NCF picture book

Taiwan’s Star Drummer

Taiwan’s Star Drummer Zhe-yu Lin By

Silver Award Sixth Children’s Literature Awards

Although this book tells the story of a child with a physical deformity, it takes place in an atmosphere filled with love, determined, humor, and optimism. In fact, these are among the work’s most distinctive and appealing attributes. The child’s deformity doesn’t cause his parents to love him any less. Instead, they see him as bearing special marks from Heaven. They work hard to discover his strengths and to provide him with proper, healthy love. It is wonderful to see a work by an elementaryschool student presenting such a laudable concept.

Parents often dream of helping their children reach extraordinary heights.

But achievements come in a variety of forms. It is best to let children develop their own individual natures and progress towards their goals in a joyful fashion. The book describes precisely this approach.

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Noordhoff Craniofacial Foundation

Silver Award Sixth Children’s Literature Awards Noordhoff Craniofacial Foundation

Taiwan’s Star Drummer Silver Award Winner in the Sixth Children’s Literature Awards The Noordhoff Craniofacial Foundation received a record 75 submissions for its sixth annual “Love Makes Whole” Children’s Literature Awards. The children submitting their work this year expressed their thoughts in a variety of ways. Their stories featured not just human protagonists, but anthropomorphized cats, birds, monkeys, elephants, fish, and even dragons. Having spent years fostering the development of these awards, we are thrilled to see the atmosphere for children in Taiwan becoming more creative, and excited by the increasing maturity of the submitted works. We see in all of them the children’s own perspective on the world—some of which were quite surprising to us adults—and their thoughts on how to care for our society’s various populations. All in all, we were very pleased with the results.

We are grateful for the help we received in the assistance of our children’s literature reviewers: Jun-yan Tsao, Lucy Chen, and Shao-wei Lu. We would also like to thank the author, Zhe-yu Lin, for his wonderful book.

Noordhoff Craniofacial Foundation

Delivery Room

October 6, 1992‌ an autumn day.

Dad

The baby is here?!

Congratulations!

Congratulations!

Delivery Room

Mr. Lin, this is your baby.

The father sees the child and‌

Wah~

Delivery Room

They held each other and wept.

Dad

Mom

God had given them a special child with a special mark on his mouth—a cleft lip and palate.

They had no chance to experience the joy of welcoming a new life into the world.

Why did it have to be my little boy?

Whenever the father thought of his son, even when he was outside on his motorcycle, the heartache was too much. He wept and wondered, “Why did it have to be my little boy?

The boy, whom they name Star, loved playing with bolts from a young age.

Star!

Stop playing with those bolts!

Star had always been curious about everything and had a strong affinity for musical rhythms. He would often play with sticks, bottles, and cans, and made a mess of everything around him every day. Nothing escaped his urge to drum, not even his father’s head!

Percussion Instrument Class

Hotpot Restaurant

Seeing his son’s deep love for beating on things and tapping out rhythms, his father decided to provide him with professional percussion training.

Miss Hsieh

While still the youngest student in his class, Star became its best percussionist. His teacher, Miss Hsieh, praised his performance and his natural talent for percussion.

Tai wan

Drummer

When Star had studied percussion for three years, his father decided that the boy needed even more demanding, professional training if he wanted to take his playing to the next level.

All of Star’s training and hard work eventually paid off with the chance to compete in the Children’s Jazz Drumming Competition. The competition’s top prize, an NT$500,000 scholarship, caught the whole family’s attention.

Star’s polished and precise drumming captured the audience’s attention the moment he took the stage and ultimately earned him enthusiastic cheers and applause.

Let’s congratulate Taiwan’s newest golden drummer Star!

declared the head of the judging panel. Star had defeated all the other competitors to win first place and the top prize of NT$500,000.

Star’s parents never treated him as a “special” child.

They sought fun and education everywhere, and fostered his talent for percussion, just like parents do for ordinary kids. Star does many things he enjoys, just like other boys. Always smart and focused, he isn’t just a brilliant drummer, but also shines at painting, gym class, and academics. Nowadays, his parents think of him as a child sent by Heaven bearing a special mark.

In a Loving, Humorous Atmosphere: A Review of Taiwan’s Star Drummer Although this book tells the story of a child with a physical deformity, it takes place in an atmosphere filled with love, determined, humor, and optimism. In fact, these are among the work’s most distinctive and appealing attributes. The child’s deformity doesn’t cause his parents to love him any less. Instead, they see him as bearing special marks from Heaven. They work hard to discover his strengths and to provide him with proper, healthy love. It is wonderful to see a work by an elementary-school student presenting such a laudable concept.

Parents often dream of helping their children reach extraordinary heights. But achievements come in a variety of forms. It is best to let

children develop their own individual natures and progress towards their goals in a joyful fashion. The book describes precisely this approach.

Though the author is just beginning the fifth grade, his text and illustrations are of a high standard. If he explores the picture book genre at greater depth, absorbing and integrating the techniques of the field’s top illustrators, he will certainly go on to create even more impressive art of his own. We all look forward to his future work.

Jun-yan Tsao Committeeman

Silver Award Speech I’m very excited to have won the Silver Award. First, I would like to thank Miss Wan-yan Zhen of the NCF. At the start, I lacked the confidence to participate in the competition, but Miss Zhen brought me the application in person and encouraged me to sign up. After discussing it with my parents, I decided to write a true story. With their guidance and advice, I completed the book in a week.

My student ID number has been “two” since the first grade, and that’s often where I’ve finished in competitions. It almost seems to be my lucky number. I hope if I keep trying, I can change my lucky number to “one.”

Finally, I’d like to thank the NCF for arranging this contest; Miss Ji-yin, for whom I have the greatest respect; and all the other people who have helped and encouraged me. Thank you all. I am truly blessed.

Zhe-Yu Lin, Class 7, Grade 5 Guei-ji Elementary School Taoyuan County

Taiwan’s Star Drummer Publisher: Daniel Chiung-shing Huang Chief Executive: Rebecca King-ying Wang Producer: Debi Te-yun Fan and Shanglin Lee Designer: Otto Yang Noordhoff Craniofacial Foundation Address: R708, 7F., No.54, Sec. 4, Minsheng E. Rd., Taipei 10574, Taiwan TEL: +886-2-27190408 FAX: +886-2-27128002 Website: http://www.nncf.org Email: nncf@nncf.org Š Noordhoff Craniofacial Foundation 2013 Chinese edition published in 2003.

English edition published in April, 2013.

All rights reserved. Used by permission. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any process without prior written permission.

Taiwan’s Star Drummer

Taiwan’s Star Drummer By

Silver Award Sixth Children’s Literature Awards

Although this book tells the story of a child with a physical deformity, it takes place in an atmosphere filled with love, determined, humor, and optimism. In fact, these are among the work’s most distinctive and appealing attributes. The child’s deformity doesn’t cause his parents to love him any less. Instead, they see him as bearing special marks from Heaven. They work hard to discover his strengths and to provide him with proper, healthy love. It is wonderful to see a work by an elementaryschool student presenting such a laudable concept.

Parents often dream of helping their children reach extraordinary heights.

But achievements come in a variety of forms. It is best to let children develop their own individual natures and progress towards their goals in a joyful fashion. The book describes precisely this approach.

Zhe-yu Lin

條碼位置

Noordhoff Craniofacial Foundation 台灣星鼓王英文版-封面台.indd 1

13/4/9 下午5:27