FEATURE - Fun Reading for Children

AUTHOR_Yan Lam/Yvonne Yu

PHOTOS_Casli Lao/Panda Lei

We always say that the habit of reading should be cultivated at an early age. However, at what age should we start? What should we read as a beginner? The Macao Public Library, one of the most important and accessible social and educational institutions in the city, is instrumental in the role of organizing and allocating reading resources. In addition to providing a cosy reading environment and an extensive library catalogue, the Library also attaches great importance to launching innovative reading services and fostering collaborations with educational institutions and relevant children’s associations1, seeking to optimize the limited, yet quality resources in Macao and share them with more readers. In this issue, Books and the City has invited several guests who are dedicated to promoting reading among children, and have worked with the Library in this regard to share with us how the enjoyable habit of reading should be cultivated.

Note 1: Chen, Y. (May 2017). ‘Public Library’s Function and Strategy in Promoting Reading among Children’. Spiritual Leaders, 419, 181.

Many people think children should start to read only after they turn three years old, but in fact, babies can start to develop their reading skills between the age of 0 to 3. Happy Reading Planet Association is one of the active associations committed to promoting parent-child reading in Macao. They have also successfully held many baby reading activities, which is a rarely seen scenario in Macao.

President Kamin Leong (left) and vice-president Cindy Chow (right) from Happy Reading Planet Association

Happy Reading Planet Association was founded by president Kamin Leong and vice-president Cindy Chow in 2018, with most members hailing from educational circles. In just two years, the association has co-organized two activities ‘Fun Picture Book Reading with Family’ and ‘Reading Promotes Growth’ with the Macao Public Library, winning them numerous fans. All sessions of ‘Fun Picture Book Reading with Family’, which was themed on reading for parents and babies from 0 to 3 years old, were fully booked, suggesting there is a shortage of parent-child reading activities for babies aged between 0 and 3 in the city. The activity featured a special selection of books; taking the two pop-up books The Very Busy Spider and Press Here as examples, Chow elaborated that the former can facilitate babies’ abilities of language learning through repeated scenes and dialogues while the latter, an infant sensory book which incited heated debates at the Frankfurt Book Fair and Bologna Children’s Book Fair, allows infants to experience the joy of reading through a ‘magic-like’ reading mode, with which parents and infants can cast a magical spell on one page and find the answer on the following page. ‘Reading Promotes Growth’, one of the featured activities hosted by the Macao Public Library for many years, targets parents and children aged 4 to 7 and features different themes every month. This year, the event will guide participants to read picture books through a variety of approaches.

The two founders said that the original aspiration in establishing the association was to encourage parents to spare more time from their busy work schedule, and daily life for reading with their children together, thereby inspiring them to love reading at an early age. Developing the habit of reading is a wonderful life-long gift from parents to their children.

Reading Promotes Growth

Fun Picture Book Reading with Family

Lydia Ieong, a founder of the local creation platform for children’s literature

‘Let children embark on their reading journey from familiar scenes. By linking reading to children’s lives, they will gain a sense of engagement, understand and contemplate life through reading, which is also the objective of establishing the Children’s Pen of Macau,’ said Lydia Ieong, a founder of the local creation platform for children’s literature. Only when she looked for picture books suitable for parent-child reading for her sons, then she realizes that Macao has very limited children’s literature resources. She noted that ‘it is not like the children’s books published overseas are of low quality, but it is the setting of the story that makes children cringe, and is difficult for them to immerse themselves in. This is the reason why I decided to establish the Children’s Pen of Macau, in order to foster the creation of Macao-themed stories dedicated to children in the city.’ The Children’s Pen of Macau has been promoting reading among children and the creation of children’s literature by various means. For instance, they have published their own periodicals and story collections, and established an online storytelling platform for children, in addition to holding children’s storytelling events in collaboration with different associations.

Interactive drama and picture book reading are undoubtedly the easiest approaches to attract attention; picture books, animations and storytelling are also very attractive to children, but none can completely replace parent-child reading, which is practical and simple. Ieong pointed out that parents should start to expose their children to bridging books at the age of 6, and later they can move forward from picture books – which centre around illustrations – to those with more textual contents. ‘I would encourage parents to use bridging books more often during story time with their children, thereby paving the way for them to shift from books with mere illustrations to those with more text.’ To promote bridging books, she created a series of stories with local elements, such as Kai Kai Xin Xin in Macao, a series of children books themed on Kai Kai and Xin Xin, two pandas living in Macao. She expects that by combining with real life experience, the books can enhance young readers’ understanding of Macao and help them gain a sense of belonging to the city when they are reading the stories.

Ieong also mentioned that reading is not a luxury, and every child should be given the opportunity to read. Therefore, the Children’s Pen of Macau has been constantly sharing the joy of reading with the public in many different neighbourhoods. ‘In fact, cultivating the habit of reading among children is not something that can be achieved only by writers or teachers. It is more important for parents to spend time reading with their children.’ She added, ‘Parents need not to worry about their storytelling skills. They can tell stories with simple language or even read the text out loud, and raise a light-hearted discussion with their children afterwards, which is also an effective way of telling stories. The key points of parent-child reading are to have quality time with children, and help them develop a sustainable reading habit.’

