Referring to these points…

TEACHING OF MATHS AND SCIENCE IN BAHASA MALAYSIA

• “The aim of making Malaysians more proficient in English has not changed with the decision to revert the teaching of Science and Mathematics to Bahasa Malaysia, Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak said…it was still the Government’s aim to see Malaysians proficient in English and master it to enable them to compete in the global arena.”
• Education Minister Tan Sri Muhyi­­ddin Yassin on Wednesday announced that the subjects would be taught in Bahasa Malaysia or in the mother tongue in vernacular schools from 2012, while English would be given prominence by beefing up the teaching of the language.
• He said increasing the time allocated to teaching English, introducing English literature and language laboratories, among others, would be a better method in boosting proficiency in the language than using it to teach Mathematics and Science.

1. I am relieved to hear that our government is still keen to ensure that the future generation of Malaysians will be able to compete in the global arena. While many parents are upset about the switch back to teaching Science and Mathematics in Bahasa Malaysia, I have to remind them the government’s decision is based on the interests of the majority.

In case they have forgotten, let me remind them that the standard of English in Malaysia started to decline the year English stopped being a compulsory ‘pass’ subject in the SPM examination (equivalent to the GCE ‘O’ Levels, Year 10 or Grade 10).

When I was in Form 5 (in the early 90s) we still had good English teachers (whether they are Malay, Chinese or Indian) who taught with passion and had quizzes, riddles, language games, English week, drama etc even though our English textbooks were DEAD boring.

In the late 1990s, I started hearing about young English teachers who could barely speak English much less teach it. Notwithstanding that, they were not very enthusiastic teachers…

At around that time, we English majors were ‘endangered species’ and I know many of my Education major friends who scrambled to find options out because joining the teaching force meant low pay, loads of paperwork and lack of advancement.

Many of our old teachers also opted for early retirement because they were unhappy with the Education Department’s administrative policies.

After teaching English in a private college for 5 years, I decided to jump ship myself. My students were horrified to hear how low my salary was! Heck, I loved to teach English but I had to make a living too - and yes, even teachers dream of driving a nice car, going for a holiday overseas, dressing up and other fancies those in the higher income group enjoy

At around 2000, I was fortunate to find a fun job working for an American organization solely for my proficiency in English. They were delighted and surprised to find me, which goes to show you how badly we’re doing then…

In my new career involving regional and international relations, I was tasked with hiring junior executives to support our work. Boy, was it tough! We just had to deal with the high turnover - and their poor work ethics not to mention poor English.

2. I learned that I did not need to speak in an American or British accent to be understood. It’s also down to ATTITUDE. Many varieties of English are spoken around the world thus I don’t see anything wrong with having a Malaysian accent. That’s what makes us unique!

3. What’s more, we need to think about the Malay, Chinese, Indian, Orang Asli, Iban, Kadazan etc children in rural parts of Malaysia - Bahasa Malaysia is their language for communication. English is like a foreign language to them!

If you can’t imagine their suffering, then imagine yourself studying Maths and Science in German, Spanish or Arabic…can you do it?

Do you realize that you’ve first got to translate the meaning of the words before you can even start to understand the concept. This means DOUBLE WORK especially as you’ve got other homework, tests and exams.

Now that I’m forced to speak in Chinese here, I know for one it will be absolute torture if I HAD to learn Chemistry or Math in Chinese!!!

I really felt sorry for a Malay family I met in the government hospital because not only do the parents have to support the 4 children, they also have to send one kid for English tuition - yet, he still flunks English, Science and Math because English is not spoken at home.

I know how they feel because my own kid isn’t speaking Chinese as well as the Chinese kids in kindy because I speak English with him at home. And I can’t complain because I’m the minority here…

THE ENGLISH TEACHERS

• “Najib said another issue was the critical allowance given to teachers involved in teaching Science and Mathematics in English. He said some teachers were more concerned about their allowance than the overall objective of reversing the policy.” (The Government would also save RM40mil annually from rolling back the policy, by recouping the allowance that had to be paid to the teachers teaching the subjects.)

