What to Read - Quality Children's Picture Books: Margaret Wise Brown, Eric Carle, Amos McGee, Don Freeman, Mo Willems

Let quality storybooks weave their magic spell

Annie Ho familypost@scmp.com 

When my eldest daughter was born, I started to allocate some of my book purchases to works for children. At first, I focused on collecting book sets of favourite titles from my childhood: C.S. Lewis' Narnia series, Madeleine L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time, and the complete works of Jane Austen. But what books could I share with my daughter in her younger years? 

Browsing through Hong Kong's bookshops, I found the shelves filled with maths and language exercise books. There were stories about Disney princesses, Thomas and friends, and other characters from film and television. Other than random copies of well-known classics such as Margaret Wise Brown's Good Night Moon and Eric Carle's The Very Hungry Caterpillar, there seemed to be a shortage of quality children's storybooks.

But what exactly is a good quality children's storybook? Perhaps it's easier to start by excluding the books that do not fall into this category.

First there are the 'trademarked character' books. They are marketed and marketable because of their recognisable lead characters. The adult equivalent would be celebrity memoirs and celebrity-endorsed cookbooks. Such books are rarely known for their beautiful prose or even inimitable recipes.

Then there are the 'morality' books, with characters created solely for the purpose of being used in a series of stories that teach children a lesson. There are the Mr Men and Little Miss series. Locally, the choices are endless: Hoppi and Friends' main character is best described as an anthropomorphic cushion; Momo the rabbit experiences feelings of happiness, jealousy and anger; and Sasa is a little girl who gets into trouble then learns her lesson. My own favourite title is Sasa Gets Conjunctivitis. Morality books are like adult crime fiction or romance novels. They have formulaic plots and stereotyped characters. 

Like the great literary classics, a good children's book must tell a good story. Sometimes it will teach a lesson, but the message is so much more subtle and the delivery so much more entertaining than the trademarked character or morality book. A good storybook must be well written. It has been said that writing children's books is like writing poetry. That's because poets and children's book authors both need to be precise in their word choices and concise in their delivery. 

In addition to telling a good story, a good children's storybook must be beautifully illustrated. The total package can stir the reader's imagination time and time again.

Books for children up to two years old include My Friends by Taro Gomi, Pajama Time! by Sandra Boynton and I Kissed the Baby! by Mary Murphy. 

For the two to four years' group there are A Sick Day for Amos McGee by Philip C. Stead, Quiet! There's a Canary in the Library by Don Freeman and Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Tale by Mo Willems. 

My daughter also has a long list of favourite books that fall squarely in the trademarked characters and morality book categories. I always let her take the lead on what I should read aloud to her. We have a small mountain of books about using the potty and welcoming a new sibling.

She also loves to look through Peppa Pig books and other storybooks based on episodes of children's television shows that she's seen, and I'd much prefer that she revisit such stories through the book versions than watch the animated versions over and over. 

Books I recently bought for myself - Tina Fey's Bossypants and Ann Patchett's State of Wonder - show that a celebrity memoir is capable of satisfying the soul, too.

Not all books are created equal, and children should be introduced to quality children's storybooks. But a passion for books can only come through reading works that a child is interested in. 

Children should be encouraged to choose whatever they like from a wide selection of books. The important thing is that if you are spending time reading with your child, you should both be enjoying the experience.

Annie Ho is a board governor of Bring Me A Book Hong Kong, a non-profit organisation devoted to improving children's literacy through reading aloud and providing easy access to children's books for deserving communities. (www.bringmeabook.org.hk)

A New Year's Reunion: Tuan Yuan by Yu Liqiong, Feng Zikai Book Award Winner, The New York Times Book Review's 10 Best Illustrated Children's Books

 

Life isn't fair so read it and weep

Annie Ho familypost@scmp.com 

A New Year's Reunion by Yu Liqiong is one of my favourite books and my daughter's, as well.

It is the story of Maomao, a little girl in China spending Lunar New Year with her parents and friends. 

Her father is a migrant worker who returns home only once a year. 

The book is beautifully written and illustrated. There's probably enough material for a feature-length animated film! The first time I read it, I fought unsuccessfully to hold back tears when I finished. 

I introduced the original Chinese version of this story to my daughter shortly before she turned two. I wondered if she would see the parent-child love in the story and relate that to her own life.

I had expected that my daughter would at least point out the illustration of Maomao riding on her father's shoulders, because she had recently done the same thing with her own father; we even had a photograph of that incident (almost identical to the illustration in the book) that my daughter had seen several times.

