Starting with ‘Umbrella Thief’, she stole the hearts of generations
Well loved for her children’s books, artist Sybil Wettasinghe passed away this week
Sybil is physically no more. Yet she will continue to live within our hearts for many more decades.
She made such an impact through her books. She was also a fine human being. Her books were meant for children but adults too enjoyed them. She had her own unique style of drawing and designing.
Sybil was a journalist and so was her husband Dharmapala Wettasinghe (‘Wette’ as we called him). They met at Lake House. Most of us got to know both as fellow journalists even though we didn’t work in the same newspapers.
In our case, in addition to being at Lake House we became family friends as well.
Starting her career as an illustrator for newspapers, Sybil moved on to writing children’s stories. She wrote her first story, ‘Kuda Hora’ (Umbrella Thief) in 1952. It was published three years later and turned out to be a most popular book among children. Many years later it was translated into Japanese and won its first award at the Bologna Book Fair, and was published in more than 13 countries including Norway, Sweden, Denmark, the United States, China, Korea and South Africa - a signal achievement for a book written in Sinhala. The rather novel illustrations were the main attraction. In 1986 ‘Kuda Hora’ was presented with the Best Children’s Foreign Book Award in Japan - the first year they awarded a prize for the best foreign children’s book. In the following year the children of Japan chose ‘Kuda Hora’ as the most popular story in a competition organized by the Library Association of Japan.
Sybil next wrote ‘Duwana Revula’. Many more followed. They were beautiful stories which children loved, presented in her easy style of writing.
Being bilingual, Sybil was able to reach children with a preference for reading in English. One of her books - ‘Hoity the Fox’ won two awards in Japan – one from the Ministry of Education and the other from the Ministry of Culture. Another, ‘Strange visitors to the Cat Country’ won a French Award for children’s books.
In Sri Lanka ‘Meti Gedara Lamai’ won the State Literary Award for Juvenile Books in 1992. Its English version ‘Crystal and Clay’ was published later. Her autobiographical novel ‘The Child in Me’ won the prestigious Gratiaen Prize in 1995. ‘Veniyang Kalu’ is its Sinhala version written most imaginatively tracing her life back to her childhood days in her birthplace, Gintota in the southern coast.
Sybil was chosen as one of 60 of the world’s best book illustrators in a survey conducted by book clubs in Japan. She was the only one from Asia – a rare honour indeed.
Apart from her own books, she illustrated other authors’ work and was always in great demand. Her most recent project, a children’s book written by South Africa’s High Commissioner to Sri Lanka Robina P. Marks was released on June 30 a day before she passed away. Her illustrations in the ‘Bible for Children’ won an award in Czechoslovakia.
Sybil was often invited to serve on international panels. Once she was the sole invitee from Asia to serve on a UNESCO panel to select the best books on the theme ‘Peace and Tolerance’.
When Deepal Sooriyaarachchi was Marketing Manager at Eagle Insurance, he got her to promote the message of safety among children. At a programme at the Colombo Museum for International Children’s Day, Sybil sat amidst the children and guided them to draw posters on safety. Eagle arranged such gatherings in several outstation towns and soon she became the popular ‘Sybil Nanda’ at these drawing festivals meant to instil the safety message in children’s minds.
Two colourful books - ‘Mallitai Matai’ & ‘Punchi Lamai Rattaran’ - she wrote and illustrated for Eagle Insurance were distributed throughout the country as part of the company’s safety drive.
As the much respected filmmaker Dr Lester James Peries wrote in ‘Crystal and Clay’, Sybil entered into the universe of children when she wrote a story. “In her work there is serenity, a tranquillity which one hesitates to refer to as being influenced by a pervading Buddhist ethos but one does discover over and over in her stories the traditional pieties of rural life.” He also noted a special quality in her writing for children – the absence of violence and horrors.
Sybil was a rare combination of talent: a fine illustrator; a clever creative writer; an excellent story-teller and teacher; a good conversationalist and above all, a caring human being.
The children will continue to remember her.