Samut Saring Ceylon

Tue 2 Dec 2008

Horatio Hornblower: hero

Recently, we enjoyed our family nights with the first 2 episodes of the Horatio Hornblower played by Ioan Gruffud. I remember owning a set of these books written by C.S Forester back home and I still have them in my old aparador, I believe. If you are a buff, these historical fiction series will make your study of European wars more delightful.

My children immediately found a hero in this midshipman. They fell in love with the character. The story of Horatio Hornblower exemplifies courage, loyalty, honor and duty of the Royal Navy during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. I love those books! And now that my children have watched two of these TV series and have learned that I have the books, they couldn't stop pestering me. I have to write it down on my list-to-get from the Philippines. They are waiting for the 3rd episode of the series. We will have to borrow all of the DVDs before our time lapses here.

Here is the complete list of the Horatio Hornblower series. And as I google more about it, I learned that there was a 1951 movie based on the classic starred by Gregory Peck. Hmmm, I should see this one, too. I hope they also have it on the rental.

You can read more about these books at Wikipedia and reviews at Napoleonic Guide.

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Sun 30 Nov 2008

Books from Boot Sale

Posted in bi.bli.O.phi.lia

After church service today, a boot sale on the church premises had many interesting things to offer. There were books, clothes, artwork, bookmarks, lunch, Sri Lankan goodies, and many more. Proceeds of sale will benefit the Women's Fellowship which initiated an outreach to women prisoners. The prison ministry is raising money for teen girls who are incarcerated in the city jail. There are teenagers as young as 13 languishing behind bars and some 50 babies/children being raised by convicted mothers inside the jail, too. It all sounds depressing.

Anyway, while looking around I was able to pick up some books, mostly old but still good as new. Many are published by Operation Mobilization. The ships MV Doulos and MV Logos operate under this ministry. Our pastor Gary Dean and his wife Sue of Cinnamon Gardens Baptist Church, are connected with OM.

Here are the books I picked up for RS200 only each (around P90 Philippine Pesos each) now lined up for my next reads.

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Mon 13 Oct 2008

CM Pinoy: A Reading List and Publishers - for the Filipino child

Posted in bi.bli.O.phi.lia

Here is a list of Filipino Children's Books I have come up with. We have not read many of these books yet so you may want to check them out yourselves if you wish to include it in your personal list. While most are fiction, fables and folk tales, many though reflect the values we wish to impart to our children in form of vibrant and colorful stories written in Filipino culture and context which often are lacking in many imported homeschool books we use nowadays.

I wish I have organized this list more but I have a handful of tasks to complete this week. SO I leave it all to you on how to make a final list that will suit you and your children.

Young to middle readers

Antukin, Philippine Folk Songs and Lullabyes, selected by Felicidad A. Prudente, and illustrated by Joanne de León. A collection of folk songs from around the Philippines. Tahanan Books for Young Readers, P.O. Box 9079, MCS Mailing Center, 1299 Makati City, ISBN 971-630-095-6, distributed by Bookmark

The Carabao-Turtle Race, and Other Classic Philippine Animal Folk Tales as told by Sylvia Mendez Ventura and illustrated by Joanne de León. Eight age-old animal tales, popular in the Philippines. Edited by Dean S. Fansler. Tahanan Books for Young Readers, Makati City, ISBN 971-630-024-7, distributed by Bookmark.

Ang mga Kwento ni Lola Basyang ni Severino Reyes As retold by Christine S. Bellen. Publisher: Anvil Publishing. Received the 2004 national Book Award for Special Citation

Barefoot in Fire: A World War II Childhood. Barbara Ann Gamboa Lewis. Pictures by Barbara Pollak. Tahanan Books, 2005. An autobiographical account of life in war torn Manila. Lewis narrates her experiences as a child growing up in the midst of war. Her struggles with internal and external conflicts shaped her identity as a person. A reflective and affecting read for today’s generation whose only reconnaissance of World War II is in history books or in a Hollywood-ized movie version. Gr. 5 – High II.

XILEF. Augie Rivera. Adarna House, 2000. Xilef is the first Filipino Children's Story that helps develop greater understanding and acceptance of dyslexic children. Gr. 3 – 6.

