When I was a little boy, I was interested in comic books and storybooks. When I was a middle school student, I began to read novels, plays, essays (散文) and so on. I found I could get much from them. Little by little, I took a great interest in literature (文学) and last term I won the first prize in the composition contest (作文竞赛) among high school students in our city.

Reading “The Emperor’s New Clothes” makes me laugh a lot about the emperor’s silly behavior. “The Little Match Girl” makes me feel sad. Robinson Crusoe takes me into a strange world full of danger. And I am also deeply moved by Helen Keller’s spirit of being strong and never giving up. Besides these, books also tell me other things—how to be a brave man and how to tell the difference between right and wrong. In a word, good books can let me know what I don’t know before. So I think good books are just like my best friends.

READING makes a full man. But choosing the best books can be difficult. What Chinese books are most worthy of our time?

Every year, the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television (新闻出版广电总局) recommends a group of books to children and young adults in China. The aim is to encourage reading.

This year’s list of good reads has come out. It is the 11th list offered by the administration. It includes 100 books that focus on “artistic and scientific” value.

“Encouraging reading among the young relates to the future of 360 million children and teenagers in China,” said Wu Shulin, vice-minister of the administration.

For the whole list, you can visit the official website of the administration. If you feel that the100-book list is too long, here are three of them that Wu recommends.

My First Legal Comic Book《第一本法律漫画书》

Knowledge of the law is necessary for everyone, but boring and difficult to understand. This book can help you out. It explains more than 200 legal cases (案例) with cartoons.

Crested Myna in the Clouds《云朵一样的八哥》

Chinese authors are showing stronger creativity, says Wu. And this book is a great example. It’s about a myna’s adventure in the human world. All the drawings in the book are in the style of Chinese paper-cuttings.

Chinese Folk Culture and Fun Physics《中国 民间文化与物理趣味》

Do you know how the first umbrella was made? What physics theory can we find in an umbrella? This book tells us all. It is a magical combination (结合) of folk culture and physics. The book also has hand-drawn pictures of things that we used in the past.

Many girls want some new clothes, but my 12-year-old cousin Lucy is very different. Her parents often take her to clothes shops, but she never asks them to buy any new clothes for her. Lucy’s sister Jenny is two years older than Lucy. She has some old clothes, and Lucy likes to wear them. She says this can help her parents save a lot of money.

However (然而), when her parents buy books for her, Lucy is always very happy. She likes reading very much. She has a lot of books, but she still wants more. Some of her friends say she is a girl of books. Maybe they are right.