This post was sponsored by Sagebooks. All opinions are mine and mine alone.
We’ve been without sneak peaks into Sagebooks for a few months but we’re back again. If you haven’t checked out their supplemental products such as the Treasure Boxes or the Comic Book series, you totally should! And if you own them already, it’s always interesting to me to catch glimpses into what went into their creation. Thanks again to Lucia Lau, creator of Sagebooks, for answering these questions for us!
1) What is your most popular story line with children? (Or if this is unknown, what is your personal favorite story line?) This can include all the Sets as well as Treasure Boxes.
My favourite one is 快樂之本 (Happy to Help), TB5. This is the very last story I wrote for Treasure Box so I was faced with quite a few editorial challenges. At the same time, I wanted it to be something personal. This included wanting to feature a rabbit and a cow in the story because they are the zodiac signs of my children.
I struggled for quite some time, trying to make all the pieces fit together. Then one early morning when I was about to wake up, I had a dream. The whole story played out smoothly. It was god sent.
The name of the book is a pun. On one hand, it comes from the saying “助人為快樂之本” (“Helping others is the source of happiness”). On the other hand, 本 also means “a book” in classic Chinese (and modern day Japanese). So the name also means “the book of happiness”.
2) Out of all your products, which one are you proudest of? Why?
The Comic Series, because they were fun to create! I especially like the Idioms collection with the added humourous section. The rebellious part of me always wants to find a funny and nontraditional way to study serious subjects, especially when it comes to classical Chinese. I kept imagining how those old professors would roll their eyes at me disapprovingly, while I was creating that series. Hahah….
It was my proudest moment when I heard parents standing at our booth during the Hong Kong Book Fair, reading the Idioms, laughing out loud and giving the stories a thumbs up.
3) What are some of the services/products you provide for local teachers in Hong Kong that your overseas customers might not know about?
On top of a bi-weekly newsletter being sent out to all our local teacher members in Hong Kong, we also created many teaching resources for them. These include classroom activities which can be played in small classes, some fact (cheat) sheets and printable exercise sheets. We also have dedicated blog posts for them, providing information and tips geared towards teachers.
Currently we are developing some teacher’s manuals and materials for NCS (Non Chinese Speaking) students, as this is a tremendous challenge to HK teachers in recent years because of the sudden influx of migrants. We think these materials could also be useful to overseas parents, because the situations are quite similar. We therefore plan to adapt them for parents in the near future.