• Retired English teachers who want to serve on a contract basis can apply to the Education Ministry from next year. Education director-general Tan Sri Alimuddin Mohd Dom said the teachers would be placed in schools near where they were living.

• Alimuddin said negotiations were on-going between the ministry and several countries including Australia, New Zealand, India and Britain for the employment of the 1,000 foreign teachers.

• Elaborating on the reversal to Bahasa Malaysia, Alimuddin said the lack of proficiency in English among the teachers had resulted in ineffective learning among the students. “Only about 25% of the teachers achieved excellent and good bands according to surveys carried out by the ministry twice a year. The survey rates teachers’ English proficiency according to five bands, from very weak to excellent.”

• Meanwhile, Deputy Education Minister Dr Mohd Puad Zarkashi said the Government would spend RM5bil to emphasise the teaching and learning of English in schools.

• He also said several education modules would be introduced to help teachers and students learn various aspects of the language such as grammar, oral and listening skills.

Obviously, the English teachers are *very important* if we are serious about improving the standard of English among our students.

1. I hope that the Education Ministry remembers to focus on hiring GOOD teachers who can teach English, not just teachers who can speak good English…

Hong Kong, mainland China and Japan where English is a foreign language, ‘native English speakers’ are enticed to teach in those countries with free air tickets, expat salaries, expat benefits including free accommodation and free holidays.

2. In Malaysia where English is a second language, we don’t need to hire foreigners - why won’t the Education Ministry make the language teaching profession attractive instead? After all, we’re supposed to be developing our human capital, right???

I realize that the teaching profession in Malaysia is now quite attractive but then I hear of people joining the industry for the perks and not for the love of teaching. It seems to me that something could be wrong with the hiring process here?

On one hand, we’re reducing the hiring of foreign workers (blue-collar workers) but we are spending even more money to hire white-collar foreigners. If we don’t have confidence in our own people, then how are we going to have confidence in ourselves?

In so many countries around the world, people are fighting to claim back their country but here we are going back to our colonial days??? You certainly don’t hear of other Commonwealth countries hiring foreign English teacher. Sigh, what a step back for English in Malaysia…

3. Regardless of which language Maths and Science is taught in, please make sure that:

• teachers are experts in these subjects and that they are trained to teach;
• the curriculum and textbooks are interesting (why don’t we just copy the Singaporeans? Singaporean education is now an export commodity!) ;
• the English teachers who are currently in the teaching force are there because they CHOSE to major in English, not forced to in the university.

Please STOP harping on grammar - a grammar-oriented methodology has already been proven ineffective by researchers in the US, UK, Asia and Latin America (and deadly boring) since the 1970s!!!

In my 5 years of teachng, I can tell you that I have students who score 100% on grammar tests but can’t write effectively, chat to make friends or even speak in public. What we need is a holistic approach…

Oh, boy, I sure can’t wait to go home…my children’s education is at stake here!

“The Cat in the Hat” starts off with a boy and his sister, Sally stuck at home alone on a rainy day with nothing to do. As they sit staring out of the window, a Cat with a hat walks in and promises the kids “lots of good fun that is funny” and “good games we could play”.

The kids’ pet fish senses trouble and tries to advise the children to chase the Cat away but the cunning Cat stays on and starts his tricks:

• balancing on a ball;
• balancing an umbrella, the pet fish, a book, a cup and saucer, a cake and MORE and MORE things!

Of course, they soon come tumbling down creating a big mess…But the Cat introduces Thing 1 and Thing 2 who “help” to clean up…

Review: My boy *loved* watching the Cat balance the various items and got excited at the HUGE mess and of course, the two Things who cause even more havoc around the house.

As he learned the words of various things found around the house, he also learned about keeping his playthings back where they belong and tidying things up.

