Diane Frankenstein

Discussing books with children improves their creative writing skills

PUBLISHED : Monday, 15 December, 2014, 5:40pm

UPDATED : Monday, 15 December, 2014, 5:40pm

Annie Ho life@scmp.com

"Why is Goodnight Moon such a big deal?" my friend asked me. The classic story by Margaret Wise Brown doesn't seem that notable on first glance: a slightly off-putting colour scheme depicting a story without any exciting plotlines or humorous developments.

I urged her and her young child to give the picture book another try, and pointed out a few things to take note of.

The same scene in the bedroom repeats itself through the story, but illustrator Clement Hurd shows subtle changes with each successive image: the lighting, the little rabbit initially on top of the covers and later snuggled under them, and the unassuming mouse.

The verses in the first part of the book have a sing-song quality; the latter part is devoted to the rabbit's special bedtime ritual of wishing a good night to his surroundings.

A quality picture book can be reread and enjoyed many times over, and I can't think of a better example than Goodnight Moon. My four-year-old daughter is still at that stage of discovering new favourites and never tires of hearing them again and again.

But her six year-old sister is now reading on her own, and rarely returns to the same book.

I assumed the natural progression would be for older children to continue their reading on their own, with the added bonus of parents who continue to read aloud a shared story together.

Then I learned of Diane Frankenstein. Through her bestselling book, Reading Together, Frankenstein shows that when children start reading independently, parents need to become more, not less, involved.

A while back, another friend had lamented that her 11-year-old son had poor writing skills, and took great effort to complete book reports and creative writing essays that demonstrated critical thinking (or any kind of thinking, she had joked).

I had given her my canned advice, "Your son needs to read more. The more he reads, the better a writer he will become." When my friend replied that her son has been reading voraciously since grade one, I was stumped.

Looking through Reading Together, I am beginning to understand that children need to talk about the books they read. "Showing children they have something to say about the books they read helps them engage and connect with a story - children who talk about stories understand the stories better," Frankenstein says.

A child who is reading independently needs guidance as much as one being read to.

Frankenstein's long career as an education consultant has enabled parents to "help their children get more out of the books they read".

When parents have conversations with their children about the stories they are reading, they are helping them develop theory of mind, that is, the ability to understand that others have separate thoughts and feelings.

Such an understanding leads to empathy, imagination and creativity. Children cannot create fantastical pieces of writing unless they can delve into their story's characters.

Frankenstein is returning to Hong Kong to present a "book camp" for parents of children aged six to 12 years.

This will be the first local event in which she provides discussions about chapter books and the conversations that parents and children can have.

She will cover topics such as bullying, empathy, adversity, peer pressure, popularity, self-esteem, motivation and making a difference.

If the question of reading and writing comes up again, my quip will be: "You and your child need to have conversations about what he's reading. The better reader he is, the better writer he will become."

• Bring Me A Book Hong Kong will host Diane Frankenstein's Book Camp workshops from January 23 to 27. For more information and registration, go to openclass.hk/activity/2458

Annie Ho is board chair of Bring Me A Book Hong Kong bringmeabook.org.hk a non-profit organisation advocating family literacy

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as Discussing books key to better prose

Epistolary Children's Picture Books

The joys of letter writing

PUBLISHED : Tuesday, 18 November, 2014, 10:29am

UPDATED : Tuesday, 18 November, 2014, 10:29am

Annie Ho life@scmp.com

I have fond memories of writing many letters to many people in my youth. In fact, cherished relationships were built and strengthened through letters. In Year 10, a friend wrote a one-page Arthurian story with characters that mirrored our circle of friends and passed it to me to read.

I continued the story by adding a page or two and returned it a week later, and thus began our year-long correspondence of continuing each other's stories, filled with parallels, metaphors, allusions and even illustrations.

Around the same time, I learned of a local Vancouver artist who had just published a series known as Griffin and Sabine. Nick Bantock created intricately illustrated postcards and letters, sent to and from mystical fictional places, to tell the story of the two main characters. The series is packaged in a wooden box, with removable postcards enclosed in an envelope affixed to each page of the books. That wooden box has been at the centre of my bookshelf for more than two decades, and I have yet to come across a more enthralling epistolary novel.

