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

Questions Kids Ask

Between the lines: books with all the answers for young, inquiring minds

PUBLISHED : Monday, 13 January, 2014, 10:34pm

UPDATED : Wednesday, 15 January, 2014, 4:54pm

Annie Holife@scmp.com

I am sitting at my desk, indulging in time away from my children. After a busy December filled with social obligations, I had looked forward to spending the holidays with my daughters, including a five-day trip to Taipei.

However, after nine straight days of having them by my side day and night, I was looking forward to a breather.

(The realisation that these nine days had been a little tiring gave me renewed gratitude for the Hong Kong way of life, which means I do not have to do the school run or be home for dinner every day.)

But on the flip side, nine days gave us some time to learn more about each other. Not only was I able to observe how my children interact with others, they were also given a rare glimpse into my relationships with people outside the home.

In Taipei, my daughters watched me care for my bedridden grandmother, saw me bargaining with a vendor at a night market, and heard me describe my current life to my childhood friends.

And sure enough, they had lots of questions: What are dentures and why do old people lose their teeth? Why is a night market only open at night? When we fly back to Hong Kong, will it still be winter there?

I welcomed their curiosity. For the time being, I had acceptable answers to their questions.

Author Gemma Elwin Harris has tackled the issue of how to answer children's questions in her books Big Questions from Little People and the recently published Does My Goldfish Know Who I Am?

Harris takes real questions from hundreds of primary-school children and has them answered by world-class experts in the relevant field.

Chef Heston Blumenthal, naturalist Sir David Attenborough, artist Tracey Emin, and philosopher Noam Chomsky take up the challenge of answering questions, such as "Why can't I tickle myself?", "How are dreams made?" and "Why is the sea salty?"

It's an informative and funny look into the beautiful minds of inquisitive children, with some wonderfully thoughtful replies.

A neuroscientist explains why we don't remember being a baby. A media expert answers a question about what newspapers do when there is no news. A phonetics professor reveals whether animals like sheep and cows have accents.

Alice Calaprice edits a compilation of children's questions answered by a very famous expert.

In Dear Professor Einstein: Albert Einstein's Letters to and from Children, the scientist gives eloquent, funny and very forthright replies.

A small group of students say they believe life on earth would survive if the sun burned out, but their classmates disagree.

They ask Einstein to back them up. He writes: "The minority is sometimes right - but not in your case."

Einstein couldn't answer all the children's letters, so some are published without reply. It's entertaining to see the questions children wanted answered by the great man.

Are you going insane because all geniuses are said to go insane? Did Houdini discover the fourth dimension, allowing him to walk through walls?

For now, I'm happy to remain the authority on everything, including science, religion and history. But I have just the right books ready for when my generalised answers stop cutting the mustard.

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 bringmeabook.org.hk

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as When it comes to baffling children's questions, Einstein's got it covered

How Kids Grow, Who Has What?, A Guide to Puberty

From babies to puberty, creative books help with body talk for children

Tuesday, 27 August, 2013, 9:47am

Annie Holife@scmp.com

In the months before my younger daughter was born, we made sure that my elder daughter would be prepared for this big change. In addition to "There's going to be a new baby" kinds of books, I also read with her Jean Marzollo's How Kids Grow.

With photographs of real children accomplishing age-appropriate tasks, this well-written non-fiction book is a good resource to help children understand developmental milestones from birth to seven years of age.

My daughter learned that a three-day-old baby mostly sleeps and enjoys being cuddled, while a nine-month-old baby can clap and use her fingers to eat. It gave her a good grasp of her baby sister's capabilities (or lack thereof) in those early months.

At the time, my elder daughter was two and was delighted to see that she could drink from a cup and walk up stairs like the two-year-old girl in the book. She was also excited to see what she had to look forward to from the photos and descriptions of older children.

I also shared How Kids Grow with my younger daughter when she turned two, and had just figured out that she was a girl. Before that, she thought she was a boy because everyone talked about how her bald head made her look like one. Going through the book, she was able to point and name each child in the book as a boy or a girl.

This made me curious as to how children identify gender, which then led me to consider how to talk to my daughters about what they can and cannot do in the company of boys.

One of my friends is conscientious about keeping her daughter's physical appearance as non-sexual as possible. I agree with her and have dressed my young daughters the same way. They do not wear nail polish, miniskirts or kid-sized high-heeled shoes. No bare midriffs, shoulders or thighs, ever. Short dresses are either layered with leggings or worn with double panties, or white boy-cut shorts over their underpants.

Robie Harris' Who Has What? is a neutral look at physical bodies. It describes not only differences between girls' and boys' bodies, but also similarities. Geared towards kindergarteners, it points out various parts of the body in a matter-of-fact way, without getting into any discussions about what's private or not.

For upper primary children, What's Happening to Me?:A Guide to Puberty by Peter Mayle is the definitive guide to answering questions about pimples, training bras and hormones.

I taught my daughters about private parts and who would be permitted to see those: immediate family members, grandmothers and domestic helpers. In other homes, this may vary.

I was proud to see my elder daughter follow my rules when she asked her friends to "guard" her bedroom door while she changed, even though she was merely putting on a Supergirl cape over her clothes. Yet a few minutes later, she used the toilet while some boys were washing their hands at the sink right beside her.

It seems it's not yet time to cross this lesson off my list of things to teach my children, and that I need to specify the whole range of situations where private parts may be exposed.

