Why Kids Need Books

Just the presence of books in the home boosts your child's chances of success in education, a major study by Nevada University [via] has shown.  More than 70,000 people in 27 countries were interviewed to gauge the effect of family circumstances on educational chances. Among the findings :

• Keeping just 20 books in the home can boost children’s chances of doing well at school
• Regular access to books has a direct impact on pupils’ results, irrespective of parents’ own education, occupation and social class
• Children coming from a “bookish home” remained in education for around three years longer than young people born into families with empty bookshelves. 
• Preliminary findings suggested that history and science texts had the greatest benefit.

Says Dr Mariah Evans (above) who lead the study :

The results of this study indicate that getting some books into their homes is an inexpensive way that we can help these children succeed. Even a little bit goes a long way.

One wonders of course whether the presence of an e-book reader in the home would achieve as much?

Feel Good Friday

Some miscellaneous things that celebrate the enjoyment of books :

A boy tries to steal a library book: a librarian notices and what happens transforms that boy's life forever.

On The New Yorker site a picture of what is probably the cutest children's playground library anywhere.  This magic mushroom can be found in Kyoto, Japan.

Neil Gaiman pays homage in The Times to Ray Bradbury whom he calls:

the builder of dreams

and how the author's works helped to form him as a writer. There have been several pieces in the newspapers about Bradbury lately, but this one is particularly heartfelt. 

And, ladies, if you need  little bookish eye-candy what is sexier than a hot guy reading? (I wasn't going to put this up, thinking my blog a bit too tabloid some days already, but since two readers sent me the link, what the heck!).

Have a great weekend.

Best Kids' Books

The Guardian features a very useful series of lists of the best children's books ever. Here's Lucy Mangan's introduction to the guide and readers add their own suggestions.

Postscript :

And to celebrate their 70th anniversary, children's publisher Puffin books has released a list of its 70 favourites.

Schools Get Reading Material and Michelle Donates Her Books

This is certainly a big step in the right direction .  As World Book and Copyright Day kicks off, The Star reports that 1,000 secondary schools are each to get reading material worth RM1,000 to encourage youngsters to read. Primary schools will be targeted next. Hope that all the schools in the country eventually benefit from this initiative and that this isn't a on-off donation.  Up and down the country school libraries need stocking well if we are to have a younger generation of readers.

And if we had any doubts about Reading Ambassador Datuk Michelle Yeoh taking her task seriously, she is planning to set up a corner for her books in the National Library.  She also says that she reads 10-15 books a month, mostly work related.

Former prime minister Tun Dr Maha­thir Mohamad  has also been appointed a campaign ambassador.

When Pretty Faces Just Aren’t Enough

Yeoh and Dr Sheikh Muszaphar are not selling cars or soft drinks – we need more than just a pretty face to promote reading. We need reading ambassadors who read, and who are already actively involved in promoting literacy and reading.

Pretty faces aren't enough when it comes to choosing reading ambassadors says Daphne Lee in StarMag, picking up the debate :

The United States has a National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, while Britain has a Children’s Laureate. Both posts acknowledge the importance of encouraging children to read.... An important criterion in the selection of the National Ambassador is his/her “ability to relate to children”. The ambassador must also be able to communicate “well and regularly” with young people. And both positions require respected authors or illustrators.

But before we should even be thinking about such a position, she says, we have to create better access to books, and children should be read to on a daily basis by their teachers. (This is for sure something that helped me to fall in love with books.)

Caterpillar Munches its Way to Top of the List

As part of World Book Day on Thursday 4,000 parents with children aged 2-1 were surveyed to find out the UK's best children's story writers, The Telegraph reports.  

 The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle was voted the best bedtime story :

First published in 1969, it is now available in 47 languages and still sells one copy every minute around the world.

Arts editor Sarah Crompton writes :

It is the simplicity of the conception that makes it such a hit: a book a small child can hold, a hole in the page, and the colourful glory of Carle’s illustrations, at once simple and yet gratifyingly detailed. There is nothing to it, yet it is a classic learning story, a brilliant starting point for a conversation between parent and child. You can point out the scenery as you read, discuss the tastes of the different foods, talk about the cleverness of nature and the way those chubby caterpillars grow up into butterflies who live only for a day.