1999 Don Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature,
Third Prize, Best Children's Story
1995 International Board of Books for Young People
Outstanding Book for Young People with Disability

Can We Plug into Lightning? Gidget Jimenez . They say that lightning is made of electricity. Is that where the electricity of a light bulb comes from? Discover how a light bulb works, the sources of energy, how energy is changed to electricity, and how electricity travels to our home. Other titles: Can We Drink the Ocean

Sandosenang Sapatos (A dozen pairs of shoes). Luis Gatmaitan MD. Illustrations by Beth Parocha-Doctolero. Hiyas-OMF, 2002. Other books by Dr. Luis Gatmaitan. Click here.

The Cat Painter. Becky Bravo. Illustrations by Mark Ramsel Salvatus III. Adarna House, 2006.

English with Filipino translation2004 Don Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature,
First Prize, Best Children's Story
2006 National Book Award, Best Children's Book

The Zimbragatzees of the Planet Zing. Rene Villanueva. Illustrations by Jason Moss.: Lampara Publishing House, 2002.

The Spectacular Tree. Robert Magnuson. Lampara, 2001.

Grace D. Chong's Oh Mateo! Book Series . OMF Literature, 2003.

The Magic of Apo Mayor

Teo's Trash Can

The Secret Ingredient

Teo's Cuckatoo

Books by Carla Pacis. Adarna House, 2004

There's a Snake in the House,

Mayroon Akong Alagang Puno

Hipon and Biya

Ang Mahiyaing Manok. Anonuevo, Rebecca. Adarna House, 2000.

Dinosaur Pop-up Activity Book. Jomike Tejido. Adarna House, 2006.

Values Stories for Filipino Children By Fe Aida Lacsamana-Reyes. Anvil Publishing 2007

Other Books by Adarna

Sampu Pataas, Sampu Pababa

Lola Puti

Dalawang Bayani ng Bansa

Can We Drink the Ocean

Tight Times (by the 2007 PBBY Salanga and Alcala Prize winners)

Other Books by Anvil

Ang Pitong Tanga

Ang Kapatid ng Tatlong Marya

Ang Sultan Saif

Children of Two Seasons

Other Books by Bookmark

Khan: A Teacher of Everything

The Boy Monk in an Orange Robe

The Saint of the Gutters

Of Rubber Shoes and the Saddest Baby

Yuan Long Ping Story

Vietnam’s Son

Dancing in Cloud Gate

Green Clothes for the Yellow Dragon

A Different Kind of Policewoman

More titles:

A Sea Of Stories: Tales From Sulu. by Carla M. Pacis
Are You The Forest King. by Penny Reyes-Velasco
Chun. by Marivi Soliven
Cinco De Novembre. by Rene B. Javellana
Dikya, The Jellyfish. by Marla Yotoko Chorengel
Gabi And The Engkanto. by Marla Yotoko Chorengel
Ibong Adarna. by Maria Elena Paterno
Junior Starfish And The Rainbow. by Alfred Yuson & Mirava Yuson
Maksing And Mona. by Marla Yotoko Chorengel
Marmol. by Marla Yotoko Chorengel
Mr. Ulcer. by Gilda Cordero- Fernando
Ningning. by Gilda-Cordero Fernando
The First Cashew Nut. by Marla Yotoko Chorengel
The Jinx, The Dolphin And The Deep Sea Mystery. by Edgardo Maranan
The Toad And The Princess. by Marivi Soliven
Tobie And The Christmas Bell. by Marla Yotoko Chorengel
War Of The Rose People. by Marivi Soliven Blanco
Why The Sky Is High. by Marla Yotoko Chorengel

Other Books by Canvas

Ang Batang Maraming Bawal

Sol: A Legend About the Sun

Other Books by Lampara

Alamat ng Atis

Alamat ng Butiki

Alamat ng Mangga

Alamat ng Guyabano

Alamat ng Pating

Alamat ng Papaya

Ang Batang Natutong Magtipid

Ang Batang Natutong Maging Matapang

The Ugly Duckling

The Monkey and the Turtle

The Thirsty Crow

The Boy Who Cried Wolf

David and Goliath

Frog on the Moon

A Spider Story. Germaine Yia

Other Books by NCCA

Pumbakhayon

Halikpon

Other Books by Hiyas/OMF

What Beetle Can Do

Teo’s Cockatoo1

David and His New Classmate

Aruy! Magang-maga ang mga Tonsil ni JM!

Other Books by Tahanan

500 Words and Pictures

Melampus and the Snakes

Odysseus and the Cyclops

The Trojan Horse

Long Ago and Far Away

Other Books by Vibal

Why Do Squids Squirt Ink?

