Category: Roseanne Thong

Celebrating Asian Children's Literature...

1/4/2016

... and the wonderful authors and illustrators creating these beautiful stories!

When moving from Ghana to Hong Kong, one of the things I wanted to learn more about was Asian children's literature. Under Asian children's literature, I include all picture and chapter books that have Asian themes, not just books written by Asian authors and published in Asia; or to use some of the words I recently heard in Grace Lin's wonderful TED talk, books that are windows into the Asian world for readers like me, who hardly know anything about what life is like for a child of Asian background, as well as mirrors for children who grow up in Asia or somewhere else in the world and have Asian origins.

Since seeing the TED talk for the first time about two weeks ago, I have been thinking lots about these books, that are window and mirror of the Asian world, and how fortunate I have been to get to know some of the wonderful people giving us these beautiful stories, either through an author visit in person or via Skype. With this post, I want to celebrate these authors and thank them for sharing their beautiful stories with us, for taking us on wonderful reading journeys, for making time to meet us, the readers, for patiently answering our questions, for encouraging us to share our stories, for inspiring us to be readers and writers, for making sure that our book shelves can be both windows to the world and mirrors of who we are.

Ellen WY Leou
Ellen was the first author I invited to HKA in 2013. A colleague had told me about her and her picture book Lulu the Hong Kong Cat. I loved the idea of having an author visit whose stories are set in Hong Kong. Since her first visit, Ellen has been back twice and has written, illustrated and published three more books, which are much loved by our young readers.
http://specialists.hkacademy.edu.hk/library1/category/ellen-wy-leou

Grace Lin
The author's Where the Mountain Meets the Moon made me fall in love with Asian children's literature. I discovered the book during one of my first visits to Hong Kong in 2010. Reading this book took me on an enchanted journey and made me want to read other books by the author. In 2014, we were fortunate to meet Grace via Skype. Both her picture and chapter books are always on high demand in our library
http://specialists.hkacademy.edu.hk/library-1314/pk2-students-excited-about-meeting-grace-lin

Ying Chang Compestine
While I also had a copy of Revolution is not a Dinner Party in my library in Ghana, a book I frequently recommended to upper primary readers, it was Ying who found me here in Hong Kong. I couldn't believe my luck when an emailed popped up in my inbox one day from Ying. Her visit created a huge interest in her books - picture books, novels and cookbooks - among readers of all ages - and in students wanting to become authors.
http://specialists.hkacademy.edu.hk/library-1314/category/ying-chang-compestine

Lenore Look
Since I am a big Alvin Ho and Ruby Lu fan, I like to make sure our students get a chance to explore these books and inquire about the author. Lenore is always wonderful in answering our many questions usually through her blog. Last year, we were lucky to have her visit our school in person. Since then her books have hardly ever been on the shelves as they get handed from one reader to the next. How much her books are loved will be further revealed next month by G4 ;)
http://specialists.hkacademy.edu.hk/library-1415/category/lenore-look

Roseanne Thong
I first discovered Roseanne's books by accident in search of additional books by Grace Lin. Knowing Grace's illustration style, I had picked up a number of picture books - Round is a Mooncake, Red is a Dragon - which turned out to be written by Roseanne Thong. I loved the stories, I loved the illustrations and hoped that one day, we would be able to have Roseanne visit our school. In 2015, when Roseanne visited Hong Kong, she spent a day at HKA, inspiring our young readers and writers in so many ways.
http://specialists.hkacademy.edu.hk/library1/category/roseanne-thong

Each of the books by these authors are beautiful and unique. They have become extra special to us at HKA through the authors' visits. You can find all of these books in our library. Check them out, read (or re-read) them on your own or share them as a read-aloud with someone in your family. I have also linked to the authors' websites and blog posts about their visits to our school for you to read, re-read, explore and enjoy.

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Student Voices From An Author Visit

4/12/2015

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During the past week, I got a chance to hear more from students about our author visit by Roseanne Thong (in case you missed the first blog post about her visit, click here to read it). As a whole class, we looked through the questions we had recorded in our inquiry journals, discovering that the majority of our questions got answered through Ms. Thong's presentations.

Next students individually reflected on the visit, things they had learned and still wondered about. In the following are a few examples from Grade 1-5 of what students shared, accompanied by a few snapshots.

