Mo Willems: Cat the Cat, Knuffle Bunny, Sesame Street

Sunday February 26 2012

Enjoy the best of a bird situation Annie Ho familypost@scmp.com  Parents with children of different ages often ask me what books will appeal to all of them. Some parents allow their children to each select a storybook, while others have separate read-aloud sessions with each child. When cuddling up for storytime with all your children, you hope that the books you are reading are not too 'babyish' for the older child and not too advanced for the younger one. A child who is a proficient reader can be encouraged to read aloud to his younger siblings. However, just because a child can read on his own doesn't mean that it's time to stop your shared reading sessions. Reading aloud to children in primary school (and beyond) is a wonderful family activity. When all the children are under six, you need well-written stories that will engage your kindergartener as well as illustrations that can capture the attention of your baby or toddler. For this, I turn to Mo Willems, one of my favourite authors for children under six.  In November, my godsister, a teacher living in Boston, visited Hong Kong and brought us Willems' What's That Sound, Hound the Hound? and Let's Say Hi to Friends Who Fly!, both from his new Cat the Cat series. I loved them and quickly snapped up the other two books in the series, Cat the Cat, Who is That? and Time to Sleep, Sheep the Sheep! My kindergartener was able to recite the simple and direct stories after I read them to her a few times. But my greatest joy came from my stoic 12-month-old who, for some inexplicable reason, would burst out in laughing whenever we reached the part: 'Can you fly, Bird the Bird? Watch me! Flap flap flap flap flap ...' The first Willems book in our home library was Knuffle Bunny Too. My daughter adored the story and I was fascinated by the simple illustrations placed atop black-and-white photographs. With a title like that, I knew there had to be a prequel and enjoyed showing my daughter how Trixie, the lead character, was a baby in the first story, Knuffle Bunny, then a toddler in the second book.  What I appreciate most about Willems is his humour. The style is written for children, but with parents in mind, too. So, I should not have been surprised to learn that Willems spent nine years with Sesame Street, the pioneer of 'wink-wink to parents' humour.  Another series is Elephant & Piggie, about a pessimistic pachyderm whose best friend is a pig that can't stop smiling. The latest in this series, Listen to My Trumpet, came out this month.These series are all stamped with the wit and genius word choice evident since his first book, Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! The child reader is an active part of the story: the bus driver tells the reader that he needs to step away asks him to please make sure the pigeon (who desperately wants to drive the bus) doesn't do so. Now aware of Willems' Sesame Street connection, I zip through Pigeon and nod knowingly as I wonder whether he was behind the Mr. Noodle character on Elmo's World. (Mr. Noodle attempts a task, such as putting on a jacket, with children off-camera shouting directions: 'No, not like that, Mr. Noodle!' 'Put the sleeves in your arms!') I relish that my children share my sense of humour. And I learn from their books, too. Occasionally, when I'm counting aloud, I will say, 'one, two, three, four ... seven!' and feign surprise as my elder child giggles and says: 'No, not like that, mama!' 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.