Lazybug: A Love Fable

Aliguyon at Pumbakhayon

His Friend, Eric

Mga Laruang Papel

Amansinaya

Nobody’s Hat

Pipo the Clown

Pagpagayuk

Naglakbay si Tulalang sa Araw at Buwan

Pipo the Clown

Ang Hardineron Tipaklong

Advanced/ high school readers (may also be for parents to read-aloud to younger /middle readers)

Three Greek Myths - Bilingual Flipbooks by Tahanan Publishers

Barefoot in Fire: A World War II Childhood. Barbara Ann Gamboa Lewis. Pictures by Barbara Pollak. Tahanan Books, 2005.

Ang Paaralan ni Fuwan. Victoria Annonuevo. Adarna House, 2002.Fuwan is torn between going to school and helping in the rice field. After being absent for several days from school, he missed his classmates and teachers. Upon his class’ surprise visit, his father realized how important going to school meant for him. Finally, he was allowed to go to school. Gr. 4 – High I.

Elias & His Trees (Mga Puno ni Elias). Adapted by Augie Rivera. Illustrated by Romeo Forbes. CANVAS & the UST Press, 2005. Adapted from the French folklore, The Man who Planted Trees, this Filipiniana version bespeaks of the Filipino diaspora and his constant longing for the land of his birth.

Enrique El Negro. Carla M. Pacis. Illustrations by Mel Silvestre. Cacho Publishing House, 2002.Yabon was barely out of his teens when pirates took the life of his family and tribe. Captured and sold into slavery, he became servant to a temperamental Portuguese explorer. With a new name, Enrique El Negro traveled aboard a galleon; sailed the uncharted seas; met strange peoples with cultures different from his own and became the first of his “kind” to travel around the world. Pacis takes a stake at historical fiction with considerable success. Gr. 5 – High II

The Battle for Manila Publisher: Platypus Publishing

20 Speeches that Moved a Nation Publisher: Platypus Publishing

Games Filipino Children Used to Play, Mario Henson: Before the advent of television and computer games, what did Filipino children play?

Tales from Lake Lanao and Other Essays by Nagasura T. Madale. Contains stories, riddles, songs and other literary works of the Maranao shared through the art of storytelling also known as Kapanutol.

Sanghaya: Philippine Arts & Culture Yearbook Edited by Bienvenido Lumbera . A volume of hard-to-gather information and memorable photographs of diverse artistic events that transpired in the arts and culture scene in 2000/2002.

CDs/DVDs/VHS

Publisher: National Commission for Culture and Arts

Philippine Classical Piano Music CD By Virginia Laico-Villanueva. Compositions by the award-winning pianist and composer Ms. Virginia Laico-Villanueva.

KATUTUBO: Sustaining Indigenous Cultures Towards the Next Millennium (VHS). A video documentation series on the different aspects of indigenous cultures: Children of the Philippines; Philippine Indigenous Sports; and Communities in Crisis. Produced in cooperation with Probe Productions, Inc. and the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples.

Sariling Lupa Series (VHS)
Video documentaries on some of the country’s colorful locales. Conceptualized by the NCCA in collaboration with the Department of Tourism, the National Historical Institute, and the National Museum to promote cultural tourism for the Philippines’ seven anchor destinations.Rizal & Laguna: An Arc of Heritage Art; Cebu: Where Currents Meet; Bohol: Treasures of the Soul; The Art and People of Ilocos: Bound to the Land; Davao: Two Takes on Paradise; Baguio to Banaue: A Journey to the Cordilleras; and Palawan: A Bridge to Many Worlds.

Legacy: Philippine World Heritage Sites (VCD &VHS). Follow Architect Augusto Villalon, the country’s foremost heritage conservation advocate, as he journeys to the eight Philippine World Heritage Sites, inscribed by UNESCO for their “outstanding universal value to the whole of humanity.” Showcased in this landmark video documentary are the Tubbataha Reef Marine Park, the Puerto Princesa Subterranean River National Park, the Rice Terraces of the Philippine Cordilleras, the historic town of Vigan, and the Four Baroque Churches of Paoay, Santa Maria, Miag-ao and San Agustin. Directed by Butch Nolasco.

Davao: Two Takes on Paradise. Davao: Two Takes on Paradise is the third among the Sariling Lupa: Cultural Tourism Documentaries, featuring the natural and cultural bounties of the Southern Philippine province.Discover the wealth of Philippine history, nature, culture, and the environment as you go on an armchair tour around Davao, with the majestic Mount Apo as landmark. Enter the two worlds of the Davaoeños—the realm of the Bagobos and the urban Davao life—and appreciate how their cultural and spiritual distinctions are intertwined and harmonized in this bountiful land.