Composed entirely of letters or diary entries, the style of writing adds greater character development and reader engagement than a story told by a single narrator or in the third person. Janet and Allan Ahlberg's The Jolly Postman is the only other book I know which is designed in the same format as Griffin and Sabine, with actual letters in envelopes on each page. In this entertaining read, perfect for primary school children, the postman delivers letters (and the odd junk mail) to familiar fairy-tale characters. The Jolly Postman provides endless possibilities for classroom use, to teach children about how to write letters and address envelopes.

Another good teaching tool is Simon James' Dear Mr Blueberry. During summer holiday, a little girl writes to her teacher asking about whales because she has found one in her pond. Her teacher writes back and explains that whales do not live in ponds. The correspondence continues, using the epistolary style as a fun and interesting way for readers to learn about whales. The format of the story also shows readers how to present compelling arguments to persuade another person to believe one's point of view.

In the same vein of cheeky humour is Drew Daywalt's The Day the Crayons Quit. In this story, each colour in a young boy's box of crayons writes him a letter detailing their respective grievances, except for the green crayon, "happy with his workload of crocodiles, trees and dinosaurs". Illustrated by award-winner Oliver Jeffers, this letter-writing campaign is an ingenious way to show the perspective of the hard-working crayons.

Dear Mrs LaRue: Letters from Obedience School by Mark Teague is a picture book consisting of letters from a dog to his owner. Ike the dog behaves so badly that Mrs LaRue sends him to obedience school. Ike writes to her, complaining of misperceived indignities and maltreatment, with droll depictions of what Ike perceives (illustrated in black and white) set against what is actually happening (shown in colour).

Letter writing forces us to communicate our intentions through succinct and thoughtful language. Electronic communications, with cut-and-paste, delete, spellcheck and other functions, cannot replicate the authenticity of a written letter. Sadly, my letter writing is now limited to thank-you cards.

I am stockpiling a modest inventory of assorted fold-and-send stationery for my daughters, in the hope that they will one day find joy in the singular art of letter writing.

Annie Ho is board chairwoman of Bring Me A Book Hong Kong bringmeabook.org.hk a non-profit organisation advocating family literacy

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as The lost art of letter writing

Wanda Gag

Quirky humour in children's picture books is a nod to the past

PUBLISHED : Monday, 20 October, 2014, 5:06pm

UPDATED : Monday, 20 October, 2014, 5:06pm

Annie Ho life@scmp.com

What we read to our children changes through the generations, as does how we dress them. When it comes to classic picture books, other than the date of publication, I have firm notions about how they differ from modern works. In my mind, the old classics use soft watercolours and gentle prose to tell stories that warm the heart.

Today's bookshelves are filled with picture books containing laugh-aloud text and eclectic art styles; words often seem to be coming straight from a wacky comedy show, and cartoon illustrations use bright colours to create emotional interpretations of the text.

The epitome of an old classic is Margaret Wise Brown's Goodnight Moon, and many other picture books from that mid-20th century era were created in a similar vein. However, when I went back a little further in time, to before the second world war, I discovered a treasure trove of stories full of magical realism.

In The Story of Ferdinand, written by Munroe Leaf in 1936, Ferdinand the young bull spends his days smelling flowers under his favourite cork tree, impervious to his peers jumping around and butting heads in macho showdowns.

When this pacifist bull is accidentally selected to fight at the important bullfights in Madrid, the reader can't wait to see what happens in the ring. Pages and pages about the lead up to the big fight include a parade of banderilleros and picadores, and the arrival of the matador, before Ferdinand is brought to centre stage.

This is an unconventional story about a bull that doesn't act like a bull, but still stays true to itself. Illustrator Robert Lawson complements the story with uncluttered black-and-white vignettes. It wasn't until my 10th reading that I noticed Lawson had cleverly drawn Ferdinand's cork tree with actual wine corks hanging from it.

Marjorie Flack's The Story about Ping was published even earlier. Ping is a duck who lives on his master's houseboat on the Yangtze River.

One day, Ping decides to run away rather than face getting a light spank on the bottom for being the last one home. But he is captured by a fisherman and narrowly escapes becoming a meal for the fisherman's family. Flack uses many quirky details to depict life in China, and to suggest to her readers that it's better to accept an unpleasant consequence rather than try to avoid it.

Finally, we come to Wanda Gág and her idiosyncratic style of marrying strange storylines with surreal cartooning. Her best-known work, Millions of Cats, has the honour of being the oldest American picture book still in print today.

Published in 1928, it tells the story of a man who goes to get his wife a cat but comes back with "hundreds of cats, thousands of cats, millions and billions and trillions of cats".

