Sunday, October 26, 2014

Newspaper column...

A few weeks ago when I was looking for more volunteers for the book club that I run at the local children's home, we were featured in quite a few newspapers (and I was interviewed on TV). So when they were looking for a contributor for a column on children's books, they remembered me...

And so, today I was featured in a local newspaper sharing what books I read when I was small and also what books I would recommend for children today...
I took it as an opportunity to share about getting children to read (which is not so emphasised here!) and how important it is in life... :)

They did rearrange the text that I sent them, but the gist is the same (and it is easier to translate the original than the one in the newspaper...) Thanks also to Ljilja for the lovely photo :)

When I was a child I really loved to read, mostly mysteries and adventures that are intended for children. I was born and raised in South Africa, but I mostly read book swritten by American and English writers, such as Richard Scarry and Laura Lee Hope. My favorite writer was Enid Blyton.

For 5 years I have led a book club with children from the Children's Home "Rada Vranješević" in collaboration with the children's library in Borik. In the library they have translations of the adventures for kids "The Famous 5" from my favorite author "Enid Blyton." These books are good and instructive for 8-12 year old children, and I know that kids from our club really like them.

There is a similar series of books that are very good for small or young children about the character Geronimo Stilton. I recommend them because I know that children in our club love them and also because through them, children learn useful and instructive things while reading and travelling
through the adventures contained in these books.

When I was little, I loved a book called "The Little House" by Virginia Lee. The story was about a little house in the countryside and then the town began to be built and developed around it. And they were building up more and more around it and it became increasingly unhappy as it looked at what people were doing around it. At the end they again moved the little house to the countryside where it was very happy. Because of that little book I started to think how we humans affect the environment and things around us. You can see it on youtube 

I know from experience that it is very important for children to read, because they learn more from books than from TV or computer games. This is one of the reasons I like to do the book club with children from the Children's Home.
 

From very early on my parents read to my brother, sister and I before bed. Now I cannot go to sleep before I read something. I think that children from an early age should get used to books, and then that habit will remain forever. It's really not expensive to buy a few books or to join the library, and begin an adventure that will last a lifetime ...

4 comments:

Victor said...

Super Cool! You're FAMOUS! Was it a local paper or regional or national?

Also what do you think about digital books?

Belinda Chaplin said...

It is a national paper :)

I love digital books, but they don't have them in the local language, so it isn't something I would write about for the newspaper...

Victor said...

Go, Ms. NATIONAL!!!

Belinda Chaplin said...

:)

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