Collecting Books: Nicholas Basbanes' A Gentle Madness

Sunday February 19 2012

Some books are for reading, others for shelf esteem Annie Ho familypost@scmp.com  Someone once wrote that as soon as you buy a book that you have no intention of reading, you move from reader to collector. Unfortunately, this doesn't quite apply to my collecting children's books because I always have the intention that either I will read or re-read it, or I will read it aloud to my children, and/or my children will someday read it themselves. Nicholas Basbanes, who has written extensively on book culture, aptly calls book collecting 'a gentle madness'. I'm almost always more excited by the sight of my deliveries from Amazon than other online retailers. I scurry away with the delivery box as soon as it arrives, primarily to avoid hearing groans of 'more books?' from my husband, and sometimes to prevent my children rifling through the dozen pristine copies of the same book which I plan to give to friends. Later, when I have a little time to myself, I will savour the new arrivals before carefully parking them in our gift closet or integrating them into our double-depth bookshelf. I spent New Year's Eve at a friend's home, and had the opportunity to peruse his enviable collection of first-edition children's storybooks, such as Hans Christian Andersen fairy tales illustrated by Kay Nielsen, a celebrated illustrator from the early 20th century who contributed to Fantasia and other Disney films. Alas, my friend and I agreed that these books are best served when they remain inside their glass cabinet. When trying to instil the joy of reading and a love of books in children, we require another collection of books for everyday use. Such books will be chewed on by teething babies, torn by babbling toddlers and frayed from many consecutive nights of re-reading. I myself have been amassing a humble heap of anniversary editions or collectors' sets of storybooks, many of which are too advanced for my young children. I had planned to buy books suitable for their ages, but learned a hard lesson when I gave away my last copy of art-house publisher Phaidon's Nicholas. The first in a series of five beautiful linen-covered books translated from the well-known stories written by Ren?Goscinny, this book was sold out everywhere. For over a year, I felt uneasy when I looked at the other four books in the series, and I finally bid for the missing book on eBay.  It's worthwhile buying your favourite books now even if they're not yet age-appropriate for your child because they may go out of print or significantly increase in price when your child is ready. For example, the deluxe Harry Potter collector's set is difficult to find and is more costly than when it was first sold in 2007. So, if you're a Tintin fan, you may consider snapping up the new box sets that have been reintroduced with the release of the new Tintin movie. Interestingly, my one year-old is very respectful of books. The younger child is indiscriminate about the things that go into her mouth and yet, when it comes to books, she doesn't gnaw at corners or mistreat them like her big sister did well into her toddler years.  From a young age, my younger child started to flip through pages of books gently and earnestly. For this, I thank the elder child for setting a good example. As a result, both are welcome to all the children's books throughout our home. In fact, I am yet to designate any book 'off-limits'. I have no intention of moving from reader to collector just yet. 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

Shel Silverstein: Poetry, Runny Babbit, Where the Sidewalk Ends, A Giraffe and a Half, Taiwan Interminds Publishing

Sunday February 12 2012

Rhyme flies when you're having fun: why poet stanza 'bove the rest Annie Ho familypost@scmp.com  As children, poems are our first introduction to language and story. Nursery rhymes and many of the best-loved books for babies and preschoolers tell their stories through poetry's rhythms.  I'm not sure how it happens, but at some point in our adolescence, many of us lose touch with poetry. Beyond school years, poems seem to be confined to two stereotypes: highbrow verses of contemporary poet laureates whose works most of us have never read and sappy verses in store-bought cards for occasions such as Valentine's Day. I loved poetry in school, but have not since explored further than re-reading my decades-old copy of The Norton Anthology of Poetry. Reciting poetry from heart is a talent I lack but dearly covet. I sometimes have trouble recalling the title or poet of even my favourite poems. On the other hand, an astounding selection of Mother Goose nursery rhymes which I have not revisited for more than 30 years pours easily from my lips when I'm playing with my children. To this day, I still remember the Shanghainese children's rhyme that my grandmother taught me.  This Valentine's Day, rather than send your child a card that starts with 'Roses are red, violets are blue...', I suggest picking up a copy of Shel Silverstein's Where the Sidewalk Ends, a beautiful collection of poems illustrated with his signature pencil drawings.  In the United States, it is often cited as the book stolen most from school libraries. Where the Sidewalk Ends stayed on The New York Times best-seller list for a record 186 weeks when it came out in 1974. By then, Silverstein had already published half a dozen collections of poems and stories, and he went on to publish another half a dozen books. Every Thing On It, which came out last year, more than a decade after his death, is among several wonderful books that were published posthumously. The first was Runny Babbit, which, in addition to being a 'very billy sook', took the technical difficulty of poetry-writing to a higher level, with Silverstein transposing the first letters of two words in each line or stanza throughout this collection. I discovered Silverstein in my late 20s when a girlfriend gave me Falling Up for my birthday. At an age when single girls were giving bookish gal pals dating guides or cooking manuals, I curiously examined this collection of eclectic poems. I flipped to a random page, read one very short poem called Stone Airplane, let out a huge guffaw and was instantly hooked:  I made an airplane out of stone ... I always did like staying home. When I became a parent, I witnessed how the young could also enjoy Silverstein's works. Once, my daughter, barely aged three, asked for his rhythmic A Giraffe and a Half to be read aloud over and over again. I have become such a fan I now have all of Silverstein's children's books in both English and Chinese. Taiwan Interminds Publishing fortunately had the interest and conviction to translate these books into Chinese and I am impressed that they skilfully retain the humour and style of the original poems. He wrote about the subject of Valentine's Day, too: LOVE Ricky was 'L' but he's home with the flu, Lizzie, our 'O', had some homework to do, Mitchell, 'E' prob'ly got lost on the way, So I'm all of love that could make it today Accompanying this simple poem from Where the Sidewalk Ends is a pencil drawing of a child holding a 'V' placard.  If only schools would allocate more of their curriculum to reading and writing beautiful poetry and a little less to the complex tasks of factoring polynomials and binding protons with electrons, then perhaps bookstores could finally have a long aisle of books in a new section called 'Poetry for Adults'.  Annie Ho is a board governor of Bring Me A Book Hong Kong, a charity 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.

