Dinosaur Museum

Between the lines: children of all ages love to read about dinosaurs

PUBLISHED : Tuesday, 25 February, 2014, 11:32am

UPDATED : Tuesday, 25 February, 2014, 11:32am

Annie Holife@scmp.com

My daughters and I joined a dozen of their friends on a visit to the Legends of the Giant Dinosaurs exhibition at the Hong Kong Science Museum during the last school holidays. Our expectations were low but, to our surprise, it was a world-class educational experience that kept the group entertained for an entire morning.

There were robotic dinosaurs and a "petting zoo" where the children took turns prodding a stick at an animated Agilisaurus that responded with short forward lunges, swishing its tail or baring its teeth.

Children love to learn dinosaur names, and this point has not been lost on book publishers

The reconstruction of a fossil dig showed the important work done by palaeontologists. Scattered throughout were interactive games and electronic presentations designed to appeal to tech-savvy children.

Dozens of dinosaur fossils, including a replica of the 30-metre-long Daxiatitan that was discovered on the mainland, made up the finale.

Shaheen Bilgrami's Amazing Dinosaur Discovery is the perfect book to prepare ahead of this outing. It tells the story of Tom, a boy who loves dinosaurs, visiting a museum with his father. The book is arranged with the left-hand side showing pages from Tom's scrapbook to provide readers with trivia about each dinosaur.

The dinosaur fossils are on the right-hand pages, with clever acetate sliding panels. Pull out the panel and the fossilised bones are transformed into a full-colour creature from 100 million years ago in its natural environment.

"Bones. Bones. We look for bones. We look for the bones of dinosaurs." The work of palaeontologists is simply explained in Byron Barton's Bones, Bones, Dinosaur Bones.

Progressing from setting out to dig for bones, to wrapping and packing them for assembly at the museum, this picture book uses bold colours to help young children learn about dinosaurs as well as the fossils they see at museums.

One consistent factor about dinosaur books is that no matter the genre, whether fiction such as Jane Yolen's How Do Dinosaurs Say Good Night? or a non-fiction resource book such as Bob Barner's Dinosaur Bones, they all come with a back page containing an illustrated list of dinosaur names.

This doesn't happen with other animals. Picture books about birds, butterflies and bears rarely include an introduction to the different members of their species.

The exception to this dinosaur book phenomenon is Dinosaur! by Peter Sis. Why? Because it is a wordless picture book. The clean line drawings show the delightful experience of one boy's bath time when he takes his dinosaur bath toy into the tub with him.

Children seem to love learning the names of dinosaurs, and this point has not been lost on book publishers.

As I re-acquaint myself with those wonderfully multi-syllabic dinosaur names, my mind returns to Land of the Lost, the 1970s television series that was the genesis of my fascination with dinosaurs, and provoked my interest in science fiction and time travel.

Another indication of my old age is discovering that the large dinosaur that used to be called a Brontosaurus is now known as an Apatosaurus.

Legends of the Giant Dinosaurs, Hong Kong Science Museum, TST East until Apr 9

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as Take some big steps back in time

Christmas Books

Between the lines: Christmas stories can't come soon enough for some

PUBLISHED : Monday, 02 December, 2013, 9:17pm

UPDATED : Monday, 02 December, 2013, 9:18pm

Annie Holife@scmp.com

Our Christmas tree has already been delivered and decorated. While many bemoan shopping malls for starting the festive season earlier each year, I like hearing holiday tunes and seeing Nativity scenes and Santa displays for as long as possible.

Here is a selection of Christmas stories for children. We got a head start in our home, and have been reading some of them since Thanksgiving, along with singing Christmas carols since Halloween.

Raymond Briggs' The Snowman is a classic tale about a snowman that comes to life and visits the home of the boy who created him. It is an easy book to "read" because it is wordless. Briggs tenderly conveys the emotions of the characters through his poignant illustrations and an ending that is open for interpretation.

Children who are knowledgeable about their nursery tales will be captivated by The Jolly Postman by Janet and Allan Ahlberg. The postman delivers a variety of mail to well-known characters.

