On my recent trip to Taiwan, I discovered this charming statue of a girl reading in the park adjacent to Sun Yat Sen Memorial Hall in the capital city of Taipei. I love that she seems totally absorbed in her book and that reading is celebrated in this public place. Taiwan has one of the highest literacy rates in the world--98.7 percent. Besides learning to read and write Chinese, children begin learning English in first grade at school.
During my visit I stopped in at the large Eslite bookstore in Taipei and found a wide variety of books for children in both Chinese and English. I also found Chinese translations of many popular English language books, including one of my all-time favorites, The Little House, now celebrating its 75th anniversary.
And, to my surprise, I discovered that what I thought was strictly an American holiday--Halloween--is enthusiastically celebrated in Taiwan as well. As in America, children love to dress in scary costumes and go out trick or treating. The bookstore was full of Halloween themed books to help celebrate.
