Playtimes HK Magazine October 2017 Issue | Page 28

advertorial
Max and Mei’s Milestone
You may be familiar with the cheeky characters at the core of Martha
Keswick’s series of Mandarin learning books, Max and Mei,
but did you know they just turned 10?
T
he idea of the Max and Mei
books came about when Martha
was struggling to find fun
Chinese books for her son, who
was three years old at the time. Seeing a
gap in the market, Martha took the matter
to hand and created her own collection of
child-friendly Chinese books.
The characters at the heart of the Max
and Mei series are inspired by Martha’s
eldest son Sid and Bubble, the little girl
who lived next door who was Sid’s best
friend. One of the key illustrations – drawn
by the talented Mariko Jesse – in Max
and Mei meet the Dinosaur, is based on
a photograph of the two children looking
adorable in their school uniforms. “The
series was originally going to be called
Sid and Bubble, but we decided against
that, mainly because the names did
not translate so well into Chinese while
Max and Mei sounded good in both
languages,” explains Martha.
26
www.playtimes.com.hk
Much like the real life Sid and Bubble,
Max and Mei are best friends. Max is
British and Mei is Chinese. The pair go
everywhere together and have lots of
adventures, many of which are based on
the experiences of Martha and her family
– Martha has four children who are now
aged between 14 and nine.
As well as meeting dinosaurs, Max and
Mei’s adventures lead them to meet the
animals of the Chinese zodiac, with each
of the 12 animals being the subject of a
book. In Max and Mei and the Monkey,
a cheeky monkey steals Max’s hat. This
was based on a real life experience when
a monkey stole Martha’s son's hat during
a trip to Monkey Mountain in Hong Kong.
The books are available in both
simplified and traditional characters
supplemented with Pinyin. At the end
of each story is a vocabulary section,
focussing on key words in the story. It
lists the word in English, the Chinese
characters and also the Pinyin.
The combination of engaging
storylines, fun and quirky illustrations
(which pair hand-drawn illustrations and
photographic collages) and Chinese
characters that are of a level that non-
native speakers can follow, makes the
Max and Mei series the perfect tool to
help children learn to read Chinese.
Martha frequently visits schools in
Hong Kong and overseas to read the
Max and Mei books to students. This is
something Martha loves, finding great
motivation and satisfaction from seeing
the way the children react to the stories.
After writing the Max and Mei series,
Martha worked with illustrator Elvin Ching
to create a series of comic-style books for
older children called Pangu.
Are there any more adventures in the
pipeline for Max and Mei? Never say
never! Martha is open to the idea of more
books, so watch this space…