Reading Sparks Youngsters' Dreams

"Look, this is my favorite book," says 8-year-old Baptiste, taking "Dinosaur," a hardcover book with abundant illustrations, off a shelf to show it off.

The French boy's interest in dinosaurs coincides with that of Martin Chalfie, the 2008 Nobel Laureate in chemistry and professor at Columbia University. Chalfie once told reporters his favorite childhood book was one about dinosaurs written by Roy Chapman Andrews.

Childhood dreams have shared many similarities over half a century, and the dreams were enlightened by reading.

Inspire exploration

Chalfie said his childhood was immersed in the reading of encyclopedia series, including those about volcanoes and rocks. He said Andrews' works about dinosaurs impressed him the most.

The encyclopedia series, Chalfie said, led him into a career of scientific research, and he later found that many of his fellow researchers had also read such books in their childhoods.

Elizabeth H. Blackburn, one of the three laureates of the 2009 Nobel Prize in medicine, also recalled her interest in illustration-filled science books during her time in middle school.

Blackburn said the biology teaching material full of pictures was like a treasure for her. Blackburn, a professor at the University of California in San Francisco, said a picture depicting protein's three-dimension structure seemed to carry a sense of mysterious beauty while the names of phenylalanine and leucine contained poetic implications. She even decorated her bedroom with self-drawn pictures of aminophenol's structure.

Acquire encouragement

Russian gymnastics queen Svetlana Horkina, who started her arduous effort for success when she was 4 years old, said "Robinson Crusoe" was the book that spiritually supported her.

Horkina was deeply impressed by Robinson's resolution, tenacity and perseverance.

"I've been trying to be courageous and persistent as Robinson is, and never lose confidence and vision for a bright future," she said.

Horkina said she is still inspired by ideas developed from childhood reading, which guided her to the strong belief that no difficulty is unconquerable when a propelling force is within one's mind.

(Xinhua News Agency November 10, 2009)