Children’s Pen of Macau held a children storytelling activity in a community park

Children’s Pen of Macau launched an eponymous periodical on children’s literature

‘Little Prince’s Adventure’, the thematic collection exhibition launched by the Macao Public Library last year, not only featured roving exhibitions in branch libraries, but also provided free loans to local schools for display, allowing them to access public library resources and promoting reading in the campus.

Teachers Wendy Weng and Tina Leong from the library of Santa Rosa de Lima Secondary School (Chinese Section), who are responsible for promoting reading, noted that this is the first time they have collaborated with the Macao Public Library, and borrow their resources for display in the campus. The exhibition mainly targets students from Primary 5 to Form 6. ‘Considering that The Little Prince is a well-known literary classic, we believe that the thematic exhibition will be very attractive to students. Therefore, the school decided to apply to the Public Library to co-host the exhibition when we saw the promotional materials. We have also held a number of extended activities under the theme of the exhibition, including reading parties, sharing sessions and book review card writing campaigns’, hoping to encourage students to develop the habit of reading.

The biggest achievement of the exhibition was to stimulate students’ interest in reading. Both teachers share the same opinion that the exhibition has yielded favourable results as it has increased student’s knowledge on the author of The Little Prince, Antoine de Saint Exupéry, through the exhibited items of the Public Library and, to their surprise, it has not only attracted attention on the theme itself, but has also inspired students to read more extensively. Leong added that ‘the exhibition themed around The Little Prince has raised students’ interest in reading other world-famous literary works. We are also pleased to see that the literature-themed exhibition has also driven students’ pursuit for scientific knowledge. As the topics covered in this exhibition involve a lot of scientific trivia, such as planets and aviation, students have subsequently visited our school library and even the Public Library to borrow relevant books, which has in turn fostered their habit of independent learning and reading.’

Teachers and reading promoters Wendy Weng (left) and Tina Leong (right) from the Santa Rosa de Lima Secondary School (Chinese Section)

‘Little Prince’s Adventure’, the thematic collection exhibition launched by the Macao Public Library was held in the campus of the Chinese Section of the School

The library of the School has launched a number of extended activities to complement the thematic exhibition, including book review writing campaigns and reading parties

Paul Pang, the founder of Kaiyuan Storytelling Method

Many people know Paul Pang from a column that he writes for the children’s literature section of Macao Daily News. With an extensive background in education thanks to some 30 years of service with the University of Macau, Pang is also a pioneer that has been promoting reading for children in different schools, and educational institutions through concrete actions for many years.

Speaking of how he came up with the idea of the Kaiyuan Storytelling Method, Pang recalled that ‘when my daughter Kaiyuan was small, I told her stories every night that I improvized and created interactively with her based on her favourite characters (such as the Pleasant Goat) and real-life situations (such as playtime in the Flora Garden). My daughter loved these stories, which have become our wonderful memories, and even marked the beginning of my journey in creative writing’.

When Pang told stories to children in the kindergarten where his daughter was attending, he found that everyone loved interactive stories, and therefore created the ‘Kaiyuan Storytelling Method’, a personalized storytelling method that encourages parents to tell stories based on their children’s interest and needs, thereby establishing a close relationship between them and developing various qualities in children.

When talking about the various children’s reading activities in Macao, Pang believes that despite an increasing availability, the coverage across Macao is still insufficient. He hopes that primary schools and kindergartens can cooperate with government departments to hold more parent-child storytelling activities, lectures and workshops to especially develop parents’ skills, habits and courage in storytelling. ‘Parents are the best storytellers and a role model for children. The more stories parents read, tell and create, the more children are willing to imitate, which helps to improve their ability to communicate and foster their creativity. I myself have a stutter, but my daughter never objected to my poor way of speaking.’ He gave an example: ‘During a lecture that I delivered in a kindergarten, a granny asked me whether it is ok for her to make up stories for her grandson based on illustrations from picture books as she cannot read. I said she surely could. All parents should learn to be as equally courageous.’

The Macao Public Library hosts various family activities every year, including events and workshops that promote reading for children. Let us have a look at the photos and relive the wonderful moments in some of the activities.

‘Adventure Together – Let’s Fold the Coolest Paper Plane’ Workshop

The instructor guided children to learn different methods of folding paper planes through imitation, observation and making notes.

Library Resources Utilisation

Library staff introduced library resources to children in the affiliated kindergarten of Sheng Kung Hui Choi Kou School (Macau) through interactive games.

‘Reading in the City’ 2019

The 23 April 2019 ‘Reading in the City’ campaign called for reading spots across the city, including the branch campus of Santa Madalena School, where the session ‘Infinite Joy from Pleasant Reading’ was held and teachers and students enjoyed reading together.

‘Book Showing Activity’ 2019

‘Tour to Nature with Picture Books’, an activity of the ‘Book Showing Activity’ series, invited children to go outdoors to read about and explore the natural world. By giving explanations along the route, the instructor guided families to discover the plants on the Small Taipa Hill and experience the harmony between humanity and nature.