One in six children doesn't read a book a month

According to a new survey by the National Literacy Trust in UK, one in six children do not read a single book per month.The survey polled 18,141 children from across the United Kingdom in November and December 2010. Interesting research. Check out this article from TheBookseller.com.

New "Summer Readings" from Guardian

Claire Armitstead writes about Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien in the Guardian's new "Summer Readings" series, which asks writers "about their most indelible holiday book encounters." It's a lovely article. ^_^

Picture Books we’ve Read During Ramadan So Far

Ramadan Karem is back! As a Muslim, I always look forward to greet Ramadan. Ramadan is a month of fasting where it teach us about patience, spirituality and submissiveness to God. During Ramadan we change our schedule accordingly. How about reading? Yes, we do continue our reading session but not every night. Here is the list of picture books we’ve read so far this month;
♥ My Mom by Anthony Browne
♥Little Mouse's Big Book of Fears by Emily Gravett
♥Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus by Mo Willems
♥Iggy Peck, Architect by Andrea Beaty and David Roberts
♥No, David by David Shannon
♥Piggybook by Anthony Browne
♥Baby Brains: The Smartest Baby in the Whole World. by Simon James
♥Dooby Dooby Moo by Doreen Cronin and Betsy Lewin
♥The Spiffiest Giant in Town by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler
♥My Dad! by Chae Strathie and Jacqueline East
♥My Dad by Anthony Browne
♥Harriet, You'll Drive Me Wild! by Mem Fox and Marla Frazee
♥Winston the Book Wolf by Marni McGee and Ian Beck
♥Baa Humbug!: A Sheep with a Mind of His Own by Mike Jolley and Susan Anne Reeves

Balik Kampung Mood

Last month, my family went back to Sabah. My children are very excited to experience the kampung environment again. I know my children schedule will be occupied with playing and exploring new things most of the time. But, I just bring along some picture books to read when we have spare time. The entire two weeks, I managed to reads twice to them during their bedtimes. The best thing is we are not alone. My brothers and my nephews join our bedtime’s stories. I have to reads several books requested by them. Luckily I bring along the Backyard Books series which have seven titles. This series introduce children to small and familiar animals such as butterfly, ants, dragonfly, spider and ladybug. My children and my nephew have to choose their favorite insects and I will read to them. But, they have to pretend to be the insect that they choose. It’s such a long night and I’m happy they enjoyed it.

Story Time:Monkey Puzzle by Julia Donaldson & Axel Scheffler

Last night, my daughter wants me to read longer book for her. But I say I can’t, because I have to work tomorrow. She’s understood and picks this one, Monkey Puzzle by Julia Donaldson. Actually, this book is one of our favorite before The Grufallo. I bought this book first and fell in love with Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler. It’s tells a story about a little monkey who lost his mum. The kindhearted butterfly tries to help him to find her. But the butterfly misunderstands monkey's descriptions of his mum and leads them to all sorts of unsuitable animals; bat, elephant, spider, snake and so on. It is very funny and clever story which will make our children giggles and definitely ask for more.

Picture Book of the Day: Quiet! There's a Canary in the Library by Don Freeman

Last night, I’ve read this book to my daughter. I bought last week for her since, she like stories related to books and reading. This picture book tells a story about Cary, a little girl who loved book and like to go to library. She pictured herself if she becomes a librarian; she would invite her favorite animals such as elephants, bears, lions, peacocks to the library. But the trouble starts when the animals cannot get along together. Can she solve the problems? You have to read it to find out. ^_^

Dr Seuss New Stories

Yippie!!!! A new book with seven original stories by Dr Seuss (originally published in magazines) will be published for the first time in book form on September 27. It called, The Bippolo Seed and Other Lost Stories. I can’t wait to get hold of this book. I am a big fan of Dr Seuss (My children too!). We collected most of his books. Our favorite is Fox in Socks, One Fish Two Fish, Green Eggs and Ham, and of course The Cat in the Hat.