Instead, she became fixated on the two illustrations showing Maomao with her father at the barber shop. My daughter had just had her hair cut recently, hence her interest in that visit to the barber.

I continued to read A New Year's Reunion to my daughter, and she continued to flip back to those pages whenever I tried to move the story along. I concluded that perhaps she was a little too young for this storybook and put it away on the bookshelf, planning to bring it back out when she was older. 

Then one day, many months later, as my husband walked out our front door with luggage in hand to go on a business trip, my daughter blurted out, 'Papa's leaving, just like Maomao.'

She got it! All this time she had got it. 

Incidents like this make me even more passionate about sharing my love for books with my children. A reader takes away so many new and different things every time he reads a story. We still read A New Year's Reunion every Lunar New Year, and my daughter and I have since had many engaging discussions about all aspects of this wonderful book.

With younger children it's fun to use A New Year's Reunion to learn about the winter season and Lunar New Year traditions. 

With older children, parent and child can explore the theme of separation and absence, or relate the Chinese migrant worker to domestic helpers in Hong Kong who leave children behind in their home country.

As parents, we shouldn't be afraid to introduce stories that aren't candy-coated or seen through rose-coloured glasses. A child should be encouraged not only to share laughter over happy, silly stories but also to talk about why some stories are not enjoyable for him to hear or make him feel sad. 

For me, it's nice to just experience a great storybook with my daughter, even if it touches upon deeper or heavier themes that she has yet to fully grasp. 

In addition to A New Year's Reunion, two other great children's books that also bring tears for their meaningful message and accompanying illustrations are The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein and I Love You Forever by Robert Munsch. 

A New Year's Reunion was originally published in Chinese as Tuan Yuan, and won the first prize at the 2009 Feng Zikai Chinese Children's Picture Book Awards. 

The English version, published by Candlewick Press, was released late last year and promptly recognised as one of The New York Times Book Review's 10 Best Illustrated Children's Books of 2011. 

Annie Ho is a board governor of Bring Me A Book Hong Kong, a non-profit organisation devoted to improving children's literacy through reading aloud to them and providing easy access to the best children's books for underserved communities across Hong Kong.

A read-aloud session in English and Putonghua will be held today to launch sales of the English-language Reunion, from 2.30pm-3.30pm at The Commercial Press, shop 115, 1/F, Olympian City 1, 11 Hoi Fai Road, Kowloon. Annie Ho will read the story in Putonghua.

How to Read Aloud: Reading Magic: Why Reading Aloud to Our Children Will Change Their Lives Forever by Mem Fox, The Read-Aloud Handbook by Jim Trelease

Sunday January 8 2012

When it's reading aloud time, let your child dictate the pace Annie Ho familypost@scmp.com  What's great about reading aloud as a family activity is that minimal skill is required. Some parents are engaging storytellers; some are not. The joy that children derive is not from how well their parents read, but the fact that they are cuddling them and spending time with them.  The best tip I got from an expert storyteller was to let my child set the pace of our read-aloud time. If I have chosen a book but my child insists on another, I put my choice down and start with her choice. If my child interrupts with a question, I answer and allow the discussion to flow freely until we're ready to go back to the storybook. If my child wants to skip the middle part and go straight to the end, or return to the same two pages at the beginning of the story, I take notice and accept that a good experience does not mean that I must read from beginning to end. And if my child decides to play with building blocks halfway through, I continue to read aloud even if I don't have her undivided attention. Parents who want to read to their children in a language that is not their native tongue need not worry about accents or unfamiliarity with certain vocabulary. I recall a study that showed that babies recollect and respond better to stories read in their parents' voice than to those read by a pre-recorded voice (presumably with perfect inflection). When I read to my children in Chinese and come across a word I don't know, I guess the pronunciation until I learn the correct one (like the word for 'cocoon' in the Chinese-language version of Eric Carle's The Very Hungry Caterpillar). My daughter often mispronounces leopard as 'lee-oh-pahrd' following our helper's reading of Michael Roberts' Snowman in Africa.  As with many activities, practice makes perfect: the more you read aloud, the more comfortable you are with adding your own spice to the storytelling.  Nevertheless, parents can always benefit from tips on reading aloud, even those who do so extensively; knowing how to read aloud well can enhance the experience and help children with short attention spans.  A useful guide is Reading Magic: Why Reading Aloud to Our Children Will Change Their Lives Forever by Mem Fox, a gifted storyteller and prolific children's author. The book is easy to read and contains her list of the 20 best read-aloud stories for very young children. For those wanting a more comprehensive reference book (complete with endnotes and bibliography), I recommend The Read-Aloud Handbook by Jim Trelease. It is a treasury of great read-aloud books described across more than 100 pages, with stories for children up to age 13. Even before delving into the how-to, it's good to start with the basics: books. Trelease discusses the connection between book ownership and achievement, but I grew up reading books from the library. Perhaps the key is access to books; so, unless you are at the library as often as I was, buying books will help your child revisit his or her favourite stories.  Books should be placed around your home rather than on the shelf. While it's great to design a children's reading corner or arrange books tidily on shelves, not many children will go to a corner and stay put. It's easier to pick up a book and read aloud in bed, in the bathroom or at the dining table. Reading aloud need not be associated with a particular area, time of day or parent. It's easy for children to be as captivated by books as they would be by an iPad.  Annie Ho is a board governor of Bring Me A Book Hong Kong, a non-profit organisation devoted to improving children's literacy through reading aloud to them and giving easy access to the best books for underserved communities across Hong Kong.

