education
episode of the show, you might be
in the minority in Hong Kong. In the
series, Lola is a funny, imaginative
little girl and Charlie is her very patient
older brother who teaches her quite a
lot in life.
The beauty of Lauren’s books is that
they magnify the smallest of daily life
issues and address what children go
through in the process of growing up,
all while entertaining and giving them
gorgeous, artful pages to look at. Some
of the inspiration for these books came
from her own childhood. Lauren grew
up with an older sister who would help
her clear her dinner plate by scooping
what she just couldn’t possibly finish
into the bin when her parents weren’t
looking. There is much to learn from
exploring these small acts of childhood
in a creative way.
Lauren is passionate about teaching
children to be inventive without limits
and before children see barriers to
ideas they might have. She emphasises
that it is so important to try things
because you never know if music,
knitting, dancing, drawing or writing
might be your thing. By exposing
yourself to a particular discipline, you
begin to understand it and you don’t
have to be good at something to enjoy
it. Trying and failing is important too as
there is so much to learn from failure.
The chance to learn something is
sometimes all we need. When things
are purely goal driven, we may lose
opportunities. Lauren feels that having
time and space to think allows you to
connect thoughts and ideas. It just
takes 15 minutes a day of having no
distractions and doing nothing.
Since children are born with an
ability to read visually, pictures and
images are a common language, which
for Lauren is the most lovely thing
about being a visual artist. Research
has shown that picture books are
absolutely key and visual literacy is the
beginning of reading literacy. It’s even
important in the teen years.
If you can get children reading when
they are young, they become readers
for life. A book can give nourishment
and comfort and the ability to read
leads to far higher prospects in life.
Bring Me A Book Hong Kong is the
leading advocate for family literacy in
Hong Kong. Established in 2006, Bring
Me a Book Hong Kong (BMABHK) is a
non- profit organisation and an affiliate
of the Bring Me A Book Foundation in
the USA. BMAB Foundation focuses
on empowering parents with the
joys and advantages of reading to
their children and providing libraries
of quality books for easy access in
underserved communities.
Using evidence-based research,
BMABHK provides transformational
training workshops for parents and
educators, libraries and book guides
filled with the best Chinese and English
children’s books for under resourced
communities and quality programs to
access authors and literacy experts.
Since 2013, Bring Me a Book has
been bringing children’s authors,
illustrators and renowned literacy
experts, including Julie Fowlkes,
who has 50 years experience in early
childhood literacy, to schools in Hong
Kong. BMAB believes that meeting
an author, illustrator, literacy expert or
storyteller in real life and hearing them
convey their passion for their work can
fundamentally alter a child’s relationship
to books and ignite a life-long love of
reading. By bringing their stories to life,
author visits often motivate previously
reluctant readers to pick up a book
while also inspiring educators to think
about the subject matter more creatively.
For imformation on upcoming author
visits, and to find out how to joing the
Bring Me A Book family membership
programme, check out
www.bringmeabook.org.hk
* With special thanks to the Intercontinental Hotel HK.
Autumn
Winter 2019
39