<Goodnight, Goodnight, Construction Site>

I freely admit that I’m a book snob because I picked up this book from the book exchange corner on virtue of the fact that it’s a New York Times Bestseller. What’s more, it has been translated into Chinese.

Enrapturing vehicle fans with colourful illustrations, Sherri Duskey Rinker and Tom Lichtenheld tells the story of five vehicles, namely the crane truck, cement mixer, dump truck, bulldozer and excavator, doing their bit at the construction site and putting in a hard day’s worth of work. It reminds me of a certain song designed for national cohesion in my corner. The lines go like this: “Every creed and every race, has its role and has its place.”

Of course, my four-year-old toddler would struggle to understand stuff like cooperation and the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. At this point in time, I would be grateful if he can recognise “Good night” within the title. However, this tale is written in the form of rhyming sentences, which could be useful in helping him develop an ear for sound. You know, rhymes like “road/load” and “day/play”. Why am I so laser-focused on this pair of words? That’s because Japanese, his first language, doesn’t have the “l” sound. Forgive me for being fixated on determining the value he needs to derive from this book.

The Chinese version, on the other hand, made me realise how hard it is to raise bilingual children. Chinese people have a habit of using four-character idioms or sayings because they express a well of wisdom (and make the speaker appear intelligent)! But while 天下无敌 (invincible) and 威风无比 (powerful) may still be accessible to children, how do you expect them to relate to complicated ones like 勤勤恳恳 (hardworking) and 气喘吁吁 (panting)? To be honest, I had to Google 气喘吁吁 to learn how to pronounce it. So, I learnt that the original version might be written for lower primary kids, but only secondary school teens would be able to appreciate the Chinese version. It’s weird. And it may be hard to find a story that appeals to a kid mentally and emotionally in both English and Chinese renditions.

Guess I would be keeping the English book and recycling the Chinese one.