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

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

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

Books that deal with sibling rivalry - Chloe Instead; Best Friends for Frances

Dealing with sibling rivalry

Sunday, 21 October, 2012, 12:00am

Annie Hofamilypost@scmp.com

Sibling rivalry didn't exist in our household. My two daughters had been sharing a bedroom for more than a year. They played nicely. The camera caught countless instances of the two of them in a warm embrace. I felt blessed to be a part of this. That is, until my younger daughter figured out she had been getting the short end of the stick and started to tell me. Very loudly.

In generations past, it was natural for a new baby to be the centre of attention. Older children were expected to be more accomodating.

Then came the warning of contemporary parenting experts: if we don't pay more attention to a newborn's elder sibling, we are asking for trouble. The older one will seek attention by behaving badly. And he or she will become jealous and resent the new baby.

And so, a generation of growing families started to focus on the needs and feelings of the elder child. When my younger daughter was about to come home from the hospital, friends reminded me to buy a gift "from the baby to her big sister". Really? My elder daughter may not have grasped consumerism, but she must know that a baby cannot choose or buy a gift, right?

In any event, I bought the gift and she accepted it without much fanfare. And thus began my hyper-conscious efforts to ensure our elder daughter wouldn't feel supplanted.

Fast forward to a few months ago. I had my elder daughter on my lap and the younger one was on our helper's lap, as I got ready to read them a story. My younger daughter suddenly screamed, "Mama mama mama! I want to sit on mama's lap!" I was so surprised by this outburst that I promptly nudged the elder one off and plopped the younger one onto my lap.

Since then, my days comprise of the elder one's tattletale complaints about the younger being naughty, and the younger one whining about her sister not sharing.

Micah Player's Chloe, Instead is a great story about an elder sister learning to accept a younger sister who is nothing like her. A former creative director, Player produced the bold art work for his new release.

My elder daughter also enjoys Russell Hoban's Best Friends for Frances. It is a story about a badger named Frances who only wants to play with her friend Albert and treats her little sister as a nuisance. In the end she discovers that her little sister can also be her friend.

This scenario was mirrored when my eight-year-old nephew stayed with us recently. He and my elder daughter played well together, leaving my younger daughter trying to join the action. I couldn't quite figure out how one additional child could result in a three-fold increase in noise level. This has reaffirmed my respect for friends with three, four and five children under one roof.

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

Starting School: Wemberley Worried, Chicken Chickens, Kindergarten Diary, The Kissing Hand, My Name is Yoon

New school nerves
BETWEEN THE LINES Annie Ho (familypost@scmp.com) Jun 24, 2012
As summer approaches, I think back to that summer before my elder daughter started school. I was pregnant and on bedrest, so a summer holiday away from Hong Kong was out of the question. To give my daughter something to do besides building forts out of sofa cushions in our living room, I signed her up for a summer session at a kindergarten that had just opened near our home. It turned out to be a good idea because the session was like a dress rehearsal for the kindergarten where she'd be spending the next four years. That summer, my daughter spent her weekday mornings playing unaccompanied at school, while I logged on from home to the school's webcam to observe her activities. And in the afternoons, we would play games and read books about starting school, such as Kevin Henkes' Wemberly Worried and the Chinese translation of Valeri Gorbachev's Chicken Chickens Go to School. By this time, we were both used to my limited mobility. In hindsight, this also helped to build my daughter's independence and school readiness. With its story told in the course of the first day of school, Chicken Chickens is easy for a two-year-old to understand. It starts with mother hen taking her apprehensive twin chicks to school and ends with mother hen at after-school pick-up, seeing two happy chicks that can't wait to return the following day. Wemberly Worried is a brightly illustrated book about a little mouse who worries about "big things, little things, everything". So it's no surprise that her list of worries about the first day of school is long - and written out in extra-large font. The endearing writing style made it easy for a reserved girl like my daughter to relate to little mouse Wemberly. Since that summer, we've read more stories about school, and it's interesting to observe my daughter's growing command of narrative. This translates to highly interactive storytelling sessions where she will point out things in the background of a scene, or relate an illustration back to her own school experience. Kindergarten Diary by Antoinette Portis is written in first-person diary form by a little girl who is starting kindergarten. Written in the language of a five-year-old, Portis gives an amusing view of those first few weeks of school. I'm always looking for books that are not girl-focused which I can introduce to my friends with sons. I recently discovered a good one: The Kissing Hand by Audrey Penn. Although it is a story about a boy raccoon starting school, the theme is separation. Mrs Raccoon shares her "kissing hand secret" with her son. And that kissing hand secret can be used to comfort children whenever they need to be separated from their parents. This summer, I plan to read aloud Helen Recorvits' My Name is Yoon to my daughter, to prepare her for her upcoming school year with new teachers and new classmates. This heart-warming story is about a girl who moves to a new school in a new country where everyone speaks a new language. It isn't until she makes her teacher laugh aloud that she feels a connection to, and finds her place in, her new environment. All of these stories point to the big difference a special new friend can make in helping a child ease into the daunting experience of being on his own. When my daughter was at summer school, that special someone was a young American teacher with flowing honey-coloured hair. The teacher always gave long hugs to my daughter and my daughter believed her teacher to be a real princess. And in the case of her early weeks at her current school, it was the bathroom attendant who made my daughter feel special. She always called out my daughter's name whenever she saw her, giving her encouragement with potty training. In fact, people like these treat all children with warmth and sensitivity, but have the ability to make each child feel that he's been given special attention. When I'm reading aloud to my elder daughter, my younger one often puts down whatever she's playing with to clamber onto the sofa and join in the fun. She seems particularly interested in these stories about going to school. Fortunately, I have another year of mother-baby activities before my younger daughter starts going to school on her own. "Between the Lines" will take a break over the school holidays and resume in September. Have a happy summer. 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 bringmeabook.org.hk

