CHIEF SECRETARY Farley Augustine has advised parents to give their children books as opposed to toys this Christmas.

He spoke to reporters on December 11 after delivering remarks at the opening of the Logos Hope at the Scarborough port, Tobago.

The ship, which is the world’s largest floating book fair, arrived at the port from Barbados on December 10. It is expected to be in Tobago until December 26.

[caption id="attachment_800107" align="alignnone" width="565"] The Logos Hope, a non-profit floating book fair, will return to TT and open its doors at the Cruise Ship Complex, Port of Spain. -[/caption]

Augustine said he was not recommending that parents refrain from buying toys.

“But I am recommending strongly that parents buy books. I want to encourage reading. It opens the imagination. It broadens the vocabulary.

“It allows people to know the stories and the narratives of people from far and wide and it allows people to have an appreciation for how other people around the world live and other cultures. You could get that from the written pages,” he told reporters.

Augustine added, “You see that thing called imagination, when you read and you have to imagine what’s in the pages because you can’t see the actual photo or the video? That helps with simple things like the essay-writing or the creative writing.

“It helps with your ability to construct prose, which is one of the weak areas, I think, when we look at students’ performance in examinations particularly at the SEA (Secondary Entrance Assessment) level.

“So parents, I will strongly recommend that you bring them here and allow them to get some books.”

He said he sometimes reads to his young daughter, who is approaching two years old.

“We are getting her accustomed to liking and having books around, as opposed to just the toys. So regardless of the age, come get them some books.”

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