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The Birthday of the World: And Other Stories

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A Must for Le Guin Fans
An excellent exploration of gender and love
A Noble Failure
Truly awesome!
Collection of novellas, from the master herself

The Birthday of the World: And Other Stories
Ursula K. Le Guin
Manufacturer: Harper Perennial
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0060509066
Release Date: 2003-03-04

Book Description

The recipient of numerous literary prizes, including the National Book Award, the Kafka Award, five Hugo Awards and five Nebula Awards, the renowned writer Ursula K. Le Guin has, in each story and novel, created a provocative, ever-evolving universe filled with diverse worlds and rich characters reminiscent of our earthly selves. Now, in The Birthday of the World, this gifted artist returns to these worlds in eight brilliant short works, including a never-before-published novella, each of which probes the essence of humanity.

Customer Reviews:

A Must for Le Guin Fans.......2006-01-23

I tend to prefer novels to short story collections. I find short stories to largely be less satisfying and engrossing than novels. However, as a great fan of Ursula K. Le Guin, I could not help but pick up this collection. I recommend this book for fans of Le Guin's novels set in the Hainish universe. 6 of the 8 stories are set in different planets of the universe, some of which have been visted in previous works. If you haven't read Le Guin before, I recommend you pick up some of her earlier works, particularly The Left Hand of Darkness, before reading this one, to familarize yourself with the concepts, because she doesn't fully explain them here.

I like to term Le Guin's work as "creative anthropology." Ever since I read some of her nonfiction works about her life, particulary growing up with an anthropologist father, her fiction has made more and more sense to me. Instead of writing about actual societies, she invents societies and gets us inside of them, exposes to us essentialities of human nature via the alienness of different cultures. The stories are not plot-focused; instead you spend a great deal of time just getting to know these different places and people.

"Coming of Age in Karhide"
This story is a perfect complement to fans of The Left Hand of Darkness, as it takes place on the same planet of Gethen, where no one is either male or female; instead they take on male or female characteristics during "kemmer," 3 days of the month during which they mate. The rest of the time they are genderless and do not have sex. The story concerns the first kemmer of a young child on Gethen. The story is mainly a lighthearted look into Gethenian society, a somewhat different perspective than The Left Hand of Darkness.

"The Matter of Seggri"
This takes place on a world in which females vastly outnumber males. The sexes are strictly segregated and "men have all the privilege while women have all the power." It comes together in snippets from different Ekumen visits to Seggri and some inhabitents of the planet themselves, exposing the situation from several different angles. To me this story exemplifies the cruelty of trying to fit people into gender-based boxes, preventing them from growing into who they really are.

"Unchosen Love" and "Mountain Ways"
Both of these stories take place on the planet of O, in which marriages consist of four people (2 women, 2 men). Le Guin masterfully untangles the world of people for whom marriage is intertwining love triangles, exposing the core of emotion within.

"Solitude"
Le Guin terms this story a tribute to introverts. The people on this planet gain their energy from being alone rather than being together. For the Hainish mother of two children who comes to study this strange society, it is stifling, but her younger daughter manages to find the meaning in the solitude.

"Old Music and the Slave Women"
For me the most difficult to get into of the collection, this story takes place on Werel, which Le Guin previously wrote about in her collection Four Ways to Forgiveness. I think had I read that, I would have enjoyed this story more. It takes place on a world broken by civil war, a civil war focused on (you guessed it) slavery.

"The Birthday of the World"
Le Guin flips her usual trend of looking at other societies from the aliens' point of view, and instead looks at the aliens from the native's point of view in this story.

"Paradises Lost"
Although not at all similar to the other stories in a number of ways, this novella-length story is the gem of this collection. A group of colonists from earth is seeking a new planet to live on hundreds of light years away. But instead of putting themselves in deep freeze during the flight like in so many movies, Le Guin questions what if actually lived out their lives on the ship--bore children, died, then their children bore children and died, and by the time the ship reaches its destination, none of the people on board remember anything about life outside of the ship. A fascinating premise, this story is written in a totally different style than the rest of the collection and could probably stand on its own.

