The Best Alphabet Books

BETWEEN THE LINES

ANNIE HO

PUBLISHED : Monday, 12 January, 2015, 4:32pm

UPDATED : Monday, 12 January, 2015, 4:32pm

Reading to children improves their cognitive abilities

Last summer, the American Academy of Paediatrics issued a new policy statement for its members, recommending that paediatricians advise parents of young children about the importance of breastfeeding, vaccinating and reading aloud.Until that moment, reading to children was just another fun and enriching educational experience, on par with playing in the park and attending live theatre performances.

When educators extol the virtues of reading to children, parents interpret its importance in terms of language skills and literacy development. But the academy's pronouncement shows that the importance of reading goes beyond educational value. Parent-child read-alouds have a vital impact on children's cognitive, social and emotional development. A child who is read to, breastfed and vaccinated will have a better chance for good health and brain development. The AAP policy statement also recommends its members to counsel parents on how to read aloud, and what books to read.

To make reading fun, and to cater to the short attention span of infants, parents can start with short nursery rhymes and point-and-name picture books. The readings can be incorporated into a daily routine. A short story at breakfast, or even on the potty, can take advantage of those precious few minutes when a toddler is your captive audience.

In this way, the "five R's of early education" - reading, rhyming, routines, rewards and relationships - are strengthened.

As infants grow into toddlers, and progress to kindergarten and primary school, their vocabulary and comprehension advance at a faster rate than their reading ability. Picture books that celebrate language can help to encourage greater literacy development, and what better way to celebrate language than to go to its source: the ABCs. So here is a selection of alphabet books that can be enjoyed by both growing children and the parents who are reading to them.

Two classics are Dr Seuss' ABC and Maurice Sendak's Alligators All Around. Both use alliterative sentences such as "a lazy lion licking a lollipop", with illustrations in the authors' signature styles adding to the enjoyment.

For a contemporary take on the ABCs, Steve Fiffer cleverly created a single sentence comprising words that begin with all the letters, in alphabetical order. The result is Arctic Bears Chase, a witty word puzzle with humour-filled illustrations.

Alphabet concept books are experiencing a rebirth, with some recently published picture books that combine the alphabet with beautiful storytelling and art design.

In Ah-Ha to Zig-Zag, artist Maira Kalman presents a quirky alphabetical guide to objects from the Smithsonian Design Museum. Kalman opts for unconventional choices including a ceramic dog, a 13th-century silk thinking cap, and a pair of 19th-century tin slippers.

Elizabeth Schoonmaker brings back her much-loved feline in Square Cat ABC. Her original book Square Cat, introduces Eula the square cat, who bemoans her life in a world of round cats. In Square Cat ABC, Eula meets a blue mouse, and their tale leads readers from A to Z, as the characters work through everything from the mouse's fear of porcupines to Eula's disdain for spinach.

Primary school children will love the short interconnected stories that explore the alphabet in Oliver Jeffers' Once Upon an Alphabet. The illustrations are droll, dark and slightly odd. Some of the stories can be morbid, akin to the style of Roald Dahl and Lemony Snicket. But in general, they are funny and original, contain rich vocabulary, and push the boundary of our expectations for a children's picture book.

Dr Pamela High, lead author of the AAP policy statement, writes: "Books are a useful tool, but we also want parents to understand that reading to their children is so powerful because children think their parents are the most important people in their world."

Annie Ho is 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 Mind improves with listening

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