Lilay

by Becky Bravo, Rommel Joson (Illustrator)

One fine morning in the town of Matubig, the people wake up to find their water gone. They have no water to cook their food, no water for their baths, no water to tend to their animals and plants. All of them begin to smell. They are thirsty, so very thirsty, and that is the worst thing of all.

Where has the water? One small girl had seen it leave: Lilay.

Find out in this story how Lilay becomes as important part in the return of the water to Matubig - and how important water is to people.

Isang maaliwalas na umaga sa bayan ng Matubig, nagising ang mga tao at nakita nilang wala na silang tubig. Wala silang tubig para makapagsaing, walang tubig na pampaligo, walang tubig para maalagaan nila ang mga alagang hayop at mga tanim. Lahat sila ay nangangamoy na. Nauuhaw sila, uhaw na uhaw, at iyon ang pinakamasaklap.

Saan na napunta ang tubig? Isang maliit na batang babae ang nakakitang umalis ito: si Lilay.

Alamin sa kuwentong ito kung paano naging mahalagang bahagi si Lilay sa pagbabalik ng tubig sa Matubig-at kung gaano kahalaga ang tubig sa tao.

32 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2011

About the author

Becky Bravo’s first foray into the children’s fiction genre began in 1996 during a short-lived attempt at a Masteral degree in Creative Writing. One of the first classes she took was an undergraduate course in children’s fiction, and it was for this class that she wrote her first actual children’s story entitled “Fetch”. On her first crack at joining the Palanca Memorial Awards in 1997, “Fetch” came away with the 2nd Prize for Children’s Fiction in English. She has participated in the contest every year since then, winning 1st Prize in 2000 for “Fish for Two”, and another in 2004 for The Cat Painter, both of which were later published as picture books. She became a member of KUTING in 2004

Reviews

[kwesi 章英狮 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Water is very important to living things but people polluted rivers and all type of water source. Some throw their garbage and human and animal waste in the river or in the nearby water source, but what if the water gone? Can people survive and learn a lesson from it or they will continue destroy the natural beauty of water?

One morning, when all the people woke up in the place of Matubig, all the water gone and only one girl saw the water flee. It was a little girl, strong and brave to save Matubig from thirst, drought and dying. The little girl was Lilay, the wonder girl of Matubig, she is the only person who volunteered and saw the water gone in their place. Can she save the town of Matubig before everyone will die from thirst?

This picture book was published by Lampara Publishing House, Inc., they offer picture books to children classics that delivers moral lessons to the reader. When I first attempt to read it, I did not expect much from the picture book but when I read it, I learned that local publishers really sold books that can compete international publishers in the field of picture books with its first class paper, good story, amazing illustration and affordable prices.

This book will teach your children or student the importance of water to every one of us, for short, to all living things. This simple but imaginative book can help student learn it in a very thoughtful and enjoyable way. No need of visual aid and nightless days just to cope with your lesson plan or parents who wanted to help their kids with books that contains moral lesson. Plus, this book included English and Tagalog translation and I prefer both!

Becky Bravo's story of saving the town of Matubig is a good book to both genders as the female character both shows feminine and masculine character. The book also contains short glance of traditional myth, for example the wind that was mentioned in the story. Also, Lilay use native materials to build her wing to support her to fly. This book not only implements to conserve water but also Filipino traditions.

The illustrations are great, they are water colored but there is a problem in the first page of the book. There is a part in the man standing near the river that had white space; I think the illustrator forgot to paint it since the space is in between the hand and the body of the man. Overall, it made my night after reading it because I believe being small is not a hindrance to become a hero.

Review posted on Old-Fashioned Reader .

Rating: Lilay by Becky Bravo and Rommel Joson (Illustrator), 4 Sweets

Challenges:
Book #295 for 2011
Book #23 for Read to Me - Picture Book Challenge

[K.D. Absolutely · Rating 2 out of 5]

My review of local books, either written in English or in Tagalog, get fewer votes from by GR friends. I think the reason is not because my reviews for them are less interesting or convincing but it is because the titles, author's name or story are not familiar to my foreigner friends. They read and like my reviews more than my Filipino friends. Most of my Filipino friends here in Goodreads limit their comments in the Filipinos group threads. They love postings their thoughts there. I suspect that many of them are not really readers. Most of them are using GR like FB or Twitter. They just pretend to read and what they really want is to socialize: meet their future spouse or maybe get a girlfriend or boyfriend to spice up their lonely lives.

However, some of my fellow Filipinos who read my reviews of local books are more passionate. They can be easily swayed by their emotions when you praise or attack their favorite books or authors. Most of my haters here are Filipinos who liked certain local books that I did not liked and I had no qualms of expressing myself in those reviews. There was a local author who wrote unprintable comments in my review of his book. I read his hate message and thanked him for his opinion. He later his own hate comments. Most of those haters signed in to GR only to comment on my review and they never came back afterwards. I used to feel bad when I get a hate message but after almost 3 years in GR, I think I already had enough that I do not get myself affected by them anymore.

There was also one fellow Filipino, a publisher, who liked the positive review that I wrote for his book. He copied and pasted my review to his FB account without even referencing my name or asking for my permission. I also praise and write positive reviews of foreign books but this only happened with that local book and publisher. This saddened me more than being attacked for my criticisms.

So, for this book, Lilay by Becky Bravo of Lampara Publishing, I will have to be clear and brief:

Book's intent: 5 stars - Amazing!
Story: 2 stars It's okay
Illustration: 1 star I don't like it!

Intent

This book is for children. It has a good moral lesson: save water. The story is told both in English and in Filipino. I think the idea is for the book to be read by more children, whether those who are more at ease with English, in Filipino or those who want to learn the other language that he/she is not familiar with. I could think of children in the far-flung towns who are probably more familiar with Filipino but would be interested to learn English or those children of OFWs (overseas contract workers) or immigrants who are more familiar with English and want to see how the words translate to the native language of their parents.

The appearance of the book is also world-class: thick paper, colorful illustrations, definitely no typos and the translation (Filipino, I would think) is the current version and does not appear passe. This seemed to be consistent to my belief that the publisher wanted to export this book and penetrate the foreign children's book market.

Story

I said good theme: save water. Aside from this, there is nothing to like about the story. The plot is so thin and unbelievable. There are also many thin and simple children's book that I read in the last 2 years but this one failed to draw any emotion from my child's refusing-to-grow-old psyche. No back story whatsover about Lilay. No water in the whole town all of the sudden. Water being carried by wind. Lilay flying by wind blowing to her with her wings made of banana leaves. Daft. Real draft. Didn't the author know how fragile banana leaves are?

Illustration

By a magna cum laude. Gosh. Did he not know how a river that got devoid of water look like? The soil should have the traces of the direction of the water flow! Why does Lilay have a big head that made her look like a popsicle? Is it because she is the star? This unproportionate body to head is only done to Lilay. Does the magna cum laude illustrator want to say that Lilay is an alien and the rest of the town people are normal like us? Please, Lampara. Not all magna cum laudes are to be trusted. Some of them may be good in theories and they just study hard that's why they get good grades. But sometimes, they lack common sense.

[Mark Anthony Salvador · Rating 4 out of 5]

Napakabiswal ng kuwentong pambatang ito. May nasasakyang hangin, may pakpak na gawa sa mga dahon ng saging. At gaya ng karaniwan sa kuwentong pambata, kinikilala ang tapang at talino ng bata.

Maganda ang ilustrasyon. Hindi ko lang nagustuhan ang itsura ng hangin. Kamukha siya ni Poseidon. Sana ay mas hawig sa nilalang sa mito ng Pilipinas gaya ng diwata.