🚶🚶🚶Museum and Exhibition #2 : The Gift of Reading 森林的禮物繪本展🚶🚶🚶

Recently I started to explore children picture book both for work and personal. Today I went to a children book fair in Tai Koo Cityplaza. Title of the fair is The Gift of Reading - Live Happy. The avenue is being set up like a forest by trees illustration and sections are named by animals. It lasts for about a month till 3rd September. If you are interested in children book, or you have children, it may be a good place to visit on the weekend. I already had a very nice weekend afternoon here :3

最近半公半私地開始接觸了兒童圖畫書。今天去了在太古城中心舉行的童書展 — 森林的禮物繪本展。它以森林為主題，到處都有樹木的插圖裝飾，各展區也用了動物來命名。展期至9月3日，如果你對童書有興趣，或者有小朋友的話，這裡是一個周末好去處～而我在這裡享受了一個悠然的周末下午了～

Eric Carla’s Corner

Let me introduce you one by one. The first part I visited was the Eric Carle booth! He is one of the world well known children book author! If you had been in any children book corner in any book store, I bet you should have seen his books. Very Hungry Caterpillar is his most famous character. His works usually about nature and suitable for small child. Colorful collage and simple stories ; little games, dolls, and audio books make reading more fun, surely appetite the reading desire of small kids.

讓我來逐一介紹吧。一進去就看見了《好餓的毛毛蟲》，也就是兒童圖書類別裡非常有名的ERIC CARLE先生的小展區了！他的書大多圍繞自然界的事物為主，鮮明簡潔的拼貼畫和簡單的故事，還有小玩偶、遊戲和有聲書等，非常適合作為幼兒閲讀的入門書呢！

Lovely Bunny 友誼小兔

The second area was Lovely Bunny area. The books here are mainly about making friends. All about friendship with different stories, e.g. adventure, life pieces, etc. I read one of them called There's a tiger in the garden. A little girl, Nora, didn't believe in her gramdma that there is a tiger living in the garden. She and her toy giraffe started her adventure with doubt. They see big bird size firefly, fishing polar bear... She finally see a tiger. Is it a "real" tiger? And the tiger think "is it a real human girl?" Can they be friends? To me, this is a story about curiosity and imagination.

第二個我參觀的展區是友誼小兔。這裡的故事都關於朋友或者人際關係的，有歷險故事，也有生活小品等等。我在這裡看了一本名為There's a tiger in the garden的書。小女孩NORA聽到祖母說花園裡住著老虎，她抱著懷疑的心展開了一場小冒險。看到像鳥一樣大的蜻蜓，還有在垂釣的北極熊。最後她找到了花園裡的老虎。這真的是一頭老虎嗎？老虎也在想，這真是一個人類小女孩嗎？他們能否成為朋友？對我來說，這是一個關於好奇心和想像力的小故事。

Bravery Lion 勇氣獅子

In this area, books are about adventures and different kinds of trying. Also, the vision towards the world. I read a book called When I am eating Ramen.. (Boku ga raamen tabeteru toki). It is not exactly a story. It started from "I am eating ramen". Then, what is happening surrounding me. A cat is napping, children are play baseball. The scale extends to the countries next to me, a boy with a cow, a girl selling bread. The colorful illustration no more colorful. Finally, a boy in a country losing consciousness and lying down. The wind blows and back to me, eating ramen. It is a bit heavy. As we are enjoying, people are doing different activities, and some are struggling for their life. The concept may not be so easy to tell a young kid but with the help of a illustration children book.

之後我來到勇氣獅子區。這裡的書不單只有一些關於自我突破的冒險故事，也有著重廣闊小朋友思維和視野的作品。好像我讀了一本名為《我在吃拉麵的時候》的書。主人公「我」在吃拉麵時，隔壁的貓在打呵久；隔壁的隔壁小孩在打棒球。然後隔壁的國家有小孩在放牛、小女孩在賣麵包。最後故事停在一個倒下了的小孩身上。圖畫越到後面顏色越單調。最後一陣風把我們帶回「我」的畫面。在我們過著視為理所當然的生活的同時，世界上有很多小朋友過著沒有保障的生活。通過圖畫書，這種有點沉重的概念也比較容易表達出來，學會各種人文精神和道理。

Clamly Elephant 悠遊大象

The books in this area is about "life". I think it is not only for children, as an adult, I also need a book from this area for a healing and relief. Like the book I read To Life (Ikiru). It is based on a poem of Tanikawa Shuntaro. Start from the illustration of a dead Cicadidae. The scenes of normal life. Very ordinary life but every moment are the reflection of “I am alive”. A short quote of the poem:

Being alive / Being alive, now / That is a bird fluttering its wings / That is the waves drifting in and out / That is the snail crawling on the ground / That is people loving one another / The warmth of your hand / That is giving me life
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下一站是悠遊大象。在這裡的書關於探索自我，不單只小孩，連大人也會被它吸引著。我讀了一本來自日本的繪本《活著》。以谷川俊太郎的同名詩為題，由地上長眠了的蟬開始，一幕幕日常生活畫面，平凡得不能再平凡，但每一刻的感受都是「活著」的證明。節錄一小節來感受一下吧：

活著 / 應該活在當下 / 鳥是展翅高飛 / 海是浪聲不息 / 蝸牛是緩緩爬行 / 人間有愛 / 是你溫暖的手 / 那就是生命
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LAIMA AREA 賴馬老師展館

A break in the Mr. Laima Area. He is a children book author from Taiwan. It is the first time hearing his name. The debut work I Became A Fire Dragon is very interesting. The story is about a dragon was bite by a fly and turned into a fire dragon. All his friends were scared and of course they found the solution at the end. Suitable for a child who always get angry. Also, another book The Crying Princess is also great. Aimi is a little princess like girl, and she is a cry baby. She can’t deal with the things unexpected and cries immediately. She scared her friends on her birthday party. Her mother taught her a little spell and use little trick to make her feel confidence and positive. These books likes a sharing of his experience as parents. Not only the child, parents also finding their right way one the road of education of the kids.