An excellent exploration of gender and love.......2005-08-18

Le Guin is a fantastic writer who deftly weaves a beautiful story of characters, plot, and setting with wholesome, open-minded moral messages. You feel like she's exploring the moral issues alongside you. Her explorations of gender, sexuality and diverse sexual relationships strike a chord with me as a gay man. Le Guin approaches diverse arrangements with an open mind, repeatedly bringing us to the point that love in any form is a wonderful thing.

Her story about a generation ship, Paradises Lost, turns the sc-fi cliche on its head. Living in such different conditions than we do today would certainly change a people in much the fashion that Le Guin imagines.

A highly evocative read, I don't just suggest you read this, I feel it should be required reading for everyone. It would certainly open many minds.

A Noble Failure.......2004-07-22

"Birthday of the World" isn't up to the usual standard of Ms. LeGuin's writing -- not in its present form, at any rate.

So, you might be asking: why do I feel this way?

Simple. It's too graphic in spots, and it's way too violent, and finally, the "f-word" is used repeatedly in a jarring manner for no apparent reason other than to shock.

Ms. LeGuin is above this sort of thing; she doesn't _need_ to make her points this way, and further, it wasn't at all what I expected when I opened this collection.

I'm a big fan of her work; I love "Lathe of Heaven" and "The Left Hand of Darkness" and "The Dispossessed" and "The Wizard of Earthsea," and enjoyed everything else she's ever written.

And I suspect that if I had encountered these stories one on one, I would have liked them very much, and would have considered them thought-provoking and interesting (and probably wouldn't have been as put off by the graphic violence and swearing, either).

However, only three of these stories _work_ in this collection; the one about the kemmerhouse and the two about the folks living on O (the ones who make four-sided marriages). The other five all need expansion, in my opinion, and four of the five look like they could and should have been made into novels. The fifth, the final story (a novella, "Paradises Lost"), also needed at least 5,000 more words to explain various things left unfinished in the story, such as why the woman in it made the marriage she did and the like.

Those five stories, if I'd read them separately, might have evoked some of the same responses -- after all, I'm not _used_ to graphic violence in Ms. LeGuin's work, and I don't like the unnecessary bad language, either. But all five of 'em put together made me viscerally dislike and despise this book far more than I have disliked anything in the past ten years, mostly because there's just _too much_ going on.

Also, there's an odd juxtaposition of "message stories" going on. Simply put: I do not need to be bludgeoned about the head and shoulders to get the point, and so many "message stories" and stuff being _told_ to me rather than being _shown_ to me was distracting and displeasing.

And finally, between all the swearing (really, why did Ms. LeGuin have to use the term "f***ery" anyway? Why not just say "male brothel?" It's the same thing!) and the unnecessary uses of the term "be aware" in the last four stories (in one story, fine, but all the rest of 'em? Please!) which threw me right out of the reader's trance every time I saw it, I absolutely cannot recommend this work.

If you want to read it anyway, be aware that there is graphic violence in at least three of the stories, bad language in most of 'em, and that it is absolutely _not_ recommended for children under age 16 without parental supervision.

And if you're still insistent on reading it, my advice is to take these stories separately, and read 'em one at a time. Preferably one every few days to a week; that way you won't be _as_ upset when you're done reading this book.

Two stars.

Barb Caffrey

Truly awesome!.......2004-04-08

This book is brilliant, a perfect combination of revisits to old worlds (Gethen, Werel and O) and introductions to completely new ones. "Unchosen Love" was just beautiful, as was "Paradises Lost", and the tales from Seggri were fascinating, if slightly disturbing. Although "Old Music..." (actually Werel in general) didn't do much for me, I've read all the others over and over. Highly recommended - I think this is easily on par with "The Left Hand of Darkness" and "The Dispossessed".

Collection of novellas, from the master herself.......2004-03-06

I am ashamed to say I discovered Ursula K LeGuin (UKL) only a couple of years ago. But I am happy to say that she's been my favorite or near-favorite author ever since.

For her humanity. For her vision. And for being able to create recognizably human, oh-so-familiar situations and moods, in completely alien settings.

For understanding human suffering, oppression, love and cruelty, and the quest for freedom and for happiness.

And for understanding what it means to be alien. I know. I'm South Asian and I've lived in the West. I'm secular and have lived in a deeply religious part of my country. How does Ursula know?