The best is that Dr. Seuss has managed to turn this simple children’s adventure into such an educational and fun story to read!

THE CAT IN THE HAT COMES BACK

The boy and his sister, Sally are asked by their Mother to help shovel snow off the driveway when the Cat shows up and tells them to continue with what they are doing - HE’s going into the house to “find something to do” O_O

The Cat ends up eating a cake in the bath tub with the water running! The boy chases the Cat out of the tub, only to find a PINK ring all around it. What’s worse, the Cat takes the Mother’s dress to clean the ring…

The rest of the story deals with how the Cat and and his troop of 26 “Little Cats” (named letters A - Z) tried to get rid of the PINK stain which spreads itself all over the house and the compound.

Review: Another exciting adventure with the Cat minus the Fish. Here, the book goes through letters of the alphabet and being responsible on their own.

My boy seemed to identify with the boy in the book because he was horrified too when the Cat used the Mother’s dress to clean the spot and also when the pink spot jumped from one place to another and grew so humongous that even the snow in the yard was PINK!

I think he felt as relieved as the kids did when the Cat restored the snow to its original, clean white

Fantastic children’s books! Grab a copy from my Amazon Bookstore

Since I’d earned some money from a writing project, I thought I’d get a nice present for my boy as he’s settled into the Chinese preschool so well.

I have to admit that I worry about him a bit especially as I haven’t been giving him any pre-handwriting worksheets to do here. Also, those pre-handwriting workbooks are not that easy to find around here.

Since he’s learning more Chinese than English at preschool, I thought this Phonics Writing Desk would be useful for me to work on his handwriting at home. The version I tried had Chinese instructions printed instead of English.

The Phonics Writing Desk looks like an extension of the Leapfrog Fridge Phonics set as it had similar alphabets which vocalized the individual sounds for each letter. This set had the addition of lower case alphabets printed next to each capital letter.

To help the child practise handwriting, a display screen shows a letter (upper or lower case) for the child to print onto the double lines below.

Besides letters, the child will also learn to print words by selecting this function using the sliding button above. Seems like a great tool to practise spelling too

There is also a “create-a-word” function which enables the child some degree of ‘free writing’.

I had great fun trying to Phonics Writing Desk out and was all ready to buy it but then, I was disappointed by the poor quality of:

a) the display screen - the letters do not appear as boldy as it does in the product photo and

b) the handwriting section - I had to apply quite a bit of pressure to write out each letter. I understand that preschoolers may grip pencils quite hard when they’re learning to write. Even so, the letters didn’t appear as clearly as shown on the product photo.

Even the sales assistant who helped me (seeing it used the first time) had to agree with me on this point. If you’re getting this for a toddler or preschooler, do try it out first.

In fact, bring the child along to test it out!

As a booklover, I buy most of my books from:

• chain bookstores like Popular, MPH or Borders - I just love browsing through the shelves, looking through the discount bins and finding some really great reads
• thrift bookstores like (sniff, sniff) The Big Bookshop and Pay Less Books;
• secondhand bookstores at Bazaar Chowrasta in Penang (I’ve yet to visit the secondhand bookstore haven I hear about at Amcorp Mall…) or
• hanging on to books I’ve rented in the past from Novel Hut or Novel City!

I’m not much of an online book shopper (except for cases when I’ve bought books for friends or friends’ children as gifts).  Why?

Well…online bookstores come with shipping charges, which I’m really, really reluctant to pay. As it is, a nice new novel in Malaysia already costs RM30+.

Imagine how hard it is to pay an additional RM10+ for shipping especially if the shipping charges go by weight. Books are heavy, you know!

Also, most online bookstores sell new books but the physical bookstore tend to have bargain bins.

What’s more, I prefer the experience of flipping through the pages or digging through the discount piles much more than clicking through pages and pages of book covers…it’s really not the same!

