Saturday, July 17, 2010

pleasant surprise

during my growing years, i would spend a lot of time reading. sometimes mandatory, as instructed by my dad for my home-made summer "classes", while other times leisurely. i'd be (actually i still am) surrounded by encyclopedias, filipino-culture stories, bible storybooks, biographies, classic literary stories, other topic-specific books and fairytales. but i'm most fond of the books from adarna house that we have.

adarna house is the largest publisher of filipino children's books. it's been around for 30 years and has a vast collection of topics one can choose from. they have certain sets for pre-school or elementary education (from different shapes and colors to an introduction to filipino presidents). they also have contemporary and classic filipino stories.

my mom bought a handful of adarna books when i was young and added more when my brother and sister came along. i would go to them for information that i needed for homework during my school days. and even when i was working as a teacher, i found them very helpful when story-telling time came or when i needed pictures or activities (some books had an activity or two at the end - like mazes, puzzles or matching). some of the original adarna books that we had growing up are actually still with me. i love the simplicity of the words on some of them, and the floweriness on others. i also love the illustrations that go with them.

it was a pleasant surprise when i met an actual author of one - my previous officemate, nikki dy-liacco. she wrote "the yellow paperclip with bright purple spots". this had cute illustrations by may ann licudine. it talked about a unique paperclip going to places and experiencing a lot of things. dare i say, i was actually reminded of it when i saw the travelling gnome in "amelie", which i've only seen last 2009 - a year after i read the book. i found it a good read and was very happy for nikki that it got the 2005 pbby salanga grand prize. and like a true fan, i had my copy autographed by her. hahaha!  but it was cute that she greeted me in korean (a topic we get to talk a lot about) and it was so sweet of her to write that i was just as unique and colorful as the yellow paperclip . it is one of my most treasured books in my collection. :D

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