With a subtle lesson that humility can outlast pride, Gag introduces a bizarre solution to the problem of having too many cats. I am equally captivated by her other stories: The Funny Thing, about a creature that likes to eat dolls, and Nothing At All, about an invisible dog.

Just when the plot becomes stranger than strange, Gag finds a way to end her stories on a sincerely wholesome "happily ever after" note.

My children have been fed a steady diet of Sandra Boynton, Julia Donaldson and Jon Klassen, so I was curious to see how they would react to these oldies. They enjoy the stories, but tell me they prefer Madeline.

I am delighted to see that their first choice is also an oldie, written by Ludwig Bemelmans in 1939. Just as sartorial styles are cyclical, I wonder whether today's trend of quirky humour in picture books is merely an eye toward a distant past.

Annie Ho is board chair of Bring Me A Book Hong Kong, a non-profit organisation advocating for family literacy by facilitating easy access to quality children's books and empowering parents and educators to read aloud with children for future success in school and life.  bringmeabook.org.hk

Sustained Silent Reading SSR

COLUMN

ANNIE HO

PUBLISHED : Tuesday, 23 September, 2014, 10:33am

UPDATED : Tuesday, 23 September, 2014, 10:33am

Sustained silent reading can improve literacy

Annie Holife@scmp.com

My daughter and her kindergarten buddies are adjusting well to Grade One and life in a "big kids' school". They are learning new skills to develop their independence and self-reliance.


The most conspicuous changes from kindergarten are that these children no longer have teachers to remind them to wash their hands before lunch, or to make sure they bring the right exercise books home for homework.


This transition to a new school is daunting for my daughter. I imagine that she misses her kindergarten teachers' warm embrace and sitting on their laps to share stories of recent adventures.


Yet, with new teachers to get to know, new friendships to establish and new routines to master, it's unlikely that she reflects much on the past.


My daughter is fortunate enough to attend a local school where the daily schedule includes three recess breaks, and sustained silent reading.


Also known as free voluntary reading, sustained silent reading at this primary school involves all students reading silently for 20 minutes every day. The only restriction is that students must read English-language books and Chinese-language books on alternate weeks.


The key to sustained silent reading is that students can select their own books, and read them freely without comprehension tests or rewards for reading.


An eminent authority on second language acquisition, Dr Stephen Krashen is an influential advocate for sustained silent reading.


In his recently published Free Voluntary Reading, Krashen set forth his voluminous research on language proficiency, all of which pointed to the finding that more dictation, worksheets and lists to memorise are consistently less effective than the simple activity of reading.


Although my daughter has been exposed to a large volume of books covering many different genres, she has yet to develop strong preferences. I remember one library excursion where she had insisted on borrowing a book titled Robbie and the Alien.


It was not something I would have chosen for her at the time, because it was written with older children in mind. We read a bit of the story aloud after returning home, then she lost interest and the book remained untouched until it was returned to the library.


Of course, there are countless times that a book we overlooked on our bookshelf turned out to be a family favourite after reading it together. Perhaps her inability to make a decision on which book to bring for silent reading comes from having learned that one can't judge a book by its cover.


With the responsibility of book choosing resting on my shoulders, I did what I normally do: I overthought the situation. I wanted to give my daughter a picture book, but I worried that her classmates would bring chapter books.


Then I worried that, if I gave her a chapter book, it would look like I was showing her off as an accomplished reader. Although she is capable of reading a chapter book, it's hard work for a six-year-old to concentrate on pages and pages of text. It is like an adult trying to read Tolstoy or Cervantes on a weekend beach getaway. It's doable, but it's not fun.


What six-year-olds want to read are picture books with thoughtful text presented in a large font, accompanied by appealing illustrations. So my solution was to help set up a classroom library filled with a wide selection of Chinese and English books covering different topics and levels of difficulty.


Formal language instruction aims to teach language skills, and is complemented by a sustained silent reading programme. But developing strong language skills is only a side benefit of sustained silent reading, because its primary goal is to develop a life-long reading habit.


Hong Kong children, with homework and extra-curricular activities filling up their after-school hours, often only have time for informational reading, that is, the type that has been assigned by their teachers. Once educators recognise the immense value of children’s literature, schools can promote literary reading by incorporating daily SSR into its curriculum.


My daughter is revisiting books that I read to her when she was younger. Back then, she only focused on the illustrations. Now she is able to enjoy the wonderful words, too. Bob Graham's April and Esme Tooth Fairies is a timely read as my daughter wiggles her loose front teeth. She has also rediscovered Mac Barnett's Extra Yarn after her grandmother tried to teach her to knit.


