Looking carefully at some books

some books for children

Choosing interesting books on the Pacific for children to read should not only be the obligation of teachers. Parents can improve their child’s reading and knowledge of the world around them. All it re quires is some encouragement and wise buying.

One sign that a book is appealing to children is if it has been reprinted many times. One such book is Moki ha n a lives in Hawaii (Methuens Children’s Books, Lon don) which first appeared in 1961.

It is one of a series entitled the Children Everywhere Series.

Mokihana appeals because of its very clear, natural photographs of children at play. The text is simple and complements the photographs well. There are about 50 to 70 words to each large photograph.

This book could serve four pur poses. It could be used as a story book read by parents to children of four to seven years. The photo

graphs ensure that the child sees what is being read and can extract even more information about the children if you give him time to dwell on each picture.

It could be used as a reader; it would probably be suitable for ad vanced seven-year-olds upward and would provide a challenge beyond the basic readers that so often bore the brighter child.

It would make an excellent social studies reader for children between the ages of seven and 14 because the pictures provide ample scope for discussion on the ways in which these children lead their lives.

It would make an excellent remedial reader for older children, particularly Pacific children.

Children of the Pacific Islands ($1.90) is published by Reed Educa tion of New Zealand. It covers life in Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia and is most suitable for secondary school children. It is de signed as a social studies text and has projects and exercises and very

good photographs.

It is part of a series on life in New Zealand and the Pacific, is well planned and encourages the child to work out some things for himself.

The book concentrates very much on how Island children spend their time at school and at play.

I would recommend this book and the series to teachers of social stu dies in Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific. Parents might find books of this type a useful reference work for children’s social studies projects as an easily understood in dex is included.

The Pageant of the Pacific series ($1.45) is also produced by Reed Education. Possibly the most com prehensive, is the one on the Cook Islands, although all the books in the series are very comprehensive and are in much demand from social studies teachers for children in the junior years of high school. The book provides a simple statistical table and an explanation of techni cal or Cook Island terms used. Asa series it is probably a more relevant buy than the serialised en cyclopaedias that are often adver

tised.

P. L. Young