballerina and defies the adults who think her body shape is wrong. At the independence celebrations at her school she shocks everybody by dancing a ballet piece. There are other stories here you will enjoy.

For the older children 10 to 12 we have

4. Jojo's Treasure Hunt by Cherrell Shelley Robinson

This is a delightful novel about 12 year old Jojo whose parents are about to lose their home. Jojo remembers our folktale about Spanish jars hidden at the foot of cotton trees. There is a large cotton tree in his neighbourhood and he is determined to find the Spanish jar. But he has to be at the tree at midnight and he is scared, because the folktale says that the treasure is always guarded by the ghost of a slave. Can he do this? Can he visit the tree at midnight, find the treasure and save his family? You have to read this exciting story to find out.

5. Little Island Big Adventures by Maria Roberts Squires

This story comes from another Caribbean island. One of the Grenadines attached to Grenada. You may need to consult your atlas. But you won't need it to follow this story about the adventures of Sara Ann and her best friend Ruben. They get up to a lot of antics in their last year of primary school on their island which is so small, there is only one school, one church, no piped water or electricity and no police station. The culture of this tiny island is intriguing.

6. Freedom Come by Jean Goulbourne

We don’t know much about how Jamaican children lived in the past. These five stories fill in that gap - Children in Port Royal during the buccaneer era; Taino children; children in slavery. These are all lively stories which help to increase our knowledge of what it was like for children in these times.

7. Bernie and the Captain's Ghost by Hazel D. Campbell 

Mystery and Adventure await these six orphan, handicapped children invited to spend their summer holiday in the country by a mysterious person. They meet ghosts, men involved in the transshipment of drugs; get kidnapped, locked away in a cave and  experience other dangerous situations. But in the end, they survive and there is a welcome surprise for them.

For ages 12 to 14

 8. Tek Mi! Noh Tek Mi!

Eight Caribbean authors from Jamaica, Grenada, Belize, Guyana, Monsterrat, Trinidad and Tobago

This book contains 10 exciting and unusual folk tales, traditional and modern, from these Caribbean countries. You'll enjoy reading them and moreso listening to the two accompanying CDs which record four of the stories. There is a very informative introduction to folktales by Professor Maureen Warner-Lewis 

9.  Island Princess in Brooklyn by Diane Browne

Another delightful story from Diane Browne. This time about Princess McQueen who spent her early years living with her beloved grandmother in Jamaica. Then at age 13 she migrated to Brooklyn in the USA to live with her mother whom she barely knew. She has to learn to adjust to living with her mother and stepfather as well as adjust to her new school. She faces many challenges in her new life, but in the end all is well.

10. Forest Fever by Sharon James

This story, set in the island of Dominica during the 70's gives us a very interesting view of the era of the early Rasta movement in that country. We get the action through the eyes of Jerry a seventh grader who goes on a school trip to the forest and their famous Boiling Lake. He gets lost during a sudden storm, and experiences extraordinary events in a Rasta camp in a far mountain region.

Then we come back to the 10 to 12 age range with 

11. Ash the Flash by Hazel Campbell and Nattalie Gordon

Being launched at Kingston Book Festival on Saturday March 7, and about which I won't say much here (I've written on this before and will probably write again) except that it was an interesting experience co-writing this novel with a former student from my writing class. It was fun writing about this boy, Ash, who unexpectedly finds himself able to run faster than Usain Bolt. I know you will have fun reading it also.

Recovering our history through fiction

With reference to Freedom Come by Jean Goulbourne 

Carlong Publishers (Caribbean) Ltd.

History textbooks usually just give facts and information which many children find boring.  Historical fiction, on the other hand, can make those facts come alive and be quite entertaining.

Hidden behind the scenes in the history texts are events ranging from fascinating and awe inspiring to scary, depressing and sometimes comedic. Wars and conquests, romance, inventions, crusades, slavery and so many other topics provide rich material for the storyteller. It’s people who make history. Authors of historical fiction make those hidden scenes come alive. A single incident or experience could be expanded into a novel by building up the background of events leading to it, and the resulting consequences.