Bring Me a Book Hong Kong has thematic guides to the best English and Chinese children's picture books that are perfect for beginning readers to explore on their own. The guides can be accessed for free on its website.

Annie Ho is board chairwoman of Bring Me a Book Hong Kong

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as Why it helps to read in silence

Overwhelmed by Brigid Schulte

COLUMN

ANNIE HO

PUBLISHED : Tuesday, 26 August, 2014, 10:23am

UPDATED : Tuesday, 26 August, 2014, 10:23am

Book offers an antidote to intensive mothering

Annie Holife@scmp.com

For me, the period between the start of the school year and the end of the calendar year is traditionally even more hectic than usual. Earlier this year, I made a resolution to simplify my life.

To help me understand how I became so "time-starved", and what I could do about it, I read (and highlighted 40 per cent of the statements contained in) Brigid Schulte's Overwhelmed: Work, Love and Play When No One Has the Time.

Schulte is an award-winning journalist whose book has given a comprehensive picture of being busy by interviewing sociologists, scientists, CEOs and at-home mothers.

She cites studies on leisure time, gender bias, the impact of technology, and the modern workplace.

First, Schulte explores today's expectation of busyness, this maniacal need to be productive and give meaning to our lives. Having children means we devote countless more hours to making their lives productive. Schulte moves on to "the cult of intensive mothering".

You are a part of this cult if you have ever wondered, aloud or silently, "Where can I find harp lessons for my two-year-old?" Or, "Should I start my six-month-old on Putonghua?"

Schulte writes: "Time studies show that mothers' time with children has been climbing steeply, at the expense of sleep, personal care and leisure, ever since 1985. Educated at-home mums have turned motherhood into a profession.

"The inertia of going along with doing what everyone else is doing becomes the default mode because it takes so much conscious effort to pull back."

Next, Schulte looks at the mental burden that seems to be the sole domain of mothers. Fathers help with childcare more than previous generations. But they are delegated tasks by mothers.

When mothers act as the "maternal gatekeeper" and are still in charge of everything, having a helpful spouse around does not necessarily translate into more free time for mothers.

One of Schulte's interviewees describes how a holiday often meant more work: "A resort vacation where even a swim with the dolphins was one more item to be checked off my to-do list, along with getting up early to grab seats by the pool, slathering sunscreen on kids. I perpetuated what I do at home."

True co-parenting means that husbands need to help their wives clear mental clutter. When my husband asks me what I want for dinner, he does so with the purest of intentions. He recognises that I'm busy and wants me to have a meal that I will enjoy eating. He has now taken charge of our date nights and our meals at home because he realises that, most of the time, all I want is to not have to think about what I want for dinner.

What is Schulte's solution? The book's appendix comes with a list of tips, but the main message is: presence is more important than productivity.

• Leisure does not mean "being slothful, idle or frivolous. It is simply being open to the wonder and marvel of the present". I reflected on my own feelings of inadequacy when my day was not filled to the brim with lunch dates, play dates, exercise dates, home projects and work projects.
• Leisure activities should be undertaken for play, connection and reflection, and not merely for checking off a to-do list item.
• List your priorities, and spend your day accordingly. No one would prioritise "Handling of all electronic communication/Sorting through email" over "Spending quality time with loved ones". And yet, many of us are guilty of stopping whatever we're doing as soon as we hear the beep of a new message.
• Let go of the modern obsession with providing children with amazing life experiences and Facebook-worthy photos. We expend effort and resources on excursions to enrich our children's lives, but what they remember of their childhood will invariably be the simple joys of their daily lives.

Another interviewee says, "The most special moments are the spontaneous dancing or jokes that can break out while the family cleans the dinner dishes - moments of unadorned grace that unfold when you're not distracted and rushing into the next big thing."

As author Annie Dillard once said: "How we spend our days is how we spend our lives."

Annie Ho is board chairwoman of Bring Me a Book HK

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as Taking care of busyness

Teaching Children to Celebrate Differences

Between the lines: teach your child to celebrate being different

PUBLISHED : Tuesday, 29 July, 2014, 10:41am

UPDATED : Thursday, 31 July, 2014, 6:57pm

Annie Holife@scmp.com

I recently had coffee with friends who were emigrating to a small town in Australia. Aside from envying how the idyllic environment would influence the positive growth of their young child, we also pondered what it would be like for a Chinese child to grow up in a community where he would be the only non-Caucasian child.

