She Left Law for Literacy: How Jeannie Leung Is Rewriting the Rules of Parenting, Reading, and Connection in Hong Kong
WOI – Jeannie, you left a career in law to focus on education and family literacy. What was the turning point for you?
Similar to many parents, my priorities began to change the moment my daughter came into my life! I wanted a career change as I looked for ways to give myself flexibility and allow me to spend more time with my daughter.
At the outset, I did not plan to study and qualify to become a teacher. I looked for ways to equip myself with parenting knowledge, and it was during my maternity leave that I researched and discovered the Montessori method as an early childhood education approach.
I was fascinated by this. I saw how the approach seeks not just to educate in the most traditional sense of providing schooling, but one that could be adopted as a way of life, a way to help children develop and flourish as individuals. Gradually, I took on studying and practicing full-time, eventually qualifying as a Montessori teacher for the 0-6 years old age group. The journey into literacy was simply a natural progression from that early childhood education experience.
What does ‘family literacy’ mean to you, and why is it so important in Hong Kong?
At its best, Hong Kong is a vibrant city where things are happening all the time and at an incredible pace. But such an environment can leave you breathless, the eagerness to keep up with the pace sometimes means that we forget the need to slow down and connect with our loved ones. This is something most working parents in Hong Kong experience and have shared as a constant struggle.
So for me, “family literacy” is a way for us to take a moment and make those connections through the medium of reading. It gives parents a gateway into the hearts and minds of our children. It allows us the opportunity for us to listen to our children, and hopefully catch a glimpse into their world through the power of literature.
The REadCONNECT campaign encourages families to slow down and reconnect. Why that theme?
Everyone is connected these days, all the time and everywhere. By that, I mean through our mobile devices – we are, unfortunately, never off them. Families looking at their devices, for example, during meal times is an all-too-familiar sight. The more we “connect”, the less we are “connecting”. It gives us less time and space for deeper, better-quality conversations.
We want to highlight the significance of those conversations through REadCONNECT. It is a campaign that seeks to remind everyone that, with the help of a book or two, there is as much we can learn from each other. We want to use the campaign to encourage parents to read with their children, not necessarily because there is some specific reading target that needs to be achieved, but because there might just be some joyfulness to be found in sharing a few words and pictures together. Hopefully, along the way, stronger relationships are formed and families can simply enjoy reading for the sake of reading.
You often talk about teaching parents how to read with their children. Why is that so important?
This is an interesting question because in a way, we DON’T want to teach parents how to read with their children!
Parents In HK sometimes have this misconception about the purpose of reading, which is often linked to achieving a particular goal. They sometimes think they have to quiz their children by asking them about spelling or testing them on their reading comprehension as a way to help their child truly understand the literature in front of them. I’m afraid these are all ways to discourage a child from reading!
What we encourage is something akin to sharing the book and having a chat about the book. This is especially achievable with picture books because instead of reading it, picture books allow children to simply describe what they are seeing – the colour of the cover, the expressions on the characters’ faces, the size of the fonts even! Those simple descriptions can then flow into conversations with more detail.
This way of reading also gives parents the opportunity to observe their children, and discover that, perhaps, their child sees things in ways the parents could never have imagined. It will allow parents to broaden their awareness of what types of books are out there, and what may or may not be suitable for their own children.
The tram ride and book-making workshop are really unique. What do you hope families take away from that experience?
On April 27th, there will be a tram parade running along the route between Witty Street and Hong Kong Central Library in Causeway Bay. During the tram journey, we encourage parents and children to put down their devices and to be guided by our storytellers to create their own stories, inspired by real life scenery they observe along the way.
If there is one public transport that forces you to slow down in Hong Kong, it’s probably the tram! So we hope the families can just enjoy the tram ride, appreciate the scenery along the way, take inspiration and savour the finer details of the route as we go along.
The book-making workshops will give children a chance to be their own authors and illustrators. We encourage children to blend in what they observe from their real-life surroundings, with the power of their very own imaginations for their creations!
Many parents feel they just don’t have the time to read every day. What would you say to them?
Starting small usually works. It can be as simple as a page or two, or 5-10 minutes, everyday. Perhaps involving our children through a short but regular storytime every evening, or even as simple as sharing what we saw or experienced during the day. The key is to do what works best for you without taking the enjoyment away, and building from there.
Have you seen changes in families when reading becomes a regular habit?
Parents are often surprised by the response of their children. When we allow children to give us feedback, we often find something that we were not aware of about our children. Quite often, parent-child communication is improved and children become more confident in sharing their thoughts and feelings. That, in turns, leads to a higher degree of empathy, compassion, and an understanding of each other’s needs.
Bring Me A Book is known for building a culture, not just providing books. What does that mean to you?
As a charity, Bring Me A Book Hong Kong requires volunteers to support our many community workshops and storytelling events. Fortunately, we have been able to build a dedicated volunteer team since 2006. Our volunteers include parents and educators who support our mission of promoting reading aloud and are committed to our family literacy ethos.
Our core programme team members are all parents with children aged between 3 – 10. We design and craft our programmes based on our own parenting experience. Often, we brainstorm ideas on how we can better-support families and curate our book recommendations based on real life challenges we face in our everyday lives. With the resumption of face-to-face events after COVID restrictions were lifted, it has been pleasing to see the return of previous volunteers as well as welcoming new ones.
