Book Review: Ang Laro nina Rona at Powa

Dahil nalalapit na ang Lunar New Year, narito ang aking rebyu ng aklat pambata ni Becky Gerodias at Joanne Wong, Ang Laro nina Rona at Powa.

Ang Laro nina Rona at Powa 

Manunulat: Becky Gerodias

Illustrador: Joanne Wong

Maikling Rebyu (para sa mga guro, magulang, at tagapagbasa):

Sa gitna ng pagdiriwang ng Lunar New Year, inilalatag ng kuwento ang isang karaniwang damdamin ng bata: inggit. Nakita ni Rona ang bagong laruan ni Powa—at sa halip na manatili sa pagkukumpara, natuto siyang i-channel ang damdaming ito tungo sa paglikha. Dito pumapasok ang mahalagang mensahe ng aklat: agency at self-confidence na nagmumula sa sariling kakayahan.

Mga Lakas ng Aklat

1. Emosyonal na literasiya

Hindi dinidemonisa ang inggit. Sa halip, ipinapakita na maaari itong maging panimulang damdamin para sa pagkatuto at paglikha. Mainam itong lunsaran ng pag-uusap sa mga bata tungkol sa:

• Ano ang nararamdaman ko?

• Ano ang maaari kong gawin sa damdaming ito?

2. Pagpapahalaga sa kakayahan at pagkamalikhain

Sa paggawa ni Rona ng sarili niyang laruan, naipapakita ang growth mindset. Hindi kailangang magkaroon agad ng “bago” para maging masaya; maaari kang lumikha.

3. Reciprocal na pagkakaibigan

Ang pagbabago ni Rona ang naging tulay para kay Powa na magbahagi. Hindi ito sermon tungkol sa “dapat mag-share.” Ito ay ipinapakitang bunga ng kumpiyansa at seguridad sa sarili ang pagbabahagi.

4. Cultural grounding

Ang konteksto ng Chinese/Lunar New Year ay hindi lamang dekorasyon. Maaari itong magsilbing:

• Pagpapakilala sa mga simbolo ng pagdiriwang (kulay pula, mga palamuti, pamilya)

• Pagbubukas ng usapan sa cultural diversity sa Pilipinas at sa mga impluwensiya ng bansang China at Hong Kong sa mundo.

Mga Tanong sa Pagpapalalim (para sa read-aloud o classroom use)

• Kailan ka nakaramdam ng inggit? Ano ang ginawa mo?

• Ano ang kaya mong gawin gamit ang sarili mong talento?

• Paano nagbago ang kilos ni Powa dahil sa ginawa ni Rona?

• Ano ang kahulugan ng pagbabahagi kung pareho kayong may tiwala sa sarili?

Marami pang mga aklat pambata na puwedeng mabasa at basahin online. Ito ay libre. Pumunta lang sa Room to Read para makapili ng mga kuwento.

Bangtan Hermana Notes: From Connections to Love Songs: Installation Art and Art in Public Spaces in BTS’s Narrative of Kinship

In 2020, when BTS launched CONNECT, BTS under the curatorial direction of Daehyung Lee, I remember thinking: this is unusual. A Kpop group funding global contemporary art, stepping back so other artists could take the space. It asked what connection looks like when it is built, not performed.

CONNECT unfolded during Map of the Soul: 7, an era about shadow and integration. Outwardly, they were practicing what the album suggested inwardly: plurality.

They decentralized themselves. They shifted attention from idol to collective. It felt less like branding and more like bridge-building.

Now, buildings in Seongsu wrapped in red and white tape ask: What is your love song? The question interrupts the street. It slows the body. In the context of Arirang, a folk song carried across generations, that question becomes communal. A love song is not owned. It is remembered, passed on, sung again.

If CONNECT was about network, Arirang feels like root. CONNECT moved through art institutions. Arirang moves through the public space. Gwhanghwamun Square. This is a shift from curated space to common space, from vertical strucyures to horizontal chorus. Not kingship. Kinship.

I return to CONNECT because I see the arc. From building connections across cities to asking ordinary people what song holds them together. From infrastructure to inheritance. Perhaps this is the deeper work: not just releasing music, but rehearsing community until we realize we were never outside the song. We, ARMY, most especially, were always part and participants of the story of BTS.

Apobangpo! Purple and true!

Connect ebook: https://www.scribd.com/.../501858075/Connect-Bts-E-book-en

Connect Video Compilation: https://youtube.com/playlist...

#BTSComeback2026 #BTS_ARIRANG

Silver Linings with Ms. Zee: Hand Building Pottery Workshop at Papemelroti

It was my dream to run a workshop at Papemelroti. Robert and I had a brief chat about it on Messenger during the pandemic. As it happened, he passed on, and those touched by his legacy and love continue. Yesterday, that dream materialized.