Most of the time, I come home really *happy* with an armload of books (both fiction and non-fiction, for myself or for my son), barely crossing a grand total of RM150

Even if some online bookstores offer FREE shipping, this is offered for purchases above RM150 or RM200. To reach that amount, I find myself pressured to find books that I want either by using the ‘Search’ feature or by browsing through the categories, if I have the patience…which I don’t.

Now…AbeBooks is slightly different.

At the AbeBooks - Best Buys section, you’ll get “brand new copies of the hottest titles at huge discounts“.

For example:

• Lisa See’s Shanghai Girls, retailing at US$25.00 is selling at US$9.71 and
• Stieg Larsson’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, retailing at US$24.95 is only US$6.15

What’s more AbeBooks - Free Shipping option rounds up booksellers who provides FREE Domestic Shipping on selected new, used, out of print books with NO minimum purchase! Now, that’s my kind of bookstore

I’ve bought several used specialty books (on early childhood education, copywriting, running a home business etc) on AbeBooks. Using the ‘Advanced Search’ function,

• I look for the book by author, title, keyword or ISBN number and
• I then narrow down search to booksellers in Malaysia, Singapore or nearby countries.

Feels like I’m searching through a university library database, with the option of buying the books. This far, I’m happy with the condition of the books when they arrive!

Mothers and fathers may want to check out the Children’s Fiction section. Not only can you find MILLIONS of new and used children’s books, you can also return your purchase within 30 days if the books are not as described on the website.

College students may be interested to Save up to 90% on New and Used Textbooks. Since most college textbooks are used for only one semester, why waste money buying a NEW copy when a used copy is just as good? You can also sell your used textbooks there…

I’m really interested in the ‘buyback books’ section but currently, AbeBooks only offers this option in Australia, Canada and the UK. Hope they’ll broaden their regional coverage soon…

I can become a professional bookseller too but the monthly fee of US$24 deters me - would I be able to sell that many books to cover this fixed cost???

Lastly, I wish that AbeBooks would accept Paypal across all its sites - that way, I can buy more books LOL! For now, I need to find individual booksellers who offer that…

So, anyone out there who regularly buys or sells on Abebooks? Love to hear from you!

I was attracted by the blurb:

“Amanda Woods is discovering that the person other people think she is and the person she really is are not the same. She doesn’t want to be like her demanding mother or her perfect older sister, and even though she feels close to her father, she doesn’t want to be like him either. But she has to start somwhere.

So she changes her name from bland Amanda Woods to Amanda K. Woods - someone who is proud and strong and sure of herself.”

…and glad that I read the book! I think The Secret Life of Amanda K. Woods is a must-read for every young girl out there who’s trying to find herself as she grows and change amidst her family, friends and community around her.

The book starts with 11 year old Amanda saying goodbye to her childhood friend, Lyle, who’s moving to another city. Her mother is glad he’s moving away because she never really approved of Lyle, whose family lived in a house trailer…

You can imagine what Amanda’s mother is like from these lines:

“Amanda’s mother was an elegant woman who had strong opinions about what was proper. She had made a rule that Amanda couldn’t buy comics or have any in her house. Comics weren’t literature, she said.”

Boy, she sure reminds of me of the controlling, prim-and-proper mother who:

• dresses up her children in beautiful and expensive but impractical clothes,
• forbids her children from playing with water, mud or getting dirty;
• chooses EVERY one of her children’s playmates and later, friends;
• manipulates the husband or father into submitting to her every decision with the excuse “It’s best for the children”…

At 11, Amanda’s too young to question her mother but slowly, she realizes that her mother dictates pretty much everything in her daily life and her future.

Amanda doesn’t get along with her older sister, who she sees as Ms. Perfect but later, both sisters reveal surprising truths about each other.

Amanda also gets to know her father better and is surprised to hear her father defying her mother and insists that he will be the one to raise Amanda since her mother had already done her part (or damage) on Amanda’s older sister.