The picture book contains pages designed to look like stamped, addressed envelopes, with a bound-in pocket at the back, each containing a detachable piece of mail inside.

For the Three Bears, the postman delivers an apology letter from Goldilocks, in a little girl's handwriting complete with spelling mistakes. For Cinderella, there is a cover letter from her publisher about the first draft of her biography. The letter is typed like a business letter, and there is a mini-book telling the story of Cinderella.

The Ahlbergs' The Jolly Christmas Postman continues the interactive fun with holiday letters and gifts for a new coterie of nursery tale characters, including "Mr H. Dumpty".

Oscar-winner Emma Thompson tried her hand at writing a new story based on her beloved Beatrix Potter character Peter Rabbit, and her resulting TheFurther Tale of Peter Rabbit became a bestseller.

She has followed up with the newly published The Christmas Tale of Peter Rabbit. The story is inspired by a real turkey named William whom Thompson met on Beatrix Potter's farm in Britain's Lake District. The book includes a CD with a recording of the story read by Thompson.

Christmas Stories is a collection of four original stories by Michael Morpurgo, one of Britain's best-loved writers. Each of the master storyteller's tales is accompanied by illustrations by a renowned illustrator.

Morpurgo has written more than 100 stories for children and young adults. They are usually set in the mid-20th century, with children who grow up around animals and rural scenery.

This old-fashioned setting allows him to explore timeless values, which he executes superbly in Christmas Stories. The writing is simple and direct, but the messages contained in these stories are enchanting and philosophical.

Charles Dickens' 1843 novella A Christmas Carol can be enjoyed year after year. A popular edition is the final volume in the Charles Dickens collection at the Everyman's Library, which has classic illustrations by Arthur Rackham. This charming volume contains four other Victorian Christmas tales from Dickens, and makes a beautiful keepsake.

Another well-loved edition of A Christmas Carol is the one with some richly emotional illustrations by contemporary artist P.J. Lynch.

Lynch is best known for his award-winning illustrations of another festive best-seller, The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey by Susan Wojciechowski.

Annie Ho is the 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 An early start to festive stories

Hong Kong Public Library

Lessons in shelf awareness

Tuesday, 18 June, 2013, 9:34am

Annie Holife@scmp.com

My daughter and I are now proud card-carrying members of the Hong Kong Public Library. My plan to get library cards for us last year got as far as completing the form and queuing at the registration counter because I had forgotten to submit proof of address. I'm ashamed to admit that it took us six months to get around to returning with all the necessary documentation.

This is especially momentous for me because I grew up in public libraries in Canada. Both my parents worked during the week, and most shops were closed on Sundays back then. So every Saturday afternoon, my parents would drop off my brother and me at whichever public library was nearest to where they were planning to shop, because this was the safest place they could think of to leave two primary school-aged children. They would pick us up hours later, after they had finished their errands.

In those early years, I remember reading books only while at the library and participating in the librarian's circle time reading. By the time I reached the age of nine or 10, an afternoon at the library always ended with struggling to decide which books to take home, and being rushed by my parents because I could not edit down my choices for the coming week to the maximum I was allowed to borrow at one time.

There is a wide variety of picture books about going to the library, Don Freeman's Quiet! There's a Canary in the Library is a favourite in our home, with elegant sentences about animals causing a rumpus and giraffes reading tall tales.

Famous siblings Charlie and Lola make a trip to the library in Lauren Child'sBut Excuse Me, That Is My Book. Precocious Lola doesn't quite understand the concept of borrowing when she sees another girl walk by with the book that she wants.

In contrast with Lola, a character from another book series is too earnest about book borrowing. In Alexander Stadler's Beverly Billingsly Borrows a Book, Beverly Billingsly is horrified to learn that the first library book she checks out is two days overdue and imagines terrible consequences for this misdeed.

Debbie Bertram and Susan Bloom's The Best Book to Read is a good introduction for preschoolers who want to learn about the experience of going to the library. For older children, The Shelf Elf Helps Out by Jackie Mims Hopkins explains the Dewey decimal system.