It was followed on the list by :

2. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - C.S. Lewis

3. BFG - Roald Dahl

4. Winnie the Pooh - A.A. Milne

5. The Gruffalo - Julia Donaldson

6. Famous Five - Enid Blyton

7. Matilda - Roald Dahl

8. The Tales of Peter Rabbit - Beatrix Potter

9. Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll

10. The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett

11. Peter Pan - J.M. Barrie

12. Mr Men - Roger Hargreaves

13. The Witches- Roald Dahl

14. The Twits - Roald Dahl

15. James and the Giant Peach - Roald Dahl

16. The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame

17. The Cat in the Hat - Dr Seuss

18. Hans Christian Fairy Tales - H.C. Andersen

19. Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince - J.K.Rowling

20. A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens

The survey also turned up the interesting fact that three-quarters of the parents surveyed read to their kids.

Ah nostalgia - I remember my dad reading Alice in Wonderland, Wind in the Willows, and The Secret Garden to me.  Quite a number of these books weren't written when I was a kid, but thankfully we never grow up too much to enjoy them!

Now then, those of you with kids to read to, which stories have gone down the best, and which do you remember your parents reading to you?

Storyteller on a Train

While I'm always moaning about reading campaigns in Malaysia never really taking off in any way that neither I nor the readers of this blog can see, I really applaud the National Library for its latest initiative.

The Star today reports that 90 children were taken on a four-hour train ride filled with story-telling, reading and singing of folk songs aboard KTM’s Sinaran Pagi as a prelude to the 1Malaysia Reading Campaign. During the journey from KL to Gemas in Negri Sembilan, the kids were entertained by singer Nurul Huda Abdul Wahab and Japanese children’s story-teller Saki Sasamori who has been resident in Malaysia for the past 15 years.

I hope this isn't a one off experiment ... it would be so nice to have to have something like this this continue.

Putting the Fun Back in Reading

There's so much emphasis on literacy these days that I think people have forgotten or overlooked the joy of reading, ie, the simple pleasure of reading or listening to a good story – if they ever knew it in the first place.

Where’s the fun gone? asks Daphne Lee in today's Starmag :

It seems to me that many parents want their children to read but they seem to be interested only in the mechanics of reading. They don’t seem to understand that reading to a child will cultivate a love for stories and books, and this might, in turn, encourage a child to want to learn to read.

Something that I think very much needs saying, but I wonder if parents are prepared to listen?

Children's Books Wanted!

From Daphne Lee via Facebook :

Book Haven & The Dram Projects are joining forces to hold a book drive to benefit underprivileged communities.

When: Sunday, 16th August 2009

Where: Meeting Room, Block 150, Villa Flora, Jalan Burhanuddin Helmi, Taman Tun Dr Ismail, 60000 Kuala Lumpur.

Time: 10am-5pm

If you have unused children's books (in English), in excellent condition and suitable for ages 5 to 15, we can give them good homes.

The communities we are helping to build libraries:

1. New Life Care Centre, Port Dickson (a foster-care home)
2. Baitul Izzah Orphanage, Pinngir TTDI
3. Zomi & Zophie (Myanmarese) Refugee Schools
4. Chin (Myanmarese) Refugee School
5. YKPM in Prima Selayang, an NGO for the urban poor.

The Dram Projects will also be fundraising for its reading initiatives by selling 2nd hand and nearly-new books.

If you or your friends wish to donate children's books (towards building libraries) or books for mature readers (for The Dram Projects' sale), please let us know. We can even come to pick the books up.

Jeff Cheah
012-3152778
bookhaven2008@gmail.com
bookhavenlibrary.blogspot.com

Daphne Lee
016-3281513
dramprojects@gmail.com
dramprojects.wordpress.com

The Dram Projects will also be announcing the outcome of its recent RM1-a-Day fundraiser on 16th August.

Daphne's Storytelling Hints

Daphne Lee held a reading-aloud workshop for volunteers who work with young children last weekend and in today's Starmag offers very useful guidelines for sharing a story with children.

Why MBBY?

I put up a post some time back about the MBBY (Malaysian Board on books for Young People) when they held their conference in July. But as Daphne Lee points out in a blogpost entitled Bringing Books and Children Together - But Where? And When? And How? this seems to a singularly ineffective organisation (presumably guzzling taxpayers' money) when promoting reading among children in Malaysia needs to be made a top priority.