Book before Show: Michael Rosen, Helen Oxenbury, Dr Seuss' The Lorax, Mary Norton's The Borrowers / Arrietty

Adaptations reveal the bear facts about books

Annie Ho familypost@scmp.com 

Early last month, I took my four year-old daughter to see the KidsFest stage performance of We're Going on a Bear Hunt, based on the book by Michael Rosen and Helen Oxenbury. We have Helen Oxenbury's I Can and I Hear, two of her books for babies, but had not yet read Bear Hunt. We managed to borrow the book from a mummy-friend. She apologised that her copy of the book was in really bad shape, as her children were already four and six years old, and it had been read so often that the binding was coming loose. 

I reassured her that I loved to see old and tattered books because it meant that they were read, re-read and handled time and time again. 

For myself, I always make it a point to read the book before I see the film adaptation. I did that with the Harry Potter series as well as In Cold Blood (for Capote) and Michael Cunningham's The Hours. In all instances, I wanted to see these releases, but postponed doing so until I had read the books. 

And so, I set out to immerse my daughter in the Bear Hunt story in the week leading up to the stage performance. Unexpectedly, after one reading, she declared that she didn't like the story because the bear was too scary, and I was not able (or not allowed) to read it to her again. 

Fortunately, the onstage bear was as cute and friendly as a three-metre tall bear-suited character could be, and we enjoyed the stage show very much. It was interactive and lively, with silly sequences that appealed to the children in the audience. 

As a parent, I appreciated that the production did not rely on expensive sets to tell the story. In fact, it was so lo-tech that the characters crossed a river that was simply a dozen blue bath towels placed on the stage. It also really tickled me to hear children in the audience shout out the next lines ('You have to go through it!') because they know the story so well. Fans of Mary Norton's beloved children's book The Borrowers, will be pleased to learn that The Secret World of Arrietty, the English version of Hayao Miyazaki's animated feature based on Norton's novel, is also out soon. Will Arnett and Amy Poehler, my favourite husband-and-wife comedy team, will provide the voices of Arrietty's worrisome parents, and Carol Burnett that of the meddlesome housekeeper.

The Borrowers is one of the few books that I owned as a child, and I'm sure the tattered copy remains in a box in some storage closet at my parents' home. Norton wrote this classic story back in 1952, yet it still speaks well to children. It is good for both reading aloud and for primary school children to read on their own.

I'm tempted to purchase the new hardcover published by Orion Children's Books, a weighty tome containing two favourites, The Borrowers and The Borrowers Afield. 

And coming to cinemas next month is another animated film based on a children's book, The Lorax. This is Lorax is classic Dr Seuss, with the perfect rhyming rhythm and ingenious invented words that are his signature. 

The voice of the Lorax will be provided by Danny DeVito, who also resembles the Lorax. It is a fun way for young children to learn about conservation and the environment. 

In my opinion, taking a child unprepared to a stage performance or film that is based on a story book is like going to a concert without knowing the music. And that is why, after re-reading all these children's classics, I will also need to get reacquainted with my Duran Duran back catalogue before going to see the band perform in Hong Kong next month.

Annie Ho is on the board of governors at 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 the city