Picture Book of the Day: No, David! By David Shannon

Children and the word NO are inseparable. They always do things they should not be doing and forced their parent to use the word NO all the time. As a parent, I find this book very enjoyable and described what children really are. I can’t wait to buy a copy and read it to my children. I’m pretty sure, they will enjoy it ^_^

£1 books for World Book Day 2011 are available at Kinokuniya!

It is not too late to talk about World Book Day. This year they are six titles for the £1 Books; one picture book and five flip books. It is very interesting because one of the titles is Dr Seuss on the Loose. I loved Dr Seuss, my children loved them too. All these titles are available at Kinokuniya and the price only RM2. So, come over and collect them all!

Reading Magic by Mem Fox

I’ve read Mem Fox's Reading Magic couple of years ago, when I start reading aloud for my children. I need a sort of guide book to improve my reading so I bump into this book. It’s help me a lot and convinced me how important reading to our child at their very young age. It’s a must-have book for parent who would like to instill a life love of books to their children.

Confessions of a Book Fiend

"Confessions of a Book Fiend" was featured on the Incidental Comics blog. I believe many of us has this addiction ^_^

The Gift of Nothing

Today is my turn to do public speaking. It’s a ritual in Kinokuniya and every staff will get their chance, once in three month. It’s been so long I haven’t do story telling, so I decide to do it today. I choose Patrick McDonnell’s The Gift of Nothing, a heartwarming story about friendship. It’s a story about Mooch the cat, who wanted to give his best friend a gift. But the problem is his best friend Earl the Dog, has everything. What do you get someone who had everything? Nothing! So, he begins his quest to search for the gift of nothing. I enjoyed reading this book to my friends and I’m so happy because they like it too. ^_^

Books Bought October 2010

♥ Alice Adventure in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll (Barnes Noble)
♥ Disney Princess Little Golden Book Favorites Volume 1
♥ Disney Princess Little Golden Book Favorites Volume 2
♥ Disney Book & CD Slipcase: My Favorites Adventures
♥ 1001 Children's Books You Must Read Before You Grow Up by Julia Eccleshare
♥ Bambert's Book of Missing Stories by Reinhardt Jung
♥ Learning About Islam (For Kids) by Saniyasnain Khan & Maryam Kinte
♥ Alice Through the Looking-Glass (Usborne Reading Series)
♥ 21 Tip Bagi Yang Sukar Solat Subuh by Syaikh Muhammad Shalih Al-Munajjid
♥ "Chuggington" Mini Paperback: Hodge and the Magnet (Chuggington Mini Collection)
♥ Gyo Fujikawa’s A to Z by Gyo Fujikawa
♥ Are You a Snail? by Judy Allen
♥ Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wyane Jones
♥ Ruth Heller’s How to Hide Butterfly and Other Insects by Ruth Heller
♥ Are You an Ant? By Judy Allen
♥ How do Dinosaurs Say I Love You? by Jane Yolen and Mark Teague
♥ Lost and Found by Oliver Jeffers
♥ The Bookseller of Kabul by Asne Seierstad
♥ Miracle-Gro Complete Guide to Houseplants by Miracle-Gro
♥ Cinderella's Fairy-Tale Wedding: A Royal Book and Dress-Up Kit
♥ The Bibliophile's Devotional: 365 Days of Literary Classics by Hallie Ephron

Sleepy Night

I’m very sleepy today. My daughter wakes me up at 1 am, just to ask me to read to her. I was angry at the beginning but then I know if I didn’t fulfill her request, she will not go to bed. She already chosen what book to read and before I start my son came and joins us for the bedtime stories. At first, I read to them Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. The second story was Little Red Riding Hood. I thought, we going to end the session after the second story, but my son begged me to read Goldilocks and the Three Bears. Oh well, I cannot disappointed them. Besides, I loved to read to them. So, I read to them and end up we sleep at 2 am. What a night!