The book also shows Amanda having trouble making friends at school - she thinks the “cool girls” are not worth being friends with and when she succeeds in being study partners with a nice girl, her mother’s “holier-than-thou” attitude threatens the friendship…

“The Secret Life of Amanda K. Woods” also has funny episodes especially Amanda’s adventure with her French pen friend…the letters between them make interesting reading but what’s funnier is Amanda’s attempt at creating a new identity for herself.

I’d strongly recommend mothers with pre-teen girls to get this book for your pre-teen or teenage daughters. Growing up as a teenager, I also had problems with friendship, peer pressure, trying to fit in and of course, the mother-and-daughter relationship.

If you have a 9-12 year old daughter, I think reading a book about the challenges ahead may help her (and you) be better prepared for them

As the 11 - 12 year old kids debate about whether to inform the school authorities or not, they finally vote NOT to because they want to show the school authorities that they are matured enough to handle themselves.

Karen Ballard, the brightest and most natural leader of the class gets everyone on track by following the day’s schedule, as if Mr. Fabiano was in the class with them.

A lot is happening in the sixth grade class:

• Rachel White has been silent for 6 months since the day their classmate, Tommy Feathers, died. She’s in post-traumatic shock (similar to what the little boy in John Grisham’s “The Client” experienced after they witness a murder) because Tommy had a massive crush on her but she’d been really nasty to him when he was alive;

• Bastian Fauvell’s father is in the Air Force and their family has moved a total of 8 times in his twelve years of life - from Okinawa to Virginia to Nevada to Florida to Arizona to Alabama to North Carolina to South Carolina and now, to Hawaii. He’s used to the moving but now he’s agonizing over flying his puppy, Barkley, separtely in cargo (!) then the quarantine for 4 months. Should he put Barkley through the trauma or leave him behind?

• Sean O’Grady lives with a boozer father and his ditzy girlfriend - his home is a mess as his clothes are either unwashed or unfolded, breakfast is anything instant and beer bottles lie everywhere…

Other kids in the class include Christopher, a rich, bratty kid who shoots his mouth off at anyone he wants to tease, Rachel’s best friend, a chubby girl named Missy whose always a target for Christopher.

“Flying Solo is quite a page-turner because pre-teens being pre-teens, they are likely to blow up into a major quarrel or fight without an adult around. Keeping to the class schedule helped them maintain a normal school day.

Several episodes threaten to disrupt the peace and order (e.g. someone gets hurt, they get emotional being reminded of Tommy Feathers’ death) and I was really worried the story would end the way it did in the classic“The Lord of the Flies” by William Golding

Interestingly, it doesn’t although the school authorities find out in the end that the sixth grade class had been on their own the whole day.

This book gave me a peek inside a typical school day at an international school, which follows the American school system, where students stay in one room while teachers move in and out.

Students require a pass to venture out of the classroom - really different from the days I went to school. All we needed was the teacher’s permission! And I don’t think teachers looked at us suspiciously when they see us walking along the hallways…

I really like the way the Language Arts (or English) class is conducted because students were asked to write “flashdrafts”, which are essentially daily journal entries. They are then asked to sit in a circle to discuss what they have written - a student has the right NOT to share what they have written.

I’d used daily journals in my English classes (for students to practise freeform writing), which students like because they could share their thoughts / opinions with me. Also, it forced them to do a bit of writing each day, which helped to lessen “writer’s block” a bit.

Another ritual Mr. Fabiano practised in his class is a “Rock Ritual” where a departing student would choose a rock he/she liked - sitting in a circle, each student would hold the rock and say something nice to that student. In the end, the student takes the rock (and the beautiful memories) home with him or her.

“Flying Solo” is a really great read because it shows 11 to 12 year olds demonstrating their need for and sense of independence and responsibility.

Imagining myself back as a 12 year old, I’d really LOVE this book. As a parent now, I’d be worried if I hear of a group pre-teens (dealing with various teenage issues) entirely on their own for an entire day…guess it’s easier being a teen than it is being a parent, huh?

