【推荐1】Activity books for the holidays

Get off your phones and tablet computers! Read as many books as you can. These entertaining books will serve you well.

This puzzle book is perfect to we carried in your pocket or backpack for long journeys. Inspired by the popular online game Wordle, it is a pretty interesting book for anyone who loves word games, whether you’re going to play on your own or challenge friends and family to see who can solve the puzzle first.

If you’re planning a summer of adventures to explore the great outdoors, then you’ll love this brilliant book. It teaches you how to read a map like an expert. Then, put your new-found navigation skills to the test with a host of map-reading puzzles that will keep you entertained for hours.

This book is packed with inspiring and creative activities. There are lots of ideas of designing or inventing things. Design your own museum, draw a self-portrait (自画像) or create a board game. All you need is a pencil, paper and’ your imagination.

Be inspired by the world around you with this fun activity book, which will encourage you to see it like an artist and record what you see through drawing, writing and photography. It combines activity ideas, space to write, draw and stick things on, and information about inspiring artists.

【推荐3】Mother slipped into my bedroom on the night of my sixth birthday, hands behind her back. “I have one more present for you,” she said. “One I wanted to save until now. Close your eyes and hold out your hands.”

I did so in amazement. And in my hands she placed a brand-new hardcover book. A picture of a little girl with her arms wrapped around a pig decorated the cover. “It’s Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White,” Mother said. “The perfect story for a six-year-old.”

“It might be too hard for you to read by yourself right now,” Mother said. “But I thought I’d read a chapter to you every night if you want me to.” I nodded. And so she began the timeless story of Charlotte, the spider that is loving and clever, with the magical first sentence I’ll never forget: “where’s Papa going with that ax?”

Mother wasn’t exactly true to her word. She didn’t read me a chapter of Charlotte’s Web every night. Sometimes she read three or four. In less than a week, we reached the final pages, sobbing together as she read the part where Charlotte dies. We sighed sadly as the book ended with the magical sentences I’ll never forget: “It is not often that someone comes along who is a true friend and a good writer. Charlotte was both.” That’s when I fell in love with reading.

And more books followed. As time passed and my reading skills improved, Mother and I took turns reading chapters aloud, snuggled (依偎) together in the oversized armchair in the corner of my bedroom.

When I read To Kill a Mockingbird, Catcher in the Rye and The Grapes of Wrath in high school, Mother did, too, so that we could talk about them. My letters and phone calls home from college began, “Let me tell you what I’m reading.”

So it was no surprise when, just hours after the birth of my first child, Mother slipped into my hospital room with her hands behind her back. “I have a present for Meg.” she said. “Close your eyes and hold out your hands.”