Pansing Partner's Day Books

Yesterday I received my books which I order from Pansing (one of our supplier). They have this event called Pansing Partner’s Day, where they give attractive discount to their business partner. Most of the books I ordered is nonfiction books. I did ordered picture books but they don't have stock. They only sent me one title which is Emily Gravett's The Odd Egg. My daughter very excited and can’t wait for me to read to them.

Princess VS Bugs

Last night I’ve read four books to my children, two for Sofea and two for Anwar. As usual, Sofea will choose her princess books and Anwar will choose his train and bugs books. I still haven’t figured out why Sofea so attached with all this princess-thingy especially Disney Princess and Barbie. She will fight with her brother if he claimed that all her book ‘mengarut’/nonsense. She will say all her brother’s books are ‘mengarut’ too. Even during our bedtime stories, they will quarrel and claim that their book is the best one. I have to explain to them why we need to read both fiction and non fiction. Even though Sofea is only 4 years old, but I have to control her obsession with all this princess-thingy before it’s become worst. Yes, I want her to be a reader but not a reader who only read all this princess-thingy books. So, one of my missions is to make sure she like to reads all kind of book include her brother bugs book. ^_^

Books Read: Diagnosis: Dispatches from the Frontlines of Medical Mysteries

My youngest son was diagnosed with VSD-in-failure last year, so we spent almost five month in hospital. Many new things I’ve learned there (good and bad) and I’ve meets all kind of people (doctors, nurses and patients). I really into this medical thingy and that one of the reason I bought this book. In this book, Dr Lisa Sanders exposed us the process of diagnosis, how the doctors and expertise tackle diagnostic dilemmas and dramatic stories of patients with mysterious symptoms. I enjoyed the chapter where doctors make wrong decision, leads to diagnostic errors and how they overcome it. I highly recommend this book to be read by doctors and future doctors so they can prepare themselves the real life at hospital. As for us, it’s a MUST read because we never know that some day we will be a patients and we have to tell a complete story to the doctor to avoid misdiagnosis. Here is some of my favorite quotes from this book.
Doctors are human beings and, thus are prone to biases, distortions of perspective and blind spots. But doctors have the capacity to learn from their mistakes, overcome built-in biases, and guard against the kinds of thinking errors that in other professions might be an annoyance. (Page 271)
“There’s no shame in intubating the esophagus”, he said. But there is shame in not checking or catching the error. Errors themselves are unavoidable. Mistakes will always happen – all types of mistakes, from the technical to the cognitive. But that doesn’t mean we throw up our hands in helplessness. The key is designing our systems, our procedures, our protocols and our own thinking process to minimize mistakes as much as possible and then to catch mistakes when they are made.(page 272)

Books Read to My Children: Eloise Wilkin's Poems To Read To the Very Young

I ordered this book few months ago after I bought Eloise Wilkin’s Stories. How I adore Eloise Wilkin’s illustration. Her illustration excited me to read the poems to my children. This book featured over 30 poems of childhood by famous poets such as Robert Louis Stevenson, Christina Rossetti, Kate Greenway, Langston Hughes and many more. My favorite poems are Time to Rise by Robert Louis Stevenson. A birdie with a yellow bill/ Hopped upon the window sill/ Cocked his shining eye and said: / “Aint’ you shamed, you sleepy-head! /

Calla Edition of Grimm’s Fairy Tales

One of the advantage working in bookstore is we got a chance to browse the new book before we displays it on the bookshelf. Yesterday, we received Calla Edition of Grimm’s Fairy Tales. The book is gorgeous. Not only having the attractive cover, inside of the book is mesmerizing. There are 40 full-color plates and innumerable black-and-white spot elements which illustrated by Arthur Rackham. After browsing this book, I want to get one for myself. So, come over and take a look what this book has to offer. You will be surprise.

Scholastic Read Everyday Campaign

Interesting Reading Bill of Rights by Scholastic. I admired their effort on making reading as fundamental to our children. Let's support this campaign and start reading to our children, everyday!
http://www.scholastic.com/readeveryday