"Birthday" has been reviewed by far more capable pens than mine; Margaret Atwood wrote a review in "New York Review of Books", you might still find that on the Internet. So maybe it's presumptuous of me, but I'll go ahead and say how I felt about this collection.

There's a chatty, personal preface, fun to read. The most memorable part of the book, to me, was the part in this preface where UKL rebuts a critic who suggested that slavery is not a subject worth writing about. UKL asks mildly: I wonder which planet he comes from?

Two of the stories ("Coming of Age in Karhide" and "Old Music and the Slave Women") take place on cultures created in previous novels.

"Karhide" describes the first "kemmer" of a young person, on the sexless/bisex planet Karhide, where our old friend Gentry Li the black Terran had had his adventures so many years ago in "Left Hand of Darkness." It reads a bit like the teenage pains of boysgirls in any earth culture. Except that you get to look inside a "kemmerhouse" and witness the first sex of these people. I would categorize this story as "fun."

My favorite was "Old Music", which is a fifth installment in the "story suite" set in Werel, the planet from the extraordinary book "Four Ways to Forgiveness." The setting is during the uprising of the slaves and lower-castes of Werel, as the owned challenge the owners.

The Ekumen diplomat called Old Music gets captured by the masters' side, is tortured on a plantation, and interacts with slave women for the first time. The uprising is shown as a messy business with random violence galore. Realistic and sad, but still full of hope.

I liked Old Music, a middle-aged diplomat with nothing but his witty tongue to serve him in danger, so humane, full of belief that the slaves will be free. The Ekumen are probably LeGuin's idea of a ideal people, unobtrusive, moral, egalitarian. I love her vision and wish I could share her hope.

"The matter of Seggri" is told from multiple viewpoints, describing the social structure of a people with massively skewed female-to-male ratio. In "Solitude", an Ekumen mother uses her children to learn about a culture of people living in the ruins of a Fallen civilization. Her daughter ends up feeling more a member of this society, learning their ways of solitude and silence, and deciding to spend her life in this culture.

In both "Seggri" and "Solitude", the men live rather cruel lives. Both are innovative descriptions of imaginary cultures, and I enjoyed reading them.

There are two stories describing Morning-Evening people and their complicated marriages, and one describing how the beliefs of a World fell apart with the arrival of aliens. I did not like these three stories so much.

Finally, "Paradises Lost" is a novelette following an inter-generation space-ship, where a sect arises with the belief that their journey is eternal rather than having the goal of settling a new planet. This is excellent writing, with the utterly believable creation of an irrational religion, superstitions interfering with realpolitik, and the happysad description of settling in an alien world.

Book Description

“An urban African-American girl and her father buy plants, potting soil, and a window box at the supermarket, ride the bus to their apartment, and put together a colorful gift for the child’s mother. Rhyming verse carries the brief story, while wonderful, warm, full-color illustrations present scenes from novel angles, and depict a loving family with a sense of intimacy, sincerity, and joy.”--School Library Journal

Customer Reviews:

Great for toddlers!.......2005-08-02

I borrowed this book from the public library for my 3 year old daughter and after I returned it, she kept asking for the "flower book." The illustrations are beautiful and the concept is really nice.

Wonderful Beautiful Lovely.......2004-02-12

We have a two-year-old daughter who picks this book out every day and every night to read. The illustrations are breathtaking. The story is simple but relevant; we follow every detail as the father and daughter walk the city street and ride the bus. We love to watch the daughter planting the flowers with her father; the mother coming home from school to see her birthday surprise. I have no doubt that this book will be with us for another generation or more (at least in our house). Thank you to the two wonderful artists who created such a special book.

This book is fabulous.......1998-10-17

I am a student teacher in a three year old preschool classroom. We recently planted mums outside our window, and afterwards read this story to the children. They loved the beautiful pictures and the contrast between the city flowerbox and our daycare garden.

bright colors,wonderful story for all ages.......1998-10-10

my pre-school class found the book to be very exciting and could'nt wait for me to turn the next page.the bright colors of the cover and pages were so liking a good childrens book,that we planted a garden like described in the book.i have had parents ask where can they get this wonderful book for their own child. we really enjoyed it!this book described a family so close and loving,you can't help but smell the flowers and feel the love in that household.