Nostalgia in a Denuded Forest
This compilation of Iraya-Mangyan Music from Mindoro by ethnomusicologist composer Jonas Baes recounts first hand experiences of research among one of the most marginalized people in the Philippines.

Sources and links

Filipino Publishers

OMF-Hiyas Children's Books

Adarna US Distributor

School Librarian in Action

Philippine Board on Books for Young People

National Commission for Culture and Arts

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Fri 3 Oct 2008

CM Pinoy: Living and whole books for the Filipino child

Posted in bi.bli.O.phi.lia

Photo by Iphis, morguefile.com

Charlotte Mason emphasized the use of living and whole books in teaching children. A book written in a rich language with high literary value may be considered a living book. It is usually written by adults who have passion and keen love for the subject or theme of the book, be it fiction or non-fiction. Whole books are unabridged stories, usually classics and awarded literary works published wholly and not in snippets like anthologies and dry textbooks.

When we started using living and whole books, I slowly built our collection starting with the literary classics which are available in the local bookstores. This include Jules Verne, Laura Ingalls Wilder, CS Lewis, Tolkien, Rudyard Kipling, G.A. Henty, E. Nesbit, C. Kingsley, L.M. Montgomery and more. These books are easy to find. They can be ordered online or downloaded free from Project Gutenberg, Archive.org and other public domain libraries in pdf or djvu format.

Back home, our favorite places to hunt for living book treasures are second hand shops, BookSale and Diplomat's Book and Mags, for the budget-tight biblioholics. My children and I literally spent hours in the afternoon digging up shelves and boxes of these shops. We completed our Little House books set by Laura Wilder Ingalls through BookSale at prices P30-75 (Philippine peso) only, when a book would cost P250 in the bookstore. I marked regular new-arrival dates on my calendar and left my contact details so they can call me if new books were delivered. Local living books are elusive since it hasn't gained a market niche especially those which reflect Philippine history and culture but they are not non-existent. Some titles are just available online for the foreign market but not in our regular bookstores - sounds weird, huh? Perhaps, if more Filipino families homeschool the CM way, it will steadily gain a following 'til writers and publishers will note us worthy of pampering. =)

Well, I wouldn't discount the growing number of lively, colorful bilingual storybooks published by Tahanan, Adarna House, Hiyas and Lampara among many others but we still need more of various subjects especially for the older children. In the recent Manila International Book fair, more books written by our very own writers were launched. Yet, we need more. If you are a homeschool parent yourself, you would have known this by now, we can never satiate the minds and hearts of our young readers who are always hungry for good books.

I have come up with a reading list and sources of living books for the Filipino homeschooled child. It is just a bit frustrating that many titles are not available in our local bookstores and have to be ordered online (dollars!) - the Filipino homeschool community should make an appeal about this.

Next week: List of Philippine Publishers and Living Books for the Filipino Child

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Thu 25 Sep 2008

Reading Mary Slessor on Day 25

Posted in bi.bli.O.phi.lia

My family can never get enough of mission and missionary stories. The stories and lives of the servants of God are so inspiring that we always are looking for more books about unreached people groups or the 10/40 window, and the work of God's servants He has called to deliver His message of hope and salvation.

We started reading the life of Mary Slessor today. Mary Slessor, like Eric Liddell, is a Scottish missionary. She lived in the mid 1800s to early 1900s and served in Africa's Calabar region for thirty nine years. We are excited to learn how God called her and how she started her missionary life in the jungles of Calabar. The book we are reading is one of the series of Christian Heroes: Then and Now - Mary Slessor Forward into Calabar by Janet and Geoff Benge.

Usually, our study of a biography of a person also leads us to a study of geography, culture, history and related topics. We read the book aloud and allow the children to narrate afterward. We also check the maps if needed, read more about the country or place, the people and their culture from various resources like the World Book, Wikipedia and History books. We try to find what world events were taking place during that period. We try to relate Bible passages that are applicable in the challenges the characters of the book are facing . If you will consider it, the possibilities of learning many themes and topics through biographical study are endless and limitless.

Our shelves have a lot of space for more missionary books. Just recently, we received a copy of the book Revolution in World Missions by K.P Yohannan from my good friend and sister in the Lord, Sang. She and her husband sent it to us from the US. Would you recommend more titles so we can add it on our line up? Or perhaps you might be curious to know what we have read so far and will be reading soon...

Here, take a peek!