Daphne has some tough questions for the MBBY and some suggestions for how the organisation could grow. But does anyone care to listen? Is there now anyone there at all? (The organisation's website seems to have completely disappeared!)

Volunteers Needed to Bring the Joy of Books

This from Daphne Lee:

In 2009, The Dram Projects is concentrating on bringing the thrill and joy of reading to children who belong to communities that have little or no access to books.

At present TDP is visiting a refugee centre in Setapak, and an orphanage in Taman Tun Dr Ismail.

We would like to extend our reach but in order to do so, we need volunteers who are willing to spend several hours each week (preferably weekdays but weekends too) with children and teens at homes and shelters.

Volunteers are required to read to the children/teens and facilitate discussion groups and art-in-response-to-stories sessions. Training will be provided.

If you're interested in volunteering or just being kept informed of TDP's activities, please put your email address down on the board that is going round.

(For your blog please say that those who are interested can email info@dramprojects.com or find out more here )

Self-Evident Truths About Reading

Without the sunshine of literature children cannot grow as they should. We know that from books come knowledge and understanding, that they are a source of infinite joy and fun, that they stimulate imagination and creativity, that they open eyes and minds and hearts. It is through the power and music and magic of stories and poems that children can expand their own intellectual curiosity, develop the empathy and awareness that they will need to tackle the complexities of their own emotions, of the human condition in which they find themselves. And it's through books that we can learn the mastery of words, the essential skill that will enable us to express ourselves well enough to achieve our potential in the classroom and beyond.

This is of course, self-evident, says children's author Michael Morpurgo in The Times yet a high proportion of children in British schools are functionally illiterate. He suggests that the best way to bring up standards is through helping children to enjoy literature :

Give the children the books early, give them the love of books early. Let the spelling and the punctuation and the comprehension, important though they are, let them come later, and be taught in such a way that all the wonder and the magic and the fun are not lost in the process.

And of course I post this hoping that the same message will get through to teachers and educational planners here, where even more kids leave school subliterate. Say the same thing often enough ...

Also in The Times, Amanda Craig has tips on finding the right books for your child.

Dram Projects - Faces Tough Times, Smiles on

This message from Daphne came via Facebook and I thought I'd share it since I think her work with Dram Projects is so important :

Hello All! The Dram Projects has been facing some financial difficulty, hit as much as anyone by the current financial crisis. Even leaner times are looming but we are soldiering on.

In 2009, we plan to take the library on the road in a small way. We will be making house-calls (once a week) to two community-run shelters, reading to the children there, and lending them books.

We are also participating in a youth fair in January where two of our volunteers, both lawyers, will be speaking on copyright and civil rights.

In February, I'll be sharing at a British Council conference on running reading groups, and using picture books to teach young children.

We're also going to organise a booksale to raise some funds, and are thinking up other ways to keep afloat.

We will keep you informed of other activities as they are confirmed.

Meanwhile, have a Happy Christmas and New Year.

- Daphne Lee

Readers - An Endangered Species?

Is the writing on the wall for reading?

In a piece in the Independent by education editor Richard Garner asks whether the days of children reading traditional books are numbered. Jonathan Douglas, the director of the National Literacy Trust cites a survey of nearly 30,000 pupils which shows that in the UK :

... children's reading habits slump dramatically after they start at secondary school. The typical eight-year-old reads nearly 16 books a year but, by the time they reach 15 or 16, this has dwindled to just over three books per year. The big drop-off starts after the first year of secondary school, when the number of books read falls from nearly 12 a year to just six.

The study also shows a growing trend towards reading comics, magazines, newspapers and online articles, and playing computer games.

Douglas says publishers need to adapt to the challenge :

They have to produce more graphic novels. Children are much more visually conscious than they were before – and the book trade must reflect this.

On the same theme, really, Reading Copy links to a lovely article in the Chicago Tribune about a couple of mad keen bookaholics but asks, quite rightly, why should those who love books be considered oddballs?

