Rice Is Life

Rating:
Summary: *GRAINS OF RICE HOLD NEW SIGNIFICANCE*
Review: Children are the asterisks: points of emphasis in the tragedy of the tsunamis. We need to let little children lead us . . . to re-visit our meagre store of knowledge about south-east Asia where the suffering has been profound.

Rice is Life is Rita Golden Gelman's book (2000) , primarily about Bali in the chain of islands called Indonesia. Rice is their sustenance and it grows in wet rice fields called "sawahs." The author's ten 'stanzas' introduce us to the importance of rice, the food at most meals. This simplified saga will give readers of every age a better understanding of how involved is the growth & harvesting of a single food.

Yangsook Choi is a native Korean who studied art in NYC. Her appealing illustrations show the nurture of this most important grain, and the animals - - from ants & eels & bats to marauding birds aand mice, and the playful ducks that come to eat the "leavings." I particularly liked the threshing picture & the conical stacks of grain. Paintings of the sawahs show the broad view before planting, and at other stages.

I do recommend as a companion book: Hot, Sour, Salty, Sweet (# 1579651143), a huge gorgeous volume with recipes from all along the 3000 miles of the Mekong River between Tibet & Vietnam! Show some of the wonderful photographs to children. The authors call rice "THE ESSENTIAL FOOD THAT ANCHORS LIFE."(J. Alford & N. Duguid also compiled "Seduction of Rice," another prize-winning cookbook that presents a panorama of travel, culture & recipes.)

Everywhere in south-east Asia RICE is that "essential" food but now it is likely to be delivered from US Army helicopters which have, ironically, become winged angels to so many since the December 2004 tsunamis. All over the world prayers are now offered for these people and the reconstruction of their "rice islands."

Reviewer mcHAIKU recommends that we share "Rice is Life" & our concerns about other people with the children in our lives.