Examples from Grade 1

She writes about Chinese things because she already liked them when she was a kid.
She wrote her first book for her daughter.
It can be hard to make a book because you have to do it again and again until it is good.
I should ask my friends to check my work.
The first part of the book must be cool.
Look everywhere for ideas.

Examples from Grade 2

Her favorite book was Where the Wild Things Are.
She writes picture books that are nonfiction too.
At first she wrote for her daughter and then someone else told her she should write books for other children.
Make a plan before you write a book.
I can go outside of school and get inspired by the outdoors. I can write about what happens in life.
I learned that using senses helps you write a better book.

Examples from Grade 3

She does not have a favorite book (among the ones she has written herself).
It could take years for a book to get published.
Everywhere they go authors have a notebook but if they don't, they try to find something else they can write on.
I can use my five senses in writing my stories.
Read through your work and read it to another person.
You don't have to work hours on a book, just a little each day.

Examples from Grade 4

She speaks Mandarin fluently.
She revised 20 or more times before getting the book published.
The author doesn't get to tell what they want the illustrator to draw.
If you mix some of your senses you can make some interesting sentences.
You should use your five senses to make your writing come to life.
You have to revise as much as possible so your story is perfect.

Examples from Grade 5

When she goes on hikes or does sports, good ideas to write come to her head.
She can talk in Chinese and has basically three jobs.
She has lots of ideas in her notebook so whenever she writes her book she does not need to come up with an idea.
Always be persistent and never give up.
You really have to revise and think outside of the box.
Always take advice and never think badly about the advice that people give you.
Writers often use all five senses for writing and put that into their writing pieces.

Students also gave me valuable feedback on the author visit, what they enjoyed, what we could do differently next time, and other authors they would like to see at our school. Overall, it was wonderful positive feedback with students sharing how much they enjoyed the presentations, how much they learned from the author for their own writing, and how much they liked listening to the stories she shared. There was also a lot of appreciation for Ms. Thong making the presentations interactive, allowing students for example to get a feel for what sensory writing can look like.
With regard to future author visits, students suggested having more time with the author in smaller groups to have a chance to ask more questions and chat with the author. One student also suggested we allow parents to attend the sessions as well.
And the authors on our students wish lists for future visits include for example Jeff Kinney, Julia Donaldson, Cornelia Funke, Michael Morpurgo, and Sharon Creech. I will keep my eyes and ears open :)

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Authors Are Rock Stars!

30/11/2015

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“Oh, Ms. Tanja, you always treat authors like rock stars!” said one of my fifth graders after Roseanne Greenfield Thong’s visit last Thursday. Yes, indeed, I think authors like her are the rock stars of children’s literature (and looking at the reactions of many of our students, I thought they felt the same way). Their stories are like songs we want to listen to over and over again. No matter for what ages they primarily write, their messages are ageless, timeless and universal. They take us on wonderful journeys, to real and imagined places, allowing us to meet different people and walk in their shoes for a little while. They inspire us - and there is so much we can learn from them, as readers, as writers, as people.

I knew we were off to a fantastic day from the very first moment I met Ms. Thong for the first time in person that morning. Since she had kindly agreed to bring along books for us, I wanted to help her come out to Sai Kung. All my efforts to try and organize a taxi that morning failed, as drivers on that part of Hong Kong Island didn’t want to make the long journey so early in the morning. But then Ms. Thong walked up to the first taxi driver in line, chatted happily with him in Chinese, and within no time, we were on our way to Sai Kung. “Perseverance”, she said later during several of her presentations, “is the most important thing in writing and all you do in life”.

While each of her four presentations – one for G7&8, one for G4&5, one for G2&3 and an EC assembly – was geared to that particular audience, each with a different focus (for example, Ms. Thong shared more about revision and rewriting with the older students, spent more time letting students in G2-5 try out what it means to include all five senses in writing, and focused on more general ideas on what it means to be an author with our younger students), there were some big ideas addressed in all of her presentations. Here they are, accompanied by a few snapshots.

The People Involved in the Making of a Book
In picture books, her preferred format, an author, an illustrator and editor each contribute to the making of the book. Ms. Thong stressed and explained in particular the important role of the editor, who she compared to a teacher, helping the writer to make the story better – and ultimately making sure the book will sell. Students were astonished to hear that the editor doesn’t just correct spelling and grammar but might even change the title and cut whole parts of a story.