Flying Solo by Ralph Fletcher
ISBN: 0-440-41601-9
Publisher: Yearling

“Only one book. Read just one time. Say, pleasssssse…”

I couldn’t say no

He chose “The Trucks are Stuck” again, clamebered onto the bed to wait for me while I refilled his water bottle.

When I joined him there, he said,

“Lucas read by yourself.”

And I nearly fell off the bed when he turned to the page after the title page and “read” aloud:

“The pizza van was stuck in the mud.
The police car was stuck in the mud.
Stuck in the gluey, gooey mud.”

I laughed (out of disbelief and also because he was reading three lines off a blank page). Anyway, I praised him and then told him that’s the not the page where the words are…

This has to be one of the most amazing reading sessions we’ve ever had - I was laughing and WOW-ing at him the whole time! Unknowingly, he’d memorized practically the whole book

During our previous sessions, he’d yell out “Police car to the resuce” (or tow truck or backhoe and etc when he saw the oncoming truck).

This time, as he’s shown interest in the printed words, I decided to trace my finger along each line I read. Also, I kept quiet (and did not repeat, at his request) the parts he “read” out correctly e.g.:

“Bad luck, I’m stuck!”

“The pizza van was stuck in the mud.
The police car was stuck in the mud.
The tow truck was stuck in the mud.
The backhoe was stuck in the mud.
Trapped tight in the mighty mud.”
(he pointed out ‘police car’ in the line)

“Fire engine to the rescue! ‘Quick! Get the hose,’ said the fire captain. ‘We’ll spray this icky mud away.’ ”

“The pizza van bounced out of the mud.”

“And that was the end of the sleepy, creepy, deeper-than-you-think mud puddle.”

What’s unnerving is how calm he was that he could “read” - I was *SO EXCITED* I think Hubby could even hear my exclamations and laughs during his conference call in the next room.

He was so, so adorable reading aloud parts of the book in his teeny toddler voice - I hope I can record this session on video. I bet his aunts are going to have a lark over this too!

His Dad couldn’t wait to end his call to find out what THAT was all about and he’s also insisted that we buy this book for him. I hope I can find it!

Yay, all those nights of reading to him is paying off because we now have a little bookaholic

And I can’t get over how I’d just grabbed “The Trucks are Stuck” (originally published as Preschool to the Rescue) off the shelf after a quick browse - adding it to our check-out pile when I saw the lively illustrations, fairly sure my Bob the Builder fan will enjoy reading about trucks etc.

While I’d browsed through the bookshelves, Hubby read it with him once in the library but little did I know that he was hooked to the book!

Thus, when he kept asking for the “mud book” while Hubby was napping, I didn’t know which book he was referring to Silly Mummy, right?

This cute story starts off with a

“sleepy, creepy, deeper-than-you-think mud puddle”

and how various vehicles i.e. a pizza van, a police car, a fire engine, a tow truck and a backhoe gets stuck in the mud puddle one after another.

Finally, a group of preschoolers run out to rescue the stuck trucks and that’s when you (the adult) realize the twist in the story

The preschoolers get each of the truck out of the mud in creative, different ways and have a good time in the end making mud pies, mud cookies, mud muffins and mud pizzas.

I will have very, very fond memories of this book because it’s the FIRST book my toddler has attempted to “read”. He’d yell:

“Police car to the rescue!” (and etc)

at the appropriate parts and simply loves reading this book again and again and again.

If your child loves trucks, you MUST get this book for him/her. It’s a really, really fun book to read out loud

Preschool to the Rescue by Judy Sierra and Will Hillenbrand
Publisher: Scholastic
ISBN: 0-439-39621-2

In my case, I watched a movie about a book club

The movie’s plot sounded interesting where 6 Jane Austen fans (including an Austen newbie, a goofy guy named “Grigg” and an Austen diehard fan French teacher “Prudie”, whom Bernadette bumps into at the supermarket) meet to discuss a novel each month.

