In this new feature, we ask a family that’s passionate about reading to share with us their love of books, by each nominating a favorite read. If you’d like to be featured in a future issue, then contact us on editor@beijing-kids.com, via our website www.beijing-kids.com, or via WeChat. We’d love to hear from you!
Jacopo Della Ragione could fairly be described as an old China hand. He came way back in 2001, and after a week had canceled his flight back home to Italy. He met and married Pan Yanrui, and they have one son, Pan Qifeng, who’s 9 years old. Qifeng is a student at Tsinghua Primary School, while Yanrui is a Deputy Director at the Bank of China. Della Ragione is an artist, and works on international partnerships and negotiations between Chinese and western companies mostly linked to art and education. In their book choices the boys go in search of adventure, while Mom finds wisdom to help on the adventure of parenting.
Pan Qifeng 潘启锋
If I really have to choose, I’d like to recommend Into the Wild, the first book of the “Warriors” series by Erin Hunter. It made me think about the importance of cooperation between peers, and that being part of a group, a family, makes you stronger. The main characters of the books are cats, and this is another reason why I love it. By reading it I also learned a lot of things about cats’ lives, such as how they eat, where they sleep, how they behave, and how they recognize each other when they’re not living with us as pets.
Jacopo Della Ragione
The dictionary; every other book is just a remix. However if, like me, you enjoy a good remix, especially in the form of a novel, then I would recommend Long John Silver by Björn Larsson. Many kids are fascinated by pirates, mostly because of the romantic idea we’re given of them by movies and 19th century books; growing up we leave those Peter Pan dreams behind, also because there are not many well written novels (nor essays, for what it matters) on this particular topic. Long John Silver is a grown-up pirate story, rich of historical references where real and fictional characters interact brilliantly. Jack Sparrow was good, but Silver will never be matched!
Pan Yanrui 潘雁蕊
I remember when I was young, the phrase we heard about the most was “꼇댔꼇냥꼽” (spare the rod, spoil the child). At that time it was common to use physical punishments on children. Even teachers used to beat us. Fortunately nowadays the simple and crude management methods of the past have lost their role, and are seen for what they really are: a weapon to harm parent-child relationships. But how to effectively discipline children without punishment or pampering? Personally I found Positive Discipline by Jane Nelsen very helpful on the issue. Through years of experience in children’s education, Nelsen has personally lived the experience of an anxious and irritated mother who turned into a happy mother. It helped me to get out of the confusion and frustration of education, and start to see how to become a happy and proud parent. This book taught me how to use positive parenting methods to help my son develop self-discipline, responsibility, cooperation, and other useful social and life skills.
This article appeared in the beijingkids October 2019 Family Foodies issue
Photos: Uni You