之後到了賴馬老師展區。他是來自台灣的童書作者，這是我第一次聽到他的名字。《我變成一隻噴火龍了！》是他的第一本作品。內容是易生氣的小龍阿古力被蚊子釘過後，變成了噴火龍。爆怒的他嚇走了所有朋友。最後終於意外發現解除的方法，阿古力也上了重要的一課。另外一本《愛哭公主》也是非常窩心的作品。愛咪是個愛哭女孩，一不順心就放聲大哭。生日會上也耍別扭放哭，大家都怕了她。媽媽教愛咪一個咒語，改變了她看事物的方法，學會控制情緒與正向思考。這些故事多少也是作者的自身分享。不單只小孩在學習，父母本身也在育兒之路上成長。

Brilliant Toucan 智慧大嘴鳥

This are has books for older kids. Picture books contain relatively advanced knowledges. Wide range of topics here, e.g. spaces, languages, crafts etc. The pictures is not only showing pictures and words. There are designed like a game and let kids to explore themselves. For example, the illustration is printed seperated on two sides of a page. You need to use a torch to light the page and see the whole picture.

這裡比較適合大一點的小童。有各種圖鑑和實用知識類的圖畫書。他們也被設計得像小遊戲，令小朋友自己去發掘知識。好像同一頁兩面各自有一幅圖畫，用手電筒照著一面，可以在另一面看到完整的圖，像個小冒險家呢！

Little Golden Books 75th Anniversary 小金書75週年紀念

Little Golden Books is a popular series containing wide range of stories, characters (like Sesame Street, Disney). The aim of this series is to provide high quality printing and durable books for children with a affordable price in the commons. The backbone in gold color is the signature of it.

小金書系列的宗旨是製作精美且價格親民的童書。它有很多家傳戶曉的故事，也有邀請一些名牌合作，例如芝麻街、迪士尼等。書脊上小金邊是它的標誌。

Dreamy Fox 妙想狐狸

HAHA, the books in this areas is just like out of control. Every think can happen here and funny story every where. The book Barbon goes to work. The crocodile, Barbon wakes up in morning, brushes teeth, says good morning to the neighbors, and goes to work. Where does he work? I keep it secret :P Very simple drawings and vivid color but never get bored. And also with little funny details by the author. For example, can you imagine how does Barbon hold the strap? We use hands but crocodile’s hands are short, so he uses his mouth ^^;

這裡的書都帶著天馬行空的想像力。好像右圖這本《鱷魚阿本去上班》，阿本起床，刷牙，跟鄰居打招呼，然後去上班。一隻鱷魚要住哪裡上班呢？我保持這秘密～非常簡潔的圖畫和鮮明用色，加上各種趣味小細節，令人一看再看！好像我們乘電車是用手握吊環，可是鱷魚阿本手太短了，只能用口咬著，非常可愛^^;

Zikai Feng Children Book Rewards 豐子愷兒童圖畫書奬

This is a corner of the Zikai Feng Children Book Rewards. If you want to find some quality children book written in Chinese. This reward is a good indicator. To be honest, even in the same ethic group, people in different areas have very different life style and the life experiences too. Therefore, the feeling is interesting, somethings very close with many unknowns.

快到尾聲了，這是豐子愷兒童圖畫書奬區。剛才看到的有很大部份都是來自西方和日本的翻譯本。如果想找一些華文兒童書，這奬項也許是個很好的指標～老實說，縱使在同一個文化圈，在不同地區生活會有著非常不同的生活體驗。閱讀時感覺很有趣，有一種很熟悉但又陌生好奇的感覺。

Miscellaneous 其他區域

Apart from children books, illustration book and comics for adult also included! Like Jimmy and Midnight Diner. Also, some books about parenting. There are also stationary and art supply shop. Branches and area with short tables are prepared for reading.

除了兒童書，也有一些繪本和漫畫給已長大的讀者（雖然童書的部份也令大人著迷），好像大家耳熟能詳的幾米和深夜食堂。另外也有些關於兒童心理和教育的書給父母參考。旁邊也「貼心地」有文具和美術用品攤位啦，哈哈！展覽場內有些小長櫈和小矮桌給大家舒適地看書。

I like this kind of fairs that even on a crowd Sunday, the avenue is large enough for children to explore around freely, read and play. Besides, there are also many regular places and events about children books. For example, the Elite book store will held children book reading groups. There is also children books stores, like Giraffe Book Store. There is a trend of reading children books. I hope of this “trend” will be developed into a culture and keep going.
Hope you like this sharing and have a nice Monday :)

我滿喜歡現場的氣氛，縱使是人多的星期天，也有足夠的空間給小孩子到處發掘有趣的書籍，邊讀邊玩耍。除了今天這裡的繪本展，平日也有定期的繪本讀書會和繪本書屋，好像誠品的讀書會和長頸鹿繪本館等等。近年有一陣繪本和童書熱，有各種大大小小的推廣活動。希望這個潮流能穩定發展成為一種文化。
希望你喜歡這文章，周一愉快～

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