Why Read Aloud: The Magic of the Spoken Word, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's Programme for International Student Assessment (Pisa)

 

Sunday January 1 2012

The magic of the spoken word Annie Ho familypost@scmp.com  Hong Kong is very results-oriented and no more so than when it comes to early childhood education. Many parents go to great lengths to get their child into just the right school, even if it means enrolling their preschoolers in something like harp lessons to pad a primary school admissions application. Although parents will agree that reading books is a good thing, reading aloud to children may not be widely regarded as important for child development. Last month, I sat in on a parents' workshop in Mong Kok on how to read aloud to children. The workshop leader was a charismatic parenting expert who, in four hours of interactive training, extolled the benefits of reading aloud. Toward the end, one parent asked: 'What's the average number of times I need to read a particular storybook to my son before he should be able to read that book by himself?'  The parent was frustrated that her son really enjoyed being read to, but refused to read on his own. When the trainer learned that the boy was only three years old, she feigned exasperation and said: 'Please relax and don't force your son to read by himself if he likes to hear you read to him. It's a positive thing, not a negative, that your son enjoys being read to.'  When other parents in the room noisily agreed, the frustrated parent, by now a little defensive, said: 'But all my friends' kids who are my son's age are already sitting alone for long periods, reading on their own.'  The expert's reply was priceless. 'Yes, and I'll tell you a secret: that is also the kind of parents who say their son didn't study at all before an exam, when in fact the boy has been immersed in flash cards, tutorials and revisions.'  Even the frustrated parent had to laugh at that remark. Beyond the reassurance that three-year-olds don't need to know how to read or even how to recite their favourite stories, the expert underscored the idea that early literacy is just one of the many tangible and intangible benefits of being read to. The child's feelings of security and love for learning about things outside his immediate world are shaped by the physical togetherness, the soothing quality of a familiar voice, and the chat between parent and child that can come from reading aloud. And for results-based parents who aren't convinced and want tangible proof of the benefits of parent-child reading, there are the findings of a study by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's Programme for International Student Assessment (Pisa).  Researchers tested the skills and knowledge of 15-year-old students from more than 70 countries for more than 20 years in an attempt to learn about the students' preparedness for future challenges, capacity for analysis, communication and continued learning through life.  'Fifteen-year-old students whose parents often read books with them during their first year of primary school show markedly higher scores in Pisa 2009 than students whose parents read with them infrequently or not at all,' the study said. 'The performance advantage among students whose parents read to them in their early school years is evident regardless of the family's socioeconomic background.' When I mentioned the study to a friend, she joked: 'With the exorbitant school fees we pay for nursery and kindergarten, shouldn't reading be the job of the teacher?'  It's all well and good when our children are at school, but parents often forget the obvious: they are their children's first teachers. Children learn from the world around them, and so many more hours of their days are spent outside the classroom.  The Pisa report reassured me that as long as I continue to read to my children, I shouldn't feel anxious that my three-year-old daughter is 'falling behind' because she hasn't started phonics lessons or speech classes yet. I may not have taught my daughter how to read, but I hope I'm teaching her to want to read. Annie Ho is a board governor of Bring Me a Book Hong Kong, a non-profit group devoted to improving children's literacy by reading aloud to them and helping children in under-served communities get access to the best books.