Why haven’t we done more storytelling about our history in the Caribbean? See previous post Historical stories in Caribbean children’s books    for some ideas on this.

Historical fiction can fall into two categories:

1. The setting is historical but people and events are entirely fictional.Time travel stories tend to do this e.g. there was a war, or a natural disaster at a particular time in history, but the story doesn’t dwell on the known historical characters or events. Sometimes an obscure fact in history can be taken out and expanded into a story.

2. Both setting and characters are factual with the author imaginatively expanding on aspects of the events – it could have happened, and this was probably what was happening behind the scenes that history records.

Writers of historical fiction need to remember that:

Plot must be clear and not railroaded by historical details

Historical details must be accurate

Characters must come alive

Illustrations must be relevant to the time period.

Obviously, research is a key for the writer of historical fiction who needs detail to make the story believable. The elements which make for good story are as important as the factual information – especially the use of sensory details. How did things look, taste, feel, smell and sound. These are very important challenges for the writer wanting to make the story come alive.

The author of Freedom Come, Jean Goulbourne, studied and taught history and evidently called upon her scholarship in writing these stories for children.

It isn’t often that we see slave children in stories or even in accounts of slavery. The more striking stories in Freedom Come are about slave children.

The author gives us a glimpse of what it must have been like for children in this era. In the story Cimarron! Cimarron! Goulbourne shows us two young boys taking a break from work (feeding the pigs) to play a little. The bookkeeper on the plantation catches them at play and whips them soundly. We feel the frustration of a way of life which has Alrick, the protagonist, threatening to take his life. Luckily for him, his father, who had escaped to join the free Maroons some years before, returns and rescues him and his mother. They safely escape to a better life in the mountains with the Maroons

Slaves on way to sell produce at market from  Freedom Come

In a gloomier tale, The Whipping, another slave child, this time a girl,  escapes through death. However, the author presents death as preferable to the slave life. In death she is welcomed by her ancestors and we get a feeling that she will be now at peace. This is a gripping first person story with details that make the slave experience come alive in personal ways. The death scene is presented as a celebration.

“There on the sands of a large and wonderful land was a crowd of black people; and the drums were beating and they were dancing; men and women, boys and girls; and the waves washed the shore and the drums beat and the trees waved their branches; and the drums beat and Ole Granpus came out of the crowds and into the sea and his hands were held upwards, welcoming me,and I knew. This was Africa. This was home.”

It is said that many slaves believed that death would carry them back to their home in Africa.The beliefs and superstitions of the slaves are skillfully woven into this story which is mostly about how the slaves themselves interacted with one another in this terrible dehumanizing era.

Slavery was an extremely harsh way of life and it is difficult to use it as a setting for children’s stories since so many of the experiences of the slaves were so painful, physically and emotionally and, no doubt, the kinds of experiences we would like to shield our children from. This collection of stories is meant for the 10 to 12+ age group.

Other stories in this collection deal with the experience of a Taino boy helping his village to celebrate with a feast to which he contributes wild ducks which we watch him catch, Taino style. Another story deals with boys in Port Royal, the famous city of the pirates. The boys learn, first hand from Peter, an old pirate, about one of the more famous raids carried out by the buccaneers -  the raid on  Panama City.  The last story is about the heroic journey of a boy who helped to carry a message to Daddy Sharpe (now a National Hero) on the eve of the Christmas Rebellion in Montego Bay, which helped to hasten the end of slavery.

All the stories bring the history of their era alive. Jean Goulbourne has won many awards and acclaim for her literary skills as a poet and storyteller. The poetic influence can often be seen in the language of her prose. This book is a very useful supplementary reader for students of our past.

Freedom Come was a runner up award winner in the 1999 Vic Reid Award for Children’s Literature, a competition hosted by the National Book Development Council of Jamaica.