Roots
A book for fun, not an exam
By Marifi Jara
QUELIMANE, Mozambique–It’s National Children’s Book Day in the Philippines on Tuesday, June 20.
The first book I remember having is a copy of The Ugly Duckling. I vividly recall how it looked like: perfectly child-friendly as the 8×11-inch pages were in thick cardboard, with colorful illustrations and just a few lines on every page for a young one still struggling with reading skills.
In the summer after second grade, I read cover-to-cover a thick children’s storybook version of the Catholic Bible borrowed from a book-lover uncle. It was a lovely spiral-bound edition with every facing-pages featuring an illustration on one side and a short story on the other. I looked forward to going to bed then knowing that a story was lying in wait. Even years later, I would listen to the readings in church during Sunday mass and sometimes find myself trying to imagine the illustration in that book that went with that story.
Later on, I became a big Nancy Drew mysteries fan. They came only in hardcover editions at that time (in the Philippine market) and were quite expensive and so I tried to read as slow as I can to stretch it out until my parents can afford to get me another one or I’ve saved up enough of my school pocket money. But my father later found a second-hand book dealer who sold him, to my heart’s delight, cheaper copies that were still in good shape. It has since been a lifetime love affair with books.
Today, there is a much wider range of options for Filipino children, including the beautifully-illustrated local storybooks and the growing genre called “young adults”. More books have become quite affordable now, but reading remains lackluster in the cultural spectrum. Local governments and Pangasinan communities abroad can help build up our public libraries so that access will be easier for everyone, especially those who struggle to meet life’s more basic needs. Even just P10,000 worth of books could fill up a significant portion of a shelf.
For the National Children’s Book Day, Zarah Grace Gagatiga of the Philippine Board on Books for Young People (pbby.org.ph), which spearheads the annual celebration, writes in her blog “School Librarian in Action” (lovealibrarian.blogspot.com/2010/07/celebrate-national-childrens-book-day.html) several activities that schools and libraries can do for the special day.
For schools that have not yet prepared anything for June 20, it’s not too late. It can be something as simple as having a storytelling session in the classroom or in the library, as suggested in the blog.
To add to that, may I suggest in particular that Filipino and English teachers allot their class time for that day for storytelling, poetry reading, or both! And please don’t give an exam afterwards. That would undoubtedly take the fun out of the activity and defeat the purpose of making children simply appreciate the joy of a story, the pleasure of reading, the value of books and learning.
It would be good to consider reading something local, written by a Pangasinense, or a short story set in or about Pangasinan or the town, or dig up an old local fable. Even in the most limited of libraries, there would be something worth reading.
Perhaps when I reach the age of rocking-chair old, I will try to come full circle and have a go at reading, cover-to-cover, the bible again… in the old Pangasinan version that my mother inherited from an elder (ay agi challenge tan!). And then try to remember those colorful drawings in a children’s book from a long time ago.
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