What more can schools and communities do to support reading for emotional connection, not just academics?
This is an extremely difficult question, because there is no “one thing” that one can do. We appreciate the need for reading to support academic achievement, but we believe it should start with reading for enjoyment.
A slight altering of our mindsets towards reading would be a good place to start. This could be encouraging more reading for simple leisure, book-making activities to allow children to express themselves, or coming up with your own stories. Helping students understand that often, there is no “right answer” to how one feels or interprets a story could foster them becoming confident readers and writers in the future.
What’s a book that’s had a lasting impact on you?
I am a firm believer that there is a book for every child and there will be one book that will inspire a child to become a reader. For me, it was Matilda, by Roald Dahl. As an only child, I resonated with Matilda’s love of reading. When I first moved to the UK at the age of 6, I barely spoke a word of English and it was initially quite daunting. I quickly found solace in reading through daily visits to the school library. Just like Matilda, I also had a very caring teacher like Ms Honey to help ease my transition to the new environment.
A more recent book that has had a significant impact on me is a Chinese picture book, 只有一個學生的學校 by Taiwanese author, 劉旭恭. I came across this book during my teacher training. This book prompted me to re-evaluate the meaning and purpose of education as well as a reminder of what children need in order to thrive. I wholeheartedly recommend this picture book as a must-read for all parents and educators.
What was your favourite book as a child, and do you still have a copy?
I have two and to this day, continue to hold these two titles in high regard. As a child, I remember being captivated by the Anne of Green Gable by L.M Montgomery. I didn’t have my own copy at the time and borrowed this book as well as its sequels from the public library many times. I was recently gifted a copy of this book, which will now go in my permanent collection.
My other favourite book is the classic, “Oh, the Places You’ll Go” by Dr. Seuss. My mum gave me this book as a present just before I went to university. I loved the message in the book and even now, I still get teary when I read it. I have shared it with my 7 year old daughter. She has yet to grasp the message in the book but I hope that she will one day. This is the beauty of picture books, it can be enjoyed by everyone of different ages and you will have a different interpretation of the book at various stages of life.
Do you have a go-to picture book you love reading with children?
In my storytelling and community workshops, I enjoy sharing The Rabbit Listened by Cori Doerrfeld. This is a simple but heartwarming story with an important message about the power of listening when our loved ones encounter challenges and sorrow. As parents, it is tempting to rush in with a “solution” when we see our children struggle. This story serves as a reminder that we need to make time and space to listen to our children. It is through listening that we are able to read their emotional cues and to tune in to their needs so that we can provide appropriate support to them.
What does reading time look like in your own home?
Bedtime stories are certainly a staple in our home. Ofcourse, there are days when I struggle to stay awake and so bedtime stories become more of a pillow talk to recount highlights of the day (which in my opinion, is still storytime!). On Sundays when we have more time, we enjoy snuggling on the sofa and we take turns to choose books to read together. In my current role, I am so blessed to have access to many wonderful books and get recommended new titles almost on a weekly basis. I love reading with my daughter, I am constantly amazed at the small detail she picks up in the books and see how she relates to the stories. In particular, I enjoy hearing her sharing as she often draws parallels from the stories with her own personal experience, which often allows me to get a glimpse of her thinking and recent happenings at school!
If you could share a tram ride with any author—past or present—who would it be, and why?
Excellent question! I am sure I will have a different answer for this if you ask me this next time. Seeing our big event is just around the corner, I would love to invite Mo Willems to join our tram parade and to see how he would interpret the iconic HK tram ride with his distinctive writing and illustration style!
As we were preparing for REadCONNECT, we researched various children’s authors for inspiration. Mo Willems’ Knuffle Bunny trilogy stood out given its message and illustration style. I was touched to learn that the protagonist of the story was inspired by Mo Willems’ own daughter, Trixie. Out of the trilogy, the third book is my favourite as it represents Mo Willems’ wish for his daughter, who is now an adult. Someday, if I become an author, I foresee the story will be inspired by my own experience with my daughter. I would love to get some personal tips from Mo Willems to bring this project to fruition in the future.
What’s your ideal way to unwind after a busy week—does it involve a book?
Visiting bookstores is high on my list. Whenever I have downtime or if I happen to walk past a bookstore, I am instinctively drawn to go inside to browse books. Depending on my mood that day, I could be looking at novels, self-help books, travel guides or sometimes cook books. One of my favourite books stores used to be Page One at Festival Walk in Kowloon Tong. The shop had a great collection and there was a fantastic children’s reading area. Sadly, physical bookstores are on the decline now in Hong Kong. In recent years, I find myself rummaging through the various book drift stations scattered around the city. We have one in my neighbourhood, where I visit fairly regularly. From time to time, I come across real gems of children’s books, which I add to our Bring Me A Book Reference collection. As a family activity, we are big fans of the Shum Shui Po Public Library (near Nam Cheong). We love the design of the children’s library on the ground floor where there are many reading nooks for parents and children to relax and read together. I highly recommend all families to check it out!
Register for Bring Me A Book’s READCONNECT Family Activities here