We considered the need for my friend to stock up on books about Chinese children living in a non-Chinese community.

Wouldn't it be ideal to find picture books showing a Chinese child who enriched his life and those in his community through acknowledging their cultural differences as well as their common humanity, we thought.

Fitting in is part of the universal experience of growing up

We explored the range of books featuring Chinese children, and only came up wit those littered with Asian stereotypes: studious girl, dutiful boy, racist bully, tiger mum, new immigrant family, and so on.

My friends and I then reflected on our own childhoods in Canada, where we were among a handful of non-Caucasian children at school. We realised that back then, all we wanted to do was simply assimilate. Would a fictional story showing a Chinese child being different, even if in a positive way (cherishing best of both worlds), have made any impact on our younger selves?

Fitting in is part of the universal experience of growing up. It's not until we reach college that individuality is valued, and even considered "cool".

In the end, my friends and I agreed that perhaps the best books for their child would be those that celebrate differences. Picture book creators are amazingly inventive when it comes to the using anthropomorphic characters to show differences.

Chen Chih-yuan has written and illustrated two storybooks about characters that try to conform, with funny and poignant consequences. Guji Guji is a story of a crocodile that grows up among ducks, but has his loyalty tested when he encounters other crocodiles for the first time. The Featherless Chicken is a playful spin on the ugly duckling fable, and follows the adventures of a featherless chicken as he attempts to acquire beautiful plumes like the other chickens.

Because Amelia Smiled by David Ezra Stein is a gentle rendering of vignettes around the world with different cultures, faces and sceneries. It is an ode to the power of spreading goodwill, illustrating the possibility that one little girl's smile can influence many lives in direct and indirect ways.

What I Like About Me! by Allia Zobel Nolan is an enjoyable picture book for children to embrace and be proud of the things that make them special, such as glasses, braces and big feet. I appreciate that the differences of the children are presented as positive attributes, rather than shortcomings that need to be accepted.

It is important to teach children to be compassionate, not just about skin colour but any kind of difference. 

Annie Ho is board chairwoman of the non-profit organisation Bring Me a Book Hong Kong bringmeabook.org.hkdedicated to improving children's literacy by reading aloud to them

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as Books that celebrate being different are crucial for children

Book Series for Beginning Readers

Between the lines: The joy of book series

PUBLISHED : Tuesday, 01 July, 2014, 9:41am

UPDATED : Tuesday, 01 July, 2014, 9:41am

Annie Holife@scmp.com

I am an advocate for parent-child reading, so my children are in the habit of bringing books to grown-ups for them to read out loud. In the past year, my eldest daughter has started to take books from our bookshelf and read the words silently to herself.

And then one day, I heard her reading Maurice Sendak's One Was Johnny to her younger sister. The sight warmed my heart: she held her sister on her little lap the same way I hold them when I read to them. Only then did I discover that she reads quite well on her own.

Her strong reading skills make school life a little easier. For example, rather than trying to memorise the letters comprising a vocabulary word, she is aware of words that don't quite look right when spelled incorrectly. Solving maths questions don't confuse her because she is able to pick out the needed hints to determine what is required.

To prepare her for Grade One in September, our reading strategy has evolved into book series. I will read aloud the first chapter, to introduce the characters and give them life through animated reading using different voices. Then I leave the rest of the chapters and other books in the series for my daughter to read at her leisure. Book series are helpful tools for developing literacy skills because they often use repeated vocabulary words.

My daughter has happily graduated from Mo Willems' Elephant & Piggieseries of short, repetitive sentences accompanied by wildly funny illustrations. I have devoted so much column space to Willems in the past few years, that I have nothing to add except: if you have a child between the ages of three and six, you must pick up any one of the almost two dozen books in the series. These are exponentially more enjoyable than "The cat sits on a mat" types of first readers' books.

For beginning readers, reading well is more important than reading extensively. This summer, I hope my daughter will read over and over the two series that we are enjoying.

E.H. Minarik's Little Bear series has happy pastoral stories with illustrations by Maurice Sendak. The first four books in the series each contain four short stories. Although each is a self-contained tale, there is continuity in that a later story may make reference to an event from an earlier story. The fifth and final book, published a decade after the earlier books, is one short finale about how a kiss for Little Bear results in the marriage of two skunks.

The book set which I have is the bilingual edition from Taiwan publisher Hsin Yi. The illustrations are accompanied by Chinese text, with the original English at the back of each book. Each book also comes with a bilingual CD.