Reading Room Opens for Business

I'm delighted to hear that Daphne Lee's children's library project is finally off the ground. I went around to see it a few months ago and found that she had created a very pleasant and welcoming space with well stocked shelves, in the midst of a rather run down highrise housing area in PJ Section 17.

And the kids who will benefit are undoubtedly those need it most.

This is the blurb from the Facebook group :

The Dram Projects Reading Room is a place where children can discover, nurture and indulge their love for books and reading. TDP firmly believes that children should be allowed to make their own reading choices and be offered a wide variety of reading material. Taking into consideration the high price of books, our reading room hopes to offer an alternative to public and school libraries, and reading in bookshops.

Comprising over a thousand books (and growing], our collection covers fiction and non-fiction titles, including picture books and reference material. Although the bulk of our books are for children and young adults, we also have a small but good selection of books for mature readers. Aside from providing a place where children are free to choose what they want to read, The Dram Projects Reading Room organises regular reading activities for children and young adults, like storytelling sessions and book groups.

You can find the library at BG-6 Happy Mansions, Jalan 17/13, Petaling Jaya, 46400 Selangor, Malaysia (016-328 1513 info@dramprojects.com)

And do go visit the blog.

Stories and Children Belong Together

Stories and children belong together. A good story can stir their imagination and help them make sense of the world. It can show them that right can triumph over wrong, or keep their minds open to wonder. It can even make them laugh which is wonderful for the soul. ... By teaching children to love and respect books, we’re giving them a headstart to succeed in life. It encourages and fosters creative thinking skills, promotes reading as an enjoyable activity, provides an opportunity for children to grow and develop mentally, enhances language and vocabulary development and allows for quality family time.

Datin Paduka Hajjah Shahneem Haroum, president of the Malaysian Board on books for Young People is profiled by Vimala Seneviratne in The New Sunday Times, ahead of the three-day MBBY conference held from 1st July.

Inspiring Young Minds

Thought the children's writers (and wannabes!) among you might be interested in this (posted by Uthaya Sankar SB on an e-group) :

The Malaysian Board on Books for Young People (MBBY) is proud to present the Asia-Pacific Conference on Children's Book Publishing, the third such conference for MBBY, which will for the first time includes Asia Pacific participants. This is an ideal platform for individuals who have chosen to devote their creative energy to writing, illustrating, marketing and promoting books for children. Participants will be able to gain insights into new and innovative ways of production and promotion by learning from experienced professionals and exchanging tips with them.

With the theme "Inspiring Young Minds and Creativity", this conference is to be conducted in the Putra World Trade Center (PWTC), Kuala Lumpur on 1-3 July 2008.

For details, visit the website or e-mail the secretariat@ mbby.org or call Datin Paduka Hajah Shahaneem (019-2129796) .

Shirley's Shawl

Author Shirley Lim was wonderful fun yesterday, as she launched her new book, Princess Shawl, written for women aged :

... from 9-90!

Looking enviably slim and energetic in a floral dress (don't you just love the irrelevant sartorial details?), Lim explained how this was her first experience of writing for children, and described it as her most joyful book.

She was approached to write a children's book by R. Ramachandran, the director of the Singaporean Book Development Council who realised that most of the children's books available in Singapore are published in the West, and she says that being seen for the first time that someone had seen her as a local writer rather than as a "transplanted writer" (she has lived in the US for 40 years) and that touched her in a way she hadn't felt before.

She set out to write the book without any idea about who would publish her, was turned down by publishers including Marshall Cavendish, but at the no point lost faith in the value of her work. In the end Maya Press took the gamble, except, says Lim laughing, it isn't even a gamble because they will lose money on it.

She said that she was retelling a story that had meant a lot to her as a young girl and it took her back to her earliest memories of Malacca (which she jokingly calls "Blackbird Town" because the Singaporeans turn up there singing "Cheap! Cheap!").

She talked about how she used to go up St. Paul's Hill to study, sitting by the open windows in the ruined church to read and study so that there is a great deal of Malacca in herself :

... malacca air, malacca breezes, malacca particles

Pricess Shawl borrows elements of traditional fairytale writing. There is a quest - the child Mei Li is given the quest of rescuing princess Hang Li Po exiled to the island of pulau tikus and unable to come to Malacca to marry the Sultan. And like many children's books, Princess Shawl involves time travel. Lim actually describes the book as a kueh lapis* story because it goes back and forward between layers of time, visiting the time of the Baba-Nyonya's, the Dutch Colonial war, the Portuguese period and the defeat of the Malacca Sultanate, the botton layer of the cake being the C15th.

