Recommendations of Reading Materials by Participating Teacher-librarians

Complete list

*Book titles are arranged in alphabetical order.

動物學校= Animal school

Author / Editor: Lacey, Elspeth

Series: 愛心園德育圖書

Place of Publication: 香港

Publisher : 精英出版社

Year of Publication: 2003

Remarks: A bilingual book

        Animal School is a short story suitable for parent-child reading.  Different from The animal school written by George Reavis, Animal School of Outstanding Publication Ltd (精英出版社), has a simpler plot. In addition, some counseling activities are suggested to parents after reading children the story.

        Animal stories with moral value are always welcomed by children, parents and teachers. The animal characters of the story bring out the importance of being considerate of others.  It is only when we know how to take care of each other, we can live happily and peacefully together in the world.

        The simple storyline of Animal School makes it especially suitable for the students of P.1 and P.2.

Babu playing games

巴布的遊戲 = Babu playing games

Author / Editor: 王蘭

Series: 巴布熊系列

Place of Publication: 台北

Publisher : 糖菓樹文化

Year of Publication: 2000

Remarks: A bilingual book

        Author of this bilingual picture book is Huang Lan.  Reading this book is like watching an animated cartoon as the bright and colourful pictures bring life to the expressions in a delicate way.  The carefully crafted pictures definitely enhance readers’ understanding of the text.  

        The vivid imagination and remarkable creativity of Huang Lan takes the readers to the polar regions in this frigid story.  Babu, the polar bear, slipped and rolled himself into a snowball on the icy ground.  Children and adults put scarves and hats on the snowball to make a gigantic snowman.  With a big yawn, Babu broke the snowman accidentally at deep night.  To cheer up everyone, Babu built a huge snow bear instead.

Beginning to learn about reading = 我愛讀書

Author / Editor: Allington, Richard L.

Series: Beginning to learn about

Place of Publication: Taipei

Publisher: Deer Bridge

Year of Publication: 1983

Remarks: A bilingual book

        This easy-to-read storybook is written by Dr. Richard L. Allington, who is a distinguished American scholar dedicated to promote reading and literacy.

        The book contains simple text and illustrations which introduce young readers to various activities they can participate in a week.  Situations taken from daily lives highlight the usefulness and joyfulness of reading which enhances children’s love of reading.

        This book is specially designed for Chinese students of P.2 and P.3. Difficult words or phrases were translated into Chinese at the bottom of each page.  It is a perfect book for enhancing Hong Kong students’ second language acquisition.

Berenstain Bears and too much TV

Author / Editor: Berenstain, Stan

Series: Berenstain Bears

Place of Publication: New York

Publisher : Random House

Year of Publication: 1984

        This is one of Berenstain Bears series written by Stan Berenstain. There is an on-line animated cartoon accompanying this book.

        In the story, Mama Bear found that her kids were watching too much TV, she stopped them for a week. The kids were upset by this arrangement at the beginning, but later they found that other activities were full of fun too. This enjoyable story gives a clear message that kids should balance different kinds of activities.

        Teachers and parents may use this book as a teaching tool to unglue the children from TV or video games.

Pictures in this book are bright and colourful. Text is simple. It is suitable for P.1 to P.2.

The big carrot  

Author/Editor : Hawes, Alison

Series : Oxford Reading Tree Traditional Tales

Place of Publication : Oxford

Publisher : Oxford

Year of Publication : 2011

        "The Big Carrot" is one of the 40 best known stories from all over the world collected in the series "Oxford Reading Tree Traditional Tales" written by Alison Hawes. Books in this series are a perfect introduction to different cultures, traditions and morals.

        This story is a simple retelling of "The Enormous Turnip", a Russian or Slavic traditional tale. It was about an old man called Tom who planted a very large carrot that he could not pull it up by himself. He asked his wife to help but they still could not pull it up. Therefore, he asked more and more people to help until the carrot was pulled up.

        This story conveys the message that sincere cooperation can bring success. The story also shows the reward of helping others.

        All the stories in the Oxford Reading Tree Traditional Tales Series are carefully leveled to Oxford Reading Tree stages and match with the phonics progression in letters and sounds that guide students to select appropriate books to read independently. This book is leveled as "Stage 2" and is surely suitable for P.1 to P.2 students.

Boxer and the fish

Author/Editor : Hughes, Monica

Series : Oxford Reading Tree Traditional Tales

Place of Publication : Oxford

Publisher : Oxford

Year of Publication : 2011

        "Boxer and the Fish" written by Monica Hughes is from the series "Oxford Reading Tree Traditional Tales". 

        This story is based on Aesop's fable "The Greedy Dog". Boxer was a big dog. One day, he had a fish for his dinner. When he was going to enjoy his meal near a pool in a park, he saw a bigger fish in the pool. He tried to grab the fish but he failed to do so because the fish in the water was just a shadow of his fish. At last, Boxer lost his own fish.

        Due to Boxer’s greediness, he lost all he had for dinner. Telling moral stories like this to kids is a wonderful way to put forth good values and morals.

        This book is leveled as "Stage 3" of the series and is suitable for P.1 to P.2 students.