Between The Lines: The best books for children under 12 who’ve outgrown kids’ books
There’s plenty of time for children to read Harper Lee’s books, so why not let them tackle more age-appropriate fare, says Annie Ho. Harper Lee’s Go Set a Watchman has been flying off the shelves of bookshops and libraries around the world, and I wonder whether the copies being sold in Hong Kong should include a label to say that it is not suitable for children under 12. You may think that I’m being facetious, but I have seen a first-grader reading Lee’s first book, To Kill a Mockingbird. Clearly not a book he chose for himself, it turned out his parents had encouraged him to read the work because “it is a classic”. Had they read the book themselves (which they hadn’t), these parents would understand that a story centred on a rape trial is highly inappropriate material for young children, regardless of how strong an independent reader he is. Our fixation on introducing children to “classics” at a young age may just be another manifestation of hyper-parenting and the need to give children a head start on things including phonics at age two to violin at age
Between The Lines: Why we find it hard to be straight with our kids about money
Financial literacy is as important to teach our children as any other kind of literacy, and yet many of us shy away from candid conversations about money with our children. In so doing, we miss an opportunity to instil family values and to cultivate positive traits such as generosity, patience and perseverance. When I lived in California 10 years ago and had young children, I was pleased to see many teenagers in my neighbourhood who could babysit. Talking to their parents, however, I was told they were too busy and they didn’t need the money. I was astounded. Babysitting was my route to financial autonomy when I was in high school. I babysat for a dozen different families who paid me about a dollar an hour. I saved my money and thought through my purchases carefully, always hesitant to part with that hard-earned cash. Wanting to impart the same lessons to my own children, I attempted to introduce an elaborate plan to teach my firstborn about money. I gave him US$3 pocket money each week and insisted that he put one of each in three separate envelopes labelled “spend”, “save”, and ̶
第四屆豐子愷兒童圖畫書奬結果揭曉！
經過初審和決審兩輪評委的專業遴選，各獎項已順利誕生，並於2015年7月31日在書獎網站公佈，請參閱以下得獎作品名單： 首獎 – 《喀噠喀噠喀噠》 佳作獎 – 《棉婆婆睡不著》 佳作獎 – 《牙齒，牙齒，扔屋頂》 佳作獎- 《小喜鵲和岩石山》 佳作獎 – 《拐杖狗》 如欲了解更多得獎作品資訊和視頻，請瀏覽： http://fengzikaibookaward.org/winning-books/2015-awardedbooks/
Between The Lines: Why we should be encouraging everyone to read for pleasure
Some children need a good example to follow when it comes to reading. Over the summer, every student, administrator and teacher at my son’s high school will read Boy, Snow, Bird by Helen Oyeyemi. Carefully selected, I suspect, for the themes of race and identity, this book should ignite conversations and spark debates around the campus. Curious, I decided to read the book, too, and it prompted me to consider further the value of a common literature reading experience among a large group of people. I have had the pleasure of being a member of an active book group in Hong Kong. We take turns hosting, providing a simple meal over which we earnestly discuss the book without a moderator or prescribed set of questions. Like many expatriate communities, the composition of our book group has changed over the years – more members of our original book group live in New York than in Hong Kong – but we have always replenished with perceptive and literate women who love books.Beyond the social aspect, the value of this group has been the broadening of mind and perspective tha
童書作家Jon Klassen 見面及簽書活動 (2015年11月19日 )
童書作家Jon Klassen (凱迪克獎得獎者) 童書作家Jon Klassen 將展開首次訪港之旅與讀者見面！ 日期: 2015年11月19日 (星期四) 時間: 下午4.00 – 5.30 地點: 香港足球會Meeting Room1-3號室 – 跑馬地 體育道3號 對象: 5-10歲兒童及家長 費用: 每位兒童$150 (家長免費) 登記請按: 英文翻釋 Jon Klassen is a writer and illustrator of children’s books and an animator. He won both the American Caldecott Medal and the British Kate Greenaway Medal for children’s book illustration, recognizing the 2012 picture book This is Not My Hat, which he also wrote. He is the first person to win both awards for the same work. This Is Not My Hat is a companion to Klassen’s preceding picture book, I Want My Hat Back (2011), and his first as both writer and illustrator. Both books were on the New York Times Best Seller list for more than 40 weeks and has sold over 1 million copies worldwide and been translated into 22 languages. Jon Klassen has also worked as an illustrator for feature animated films, music videos, and editorial pieces. Originally from Niagara Falls, Canada, he now lives in Los Angeles. 合作機構 1. Void
孩童閱讀活動 歡迎參加「書包圖書館開幕禮」及「講故事時間」（2015年7月）
