Tag: annie ho

This article appeared on Tuesday 10 February 2015 in the South China Morning Post print edition as “Children’s tales for Lunar New Year”. For me, the essence of Lunar New Year is perfectly embodied in A New Year’s Reunion, the award-winning picture book by Yu Liqiong. I didn’t discover it until 2011, and since then I… Continue reading Between The Lines: Six great Lunar New Year story books for children

“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… Continue reading Between the Lines: Discussing books with children improves their creative writing skills

  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… Continue reading Between the Lines: The joys of letter writing

    My daughter and her kindergarten buddies are adjusting well to Grade One and life in a “big kids’ school”. They are learning new skills to develop their independence and self-reliance. The most conspicuous changes from kindergarten are that these children no longer have teachers to remind them to wash their hands before lunch, or… Continue reading Between the Lines: Sustained silent reading can improve literacy

  I recently had coffee with friends who were emigrating to a small town in Australia. Aside from envying how the idyllic environment would influence the positive growth of their young child, we also pondered what it would be like for a Chinese child to grow up in a community where he would be the… Continue reading Between the lines: teach your child to celebrate being different

I am an advocate for parent-child reading, so my children are in the habit of bringing books to grown-ups for them to read out loud. In the past year, my eldest daughter has started to take books from our bookshelf and read the words silently to herself. And then one day, I heard her reading… Continue reading Between the lines: The joy of book series