When Sylvia’s (Amy Brenneman of “Judging Amy”) husband dumps her for another woman, her friends, Bernadette and Jocelyn set up the book club and Jocelyn even plots to match her with Griff, who’s actually attracted to her! Can you smell “Emma” already?

The book club gets off on a rocky start because Prudie is incredibly haughty towards the Allegra, Sylvia’s lesbian daughter and the hapless Grigg who brings a bumper 6 books-in-one volume to the first meeting LOL

However, things get interesting as they discuss each novel (Emma, Mansfield Park, Persuasion, Pride & Prejudice, Northanger Abbey and Sense & Sensibility) because their debates on the book’s plot, characters or themes tend to spill over to what’s happening in their lives.

Will the prissy Prudie actually have an affair with her incredibly handsome student (who provides the spark missing in her own marriage)? Will Jocelyn finally realize and accept that Grigg likes her? Will Sylvia’s separation end in divorce? Will Allegra find true love?

I had a great time watching the movie because their discussions on Jane Austen’s books were detailed and thoughtful and the complex lives of the characters themselves provided a lot of entertaining. My favourite character has to be Grigg! Prudie was interesting too but boy, was she irritating…

Lastly, watching the movie has sparked my interest to read the rest of Austen’s novels as I’ve only read “Emma” and “Pride and Prejudice”

Watch the movie:

While “Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl” records the events of the Holocaust from a young adult’s perspective, she did it in hiding from an attic in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. I’ve always felt a painful irony for Anne Frank because she died a little after World War 2 ended when they were free to leave the space they had confined themselves to.

Elli’s (or Livia’s) memoir begins in 1944 but the choronological list of events at the back of the book noted that her father’s business was ordered to close in 1938.

When the book begins, we read about Elli’s strained relationship with her mother, who somehow prefers her brunette and brown-eyed brother, Bubi. Elli is blonde and blue-eyed and yearns fro a more affectionate relationship with her mother.

When she complains to her mother about her getting “no hug and no words of endearment”, her mother responds:

“I don’t believe in cuddling,” Mommy explains with a smile. “Life is tough, and cuddling makes you soft. How will you face life’s difficulties if I keep cuddling you? You’re too sensitive as it is. If I would take you in my lap, you’d never want to get off…You’d become as soft as butter, unable to stand up to life’s challenges.”

Do you think this is true? My mother was never affectionate with us and she used to comment that the relationship between the mother and daughter of “Gilmore Girls” is pure fiction.

This makes me think about my own relationship with my child (and soon to be children). I’m always hugging and kissing my son - to me, he appears to be a confident and secure toddler. Life is tough enough as it is that I don’t believe in re-creating a similar environment at home for the sake of preparing him for the “real world”.

Pardon the stray thought…maybe Elli’s mother was right because she turned out to be a really plucky girl when she was:

Reading I Have Lived A Thousand Years: Growing Up In The Holocaust, I can imagine how difficult it must be for the Jews who suffered under Hitler’s administration to let this go. In the foreword and also throughout the book, Livia Bitton-Jackson doesn’t come across as bitter - reading about her experiences, I feel like I am watching a documentary.

She also states clearly in the foreword that she wrote her book with the hope that:

“…learning about past evils will help us to avoid them in the future. My hope is that learning what horrors can result from prejudice and intolerance, we can cultivate a commitment to fight prejudice and intolerance.

…

My stories are of gas chambers, shootings, electrified fences, torture, scorching sun, mental abuse and constant threat of death.

But they are also stories of faith, hope, triumph and love. They are stories of perseverance, loyalty, courage in the face of overwhelming odds, and of never giving up.

My story is my message: Never give up.”

I Have Lived A Thousand Years by Livia Bitton-Jackson
Publisher: Simon Pulse (March 1, 1999)
Paperback: 224 pages
ISBN-10: 0689823959
ISBN-13: 978-0689823954