孩童閱讀活動 歡迎參加「書包圖書館開幕禮」及「講故事時間」（2015年7月） 孩童閱讀活動 ：在炎炎夏日，不妨陪同小孩子在舒適的環境中享受親子故事時間！ 機構︰香港公教婚姻輔導會恩悅綜合家庭服務中心 地址︰堅尼地城北街12號采逸軒地下 日期︰2015年7月24日（星期五） 時間︰下午3:00 – 4:00 內容︰義工為小朋友朗讀由書伴我行精心挑選的中、英文故事 對象︰3 – 8歲小朋友及其父母 報名方式︰請致電2810-1105聯絡魏姑娘 或 王姑娘 (名額有限，費用全免) 其他文章 合作機構 1. Void
Between The Lines: Seeing is believing: encouraging your kids to read won’t work if you don’t
Some parents think reading is for the elite or that their own tastes in reading lack sophistication, but children who see parents enjoying reading are likelier to develop good reading habits Visitors at last year’s Hong Kong Book Fair. Photo: Sam Tsang It is well known that while our children don’t necessarily do as we say, they certainly do as we do. Parents who log a dozen hours per day on email, group chat and social media should be more sympathetic when their own children’s play time is consumed with gaming devices and smartphones. Parents who want their children to be good readers need to be good reading role models. Jordan Shapiro, author of guides to game-based learning, believes in books as much as video games. He disputes the notion that electronic devices are the reason that children don’t read books. “How and what our children read says a lot more about adult attitudes towards books than it does about the kids’.” When I work with underserved families in Hong Kong, many parents say they are not readers, but they want to instil a love of
Between The Lines: Two books that teach children how to help others
Every one of us starts life as an egocentric baby, concerned only with having our own needs fulfilled. Somewhere along the road to adulthood, we all become less self-centred, to varying degrees. Some children are so protected from growing pains that they never let go of their self-centredness. Others grow up in an environment that lets them become empathetic and aware of others’ feelings. I was fortunate to have parents who valued volunteerism and community. As far as they could, they lived each day, putting the needs of others ahead of their own. This included participating in micro-loans to help friends through difficulties. Hui are loan clubs entrenched in Chinese society and extensively relied upon by the Chinese diaspora. My parents never turned down an invitation to join a loan club. With nothing more than a handshake, it was a win-win proposition that relied on mutual trust. My parents understood that, for the initiators of the loan clubs, the effect of this pooled support ranged from convenience to life-changing impact. Katie Smith Milway explores its life-changing aspect in One Hen: How One Small Loa
Between The Lines: Schools worldwide consider homework ban, partly to ease burden on pupils and teachers
Homework is stressful for children and leaves them little time to do more constructive things, experts say – but parents like to see their children doing some. Photo: Sherry Lee Homework is so inextricably linked to school it’s hard to think of one without the other. But increasingly, educators and child development specialists are examining the practice of assigning homework to children and considering whether it is beneficial or potentially harmful. The Guardian reported recently that one of Britain’s most prestigious schools, 162-year-old Cheltenham Ladies College, is considering banning homework to “tackle an epidemic of teenage depression and anxiety”. Public School 116 in New York recently banned homework for students up to grade five, having found no link between assigning elementary school homework and success in school. The Kino School in Arizona has a no-homework policy for all grades even in high school. Many books on the subject are cropping up on bestseller lists. The most prominent of these include The Case Against Homework by Sara Bennett and Nancy Kalish, The End
Between The Lines: Parents need to agree about how to raise children. Here’s a book that helps
Children and their feelings were neglected well into the 1960s. Betty Francis (played by January Jones) in the television series Mad Men was probably typical of her era. My husband and I never argued until our children came along. At first, we blamed the kids. Then we blamed the stress of parenting, both external and self-imposed. And finally, we began to see that our differences stemmed from the way we were brought up. It hadn’t occurred to us we had any cultural differences because we are both ethnic Chinese. However, he was raised in Hong Kong and I grew up in Canada. The big picture is the same for all parents: to raise their children to become happy, loving and responsible adults. Where many of us differ from our co-parent is the means to that end. I was enlightened by Drs Henry Cloud and John Townsend’sBoundaries with Kids, and immediately shared my heavily highlighted copy with my husband. An important lesson that is best taught early on is self-discipline. Rather than labelling children as naughty or nice, we need only consider whether they have self-discipline or not. Today’s child
