Chinese Books and Student Newspapers for P1 to P6

The gap between what a child can read in English and what they can read in Chinese is, for most Singapore children, several years wide. A P4 child reading English novels may be able to manage only a picture book in Chinese, and handing them a Chinese book pitched at their age is the surest way to make them refuse the next one. The rule is to match the Chinese reading level, not the age, and to start lower than feels right.

Start with the student newspapers

Singapore's Chinese press publishes a family of student newspapers that runs from preschool to Primary 6, and they are the most useful Chinese reading a child can do because they are written for Singapore children, in the vocabulary of the MOE syllabus, about things that happen here.

If your child's school does not subscribe, a family subscription is inexpensive and arrives regularly enough to become a habit. The most useful way to read it is not cover to cover but one article, read aloud, once or twice a week.

Primary 1 to 3: pinyin, pictures, and very short

At this level the goal is for the child to finish a book and want another. That means pinyin above the characters, a picture on every page, and a story short enough to read in one sitting.

• 米小圈上学记 (by 北猫). A primary-school boy's diary, in pinyin editions graded from P1 to P4. The humour is exactly right for seven-year-olds and the vocabulary is school life.
• 笨狼的故事 (by 汤素兰). A kind, clumsy wolf who means well and gets things wrong. Gentle, funny, available in pinyin editions, and a long-running favourite with early readers.
• Picture books in translation. Many of the picture books a child already loves in English exist in Chinese editions; a familiar story lets the child follow the Chinese without being lost.

Primary 4 to 6: chapter books without pinyin

By P4 the pinyin should come off, gradually. The child will read more slowly and that is fine; the aim is a book with a plot strong enough to pull them through the unknown characters.

• 淘气包马小跳 (by 杨红樱). A long-running series — more than two dozen books since 2003 — about a mischievous boy and his friends. Each book is a complete story, so a child can start anywhere.
• The 大拇指 student newspaper, read properly: one feature article a week, with the questions at the end, is a comprehension passage in the wild.
• Books of idiom stories. Most idioms tested at P6 come with a story attached, and a child who knows the story remembers the idiom. Choose an edition with one story per idiom and a picture.
• Chinese editions of books the child has read in English. A known plot is scaffolding; the child reads for the language, not the story, and does not notice they are doing it.

Using the library

The National Library Board publishes recommended Chinese reading lists for children by level, and every public library has a Chinese children's section. Let the child choose. A book chosen by a parent is homework; a book chosen by the child from a shelf is reading. The only rule worth enforcing is the level: if the child cannot read the first page without stopping more than three or four times, put it back and pick an easier one.

What to do with a book once it is home

1. Ten minutes a day, at the same time. After dinner, before the English book. Regular and short beats occasional and long.
2. Read aloud at P1 to P3, silently from P4, and aloud again for one paragraph a day at P5 and P6 — because the oral exam is reading aloud, and it needs practice.
3. No vocabulary tests afterwards. Ask what happened, in whichever language the child answers in. Retelling is enough.
4. Let them stop. A book abandoned halfway is not a failure; it is information about the level. Go one step easier next time.

A caution on mainland Chinese editions: the language is standard Mandarin and entirely usable, but some vocabulary differs from Singapore usage, and settings are Chinese cities rather than Singapore. That is not a reason to avoid them — it is a reason to pair them with the local student newspaper, which supplies the Singapore words and settings that PSLE passages use.