On the Sunday morning that we took my daughter to the Central Public Library in Causeway Bay, I was delighted to see the children's library filled with clusters of families: parents and toddlers, children with their grandparents, older groups of siblings and friends.

The first book that my daughter pulled from the shelves was Jerry Pinkney'sThe Lion and the Mouse. I was impressed with her award-winning choice, and we happily found a spot to cuddle and read together. She liked it so much that she asked us to read it again. I reminded her that this is a library book, so we can check it out of the library and read it many more times at home. Then my husband pointed out that the book came from the "special award winners" shelf and could be enjoyed only at the library. How cruel!

We grudgingly moved on and were careful to guide our daughter to shelves containing books that could be borrowed.

The Central Public Library has a wonderful children's book section, and the government was clever to design a large indoor play gym to encourage toddlers to associate the library with fun and joy.

Our next stop will be the branch library at City Hall in Central, with hopes of visiting a few other branches in the coming months.

Annie Ho is the board chairwoman of Bring Me A Book Hong Kong, a children's literacy charity bringmeabook.org.hk

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as Lessons in shelf awareness

Wordless Storybooks: Caldecott, Chris Raschka, Peter Spier

Books without words can be perfect for developing storytelling Annie Ho familypost@scmp.com  I recently attended a read-aloud training workshop in a community centre on the other side of town, where the participants were primarily mothers from low-income families. A question came up from a mother regarding her own reading skills.  As she did not have a lot of formal schooling, she worried that when reading aloud to her child, she would come across too many words that she didn't know. One of my immediate reactions was admiration for this mother. She was aware of her own limitations, and yet she was still keen to improve herself and play a role in expanding her child's mind through books. The workshop leader said that reading aloud is not about verbatim reading and perfect pronunciation. It's completely acceptable, and often more enjoyable, to deviate from the text and add your own words. She also had a great tip for all parents reading aloud to children: to be familiar with the book by reading it on your own first. Such familiarity can prevent stumbling across unfamiliar text, and help you ask your child the right questions for a more interactive storytelling session. Wordless picture books are another wonderful alternative for parents who are not proficient readers. These books can capture the attention of impatient toddlers as well as spur the imagination of older children to come up with different storylines at each 'reading'. The Caldecott Medal has been awarded annually since 1938 by the American Library Association for the best illustrations in children's picture books. This year's honour went to a wordless picture book: A Ball for Daisy by Chris Raschka.  Through simple watercolour illustrations, it tells the story of a little dog who loses her favourite ball when a bigger dog destroys it. Every child who has ever encountered the loss of a cherished item will relate to the little dog Daisy's realisation that something she loves is gone for good. Children will understand the ways she copes with the devastating yearning for her big red ball. One of my favourite wordless picture books is Peter Spier's Rain by Peter Spier, whose illustrations are incredibly rich in detail. Spier has authored a number of children's books with very little or no text, including Noah's Ark, which is also a Caldecott Medal winner. Rain depicts the course of one rainy day. The first pages start with an older sister and a younger brother playing in the backyard, then running into the house as the rain starts to pour down. The illustrations are detailed, and some pages contain half a dozen different scenes on one page. The storytelling possibilities are endless. When my daughter was two years old, our focus was on the colour of the rain boots and pointing to familiar animals like dogs, cats and birds. When she was three, I used the illustrations to introduce new words. Now at age four, my daughter loves to see this visual sequence of a single day, ending with the children getting ready for bed.  Rain resonates with me because it bears a strong resemblance to how I remember my youth. It reminds me of my childhood in Vancouver, and inspires memories of long summer days spent with my brother.  Visual narratives help children to understand and follow a storyline. Even though 'a picture is worth a thousand words', it takes a gifted illustrator to use pictures to tell a story. Would it be too banal to rephrase the adage as, 'A coherent series of pictures is worth a million words'? Annie Ho is a board governor of Bring Me A Book Hong Kong, a non-profit organisation devoted to improving child literacy through reading aloud to them and providing easy access to the best children's books for underserved communities across Hong Kong