Children’s books about Central Asia
Central Asia is very under-represented in children’s literature. Someone needs to go and write some more children’s books about the beautiful and historically very interesting part of the world! Here are a few books I have found about Central Asia or Central Asian people groups.
We’re Riding on a Caravan: An Adventure on the Silk Road
Laurie Krebs
This Barefoot Books publication is fairly easy to get hold of. The main story is a simple rhyming poem journeying along the Silk Road from Xi’an to Kashgar market, with illustrations and a little bit of information about the places the family passes through along the way. There is a map at the back of the book, and some more detailed information about the Silk Road and the making of silk. This information is pitched older than the main story.
My younger children really like this one as a bedtime story.
Tales Told in Tents: Stories from Central Asia
Sally Pomme Clayton
A collection of short stories from different parts of Central Asia, with illustrations on every page. I particularly enjoyed The Secret of Felt from Turkmenistan and The Girl who Cried a Lake about the origins of Lake Issyk-Kul in Kyrgyzstan. There are also some fun riddles! Coupled with the illustrations, the stories give a good flavour of Central Asian culture and life.
Orange and Blue: The World of Barzu
Marina Abrams
This is probably the most specifically focussed book on life in Central Asia that I have found. The story is set in Tajikistan, with a focus on Non, the round loaves of bread eaten in Central Asia. It follows a boy called Barzu, who is helping his brother to take a new tanoor (bread oven) to their grandmother. The grandmother also tells them stories. The book is a large one, with expansive illustrations on almost every page. There are various appendices at the end. Of these, I found the historical notes on Alexander the Great, Genghis Khan and Tamerlane the most useful. I haven’t found any other resources on Tamerlane for children. It is quite an expensive book, but well worth picking up if you can get it at a good price.
The Children of China: An Artist’s Journey
Song Nan Zhang
Some sections of this book are not really written for/to children, but the middle block of pages about different people groups living in China is very interesting, and the text is quite accessible. There are many full page illustrations which celebrate the national costumes and cultures of the different people groups. The book covers the Mongols, Tibetans. Kazakhs, Uyghurs, Tajiks, Yi, Miao and Han Chinese. I wouldn’t spend a lot of money on this one, but it is a nice one if you can pick it up cheaply, particularly given the shortage of books on this area of the world.
Content warning: The first page of the book describes life under the Cultural Revolution. I think this might be bewildering to younger children without some context/understanding of 20th Century Chinese history, and for this reason I generally read this book aloud and somewhat selectively.
