Olympic Inspirations: Ambrose Goes for Gold, Koala Lou, Olympig

Books can bring out the best in children

Sunday, 23 September, 2012, 12:00am

Annie Hofamilypost@scmp.com

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Books can bring out the best in children

Few parents are ever completely satisfied with their children. When my children were born extremely premature, all I wanted was for them to come home in good health. When they came home in good health, I wished for them to be more outgoing in new environments. When they started to speak English words, I wished for them to learn more Chinese words. And on it goes.

The same is true of my friends with children. Those with active children wish their offspring would sit and read picture books for long stretches of time, while those with cerebral children wish for them to be sportier.

In the case of the latter, reading aloud is simply a matter of finding a wide variety of engaging books because they are already inclined to learn about the world through books. However, this doesn't apply to children for whom reading a book falls at the bottom of their long list of fun things to do.

Children who are not yet interested in reading, or being read to, need to be showered with books that focus on what they like, regardless of quality or genre. For children who love their superhero figurines, read comic books about the Avengers to them. For children who love fairy princesses, share pink sparkly pop-up books with them.

If we remind ourselves that the read-aloud journey is for parent-child bonding and for developing a lifelong enjoyment of reading, then we can relax a little on quality control.

When it comes to budding bookworms whom parents wish could spend hours running around an outdoor playground, a few quality books on topic may just provide the inspiration needed to get them moving.

Victoria Jamieson's Olympig is melodramatically subtitled The Triumphant Story of an Underdog. Espousing the belief that attitude is everything, it endearingly depicts Boomer the Pig as an optimist who continues to participate in various sporting events even though he is defeated time and time again.

Our family enjoyed extensive coverage of the London Olympics on television during our visit to Canada. The country was filled with pride when it won its first medal, a bronze in women's synchronised diving. I love how Canadians practise such good sportsmanship.

The title characters of the other two books, on the other hand, don't have the positivism of Boomer the Pig. Koala Lou and Ambrose the insect are closer in temperament to a typical preschooler; they are eager to win and feel dejected when the victor's trophy eludes them.

Koala Lou by Mem Fox is about a little koala's attempts to win the Bush Olympics. As Fox is Australian, the illustrations in this story capture the bush, which is that dry, shrub-filled landscape that is uniquely Australian. She also introduces local animals such as the emu and the kookaburra. Beneath the story, which accurately evokes the despair of wanting to place first but failing to achieve it, is a deeper theme of the love between a mother and her firstborn.

When little brothers and sisters were born and took up more of her mother's time, Koala Lou feared her mother no longer loved her as much as before. She mistakenly thought that her mother would love her more if she won the Bush Olympics, and hence her determination to train diligently for the gum-tree climbing event. Following this childish logic, Koala Lou equated losing the Bush Olympics with losing the chance of more love from her mother. Naturally, the story ends with Koala Lou getting love and reassurance from her mother.

Ambrose Goes for Gold by Tor Freeman has a lighter tone than Koala Lou, and this is consistent with its equally light pen-and-ink drawing style. In this story, Ambrose competes in various events at the Great Insect Games, but keeps losing to an insect with greater abilities, such as the grasshopper in the jumping competition.

Each time he loses he feels a little more dejected, until Ambrose all but gives up on the Games. But in the humorous twist at the end, Ambrose does, unexpectedly, finally win a gold medal. Good sportsmanship is a value I hope to instil in my children, if not as future Olympians, then at least in time for the big sports day at my elder daughter's school in November. These are just the books to help me with this task. 

Annie Ho is board chairwoman of Bring Me A Book Hong Kong bringmeabook.org.hk

Seven is the New Eleven: Harry Potter, The Hunger Games, Anthony Horowitz, Encyclopaedia Brown, Ramona Quimby, Jacob Two-Two, Junie B. Jones

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Guiding children and book choices

Sunday, 16 September, 2012, 12:00am

Annie Hofamilypost@scmp.com

Today's children continue to astonish me with their maturity, no matter what age they are. One example is the reading preferences of young adults, which I learned about from my friends' children during my summer holiday in Canada.

I have been recommending parents read aloud Mary Norton's The Borrowers to the six to 10-year-old crowd, but it turns out that my friends' eight-year-olds are already breezing through
Harry Potter and The Hunger Games, two young adult fiction series more appropriate for children over 10.

