Finding a children’s book to talk about local biodiversity of Hong Kong is not an easy task. In order to introduce the concept of biodiversity to Hong Kong’s children, The Hong Kong Bird Watching Society (HKBWS) has made her second very own storybook, named “The Postman Kingfisher”. Greater news to hear is that it is now open for public viewing!

“The Postman Kingfisher” (翠鳥郵差 in Chinese) (c)HKBWS

The story starts with a travelling Barn Swallow who asks White-throated Kingfisher, the Postman, to deliver letters for friends in Hong Kong. During the journey, Kingfisher visits different habitats to give out the letters one by one. Through the story, children can get to know more than 37 animal species and 5 habitats that they can actually see in Hong Kong. Animals ranges from lives in the wetlands to forest, from one as large as an Osprey to as small as a Firefly, and from famous ones like the Chinese White Dolphin to the lesser known Hong Kong Newt.

Readers will visit different habitats and animals during the journey with Postman Kingfisher (c)HKBWS

More than 37 animals appeared in the 16-page story (c)HKBWS

The story is designed to have few words with an open end. So the story can fit in to serve different educational purposes for educators or parents using the storybook. Thanks to Carmen Ng, a Hong Kong illustrator, animals in the storybook are illustrated in a way that reflects reality while being attractive to children’s eyes. Other than children being the target audience, educators and parents are important readers of the story as well. The storybook is accompanied by a guidance reading. It is there not only to assist storytellers to be familiarized with the wildlife in the story, but also to learn about the content by themselves. Biodiversity is a topic for all, regardless of age or role in society.

“The Postman Kingfisher” is a story derived from a HKBWS program funded by the Environment Conservation Fund. In the program, a series of in-school activities for children were held between 2016 and 2018. Various education activities were carried out, such as field visit to green areas near schools, interactive talks, games, art and craft workshops, as well as storytelling. More than 5,000 children participated in the program and the storybook used in the program is now open for public to read and use for education.

To read and download the e-Storybook and the guidance reading, please visit HKBWS webpage at: https://cms.hkbws.org.hk/cms/join-us-tw/zh-tw/project-tw/education-tw/kinder-tw/kingfisherstorybook (in Chinese only)

Children enjoy an outdoor storytelling session (c)HKBWS

A hand puppet of White-throated Kingfisher brings the story alive! (c)HKBWS