Book selection and putting your money down to tell the market what you want

I just scored a bunch of great books (in Chinese) at the school book fair. But an interesting chat with the school staff and their relationships with all the dealers - in fact, it came through an offhand comment about many books being too hard, so they won't sell, so don't pull them out of the boxes. Hmmm... Okay, now I have some insight into what I've been dealing with.

I always look at the amazing selection from Scholastic Books and think, "Why can't the selection in Chinese be even half as good as that?" Half, meaning at least in range of content and volume. But if the books don't sell, then the book dealer adjusts the selection accordingly. Then the selection might get skewed to the lower end of the level. But with a majority non-Chinese-proficient parent community, how are you going to get the books to sell?

I have no doubt that the book dealers see that there is big demand at the lower levels of Chinese books with this new trend of Mandarin Immersion, but then a major drop off in demand at the mid-levels. Then it all picks up again at high school, but it is mostly Chinese families pushing their kids to do that work as they emerge out of Saturday Chinese School and into high school credits for Mandarin.

Parents often complain that there is nothing in the middle. Plus, with a lot of new Mandarin learners whose skills are lower than the previous Heritage Learners average, then what is a book dealer or publisher to do? They've been doing readers. But that is not the same experience as a whole book.

That problem is getting solved pretty quickly. Take a look at the selections available on ChinaSprout and DangDang. But it seems there is a local problem - simply that of parents not buying the books in the first place.

You have to buy the books. Ask your teacher to make recommendations for what your kid can read right now. Then ask for what your kid can work toward being able to read, a level s/he can aim for in a month or two, or even six. Then tell your kid to choose books that look interesting based on the pictures.

Buy them. Put your money down. Invest. The only way toward bilingualism and bi-literacy is to constantly show that this language is a vehicle into lots of interesting content. You must create a culture of books and learning at home by having these books all around. And your school will never get better if you don't put your money where it matters.