My friends were nonchalant about their children reading such macabre tales, although they wouldn't allow them to watch the movie versions of these stories due to their graphic visual scenes.

The boy who recently read The Hunger Games also effortlessly ploughs through three books a day. When I asked about his favourite author, he didn't hesitate to name Anthony Horowitz.

Horowitz is known for a series of spy novels about a boy named Alex Rider. The murder, intrigue and evil villains in this series are no different from the plots of adult spy thrillers, except the lead character is 14.

My first reaction is that Alex Rider is more sophisticated than Ramona Quimby, Jacob Two-Two and Encyclopedia Brown from stories I read when I was eight.

As parents, when do we step in and tell our children what they can and cannot read? And who are we to say what content is appropriate or inappropriate for our child's age?

For starters, we can all agree that children should not be permitted to read novels that are sexually explicit or extremely violent.

But when we consider the slippery slope argument, I can't help but wonder whether parental guidance extends to also banning books that offend our personal taste?

For example, a number of my friends roll their eyes when discussing their daughters' adoration for Barbara Park's Junie B. Jones series. Widely popular for children just starting to read chapter books, it is written in the first person through the eyes of an ill-mannered six-year-old, complete with poor grammar and "kiddie" vocabulary.

The following excerpt from Junie B. Jones and the Stupid Smelly Bus is typical of the language that can be found in this series of books.

"I used red. But then a mistake happened. I made my JUNIE too big and there wasn't any room left for my B. And so I had to squish it very teeny at the bottom. 'I hate this stupid dumb circle!' I hollered," writes Park.

We don't want our children to emulate the behaviour of naughty Junie in the same way that we fear our children will be negatively influenced by the violence of The Hunger Games.

But one of the tenets of reading with children is to let them take the lead. When they choose the book, they will be more engaged. This will hopefully improve their interest in reading, and lead to more of it.

Perhaps we just need to accept that our children are growing up faster than our generation did (and my theory for why this is the case can extend to many columns).

This way, we will be more relaxed when we see that they are choosing to read some of the same stories we have read, even if they are reading them at an earlier age than us.

If 40 is the new 30 among my girlfriends, then it seems that, for the new generation of children, seven is the new 11.

Then again, there's no harm in subtly guiding our children towards a greater variety of books, or ones that we ourselves love, or believe are good for them.

After all, we hone our craft of manipulation-in-the-guise-of-guidance in all aspects of our children's lives, from what they eat to what hobbies they take up.

Annie Ho is chairwoman of Bring Me A Book Hong Kong bringmeabook.org.hk 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 in Hong Kong

Leo Lionni: fables, Little Blue & Little Yellow, Swimmy, Frederick

Lionni's fables show kids how to be themselves

Sunday, 09 September, 2012, 12:00am

Annie Ho

familypost@scmp.com

              

My daughters and I fell in love with Leo Lionni when we spent the summer in Canada. For this, I must thank a reader, who recommended Lionni as one of her children's favourite authors.

We last visited my parents in Canada three years ago. At that time, my elder daughter was 18 months old and starting to become interested in listening to read-alouds. Rather than load our luggage with the books that were in her repertoire of daily reading. I viewed our holiday as an opportunity to introduce her to new titles.

I ordered books from a Canadian online bookstore for delivery to my parents' home. These included boxed sets of Sandra Boynton's silly board books, plus
Polar Bear, Polar Bear and
Panda Bear, Panda Bear, the companion books to Bill Martin Jnr's
Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?, which my daughter already knew well.

This summer, my online order comprised solely of Leo Lionni stories:
Little Blue and Little Yellow for my younger daughter, and
Frederick and His Friends for my eldest. The latter is a collection of stories that is subtitled
Four Favourite Fables.

Fables use animals with human qualities to teach a moral lesson. In this collection, two of the stories feature mice, and two of the stories feature fish. The stories are visually captivating for young and old readers, and the moral lessons are about being happy with who you are. They don't focus on the perils of failing to lead a virtuous life, in the way that
Aesop's Fables do.

All four stories were written in the 1960s, and use language so rich that my elder daughter asked about a new word every time we reread a story. In 
Swimmy, Lionni described the eponymous fish as "black as a mussel shell".

