Book Review: Little Rhino Lost (Gourlay and Bauza, Otter-Barry, 2025)

 

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Book Review: Ferdinand Magellan by Candy Gourlay

Ferdinand Magellan (First Name Series, 2020) by Candy Gourlay challenges readers to revisit and rethink historical narratives. By turning centuries-old histories inside out, and exploring and presenting different perspectives, the book underscores the importance of cognitive stamina in uncovering and engaging with the consequential truths of history. 

Historical facts, events, or interpretations have significant, lasting impacts on societies, cultures, and the way we understand the world. These truths shape our collective memory, influence current decisions, and affect how future generations perceive the past. For example, the recognition of colonialism as a major driver of historical inequality is a consequential truth because it affects modern life, discussions on reparations and the systemic injustices still present in this age. 

This book, with comics-like illustrations, is not light weight. I am in awe of @candygourlay ‘s courage. #bookstagram #history #biography

Reading Guide for Wild Song Version 2024

 Reprising the reading guide I made for Wild Song (Anvil, 2023) in line with Candy Gourlay's visit in our school last week. I made minor edits and revisions for the intended audience. I do hope they find joy or their curiosity about World History and the Philippines elevated.

ReadingPlan_WildSong by zarah gagatiga

Author Visit at The Beacon Academy: Presenting, Ms. Candy Gourlay!

Author Visit: Presenting, Ms. Candy Gourlay!

To launch our celebration of Filipino Week, we are excited to announce an upcoming author visit at The Beacon Academy on August 29, 2024. 

Ms. Candy Gourlay, an acclaimed author known for her impactful works such as Wild Song, Tall Story, Shine, and Bone Talk, will be joining us for a special session with our Middle Years Programme (MYP) that will run from 9:00am-11:00am; Diploma Programme (DP) students who are free at this time are invited to attend.

Grade 7 students will be reading Tall Story in their English class, making Ms. Gourlay’s visit particularly relevant to their reading experience. Her insights into the novel’s creation and the themes it explores will provide valuable context and enhance their understanding of the text.

Ms. Gourlay’s other works, Bone Talk and Wild Song, delve into life in the Cordillera region at the turn of the century. Her extensive research into the history and culture of the Cordillera Peoples has been instrumental in shaping these novels, offering readers a rich, immersive experience of this pivotal time in Philippine history.

There will be a Q&A session and book signing after her talk. Students will be able to purchase Ms. Gourlay’s books at the venue, and those who already have their own copies are encouraged to bring these if they wish to have them signed.

This event promises to be a wonderful opportunity for our students to engage with a talented Filipino author and deepen their appreciation for literature. Your support in ensuring timely attendance is greatly appreciated.

What Readers Say About Ms. Gourlay's Books

Book Review: Bone Talk by Ms. Zee

Book Spotlight: Shine

Teacher Vic on Tall Story

Book Blog Tour: Wild Song

We are excited to have Ms. Gourlay visit us in the Beacon Academy!

Book Blog Tour Roundup: Wild Song

October will end in a day ushering in November. Busy days ahead!

So. Here is a wrap-up and a roundup of the Book Blog Tour I conducted for Wild Song (Gourlay, Anvil 2023). Much thanks to the book bloggers who shared their insights. Let us hope to inspire more readers to read and reach out to reluctant readers out there. 

Xi Zuq's review of Wild Song - 𝐖𝐢𝐥𝐝 𝐒𝐨𝐧𝐠 is definitely one of my best reads this year! To discover more about it and the author’s other books, head to her account tagged here. There’s also a link in my bio to the blog tour that @zarahgeeh is hosting for the book.

Teacher Mocs' review of Wild Song - Wild Song by Candy Gourlay is a story that explores identity and woman empowerment. Candy shared this through Luki. Through her use of very descriptive words one will witness Luki’s transformation all throughout the story.

One Valenzuela's review of Wild Song - I had to stop reading and wipe off tears when Sidong said "We didn't leave Tilin behind." 

Raissa's review of Wild Song - Luki was the most memorable character in Bone Talk, so I was glad she was the hero of this companion book. While it takes place after the events of Bone Talk, you don’t need to have read Bone Talk to understand this story.

And here now is my teacher and parent guide, also known as, a reading plan. I used this for my college teaching at St. Paul's University Manila during the first term. You will see how my students have taken so much fun in the activities!   