Annie Ho is board chairwoman of Bring Me a Book Hong Kong, a charity dedicated to improving children's literacy by reading aloud to thembringmeabook.org.hk

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as Fun guides lend a hand in 'body talk' with children

SCMP - Children's Books about Loss and Grieving

Between the Lines: Coming to terms with death is not child's play

Sunday, 13 January, 2013, 12:00am

Annie Hofamilypost@scmp.com

December was an emotional month for me. While happily belting out Christmas songs and wrapping gifts, I felt bouts of sadness from following the news in the wake of the Newtown shooting, and the inquiry into the Lamma ferry disaster.

We also spent time with friends who had lost loved ones around this time of year. Although the occasions were joyful, our hearts went out to these friends and their wonderful children who had lost a spouse and parent.

It seems that death is also not far from my daughter's thoughts. One day, while we were spending time together, she said to me, "When I die, can I come back again?" I briefly pondered the remote possibility that in a flash of genius, she had picked up the concept of reincarnation on her own. Not to confuse her by introducing non-Christian beliefs, I gently reminded her that she would go to heaven after she died. "Yes, but after heaven, I want to be here with you again," she continued.

After more discussion, it turned out that my daughter was not referring to reincarnation, but was just looking for reassurance about things staying the same.

Young children experience existential loneliness, even though they cannot verbalise what they are feeling. A child's realisation, and then fear, of the fact that he or she is fundamentally alone in this world can be exhibited through separation anxiety. Feelings of being alone are also a natural part of the grieving process, whether it is the result of the death of a loved one or another significant change.

Tomie dePaola explains death in children's terms in Nana Upstairs & Nana Downstairs. A true story, this Caldecott Honour author spent his childhood Sundays with his grandmother and her mother who was bedridden in her upstairs bedroom. DePaola tenderly recaptures how he felt the day he ran upstairs to find his great-grandmother's bedroom empty.

In the original 1973 publication, dePaola used only three colours: black, pink and ochre. The 1989 edition is re-illustrated in full colour, but uses soft hues "to retain the nostalgic feelings of the original".

Tear Soup, by Pat Schwiebert and Chuck DeKlyen, uses the process of making tear soup as an analogy for grieving. There are some very helpful tips for everyone involved at the back. The authors recognise that the age and gender of the grief-stricken affect the way they deal with loss.

In The Invisible String by Patrice Karst and Geoff Stevenson, a mother tells her children about an invisible string made of love that connects them together with their loved ones, no matter where they are.

While the theme is separation anxiety, it also serves as a gentle introduction to how we can stay connected to those we lose through death, divorce, or moving away.

These books open the channels to communicate with a child who has suffered a loss. Through references to different illustrations in these stories, children can learn how to articulate their feelings, better understand the empty space left by their loss, and know that it's OK to feel sad.

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

My Daughter Loves Jesus - Bible Stories, Todd Burpo's Heaven is For Real

Between the lines

Sunday, 23 December, 2012, 12:00am

Annie Hofamilypost@scmp.com

In the summer, I bought my elder daughter a chic pair of silver gladiator-styled sandals. When I showed them to her, she exclaimed, "Oh I looove them!" As visions of a budding fashionista danced in my head, she said, "I love them because Jesus has sandals just like these!"

My daughter loves Jesus. Her exposure comes from her kindergarten, which teaches Christian values. I find this amusing because I hold Buddhist beliefs, so I never expected my daughter to embrace Jesus in the way that she has, and especially at such a young age.

I never really thought about my own connection to Christianity until I realised that I know many of the Bible stories and songs my daughter is learning at school. That's because I grew up attending Sunday school.

My immigrant parents had no second thoughts about my brother and me attending Sunday school even though our family was not Christian. Vancouver is ethnically diverse today, but in my primary school years there were only four Chinese children in our student body. Sending us to church was a part of my parents' efforts to assimilate in their new community. Our family participated in Halloween trick-or-treating, Canada Day backyard barbeques and such, so joining Sunday school seemed a natural extension of these neighbourly activities. As a result, what I got out of Sunday school was the comfort of belonging rather than any connection with God.

Despite my own feeling about Christianity, I'm proud that my daughter has developed an interest in something that was not initiated or influenced by me. (Of course, I'm also proud when she has interests in things that are heavily influenced by me.)

The Jesus Storybook BibleTo encourage both of us to explore Christianity further, I have been reading bible stories to my daughter from The Jesus Storybook Biblewritten by Sally Lloyd-Jones and illustrated by Jago. Published by evangelical publisher Zondervan, this award-winning book also comes in a large format keepsake edition. My daughter's favourite story is the birth of Jesus. She loves to revisit this story in the different storybook editions, including The Christmas Story. Written by Jane Werner Watson and illustrated by Eloise Wilkin, this is a classic edition first published over 40 years ago. The artwork is beautiful and the story of Jesus's birth is retold to a younger audience while staying true to the bible.

Someone at my daughter's school gave me a copy of Todd Burpo's Heaven is for Real. It is an honest and inspiring account of a near-death experience by the author's son, Colton. Colton told his parents that, during his emergency appendectomy, he visited heaven and met long-departed family members. What is astonishing is that his recollections are so vivid and his descriptions so detailed. For non-believers, it is food for thought. For believers, Colton's account is an affirmation of what awaits them.

Heaven is for Real for Kids is a new edition of the original bestseller that has been adapted for children. I haven't shared it with my daughter yet because I foresee an onslaught of metaphysical questions and I want to wrap my head around how I might answer them. In the meantime, I'm busy with her day-to-day questions like why God doesn't need a raincoat when it's raining.

Annie Ho is board chairwoman of Bring Me A Book 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