聯合國教科文組織 (UNESCO) 把 4月23日定為「世界閱讀日」(World Book Day)，向大眾推廣閱讀和寫作，並宣揚與閱讀關係密切的版權意識。 為什麼是4．23？原來這天在文學界有特殊的意義，不少傑出的作家都是在4月23日出生或辭世的，包括英國國寶級劇作家莎士比亞（1616年4月23日逝世），其他的文學家還有 Maurice Druon、K. Laxness、Vladimir Nabokov、Josep Pla 和 Manuel Mejia Vallejo 等。
丫丫園地很榮幸再次被 World Book Night 選為協辦單位之一，負責向華裔社區免費派發 20本優秀少年讀物。 今年的指定書是由著名波多黎各籍女作家 Esmeralda Santiago 的回憶錄《When I Was Puerto Rican》，內容記載了她在紐約貧民區的成長，以及母親對她的艱苦栽培，讓才華橫溢的她克服新移民的挑戰，最後進入哈佛大學進修的歷程。是一本啟發少年讀者面對困境的得獎好書。
丫 丫 園 地 免 費 派 書
丫丫園地很榮幸再次被 World Book Night 選為協辦單位之一，負責向華裔社區免費派發 20本優秀少年讀物。 今年的指定書是由著名波多黎各籍女作家 Esmeralda Santiago 的回憶錄《When I Was Puerto Rican》，內容記載了她在紐約貧民區的成長，以及母親對她的艱苦栽培，讓才華橫溢的她克服新移民的挑戰，最後進入哈佛大學進修的歷程。是一本啟發少年讀者面對困境的得獎好書。
Esmeralda Santiago's story begins in rural Puerto Rico, where her childhood was full of both tenderness and domestic strife, tropical sounds and sights as well as poverty. Growing up, she learned the proper way to eat a guava, the sound of tree frogs in the mango groves at night, the taste of the delectable sausage called morcilla, and the formula for ushering a dead baby's soul to heaven.
As she enters school we see the clash, both hilarious and fierce, of Puerto Rican and Yankee culture. When her mother, Mami, a force of nature, takes off to New York with her seven, soon to be eleven children, Esmeralda, the oldest, must learn new rules, a new language, and eventually take on a new identity. In this first volume of her much-praised, bestselling trilogy, Santiago brilliantly recreates the idyllic landscape and tumultuous family life of her earliest years and her tremendous journey from the barrio to Brooklyn, from translating for her mother at the welfare office to high honors at Harvard University.
送 書 方 法 :
在 4月26日 9:00pm 前，將你最喜愛的書的書名（中英文皆可）以電郵告訴我們，記得附上你的姓名、小朋友的年齡、聯絡電話，我們將抽出20為幸運讀者，送你一本今年的好書！
Click here to send e-mail now!
為 什 麼 要 閱 讀 ?
"The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go."
― Dr. Seuss, I Can Read With My Eyes Shut!
"Books are the plane, and the train, and the road. They are the destination, and the journey. They are home."
― Anna Quindlen, How Reading Changed My Life
"Books are the quietest and most constant of friends; they are the most accessible and wisest of counsellors, and the most patient of teachers."
-- Charles William Eliot
"No entertainment is so cheap as reading, nor any pleasure so lasting."
-- Lady M. W. Montagu
"Of all the things which man can do or make here below, by far the most momentous, wonderful, and worthy are the things we call books."
-- Thomas Carlyle