My Reading Plan for Wild Song  which consists of "during reading activities" that are meant to engage, inspire and accompany readers to think through Wild Song. This was followed up by "post reading activities". One of my students chose to curate a playlist and another conducted an interview with Ms. Gourlay through email.

Life in September and October were harsh, but here we are. I'm grateful to have finished another blog tour. On to the next!

Book Blog Tour: An Interview With Candy Gourlay

I am posting this interview with Candy Gourlay done by my student on the Creative Writing Class I conduct at St. Paul's University Manila for this term. This is one example of an activity to extend the reading experience and get advice from an experienced author.

Student: What challenges do you face as a writer?

Candy Gourlay: A writer needs to be thoughtful, quiet and present when writing and there are so many distractions that take me away from my writing such as the internet, household chores, social occasions, and speaking engagements. I need the time to read quietly and stare at my computer for hours trying to live my story in my head, but there are so many interruptions. I will often put a timer on to force my mind to focus for just 30 minutes at a time, making myself do just the one thing and not allowing myself to do other things.

Student: What made you do this book?

Candy Gourlay: I discovered that Filipinos had been put on display at the 1904 World Fair and I realised that just the year before the Philippine American War had ended – so many Filipinos had died during the war! I couldn't believe that the World Fair Filipinos would have been unaware of that. Most of them would have known someone who was killed. I wondered if we were really that seduced by American culture that we didn't notice how degrading it was to be put there as war trophies.

Student: Why did Luki's mother die?

Candy Gourlay: Early death was common in those days because a lot of the medicines and treatments that keep disease at bay today didn't exist such as antibacterial, antibiotics and anti-inflammatories. Also, the arrival of large numbers of foreigners and outsiders to Luki's village brought diseases that the villagers would not have had any immunities to. Americans like to say that when they colonized the Philippines they brought us sanitation and medical advancement. But they also spread diseases (there was a Cholera Pandemic in Asia and Americans brought it in from other countries) and they even created changes that triggered new diseases (Many Filipinos who signed up for the Constabulary organized by the Americans died of Beri Beri and only in the 1930s did the Americans realise it was because they were serving the wrong kind of rice to the troops).

Thank you for getting in touch.

Book Blog Tour: Post Reading Activities for Wild Song (Gourlay, Anvil 2023

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Wild Song Book Blog Tour: A Reading Guide for Readers, Teachers and Parents

ReadingPlan_WildSong by zarah gagatiga

Wild Song Book Blog Tour: Introducing the Book Bloggers

We are wild about reading! We can't wait to sing Wild Song's beautifully tragic tunes and themes of change, greed, endurance and growing up! The Wild Song Book Blog Tour begins on Wednesday, September 20, 2023!

Here are are three simple steps:

1. Read the book.

2. *Post on your blog or socmed account/site:

1. a chapter review

2. an interview of the author; publisher; editor; illustrator or book designer**

3. a character sketch in visual or written form

4. a full on book review

5. a readers/teacher-parent guide

3. Use the hashtags: #wildsong #wildsongbook #childrenslitPH and tag @candygourlay and @anvilpublishing on TwtX and/or IG

Book Blog Tour Schedule: The Book Blog Tour will begin on September 20,  2023 with an announcement on School Librarian In Action. A blog round up will be posted September 25 and October 10, 2023. The blog tour ends on October 15, 2023.

Meet the Book Bloggers Who are Wild About Reading!

Reader	Email address Socmed Handle	Book Blog Post
Zarah	http://lovealibrarian @zarahgeeh IG @thecoffeegoddes TwtX @titazee TikTok	A reader’s/teacher-parent guide
Raissa (and Chescat)	riverfalgui@gmail.com @RiverFalgui Twitter @raissaclairef IG	character sketch  Full book review
Cris Santos	@criseldamariii @missimogenreads https://www.averychiclife.wordpress.com	Chapter reviews, Interview with the author (pref by email)
Mocs Javier	@mocsjavier IG	Full Book Review Interview with the author
Xi Zuq	@xizuq (IG)	Full book review

Upcoming Book Blog Tour for Wild Song

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When We Talked About Children's Books and Social Justice

Last November 29, 2020, Candy Gourlay and I were panelists at the Pandemic Playbook event. This is in part, an activity and discussion on books in general as it was the last few days of the Manila International Book Fair. 

Candy has blogged about her after thoughts on the panel we had. We were tasked to discuss the Teaching of Social Justice. As authors, we preferred to talk about how we Navigate Social Justice in Children's Books. 

