I just received a package from China, filled with copies of an English-language study book (a “supplemental reader”) for Chinese high schoolers.  The publisher is the People’s Education Press, which creates textbooks and educational materials for schools throughout the People’s Republic under the direction of the Ministry of Education.

The reader contains two of my essays, written specifically for this project, and the first pieces I’ve ever done for a Chinese publisher.

The first essay is about the Beijing Paralympic Games, which followed the 2008 summer Olympics.

The second essay is about kids who use their birthdays to give to people in need, by asking people who attend their parties to donate whatever they were going to spend on presents to charities instead.

The essays are accompanied by reading comprehension questions, which I didn’t write but definitely make the text more engaging.  Maybe I should start adding reading comprehension questions to my short stories as well.

Update:

I’ve discovered that the book contains a section on robots, with questions such as these: “The famous science fiction writer Isaac Asimov stated three laws for Robotics.  Translate the three laws into Chinese.”  I have to admit that there is no passage this entertaining in either of my essays.