I was excited to illustrate this description by showing my daughters some mussels in a cioppino I ordered one night.

In
 Fish Is Fish, the fish was not any old fish, but a minnow. When he tried to visit land, my elder daughter interrupted me to ask, "Why did the minnow go to a bank?"

I happily paused to explain that this was the slope bordering the pond where the minnow lived, and not the financial institution that she was envisioning.

With a long career as art director of
Fortune magazine, Lionni was already established as a graphic art designer when he created a simple story for his grandchildren about a blue dot named Little Blue. The dot's best friend was a yellow dot named Little Yellow.

The story became his first book,
Little Blue and Little Yellow. It
teaches young children about colours much more beautifully than a typical board book.

Lionni was nearly 50 years old when
Little Blue was published. He continued to have a long and fruitful second career writing books for children.

The collection of Lionni fables I have is the 2002 edition, published by Alfred A. Knopf. It contains a note of appreciation by author and illustrator Eric Carle, who is known for
The Very Hungry Caterpillar.

I have collected
Caterpillar in seven languages (out of an impressive 50 available languages), so I'm embarrassed to admit that I was unfamiliar with Carle's evident mentor until now.

It turns out that Lionni gave Carle his first job in New York, as a graphic designer at the
New York Times, and spent a lot of effort encouraging him to become a picture book artist, even though Carle was not then interested in illustrating children's books.

Lionni, a four-time Caldecott Honor winner, was the first children's illustrator to use the collage technique that is now usually associated with Carle.

Martin's
Brown Bear, Brown Bear was the first book that Carle illustrated. That started his highly successful career.

I have great hopes that Lionni's books will find renewed popularity among a new generation of children.

Annie Ho is board chairperson 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.

bringmeabook.org.hk

Bring Me A Book Institute - reading-aloud workshops for parents

Between the lines: Bring Me A Book Institute

Sunday, 02 September, 2012, 12:00am

Annie Hofamilypost@scmp.com

The topics covered when I first started writing this column - why, how and what to read aloud to children - appear basic and intuitive. But even I was surprised at how much I learned about the subject after becoming involved with the charity Bring Me A Book Hong Kong, although I fancied myself a bit of an expert.

I sat in on some of the free workshops that it provides to parents in underprivileged communities. Bring Me A Book hires some of the best trainers in this city, and I gained new knowledge about parent-child reading even though I have been reading aloud daily to my children since they were a few months old.

When I told my friends about these workshops, they expressed interest. But they were disappointed that the sessions were only available to parents who belonged to the social service centres that Bring Me A Book supported.

So I'm delighted to share the news that the Bring Me A Book Institute has been established to provide quality workshops for parents, grandparents, teachers and librarians on a regular basis. Its inaugural term, which will run for six weeks, starts in October.

The idea came as a result of a surge in interest for training workshops from a new audience - highly educated parents from middle-class families. The institute aims to provide these parents with the skills to help ignite their child's love of reading. It also hopes to create an alternative and sustainable revenue source for its non-profit work of bringing books and training to underprivileged communities.

Adults who are new to reading aloud with children may be particularly interested in "First teachers training", a workshop based on the concept that parents are their children's first teachers.

There is a range of new classes for anyone interested in reading with children, including "Writing books with your children" and "Your storytelling voice".

The institute's lead trainer, Julie Fowlkes, is a reading specialist from the United States, with more than 40 years of experience in early childhood literacy and language development. In addition, there are workshops run by specialist trainers fluent in Cantonese and Putonghua.

The institute also plans to expand into other child development areas, such as providing life skills for children to make them more independent and thoughtful.

Work-life balance, and reducing stress and anxiety levels for adults and children is another issue many of us face. So the institute has invited Professor Mark Williams, head of the Mindfulness Centre at Oxford University, to run a series of talks and workshops for working professionals and parents in November.

Hopefully, the institute will gain enough community support to establish a permanent walk-in centre one day that can provide professional training and consultation for parents, and naturally, a well-stocked library.

The institute's full programme can be found on the Bring Me A Book Hong Kong website, bringmeabook.org.hk

Annie Ho is board chairperson of Bring Me A Book Hong Kong, a non-profit organisation devoted to improving children's literacy through reading aloud to them.