Students were also surprised when learning more about the illustrator’s role: discovering that author and illustrator often don’t really know each other, might even live in different countries far away from one another, each working independently, one on the words, the other on the images; that the illustrator gets only the words of the story, no suggestions from the author what the images might look like and then interprets the story in her way after lots of research for ideas. At times, an illustrator might however ask for photos of places mentioned in the story (for example wet market scenes from Hong Kong for Gai See).

The Different Stages of the Making of a Book
Especially our older students appreciated learning about the different stages an author goes through from having the first idea to getting her book published, a process that can take many years. Even just the writing of the first draft of a picture book story might take all the author’s free time in a period of four to six months. Then it can take many months, even years, before a publisher accepts a manuscript. Some manuscripts never make it to publication. Once a manuscript is accepted, the story might undergo big changes, requiring lots of editing and rewriting. Ms. Thong shared for example that Tummy Girl took close to nine years to get published; Noodle Magic on the other hand was unusually quick with just seven months.

Where Authors Get Their Ideas
Whenever we inquire about an author, one of the most often asked questions from our students is where authors get their ideas as this seems one of the most challenging tasks in writing for many. Ms. Thong shared that while she gets ideas from walking around places, looking around and taking everything in, sports activities such as running, mountain climbing and bike riding help her in getting ideas too. Most important, she said, is recording ideas whenever they pop up. She, like most authors, keeps a writer’s notebook but would also jot down ideas on any other piece of paper available when she doesn’t have her notebook at hand. I could tell students loved seeing how she had jotted down the beginning and ideas for a new story on an air sickness bag.

The Two Most Important Things in Writing: Sensory Writing and Revision

Using Your Senses in Writing
Making use of our five senses is the ultimate way to bring stories to life, we learned from the author. All those wonderful adjectives are our “best friends” in this process. More so, through the use of the senses, we can add extra creativity and out-of-the-box thinking to our writing. Ms. Thong suggested and let us experiment with mixing up the senses. She asked us to answer questions like: What color is noise? What does quiet taste like? What is the smell of homework? What is the sound of gossip? If you could touch laziness, what would it feel like? We all had much fun trying this out with some amazing results.

Revision
While students already knew from meeting other authors, that all authors revise and rewrite, often many, many times, Ms. Thong stressed again that in order to make the story the best it can be, it has to be revised and rewritten over and over again. This applies to any writer, no matter whether a student or published author. The editor is the person who guides the author through this process. It was interesting to see examples of the notes her editor had made for some of her stories.

In addition, we also learned more about her personal background and interests besides writing, for example that she was already interested in all things Chinese when she was a little girl, that she loves hiking and playing the electric guitar, Eric Clapton being her favorite musician, that Where the Wild Things Are her favorite childhood books is, that she is an avid reader, and that she teaches high school during the day, college classes at night and makes time for writing during the weekend.

While some students already shared with me what they liked about Ms. Thong’s visit and what they took away from her presentations for their own writing, I am looking forward to speaking with each class next week and hearing more individual reflections. Look out for a follow-up post on this blog about our author visit.

A big THANK YOU to Ms. Thong, for making time to spend the day with us during her short visit to Asia, for sharing her expertise and enthusiasm for writing and stories. We loved having you here at HKA!

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Preparing for an Author Visit

9/11/2015

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On November 26, we will have author Roseanne Thong spend the day with us at HKA. She will meet with all students in the Primary School as well as with students in grades 7 and 8. Author visits are a wonderful opportunity for all of us to get inspired as readers and writers. To make the most of an author visit, not just for us but also for the author, I like spending time with students exploring the author's books, searching for answers to things we are curious about, in preparation for the visit. Many authors, and Roseanne Thong is one of them, keep beautiful websites that help in our inquiries. But then there are always questions that cannot be answered through the books and websites but only by the author herself. We want to get to those questions and have them ready for when Ms. Thong visits.
During this past week, several grades begun their inquiries and others will join in over the next two weeks. Here are a few snapshots from individual grades.

Our PK1 students listened to their first story by the author: One is a Drummer - which is one of three concept books with an Asian theme. Students enjoyed counting with me in the book, both in English and Mandarin. Further, we started wondering whether we might be able to write such a book as well. Exploring Roseanne's books will also provide a great opportunity to introduce what an illustrator is while finding out more about authors and their work.