I held a Hand-Building Pottery Workshop at the main branch of Papemelroti, where five students played with clay in shared breathwork. My small circle of students was led by Cris Tanjutco. We go a long way back to our reading and literacy advocacy days. Meeting her husband, Galvin, and her son, Asher, felt like coming full circle. It was a family affair. With them were her brother, Mark, and his spouse, PL—both natural at hand-building.

From this workshop, I carry learning experiences too. I need a bigger trolley, that’s for sure. Always make room for student choice and agency. I have yet to master the business side of this endeavor. For now, I hold on to the non-monetary returns of the experience.

Till next clay-ventures!

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A post shared by Zarah Gagatiga (@zarahgeeh)

Bangtan Hermana Notes: BTS Returning With ARMY

Poetry: Three Arirang Cups

I made three Arirang cups.

While smoothing the surface

I recalled

and thought of people

who harmed and hurt

my children and myself.

Who never apologized.

My hands kept moving.

Clay does not argue.

It yields, but not without form.

I prayed for healing

and forgiveness

whenever it arrives.

Not forced. Not demanded. Not performed.

Just this:

smoothing the surface

again and again

until it can be held.

Grace will be given as they burn in the kiln.

zarah gagatiga 02132026

#poetry #artheals #handbuildingwithclay

Author Visit: KYu Responds

Looking Back at the 4th BTS Global Interdisciplinary Conference in KL, Malaysia

 

Reading for Care: The Plant on the Window Speaks

Inspired by the Memoir Writing Workshop by Women Writing last Saturday, February 7, we begin Reading for Care: How Literature Holds Us, a new blog series that centers on attention and awareness to the beauty of words and how it holds space for readers like us. All you need is a pen and a paper (or a notebook) and 10-20 minutes time allotment for journaling.

The instructions are simple: Read the poem for the week. Sit with it. Write responses in your journal.

Note:
This is a reading and journaling space, not therapy. Please feel free to pause or step away whenever you need to.

Here we go!

Arrival: Notice this photo and stay in the moment of noticing. Breathe. Inhale. Exhale. Do this 3-5 times.

Encounter the poem, The Little Plant in the Window Speaks by Annette Wynne.

The Little Plant on the Window Speaks

by Annette Wynne

If you had let me stay all winter long outside,
Long, long ago, I should have died.
And so I'll live for you and keep
A little summer while the others sleep—
A little summer on your window-sill—
I'll be your growing garden spot until
The rough winds go away,
And great big gardens call you out to play.

When Literature Holds: Journal prompts 

1. What did you notice, visually, in sound, or in feeling, as you read? 

2. Which line felt steady or comforting? Write it in your journal. 

3. What image from the poem stayed with you? Did it bring a memory, 

a place, or a person to mind?

Extending the experience (only if you wish or if the spirit is nudging 

towards generosity), you can:

1. Share a similar photo on your socmed account.

2. Do something artistic or creative.

3. Read more poetry: The Human Touch, Weighing the World

Thank you for dropping by. May you find shelter in what you notice.

Recommended Reads: Continuing the Healing Work of Reading

I'm sharing the texts I used in the workshop on the Memoir with and by Women Writing.

Reading to Settle and Stay with Fragility

• Berry, Wendell. The Peace of Wild Things. Poem. From Collected Poems of Wendell Berry. Counterpoint, 2012.

• Kalanithi, Paul. When Breath Becomes Air. Memoir. Random House, 2016.

• Didion, Joan. The Year of Magical Thinking. Memoir. Alfred A. Knopf, 2005.

Reading for Recognition (Mirrors)

• Howe, Marie. What the Living Do. Poem. From What the Living Do. W.W. Norton, 1998.

• Baticulon, Ronnie. Some Days You Can’t Save Them All. Memoir. Anvil Publishing, 2018.

• Smith, Maggie. Good Bones. Poem. First published 2016.

 

Reading for Perspective (Windows)

• Hopkins, Gerard Manley. Pied Beauty. Poem. First published 1918.

• Alejo, Bert. Tagpi-tagping Kariktan. Filipino translation of Pied Beauty.

• Evasco, Marjorie (ed.). Viral Signs. Poetry anthology. University of the Philippines Press, 2017.

 

Reading that Opens Possibility (Doors)

• Adams, Sarah. Be Cool to the Pizza Dude. Essay. From Letters from a Father.

• Gay, Ross. The Book of Delights. Essay collection. Algonquin Books, 2019.

• Didion, Joan. Keeping a Notebook. Essay. First published 1968.