Available from the same publisher in the same format is the equally pastoralFrog and Toad series by Arnold Lobel. While the Little Bear stories encompass a wide variety of family and friends, Frog and Toad stories centre on the friendship of the two main characters, with a larger dose of humour. Frog and Toad embark on a number of adventures that are silly and delightful.

Both Little Bear and Frog and Toad are quality children's picture books that also happen to serve as appropriate material for beginning readers. This is different from books made specifically for new readers. Books for new readers generally use large fonts to display sight words, and they tend to be created by educators rather than authors and illustrators.

The above two series also expose readers to different forms of writing as natural enhancements of the stories. For example, in Your Friend, Little Bear, when Little Bear writes a letter to his new friend Emily, readers can become better acquainted with letter-writing, with its specific punctuation and indentation. In A List, a Frog and Toad book, the first illustration in the story shows Toad's "list of things to do today". As the story progresses, the text of the story presents handwritten words that are crossed out, in order to show completed tasks.

The aim with book series such as Little Bear and Frog and Toad is that by the end of summer, my daughter will confidently master this familiar material. This will give her a better foundation than hesitantly muddling through dozens of chapter books that are only read once.

Annie Ho is board chairwoman of the non-profit organisation Bring Me a Book Hong Kong bringmeabook.org.hk dedicated to improving children's literacy by reading aloud to them

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as Serialised stories open world of fun

Children's Books about Father and Child Bond

Between the lines: stories build bonds between father and child

PUBLISHED : Tuesday, 03 June, 2014, 10:51am

UPDATED : Tuesday, 03 June, 2014, 10:51am

Annie Holife@scmp.com

My husband is great with children and has a good rapport with them. Nevertheless, hanging out with young ones isn't his idea of a relaxing and fun time.

Asked to pick between two weekend activities, nine times out of 10 he would choose the one that didn't involve children, neither our own nor those of our friends. He relishes weekends spent in the company of adults.

Even though my husband brought welcome balance to my weekends as I joined him in these activities, he often found himself apologising to hyper-parents for his "behaviour".

I consoled him by noting that there is no study to show that helicoptered kids, or kids with parents who are constantly present, grow up to be happier or more successful.

He found comfort in my summaries of the hundreds of parenting-related articles that I had read, many of which dissected this recent concept of parents existing for the sake of children.

While my husband's parenting views have not changed much from the time we brought home our first child, I can see that he is now enjoying spending more time around children as ours grow older. And through all this quality time spent together in harmony, each member of our family is beginning to see the developing father-child bond.

Froggy's Day with Dad is a laugh-aloud story that will appeal to toddlers. It details Father's Day for Froggy and his dad, in the same style as the other books in Jonathan London's popular Froggy series.

Anthony Browne's Gorilla, about a father who never has time for his daughter, will resonate with many Hong Kong dads. This beautifully presented story will make fathers everywhere put down their smartphones when they see how a child wishes for her dad's time and attention.

The Day I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish is also about a father who "doesn't pay much attention to anything". So while dad is reading his newspaper, the protagonist swaps him for his best friend's two goldfish, which he had been coveting.

Presented in the form of a graphic short story, this is a well-loved tale by Neil Gaiman, creator of the comic book series The Sandman. Gaiman is a prolific author who is able to transcend age groups and genres to find fans aged between five and 95.

For truth stranger than fiction, Martin Jenkins' The Emperor's Egg tells the true story of male emperor penguins in simple, engaging and sing-song language. The devotion of father penguins is shown through the emperor penguin breeding cycle in this award-winning natural history book.

After mother penguin lays her egg, father penguin stands around keeping the egg warm and protected for two months, in the bitter Antarctic cold.

Middle-school children who don't mind a little darkness and sadness will loveThe Mouse and his Child by Russell Hoban. Perfect for reading aloud, this masterpiece is about a mechanical father mouse and his son who are joined as a single clockwork toy. When their wind-up mechanism breaks, they are thrown out and torn apart.

They embark on a dangerous quest to return to the beautiful doll's house they once inhabited, and to become independent, that is, "self-winding". This book was the first full-length novel by Hoban, who is best known for his Frances the Badger series for young children.

Japanese company Sanrio made an animated feature film starring Peter Ustinov, and the Royal Shakespeare Company recently presented its stage adaptation of this classic.