PK2 students also listened to their first story by Roseanne Thong this week: Round is a Mooncake: A Book About Shapes. They explored a display of her books and shared their first wonderings. There is much interest to find out why she comes to Hong Kong, whether she likes making books and being an author and why she does not draw the pictures in her books. Our PK2 inquirers noticed right away, that Ms. Thong works with an illustrator on her books. They are all excited about her visit to our school. One of our students suggested we should prepare a surprise for her and make her a book. We will follow up on this idea during their next visit to the library.

Our second graders, in addition to listening to their first story by the author (The Wishing Tree), spent time this week as well exploring a display of the author's books to then share what they noticed and what they are curious to find out. Being experienced inquirers, I had a hard time keeping up recording students' observations and wonderings. They had so much to share! Here just a few examples.

What students noticed:
Many of her books have Asian/Chinese themes.
The book covers are colorful.
She writes picture books for children.
She works with different illustrators.
The illustration styles are similar.
Some of her books are about festivals.
There are books about concepts (shapes, numbers, colors).
There are fiction books/story books.

What students wonder about:
How did she become an author?
How long has she been writing?
Why does she like writing books?
How many illustrators has she worked with?
Why does she work with different illustrators?
What is her favorite book (that she has written/that another author has written)?
Does she also write chapter books and nonfiction?
How long does it take her to write a book?
Why does she make books for children?
Is she scared when she writes? (For example about getting words wrong.)

Our third graders, who were the first to embark on this author inquiry (check out this post as well if you haven't seen it yet), are already right in the middle of the Finding out phase, as we explored more of the author's books this week as well as her website. Here are some of the things students learned about Ms. Thong this week:

She was born in Southern California and also lives there now.
She lived in Asia for over 15 years.
She has family in Hong Kong, Malaysia and the United States.
When she was little, she always kept paper and pencil next to her bed and wrote in bed as she wasn't allowed to get up before 7am.
She wrote her first poem when she was four years old.

Before becoming a teacher and author, she was a journalist.
Some of her books have won awards.
She wrote Round is a Mooncake when her daughter was two years old. They lived in Hong Kong and there were no concept books with Asian themes.
She has written more than 16 books.
She has so far worked with seven different illustrators.

I am looking forward to learning more about Ms. Thong and her books as we continue with our inquiries. Overall, it's wonderful to see how much excitement there is about the upcoming visit.
If you would like to find out more about Roseanne Thong and her books, I recommend exploring her website - and keep checking in on this blog as I will share more about our inquiries and what we are finding out.

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G3 Students Tuning In To Their First Author Inquiry of the Year

28/10/2015

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After looking through our inquiry journal, revisiting all what we have done so far this school year already, we embarked on our first author inquiry today. We started with a read-aloud of the book The Wishing Tree by Roseanne Thong. It narrates the story of a young boy who visits a wishing tree in a village with his grandmother each year until life brings about several changes. Even though a longer picture book, our students were captured by the story up to the very end and were keen on listening to the author's note at the end of the book as well. The note, which explains that "the story is based on a local legend about a real tree in the village of Lam Tsuen in Hong Kong", got students all excited. Not only did it spark many comments as students made connections to personal experiences - some of our students have already been to a wishing tree themselves - but also made students start sharing wonderings right away.

In fact, our third graders have already so many questions, not just about this particular story, but also about the author. I had a hard time keeping up writing down the many questions shared enthusiastically. Here just a few examples:

Does the author live in Hong Kong? If not, has she ever been to Hong Kong?
How did she get to know about the wishing tree?
Has she ever been to the tree herself and made a wish?
Why did she write The Wishing Tree?
Where does she get her ideas?
Does she write about her life or other people's lives?
Why did she become an author?
How long has she been writing for?
How many books has she written?
Are all of her books picture books?
How long does it take her to write a book?
Does she have a relationship/connection to China?

Over the next couple of weeks, we will try to find answers to our questions in various ways. Students suggested we read and explore more of her books, check out her website/blog as well as other Internet resources. And the questions to which we can't find any answers ourselves, well, we will just ask Ms. Thong herself, since she will spend the day at HKA on November 26, 2015! We are all excited about this and look very much forward to her visit.

If you would like to order one or more of Ms. Thong's books, kindly complete the order form and return it to the Primary library including payment latest by Friday, October 30, 2015. (The order form and ordering details were sent to all parents per email before the October break.)

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