Berenstain Bears: Zondervan, Peppa Pig, In Memory of Jan Berenstain

Fifty years of bears and graces

 BETWEEN THE LINES
Annie Ho (familypost@scmp.com)
Mar 18, 2012

Even those who have not read any of the stories in the Berenstain Bears series will easily recognise this family of bears from Bear Country. 

With 300 books written over a span of 50 years, they are a little hard to miss. The family started out in 1962 as Papa Bear, Mama Bear and Small Bear, with Small Bear renamed Brother Bear when Sister Bear was introduced in 1974 in The Berenstain Bears' New Baby. 

That was the book my daughter wanted to hear over and over when her own baby sister came home from the hospital. The simplistic presentation of a mother's pregnancy and a family's preparations to welcome a new baby helped me explain our new addition to our elder daughter, who was at that time not yet three.
She especially enjoyed the illustration of Small Bear peering into the cradle to see the new baby, only to have baby "pop him on the nose with a tiny fist". We gleefully recreated this scene by tapping our daughter's nose with our newborn baby's fisted hand. Soon, she would take the baby's hand and hit her own nose while shouting "Pop!" at every opportunity. It felt like months before she tired of this little gag.
Authored by Stan Berenstain and his wife, Jan, and later joined by their writer/illustrator son Mike, the series' focus is on values education. 

Values education broadly encompasses themes of moral, spiritual and social development, and this series uses Brother and Sister Bear's experiences to impart knowledge on how to behave and interact with others.
The stories cover everything a child could encounter in his or her daily life, from visiting the dentist to doing chores to getting a bad report card. 

Together, the Berenstain Bears tackle important issues in stories to which many children can relate. 

Needless to say, the topics have changed with the times, recent stories being about having trouble with the computer and eating out at a restaurant. Interestingly, the tone has also changed. 

The first book, The Big Honey Hunt, published in 1962, described Papa Bear and Small Bear's adventure to collect their own honey rather than heed Mama Bear's advice to go to the honey store. 

The titles increasingly focus on family values. At times, I even suspect that the story came about after the authors decided on the lesson to be learned. 

The latest two titles were released in January: The Berenstain Bears All Things Bright and Beautiful, and The Berenstain Bears and the Easter Story. Both were published by Zondervan, an evangelical publisher of bibles and Christian books that has published almost 40 titles of the series since 2008.

In our home, the only other Berenstain Bears title that we have is Too Much TV. I would gladly add to our collection, but my daughter doesn't care to participate in a programme in which I attempt to instil good behaviour using the Berenstain Bears as my preaching aid. In addition, my husband is unimpressed with how Papa Bear watches too much TV along with the children and gets scolded by Mama Bear along with them. 

According to my husband, father characters that always play the incompetent buffoon like Papa Bear and Daddy Pig (from my daughter's favourite animated show Peppa Pig) should be banned from our home.
My husband can go on and on about the need to find better role models in children's books while holding a remote control with his eyes fixed on the TV. By teasing my husband like this (and in print, no less!), I have firmly wedged myself into the role of the sensible one around here, like Mama Bear. 

Today's column is in memory of Jan Berenstain, who died on February 24, at the age of 88.

Annie Ho is a board governor of Bring Me A Book HK (bringmeabook.org.hk), a non-profit organisation devoted to improving child literacy