The Birthday of the World and Other Stories (Gollancz)

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The Birthday of the World and Other Stories (Gollancz)
Ursula K.Le Guin
Manufacturer: Gollancz
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Short Stories | Science Fiction | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0575075392

Book Description

'Her most important book since ALWAYS COMING HOME and her most satisfactory collection since her first, the brilliant THE WIND'S TWELVE QUARTERS. A formidable and rewarding work, a prime candidate for best SF collection of the year. An essential book.' LOCUS Six of the eight piece are set in Le Guin's classic Hainish cycle. The title story, 'The Birthday of the World', stands alone and the final piece, 'Paradises Lost', is a new short novel original to the collection, a major addition to the generation starship subgenre of science fiction.

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Hello kitty
Party on, Chato!
Great Use of Language!
Fun, tender story of friendship, awesome pictures

Chato and the Party Animals
Gary Soto
Manufacturer: Putnam Juvenile
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Ages 4-8 | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0399231595

Amazon.com

Chato has been a party animal since he was a kitten. So when he discovers that his best friend Novio Boy has never had a birthday party (being from the pound, he never even knew his mami), this cool cat from the barrio decides it's time to change all that. He calls his friend Sharkie, a DJ.

"Homecat," Chato meowed. "You awake?"
"I am now, dude," Sharkie said.
"It's Novio Boy's birthday tomorrow," said Chato. "I want you to come and spin some oldies but goodies."

The party plans are set, the cake (with mouse-colored frosting and "a couple of canaries on top") ordered, and the piñata made. Looks like the most happening shindig in town is ready to go... except "Que tonto!" (How dumb!) Chato forgot to invite the guest of honor! Novio Boy's buddies search the alleys and warm car fenders to no avail, and soon are reminiscing about their dearly departed ("Kidnapped! Lost!") homecat, who, as it turns out, has a surprise in store for them all!

As in the award-winning Chato's Kitchen, Susan Guevara's modish paintings of these barrio beasts beg to be pored over, while Gary Soto's barrio-speak screams out to be read aloud. A brief glossary provides English meanings to the Spanish words scattered throughout. (Ages 5 to 9) --Emilie Coulter

Book Description

Chato, the coolest cat in el barrio, loves to party--but not his best buddy, Novio Boy. Birthday parties always make him blue. "I'm from the pound," he tells Chato. "I don't know when I was born. I never knew my mami. I never even had a birthday party, or nothing."

So Chato plans the coolest surprise party for Novio Boy, inviting all of el barrio, and cooking up a storm. But he forgets the most important thing--inviting Novio Boy! Luckily, just as everyone starts remembering all the things they used to love about their long-lost friend, the birthday boy arrives with his own surprise--himself!

In a starred review, Publishers Weekly called Chato's Kitchen "Wickedly funny...Guevara's cats are delicious send-ups of barrio characters, and Soto's words glisten with wit. Salud to this magical pairing of talents."

Customer Reviews:

Hello kitty.......2004-06-03

Chato's back. Having learned his lesson from his encounter with the mice in "Chato's Kitchen" this kitty cat is now at peace with every animal he encounters. So much so, in fact, that he is quite the partier. While attending the birthday celebration of the dog Chorizo, Chato discovers a sad fact about his buddy Novio Boy. Originally from the pound, Novio Boy never knew his mother and never had an official birthday. That's all the info Chato needs as an excuse to throw for Novio Boy one of the biggest birthday celebrations ever. He hires a dj, buys tons of food and presents, even purchases a gigantic blow-up dog to fight with. As the guests arrive, however, one fact remains alarmingly clear. Novio Boy was never invited to his own party! After some scrambling and a mistaken death everything turns out for the best and Novio Boy has one of the best pachangas a cat could hope for.

