And the Moral of the Story is ….

From Tots to Teens, StarMag

Parents and teachers love stories with lessons or morals. Or at least, many of those I’ve spoken to about children’s books will ask anxiously if a particular story has a moral. Because, they say, a good children’s book will always teach children something good and useful. It’s even better if it has a short, snappy preachy message at the end: “Slow and steady wins the race!” Or “Make hay while the sun shines”, “One good turn deserves another”, “A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush”.

Aesop’s fables end with these little “lessons”. When I read them I imagine someone shaking their finger at me. Of course, no one expects an adult to enjoy being preached to, but adults love preaching to children. Perhaps some see it as payback. Or, they fancy themselves older and wiser, and feel the burning need to share their wisdom and experience with the young and foolish.

Some adults even think it’s a good idea to write preachy children’s books. They decide what they think children should know and then create a story that will deliver the urgent message. The story itself might be nonsensical, the characters boring, the illustrations ugly, but all that seems to be of secondary importance next to the need to moralise.

Farah Gets Lost in the Pasar Malam and Farah Learns the Joy of Sharing, by Shafina Abdul Hamid, are the first two books in a planned series that that aims to teach children “life lessons”.  No prizes for guessing what Farah gets up to in these books. Poor girl, it looks like she’ll go through the entire series making mistakes and learning from them.

Not only are the stories boring, Z. Q. Bak’s illustrations look like they belong to a standard one classroom wall. Why are such amateurish drawings acceptable in a book -- a book that costs money? Not only does it show a lack of respect for young readers (although the preachy tone already confirms this), but it also seems to suggest a low opinion of the adults who are expected to pay for the books.

 

The illustrations in the Ecokids series by Fay Khoo and Asha Gill are of a much higher standard, as the artist is the highly accomplished and experienced Sarah Joan Mokhtar. (Even if you don’t read comics or children’s books, you may have seen her work on the walls of Marmalade Café at Bangsar Village II.) However, this is another series of preachy books, with flimsy stories and a whole lot of very silly characters.

 

So far, three titles have been published with another three on the way. The three already out each feature a different family whose lifestyles impact the environment in various undesirable ways. Luckily, superheroes Eco Boy and Eco Girl whizz the families off, on magic bicycles, to see unhappy Eskimos and distressed dolphins languishing as a result of global warming and pollution. The families immediately change their ways, no questions asked and everyone lives happily ever after as happy eco heroes.

 

Asha Gill has mentioned in various interviews how she wrote these books because, as a new mother, she was worried about the future of the planet. She and Fay Khoo decided that they should try to educate children about environmental issues and so they wrote this book. I’ll allow for the fact that, apparently, 3000 free copies of the book will be given away. Books are expensive and although there are many books out there that raise awareness about the environment and are much better written and conceived, availability and cost is, as ever in Malaysia, a problem.

 

The Eco Kids books are quite affordable, at RM10 per copy, and, hopefully, will be used as an introduction to discussing environmental issues with children. I doubt either Gill or Khoo expect these books to work miracles – at least, I hope they don’t think real kids as pliable as the families in the books. And, by the way, I think it’s a shame that three Malaysians (Sarah Joan, Khoo and Gill) have missed the opportunity to create books that Malaysian children can identify with in terms of characters and settings.

 

Eco Boy and Girl and the families in The Gas Guzzler Gaffe and The Plastic Bag Pickle look Caucasian, and I don’t think many Malaysians take baths, or have swimming pools in their backyards. But, perhaps, Malaysian kids are not the ones these books are meant for. Either that or the authors are only thinking of Malaysian kids who live in certain neighbourhoods!