Visit Candy's blog, and read up on the way she distilled her ideas about social justice, young readers and the author's life. The blog post includes links to our panel and the Manila International Book Fair YouTube channel. 

 As for me, I don't think social justice per se can be taught, but empathy and compassion can be nurtured and nourished. We can build the ethos among children. When a person recognizes another person's pain, as well as joy, it is easier to understand the other's emotions. An awareness of the emotions is the beginning of critical thinking. That is a good time for a teachable moment. Parents, teachers, school librarians, counselors and working adults who are caring and looking after children need to be perceptive of these teachable moments regardless of the given curriculum, subject matter, expected norms or social behavior. The ability to see another person as as an equal begins with kindness. This, I think is the seed bed for justice to grow.

 And because we are ever curious, we felt it is but proper to continue the conversations. So last night (Manila Time), Candy I went live on Instagram to talk about the picture book scene in the Philippines, the issues we Filipino children's authors grapple with that find its way in our fiction. 

Candy tweets below:

Filipino author & librarian Zarah Gagatiga clues me in on some truly brave and visionary #picturebooks in the Philippines that reflect the tough realities of child readers while offering hope and possibility

Our IG Live Chat👉https://t.co/JfJJIEQXnC @SCBWI_BI pic.twitter.com/3sXEYoRezc

— Candy Gourlay (@candygourlay) December 7, 2020

Head on to Twitter and Instagram for the ongoing conversation. 

I am still working my way through the memory and experience of the live chat. These days I take things slow for my mental health. But definitely, I will pick up on another topic, especially the one on human capital, which we covered and pare it through another blog post.

Art, Books and Wonder Women

When I received Kora Dandan Albano's email inviting me as guest to the ribbon cutting of Peek-A-Book: Inside the Creative Process of 16 Illustrators at the Ayala Museum, I was humbled. It came at a time when I am losing sight of my contribution, little as it is, to the book industry. I needed the reminder that there are worlds beyond Beacon Academy. One of them is a place where I find my people and where I can simply be.

With Bernadette Solina Wolf, illustrator of Sparrow Makes a Home

It was an honor to cut the ribbon alongside wonder women, Neni Sta. Romana Cruz, Nina Yuson, Mary Ann Ordinario, Asa Montejo, Yna Reyes and Meg Roxas. Liza Flores, one of the proponents of the Peek-A-Book exhibit downplayed the gender issue in Philippine Art and Book Illustration and focused more on art above all else. But, National Book Development Board Chairperson, Neni Sta. Roman Cruz had to emphasize the role women play in the development of the arts in general and in the growth of the book industry in particular. It is important to raise art as the overarching concept or the philosophy that led us all together in that gathering. It is also necessary to constantly recognize the special place that women occupy in the process of creation.

That same evening was the book launch of Bone Talk. Anvil put together a nice little space at the National Bookstore Glorietta for Candy Gourlay, author of Bone Talk, for a talk and book signing. Right after the ribbon cutting, viewing of exhibit and chats with friends in Ayala Museum, Zoe and I (yes, the aspiring artists was with me) headed off to Candy's launch.

We missed her talk but, I had my book signed!

What a wonderful way to celebrate International Women's Month! I have to add that the Philippine Board on Books for Young People has just released the official announcement on the winner of the 2019 PBBY-Salanga Prize.. It is another victory of the Filipino woman and the women who support her.

Book Review: Bone Talk

Bone Talk
Candy Gourlay
Anvil, 2018

Bone Talk is the story of Samkad, a young Bontoc boy at the cusp of manhood. His journey towards becoming one is a thrilling and heart breaking adventure since the setting of the novel happened at a time of conflict and change. It is 1899 and the Philippines has entered a war with the United States of America. His village in the Cordilleras is not spared of the cruelty of invaders. Though, the opportunity to learn from a friendly stranger presents itself. This coming of age story has a lot to tell, and teach, about identity, honor, subversion, obedience to customs and traditions and the gray areas in between. 

Candy Gourlay once again dazzled me with her humor, wit and storytelling. I literally laughed out loud at one point when she started a chapter with this line, ...no talk of my manhood, after a series of action filled narratives. This is Samkad speaking and there I find the typical teenager. Irrational. Emotional. Impulsive. Self centered. I remember myself at twelve years old during the height of the People Power Revolution. I worried about my grade school graduation. Never mind if tanks and soldiers were moving and marching on EDSA. I need to graduate by March!

