BOOKTOBER COMES BACK
WITH a FOOD THEME THIS YEAR

On October 28, 2022, the community of the Ap Lei Chau Estate watched monkeys, witches, aliens, and more march around the different buildings and shops. This was the Booktober Parade, a yearly event hosted by The Harbour School, where different students dressed up as their favorite book characters and walked in the vicinity of the estate to celebrate and spread the school’s love of books to the community. This is just one of the many activities hosted throughout the 2022 Booktober month. Booktober, as its name suggests, is about reading books and having fun. Everyone plays a role in this book-themed month.

This year, Booktober was food-themed, and there were many different events that were both food and book related such as the Cooking Night at the Library (an event to have fun reading and cooking), Food Read Too (a schoolwide food-themed photo competition), and the School Cookbook (a collection of different family recipes). Story in 60 Seconds, Guess What, and Drop Everything and Read (DEAR), were small TIDE activities hosted on three different Tuesdays from the 11th of October to the 25th of October. Dr. Rick Smith, a learning and well-being specialist, and his therapy dog Tucker were there for students to read to. There were also three different guest speakers coming to THS for Booktober. Last but not least, more traditional events like the Parade and the Book Fair were held during Booktober too.

The Cooking Night at the Library was hosted on the 21st of October, 2022 from 5:00-6:30 PM. The librarians were originally planning a Mexican Night at the Library, but it was replaced with the Cooking Night. There were two sections of the event: the reading section and the cooking section. In the reading section, Ms. Christine Greenberg, THS Primary principal, read food-themed books to students and their families. What was special about this event was that Ms. Greenberg cooked food for the families during the cooking section.

Food Read Too was a food-themed photo competition where students took photos of themselves reading in food clothes or in real food. The winners of grade groups Junior Grade 1 to Grade 3, Grade 4 to Grade 6 and Middle School were given a Deliveroo voucher of $250 as a prize, while the whole school winner received a Deliveroo voucher of $500. The winner for Junior Grade 1 to Grade 3 was Aria and Brooklyn Chau (JG1 & 2A); the winner for Grade 4 to Grade 6 was Michelle Cheung (4A); and the winner for Middle School was Taizo Smidt-Olsen (7A). The whole school winner was Candice Lau (1A).

Meanwhile, the school cookbook is a collection of recipes from students all over THS. It contains many multicultural recipes that represent THS. All students had to enter a Google Form to submit their recipe. For the cover of the cookbook, students each made one design for the cookbook cover and there was a competition to find the best cookbook cover to use. 5B student Nao Shohtoku’s cookbook cover won the competition. The cookbook’s design was taken from the winning cookbook cover’s theme.

Story in 60 Seconds was the first of three different Tuesday TIDE activities hosted by the library team. Teachers would record students telling a story in 60 seconds, no matter if it was recalling a story they’ve read or telling their experiences in life. Guess What, the second activity, was where a student acted out a title or character of a book only via body language and all other students try to guess what it is. The last Tuesday TIDE activity was DEAR, short for Drop Everything and Read. During TIDE that day, everyone read a book of their choice for the whole period of class.

There were 3 different special guest speakers who either attended online or came to THS. Laura Gehl, a picture-book, board book, and early readers writer who has written nearly two dozen of these books, had a talk with JG1-G2 students on the 12th of October at 9:00 - 9:45 AM via Google Meet. She talked to the kids about her food-related books and her Jewish background. Second of all, a few guest speakers from Africa Center HK came as a group. Africa Center HK is an organization that bonds African and non-African communities in Asia together. In the on-site visit, students learned about African food through picture books, videos, and other visualizations. Students also got to see, touch, smell, and taste different African foods such as African palm oil, plantains, and a canned drink called Malta. Last but not least, the third special guest speaker, Phoebe Chan, is a young Hong Kong-based entrepreneur who is the inventor of Mooncake Wellington. She started having an interest in food and cooking when she was young.