If you've never read a book that combines the effortless writing style of Gary Soto with the eye-popping grandeur of Susan Guevara, you're in for a treat. Like "Chato's Kitchen" this book provides a useful Spanish/English glossary for quick referencing. Spanish words pop up in appropriate places, never sounding forced or out of sync with the storyline. But illustrator Guevara has truly outdone herself here. In the previous Chato book the crazy energy and color of life was remarkable but not overwhelming. Here, on the other hand, Guevara's pulled out all the stops. From the guardian angel-like imagery of Novio Boy's mother that flies, unseen, from picture to picture, to Chorizo's beret and the repetitive phrase (which I loved ) "We are not a minority" that appears in a couple scenes in the background, this book has it all. Best of all is the moment in which each character (thinking Novio Boy dead) stands and thinks of what they liked best about him. As they do, Novio Boy appears on each person's head, acting out their compliments. Guevara also has a sense of movement that allows each character to slouch, run, relax, or dance in a natural free flowing way. It's a talent most illustrators pray they'll attain in their lifetimes.

Some people might be put off by the energy and dynamics in this book. If so, I am truly sorry. My advice would be to flip through this book to make sure you're up to the challenge of reading it to your kids. After all, if your reading style is flat and colorless, this is not the book to put your children to bed with. You are, in fact, unworthy of the text. If instead, however, you have a sense of style and flair that can match this eloquent book, definitely seek it out. Honestly, you've never seen anything like this before.

Party on, Chato!.......2001-11-19

"Chato and the Party Animals" is a fun children's book by Gary Soto. The story is superbly complemented by Susan Guevara's illustrations. The book opens with a Spanish-English glossary. The text is in English, with Spanish words from the glossary ("comida," "el barrio," etc.) blended in.

Chato is a cat -- described as a "party animal since he was a kitten." But he's also a caring cat, and the story's plot is set into motion when Chato comes up with an idea to cheer up Novio Boy, a friend of his who is feeling sad.

"Chato" is really hilarious. In addition to the Spanish words, Soto spices up the dialogue by having the cats call each other "dude" and "Homecat." The story involves a nice mix of silliness and warmth, and ultimately celebrates friendship. Guevara's outrageous, colorful pictures are full of energy and packed with surreal details. Definitely something out of the ordinary, and something special.

Great Use of Language!.......2001-10-11

This book is great on so many levels. I read it with students I tutor and they requested it again and again. At the end of the year I gave them each a copy as a gift. Both of them opened it and got wide-eyed as they saw what it was! One of them said, "This is my favorite book ever!" This was wonderful to hear from a kid who started out so reluctant to read. The story is great on so many levels; there is a message of friendship that is not sappy, but very sincere. Soto also skillfully weaves in the culture of the barrio with his use of Spanish and Mexican themes. What a lovely story.

Fun, tender story of friendship, awesome pictures.......2000-11-02

Novio Boy is a tough kitty, but he does have one soft spot. He comes from the pound. He never knew his mami, and since he doesn't know when his birthday is, he's never had a party. When his best friend Chato realizes how sad this makes him, he decides to throw him a huge birthday party. This is a delightfully fun story of community and friendship. Soto cleverly intertwines Spanish and English, bringing in slang from both languages, creating a cool, hip atmosphere. These homecats kick back and say things like, "he was muy kind," and "the coolest carnal in all the barrio." The language gives us a true taste of barrio spanglish. When Soto's deliciously funny words marry Guevara's festively vibrant acrylic illustrations, the story truly becomes alive.

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The Blizzard
Betty Ren Wright
Manufacturer: Holiday House
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Picture Books | Ages 4-8 | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0823416569

Book Description

Although a blizzard prevents his cousins from visiting for his birthday, a disappointed Billy ends up having an extra special day when his teacher and classmates must stay overnight at his family's house to wait out the snowstorm.

The World's Birthday: A Rosh Hashanah Story

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THE WORLD'S BIRTHDAY

The World's Birthday: A Rosh Hashanah Story
Barbara Diamond Goldin
Manufacturer: Harcourt
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Ages 4-8 | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0152000453

Customer Reviews:

THE WORLD'S BIRTHDAY.......2000-08-05

My children loved this story. This is a wonderful tale about how a child sees Rosh Hashana in comparison or reference to her own world. If the world was created on Rosh Hashana, it MUST be the world's birthday therefore we need . . .

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Strongest Mouse in the World
U. Weigelt
Manufacturer: North-South
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 1558588957

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The Birthday of the World : And Other Stories
Ursula K. Le Guin
Manufacturer: Harper Perennial
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OA5Z06

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The Birthday of the World and Other Stories
Ursula K. Le Guin
Manufacturer: HarperCollins
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OEZRRS

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