And then, there is Luki. Irrepressible and persistent, she is Samkad's best friend. It is through her that social class and the roles of Bontoc women are presented. How she defies and disobeys them not because she is a bad girl. Luki is smart and perceptive, protective of her family and friends. She knows who she is and where she belongs. These are all evident in the dialogues she has with Samkad implying that, even girls or women, can fight for the people and the place they love.

This is why I love reading Candy Gourlay. She is capable, with great effect, to show her characters as they are: strong yet flawed, willful but yielding, good and bad. She does so in situations that test these characters. She makes use of images, symbols and metaphors. A music box and a book as gifts from Mister William. A gun and camera as tokens from Colonel Quinlan. This literary technique opens up discussions of a larger scale.

For one, these colonisers' intent and interests can be further fleshed out through a comparison of the objects they gave the Bontocs. What do music and books represent? What are guns for? How powerful are photographs? By bringing these objects in the novel and planting them at well selected spots or parts in the entire narrative, I thought about the ways we were subjugated. They differ in function but were used to colonize just the same.

Ms. Gourlay claims that Bone Talk is not history. True, but fiction can lead readers to a broader understanding of other disciplines and life lessons embedded in the material either intentionally or otherwise. In the end, I realized, that while Samkad earned his rightful place in the village, it is his father who learned a great lesson as well. This for me is the most beautiful part of the novel.

So, go and read the book. Find a copy. Buy or borrow! Do not miss out the wonderful discoveries and insights you can take away from the novel.

Rating: 5 Bookmarks
Recommended: Grade 5 and up

A Tale of Two Author Visits Done by One Author

Candy Gourlay is already back in the UK doing the usual stuff (I think): writing, visiting schools, enjoying her time with family and friends. Her two weeks stay in Manila has left me with good memories to keep until she visits again next year. Here's a photo essay of Candy Gourlay's visit to The Beacon Academy and Tanauan South Central Elementary School.

At the Academy, she talked about her new novel, Shine, the positive things one can get with a series of rejections, and the challenging and dangerous experiences she had during the Martial Law years and the the People Power Revolution as a journalist.

She had book signing after her talk. Students and teachers bought her books, of course. She signed my copies of Tall Story and Shine too.

I gave Candy a tour of the school and, like a true blue, dakilang writer's fan, I had a picture taken with her. A week after her visit, we met again to open a school library in Tanauan, Batangas and to visit schools there.

A gleeful Candy Gourlay with students of Tanauan South Central School. The kids held the books like gifts received at Christmas day! The school library is a project of the Sambat Trust UK.

Once a journalist, always a journalist. Candy's camera is fabulous! She has an eye for stories. She snaps pictures of little things that do not seem to matter but in close scrutiny, such mundane things tell so much about life and culture.

The students prepared thank you cards for the UK authors and donors who sent books through Candy's outreach, Authors for the Philippines.

Nicoel Ramos, Candy's niece, a budding artist and TV personality came along. She sang A Whole New World to the delight of the kids present during the program. Nicole brought the house down with her rendition of Let It Go! The kids sang along. Even the adults were impressed.

See Candy taking a photo of Nicole. Isn't she the perfect stage aunt? She could be one of them Titas of Manila!

All together now! Here we are with teachers and DepEd Officials, Barangay Officers and Parents of Tanauan South Central Elementary School. They gave is certificates of appreciation.

The entrance to a whole new world of reading experiences begins at the library!

The Grade School Department of Miriam College donated 40 boxes of books. Thanks so much to Ms. Theres Pelias who made an effort in staging the book drive and the librarians of the Miriam Grade School Library for adding up more books to the collection.

Teachers on stand by. Waiting for Candy to cut the ribbon.

The crew: Estan Cabigas, photographer; Wijo Fernandez, fim maker; MJ Tumamac, writer and Ghe Gulles, field coordinator. 

With the opening of a new library on one Tanauan City's most populated district, I hope that more kids can have better access to books and reading. Candy saw two more schools that day. The Ambulong Elementary School and the Janopol Elementary School. Ambulong ES is trying its best to keep the library alive but Janopol ES was struck by the recent typhoon. So, a recovery plan is on the way. Special thanks to all the donors; Anvil Publishing House for providing Candy's transportation; and to everyone who made Candy's visit to Tanauan a humbling and meaningful experience.

This 2015, which library will Candy Gourlay visit next?