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Turning over a new leaf
A young girl peruses the colorful books at Peekabook Library in Sanyuanqiao. [Photo/China Daily]

A children's library designed for pleasure, not education, becomes a success story for four mothers, Han Bingbin learns
Bai Yanhong was swathed in pride as her 6-year-old son recited a lengthy tongue twister before energetically retelling a story he had seen in a picture-story book.
Bai has also been struck by the logical speech patterns of her son, Man Yi, combined with an improved memory and understanding, a sharpened sensitivity to color and a newfound interest in painting.
The mother attributes much of the progress to a reading habit that Man developed one year ago, the root cause of which was access to a quality children's source of books - Peekabook Library in Sanyuanqiao.
Peekabook's bright reading room is described by one of the founders, Luo Ming, as having an essential characteristic for the brand - a space that invites sunshine in.
Turning over a new leaf
Children, mostly younger than 10 years old, sit in the warmth of the natural light. Some are caught up in books while others stare intently at a teacher as her voice animates a tale of wonder and intrigue.
Fantasy plays second fiddle to practicality though, with bookshelves designed to place all material within a child's reach. The books, half of which are in English, cater to children up to the age of 15.
There is a notice board on the wall that informs new-arrivals of the top 10 most popular English and Chinese books recently borrowed and read, along with the top 10 names of children who have borrowed the most books in the past few weeks.
Bai said the essential change Peekabook has harnessed in her son is the desire to read and absorb new material.
She said Man has read at least 100 books in the past year, since he became a member of Peekabook. The cost of buying these books could hit thousands of yuan, but membership to the library was only 800 yuan, plus a 100-yuan deposit.
'Reading here is fun,' Bai said. 'It has a good variety of books, many of which can't easily be found elsewhere.'
Which is one of the founding ideas behind Peekabook, started by four enthusiastic Chinese American women who left successful careers in the US to return to China with fresh ideas: Hu Birong, Wang Yi, Luo Ming and Ning Aidong.
The women say they make use of their resources in the US to keep an eye on book launches and school libraries, in order to find the most popular children's books on offer.
The stress placed on US books comes from a belief that while many Chinese books relate to children in tones considered overly educative, American books do not.
All four women graduated from either Peking University or Tsinghua University and are determined to offer a more relaxed system to the children.
'Reading should not be too serious,' Wang said. 'This is why we don't use tall and solemn bookshelves.'
A serious outlook is used with the library's facilities though - each branch employs a foreign teacher as well as a Chinese equivalent.
This philosophy seems to be attracting success, with the four Peekabook sites - located in Wanliu, Jinsong, Sanyuanqiao and Wangjing - totaling more than 1,000 members, 5 to 10 percent of whom are foreigners and 20 to 30 percent are Chinese returning from overseas, according to Wang.
Popularity brings its shares of problems too though. Confronted with increasing demands, the library is facing challenges in book collections and financial sources, Luo said.
'We hope to find organizations or foundations that share our idealism,' Luo said. 'We also look forward to people, especially foreigners, donating proper books to the library. Volunteers will also be very warmly welcomed.'
In addition to providing 40,000 copies of top-rated English and Chinese books, the library also offers various fun activities to 'create and celebrate a happy reading atmosphere, a welcoming learning environment and a peek view into the world of merging cultures', as the library's slogan goes.
But for Wang and Luo, the goal is much simpler: 'We hope many years later, people will feel proud to say 'I read at Peekabook when I was little.''

Turning over a new leaf
From top: Two boys share a book on a slide in the reading room; a boy, holding a book entitled I Spy, steals a look at another; the four Chinese American women that set up Peekabook.

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