Fathers who worry that The Mouse and his Child is too violent for their children should just read this magical tale for themselves. It is full of memorable characters and philosophy. A heart-warming affirmation of the tender love between father and child, it may remind fathers of their own fathers.

Annie Ho is board chairwoman of Bring Me a Book Hong Kong, a nonprofit organisation dedicated to improving children's literacy by reading aloud to them. Visit breingmeabook.org.hk

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as Stories build bonds between father and child

Leonard Marcus

Between the lines: children's book critic Leonard Marcus to visit city

PUBLISHED : Tuesday, 20 May, 2014, 9:39am

UPDATED : Tuesday, 20 May, 2014, 9:39am

Annie Holife@scmp.com

Leonard Marcus is a living encyclopedia of children's literature who shares his knowledge through the many books that he has written, analysing the authors and artists who have created some of the genre's greatest works. He has reviewed children's books for The Washington Post and The New York Times, judged multiple book awards and curated exhibitions.

In honour of the 50th anniversary ofThe Phantom Tollbooth, Marcus created an annotated edition with insights from author Norton Juster as well as Marcus himself. In my recent conversation with Marcus, he described The Phantom Tollbooth as "the Alice in Wonderland of our time - a book of amazing verbal inventiveness and a work of the most playful kind of philosophical reflection". The Annotated Phantom Tollbooth, packed with so much commentary, greatly amplifies the experience of reading one of the greatest children's books of the past half a century, and one of my childhood favourites.

Marcus says "in a classic children's book, you will typically find a character at its centre with whom children can form a strong and immediate emotional connection. You will also find the art and storytelling are well matched to each other and to a child's comprehension."

He will explore some of those emotional connections developed in early childhood (between child and family, child and friends, child and self) in a talk, "Children's Books and the Ladder of Years", which he will present next month in Hong Kong. I will attend with plenty of paper and ink, as I expect to be busy scribbling recommended children's book titles, as well as gaining a fuller understanding of books that I've already read.

Another talk is titled "What Makes a Great Picture Book Great?" According to Marcus, famed children's book author Maurice Sendak built on his vast knowledge of the history of illustration to create the magical worlds of his books.

Marcus advises says it's important for budding picture book creators to immerse themselves in the best picture books of the past.

"They should concentrate on learning their craft and always ask themselves, 'What story do I want to tell?' Success usually follows from hard work that is rooted in a deeply personal vision."

Marcus believes that "an essential qualification for any children's book writer or illustrator is a vivid emotional memory of childhood, that is, the ability to recall what it felt like to be a child".

Magic results when picture book creators transform those early memories into stories and images to which readers can universally relate.

• For more information on Leonard Marcus' talks on June 11-12, visitwww.lovetolearn.asia.

Annie Ho is board chairwoman of Bring Me a Book Hong Kong, a nonprofit organisation dedicated to improving children's literacy by reading aloud to them. Visit breingmeabook.org.hk

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as Lessons from the master

Tian Zhen Garden

Between the lines: the Confucian way

PUBLISHED : Tuesday, 06 May, 2014, 11:59am

UPDATED : Tuesday, 06 May, 2014, 11:59am

Annie Holife@scmp.com

Happy birthday, Siddhartha Gautama. In Hong Kong, Buddha's birthday has been a public holiday since the 1997 handover. I suspect that it was accorded such status to allow workers an extra day of rest rather than for religious observation, because a number of Hong Kong Buddhists adopt Buddhism as a cultural philosophy without strictly adhering to its religious framework. In fact, there is often no clear boundary between Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism.

The Cheung Chau Bun Festival is a Taoist sacrificial ceremony that is celebrated on the same day as Buddha's birthday. And Hong Kong people don't mind practising or believing in several religions at the same time. They will practice and promote any religious or cultural tradition that is family-oriented. Veneration of ancestors is so valued in Hong Kong that there are two public holidays - Ching Ming and Chung Yeung - to give families time to pay respects at ancestral graves.

Confucianism developed from the teachings of Chinese philosopher Confucius, and it is considered more of an ethical system than a religion. With an emphasis on the importance of the family, Confucian thought focuses on the cultivation of virtue and moral righteousness.

Spencer Johnson, best known for penning Who Moved My Cheese?, wrote a series titled "Value Tales Treasury: Stories for Growing Good People". Each instalment in the series uses a historical figure to personify a valuable character trait. In The Value of Honesty: The Story of Confucius, Johnson examines the life of Confucius who learned about honesty and integrity through his father.

