The Birth Story of Reading Panda:
Two moms, an idea and enormous passion for picture books!
We are both graduates with 4 kids among us, at the ages of 7, 6, 4 and 3. The idea of a Chinese books subscription box started from our very genuine intention of wanting to do something that will allow us to continue to nurture our kids with the world’s most beautiful picture books, but at the same time being able to inspire and support other parents!
We found that most bookstores carry only Chinese children’s books in textbooks and have virtually no support for selecting quality story books. Being moms, we understand that many parents are pressed for time and may not be able to filter through the choices to pick the most suitable books for your kids. Therefore, we have decided to use our knowledge and expertise to select the best of the best books that fit your child’s literary tastes and interests. Due to popular demand we have now extended to offer English books too!
We created our own website (first one ever!) and a social media community to share inspiring parenting tips. We made the efforts of speaking to publishers, filtering through books to select the best books for your little ones.
Peggy has qualifications in Children Educational Psychology. She emphasizes the benefits of co-reading is far more than simply improving our children’s literacy skills. It helps build a stronger bond with our children, develop better creativity and also thinking skills compared with watching videos which does the imagining for our children. The list of benefits goes on and we shall share more in the future with you.
There is nothing better than reading with our children tucked in the crooks of our arms, discovering the world together and satisfying their forever curious mind whilst understanding more about each other. It is perhaps the most sublime form of bonding.
– Jen and Peggy
Our Mission
We believe, as Dr. Frank Searfini puts it (an award winning children’s author and illustrator):
There is no such thing as a child who hates reading; there are only children who have not found the right book.
Our mission is to find quality books that children will enjoy reading, whilst balancing the importance of maintaining a variety of books to broaden their horizons. We aim to share our knowledge with parents, working together to cultivate the lifelong passion of learning in our children.
Why should you trust us to surprise you with books?
It is a leap of faith, we know! As much as we strive to find the best fit for every subscribing child’s profile, we can’t guarantee that everyone will like every book, but here’s what we are sure of:
1) We go through countless picture books every month. Many are good, but they aren’t the ones we’re interested in. We want the ones that wow! The ones that are magical!
2) The books we pick have different sensibilities and aesthetics, but they have delighted or inspired us in some ways. Jen also runs a second-hand children’s bookstore and knows very well what books children like.
3) The books we pick have been vetted by real live kids, our kids. Their feedback counts!
4) It makes us especially happy to send out books that many of you aren’t likely to have discovered on your own. We aren’t going to send books like Goodnight Moon or Where the Wild Things Are, because, wonderful as they are, most of you would have gotten them without us.