The character of Great Aunty Mei Li, Lim says was based on the much admired lawyer, P.J. Lim - one of Lim's childhood heroines. The book itself is layered so that there are references in there that an adult reader would appreciate - as Lim puts it, she's smuggled in plenty about the diaspora Chinese. (The book is in the process of being translated into Chinese in Taiwan.)

To write the love story between Princess Hang Li Po and her Sultan, Lim said that she went back to reread Jane Eyre! She also seems to have had delicious fun making the good women get younger, and the bad women get older!

The question time opened into a nice discussion about local children's books (we agreed - too many have beautiful illustrations but the content is very weak indeed), Singapore's generous support for its children's writers, and the origins of Malay legends.

I was intrigued by her attitude to publication: she said that she never worried about whether her work is published or not as long as it is out in the world, and she had a lovely quote from Indian author Shashi Tharoor to show what she means:

I write, as George Bernard Shaw said, for the same reason a cow gives milk: it is inside me, it has got to come out, and in a real sense I would die if I could not.

She talked about writing "heuristically" and her advice to writers :

You learn what you have to say as you write - if you don't surprise yourself, you won't write anything interesting.

We had a nice social time after that. It was nice to meet John of Maya Press and Mr. Law King Hui, the poor organiser of the KL Bookfair who had to change all his banners and posters because of me! (See here and here.) Aiyoh, I felt so shamefaced that I caused so much trouble, but he was astonishingly sanguine about it.

Also had a nice chat to Prof Kayum - am seriously thinking a writing a thesis of some kind on the Malaysian novel. (How long have I been saying that for? My life is full of unrealised projects.)

Had a giggle with Phek Chin and Raman about an entry in the new The Complete Residents' Guide to Kuala Lumpur which describes in Raman, in it's section on bookshops, as the "charismatic" owner of Silverfish. (Not grouchy, huh???)

Then dinner with Daphne and Priya to think up some nice pieces of literary activism and exchange all our gossip.

* A traditional Malacca rice flour cake which is made in layers and very time consuming to produce.
** Actually Tharoor wrongly attributes this - the original quote is from Henry Louis Mencken : his exact words:

I write in order to attain that feeling of tension relieved and function achieved which a cow enjoys on giving milk.

But I think there's something wrong with you as a writer if you don't have that feeling so no wonder others since have appropriated it!

No to Age Banding

The plans of UK publishers' plans to introduce age ranging guidance for children's books is meeting a storm of protest, with authors Philip Pullman, Anne Fine and Michael Rosen lending their voice to the opposition.

Why should it matter if there is a suggested age stated on the cover of a book? Consider these arguments taken from the online petition site set up by Steve Augarde (and found via Dovegrey Reader's blog) :

• Each child is unique, and so is each book. Accurate judgments about age suitability are impossible, and approximate ones are worse than useless.
• Children easily feel stigmatized, and many will put aside books they might love because of the fear of being called babyish. Other children will feel dismayed that books of their ‘correct’ age-group are too challenging, and will be put off reading even more firmly than before.
• Age-banding seeks to help adults choose books for children, and we're all in favour of that; but it does so by giving them the wrong information. It’s also likely to encourage over-prescriptive or anxious adults to limit a child's reading in ways that are unnecessary and even damaging.
• Everything about a book is already rich with clues about the sort of reader it hopes to find – jacket design, typography, cover copy, prose style, illustrations. These are genuine connections with potential readers, because they appeal to individual preference. An age-guidance figure is a false one, because it implies that all children of that age are the same.
• Children are now taught to look closely at book covers for all the information they convey. The hope that they will not notice the age-guidance figure, or think it unimportant, is unfounded.
• Writers take great care not to limit their readership unnecessarily. To tell a story as well and inclusively as possible, and then find someone at the door turning readers away, is contrary to everything we value about books, and reading, and literature itself.

Wondered what the parents among you thought? How easy is it for you to judge whether a book is at the right level for your children (especially as there is so little help and guidance available from bookshop staff and librarians usually)?