For pre-teens and teenagers who are prepared for a hands-on experience in Confucian values, Tian Zhen Garden offers an unforgettable summer camp in addition to its year-long programme. The campus covers 5,000 hectares in Tianjin. The founders, believing that good habits are the foundation of contentment, created a unique curriculum to educate students. A typical day at Tian Zhen Garden includes tai chi, meditation and farming. The children's meals include organic fruits and vegetables harvested from the farm.

The founders were in Hong Kong recently to talk about their school. I appreciated the fact that they focused on the parent as much as the child. They reminded parents not to look down on a child; instead, parents must get under their children and lift them up. When it comes to children behaving badly, many parents tend to react equally badly. Rather than reacting to the child's behaviour, Tian Zhen Garden's philosophy is for parents to look inwards at themselves and consider the question: What have I done as a parent to raise a child who acts like this? The goal is to create good habits from an early age to get to the root of the problem and not to simply rely on quick fixes.

I like this idea of cultivating the body and mind so that children can spend the summer developing spiritual awareness. What an interesting alternative to the usual panoply of summer camps that help children gain a competitive advantage in athletic skills or academic knowledge.

I cannot help but fantasise about the possibility of sending my children to Tian Zhen Garden, having them immersed in filial piety and respect for propriety, and being greeted at the end of summer by well-mannered children who do not talk back.

Annie Ho is board chairwoman of Bring Me a Book Hong Kong, a nonprofit organisation dedicated to improving children's literacy by reading aloud to them. Visit bringmeabook.org.hk

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as An education in Confucian values could help cultivate family harmony

The Easter Story

Between the lines: explaining Easter's message to children

PUBLISHED : Tuesday, 22 April, 2014, 10:45am

UPDATED : Tuesday, 22 April, 2014, 10:45am

Annie Holife@scmp.com

To me, Easter is all about children's games, arts and crafts. This year's activities included making Easter bonnets, egg decorating, and countless egg hunts. My children, on the other hand, are fixated with the Crucifixion. They chat about Jesus dying on the cross, which leads them to sing in unison a song with an upbeat tempo about the Crucifixion. Next thing I know, I overhear them continue with other dead people.

Little sister: "A cross means heaven. Yeye [Grandpa] is in heaven, so Yeye died on the cross."

Big sister: "No, Yeye died in the hospital."

Little sister: "Oh."

This sobering talk makes the overflowing bag full of colourful giant chocolate eggs and bunnies that I have stockpiled in the closet seem somehow sinful and indecent.

Children are fascinated with the Crucifixion because they only contemplate Jesus the man, rather than Jesus the Messiah. Thus they wonder about the physical pain of being nailed to a cross and they try to find answers to why people were so mean to Jesus.

For child-friendly depictions of the gruesome Crucifixion, there are two wonderful books, both titled The Easter Story.

Gennady Spirin's The Easter Story elegantly portrays the events leading up to and following the Crucifixion. Spirin's dignified illustrations are in obvious contrast to Easter picture books about bunnies and eggs.

Brian Wildsmith is an award-winning illustrator whose version of The Easter Story uses vivid metallic colours. The story is adapted for young children, and is further simplified by telling the tale from the perspective of the donkey that carries Jesus through the streets on Palm Sunday.

Wildsmith is one of England's best known children's illustrators. A Christmas Story is a good companion book to The Easter Story. And his new Illustrated Bible Stories will be published later this month.

Ali Thompson, editor of a Sunday school periodical, used an innovative way to explain to kids the significance of Jesus's sacrifice. She asked her children to write on sticky notes things that they have done wrong, and then to stick the notes on themselves. Each time the children placed a sticky note on themselves, Thompson quickly took that sticky note and stuck it on her own body. In this way, she was able to demonstrate how Jesus took on sins.

For a secular celebration of Easter, The Country Bunny and the Little Gold Shoes is a classic story by DuBose Heyward and illustrated by Marjorie Flack. While the overconfident male rabbits expect one of their own to be named Easter Bunny, wise Grandfather Bunny grants the honour to a kind-hearted country rabbit who has grown up to be a hard-working and humble mother of almost two dozen bunnies. I was astonished to learn that this story which encourages girls to grow up and follow their dreams was first published in 1939.

Annie Ho is board chairwoman of Bring Me a Book Hong Kong, a non-profit organisation dedicated to improving children's literacy by reading aloud to them. Visit bringmeabook.org.hk

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as Beyond a crucifixion fixation: explaining Easter's message to children