Students and teachers dressed up as creatively as they could for the most anticipated event of the month, the Booktober Parade. For example, the Air Floor teachers dressed up as different kinds of sushi and the school administrators dressed up as characters from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. A team of specialist teachers, including Foundry teacher Mr. Dean Lea, Learning Extension teacher Ms. Emilie Razon, Media Tech teacher Mr. Husain Abbas and Art teachers Ms. Lisa Tang and Ms. Vicky Ng dressed up in a group of characters from their evil adaptation of Hansel & Gretel. They won the best dressed Faculty award. While it was enjoyed by many, some students shared feedback on the parade. A Grade 7 student who dressed up as an inflatable alien abductor said, “My least favorite part of booktober this year was the parade. Not because it was not a good experience but it was still slightly hot out and it only lasted a few minutes.”

The month of Booktober is a valued month-long event and tradition of THS. Curriculum & Instructional Coach, Mrs. Jen Crickenberger thinks that Booktober is important for the school because it is a chance for the school to “pause and get back to the heart of learning”. She also thinks that reading is very important, because it is the foundation of learning and the school values it and literacy, so it deserves its own month. She believes that Booktober persuades students who dislike reading to think it is fun. Mrs. C enjoys Booktober because she enjoys reading with children.

School librarians Ms. Ariel Pan and Ms. Celina Ng say that Booktober is a celebration in October that encourages people to read. It enriches students’ school life and it promotes the fun side of reading. Booktober’s activities get students in the writing process and introduce more types of books to them. Everyone has a part in Booktober: The librarians are responsible for planning the activities, and everyone at THS is responsible for carrying it out. Ms. Celina was most excited for the Booktober Parade because everyone gets to dress up; she also was excited because it was her first year running Booktober. Ms. Ariel was most excited about the guest speakers because she could talk to them about foods and why they are writing about food. Both think that Booktober is special because during October there’s a lot of time spent reading and experiencing different cultures; it feels more like outside of class rather than proper lessons.

One of the earliest faculty members to join THS, Ms. Greenberg says that Booktober is run by the librarians of THS; they come to her at the start and come up with lots of ideas with her. She says, “Booktober is a combination, it’s actually a portmanteau, a combination of two words, book and October. And we want to celebrate reading and all kinds of books.” She explains that Booktober was originally a school read-a-thon competition where classes would compete against each other at how many minutes they read books and there would be a top boy and top girl reader. However, they later had an idea to combine book and october to have other more fun activities. According to Ms. Greenberg, that was how Booktober was born. From then on, it was slightly different every year. This year, Ms. Greenberg was excited for the food theme because she loves cooking, and she was excited to read to the kids at Night at the Library.

After Booktober, the same people interviewed previously shared their reflections on this year’s book-themed month. The librarians said that there were many new things tried during this year’s Booktober, and all of them were a success. One of the more notable ones was the Cookbook, because the librarians never expected “so many wonderful recipes and book cover designs”. They noted that more guest speakers and some field trips could be added next year. Mrs. C said that the book fair went especially well with both campuses having a book fair and parent volunteers coming to help. She thinks that “reading books for pleasure deserves to be celebrated”. She also thinks that “having our theme be focused around food was out of the box thinking. It was something different to spice up our annual event.” As for improvements, Mrs. C explained that more independent time could be added to Booktober in periods other than Literacy. She suggested a website (here) to me about why this is beneficial for students. Ms. Greenberg thought that Booktober went very well overall - she loved the fresh new ideas of the food theme, the Food Read Too competition, the Cookbook, and the Night at the Library. She also noted, “Our teachers also did not disappoint with their super cool costumes. Who can read Hansel and Gretel without remembering Mr. Husain now?” Ms. Greenberg thought that the Night at the Library went especially well; many families came to the activity and she enjoyed reading a story and sharing multicultural cuisine. She really loved seeing many families wanting seconds! Ms. Greenberg would like to see more older students dress up in the Parade, but she thinks that what she considers fun might not be fun for others.

It’s been a wonderful Booktober this year with many events, both old and new. Food-related events like the Night at the Library, Tuesday TIDE activities such as Guess What, and having three different guest speakers were all new ideas that became a success. As usual, the Booktober Parade and Book Fair did well this year. With all the fun, participation, and feedback on Booktober, what do you think the 2023 Booktober will be like?