Tiny

Euterpe advanced to K2 of her kindergarten study since this September. One of the major changes was she had to read a book everyday and put down in the record.

This is, of course, an attempt of her school to encourage the habit of reading. In fact, many kindergartens and primary schools have arrangements of a similar kind. Even the public libraries in Hong Kong have their Reading Program for Children and Youth. (Euterpe actually joined this program soon after her fourth birthday.)

How do I feel?

On the face of it, the idea is brilliant. To say the least, it gives my daughter - and probably hundreds of other children - the motive to read some books, which is almost always a good thing.

But, when Euterpe and I tried to work out the details and decide what books we should borrow from the library, I saw the shortcomings.

"My teacher asks us to borrow thin and handy ones, so that we could easily finish with one each day," she said.

That's very true. How else could a kid of four achieve that goal ?

And, therefore, we have to do away with those more substantial volumes. Most of the excellent classic stories have a considerable length and are not suitable. Same problem for books that have a few stories in a single volume. At the end of the day, we can only focus on tiny ones specifically written for children reading.

Alas, anything that could be quantified could also be twisted.