'WHEN CHILDREN LOOK at screens, what they see is very limited. Fiction takes story to a deeper level, it shows how people tick. A television or film screen can show a princess kissing a frog, but a book can explain why,' says Anne Fine. The leading British children's author may be better known for the film adaptation of her novel Madame Doubtfire starring Robin Williams. But it is the power of the book that she most passionately believes in. Fine's own books have a world-wide following and in recognition of her work she was awarded an OBE in the Queen's birthday honours list in 2003 for services to literature. She has been invited to Hong Kong by local book sellers Paddyfields, supported by her publishers Penguin and Random House, as the last stop on a tour of Singapore, Australia and New Zealand. During her first visit to Hong Kong this week she has given talks to students at international and local schools and to other students, teachers and parents at the British Council. With a number of other UK authors, she is concerned that books can be distorted if the focus shifts from the appreciation and enjoyment of books and texts to analysis and compartmentalisation. 'The National Curriculum [in England and Wales], for example, narrowed the way in which people used books. Teachers lost their confidence and got nervous. There seemed to be more emphasis on looking at extracts rather than understanding the need to read books all the way through,' she says. She tells how she would get letters from students who knew all about her and her career as an author but had never actually read any of her books: 'Books should not be ripped apart like clockwork. Children need a love of reading, an enchantment, not analysis.' As an author of more than 50 books, most of them for children, critics might counter that her opinions are driven by self-interest. But her deep love of literature and fundamental belief that books matter even more in a modern world dominated by electronics motivates her more than sales figures. She believes structural imperatives often militate against good practice: 'A class full of 30 or more individuals with a wide range of abilities and interests is conceptually insane. Teachers try and run the whole spectrum and they can be inspirational at times. But it is impossible for them to satisfy everybody's needs.' Though she sees no practical alternative to schools as they currently exist, Fine is optimistic that things are changing for the better. 'They now thankfully encourage teachers to use whole books. Good ones always did,' she says. She was part of a group of authors, including Chris Powling and Philip Pullman, who wrote to the ministry to express their fears over the pressure they felt schools and teachers were under to deliver a crowded, fragmented English curriculum. But Fine says many teachers, even if left to their own devices, sometimes missed the point: 'I go into schools where there is a grim habit of confusing product with process. Teachers tend to think that if they ape the process then the product, that is good writing, will automatically follow.' But she admits that this may be a natural mistake given that visiting authors, like herself, speak to students mainly about the process. 'But art is a product and should come freestyle. Children should be allowed to fly.' Fine explains how she would never have drafted and redrafted her work as a child. 'In those days, though I found school daunting, I was generally given a title and an hour of peace and quiet. I just scribbled it all out. We called them compositions. The writing flew out of my head. I certainly never went back. A good teacher can really help with constructive criticism and the basics have to be covered, but children learn to write by writing, not learning about it.' When Fine goes into school she conducts a little experiment of her own. 'If I am speaking to say a hundred students and ask about who likes to work on their own, about half the hands go up. The other half of the audience says they like to plan, draft and work as a pair. I think [an individual's preferred style] is to do with temperament.' When asked how she would advise students to help themselves become writers, she responds: '... read, read, read. And when you do write, sit down and write a something you would like to read. Find your own voice and don't worry too much about what other people think or say.' But she also cautions against budding authors trying to emulate adults. 'Don't try to write a book when you are too young. You have to accept that you have not lived enough to make it a commercial proposition.' Fine sees libraries as a crucial element in developing readers of all ages. But she sees the major problem for many children being their lack of freedom of movement because of worries over personal safety meaning they cannot go the library alone as she used to as a child. 'There is tremendous pressure on families nowadays. I appreciate that. But children need tools to help them survive. Books provide access to self-awareness or self knowledge.' Fine encourages parents to spend time with their children to inculcate a love of books. 'Children are eclectic readers given the chance. Parents should share reading and discuss books. Find out what children like and give them more. Take them to the library.' But it was not being able to get to a library on one wintry day that set her on her career as an author. A blizzard prevented her walking her daughter to the public library in Edinburgh. 'So I just sat down and decided to write my own book.' Her subsequent success has brought her numerous accolades including the prestigious Carnegie Medal in 1990 for Goggle Eyes and 1993 for Flour Babies, and the Whitbread Children's Novel Award in the same year also for Flour Babies and three years later for The Tulip Touch. Though she is modest about her own achievements she values the role prizes play in promoting good literature over publishers' obsession with commercial success. 'The most popular, or most easily readable, books are not always the best. Some of the most remarkable books demand an effort, but they can change readers' lives.' Fine was children's laureate in Britain for two years from 2001: 'I am grateful for all the people who helped me compile a set of three volumes of poetry. Too much material on the market is doggerel. It is possible to make the best poetry accessible for children.' She also co-ordinated and helped finance a project to provide Braille picture books as well as establish a web site ( www.myhomelibrary.org ) containing, among other things, free book plates. Though Fine welcomes the recent upsurge in interest in children's literature, she is aware that the boundaries between what is appropriate can be fuzzy: 'There has always been gritty realism and controversy in children's books and it is ridiculous to wrap young readers in cotton wool. Writers need to interpret the world for readers. 'But while I am against censorship for its own sake, publishers need to make sure the right material is placed on the right lists. There are some [adult themes] that should not be accessible to an 11 year old. There are very few genuine cross-over books. Some great adult books are accessible to children and youngsters are at an ideal age to come across good literature, but in all too many cases the reality is that there is an impoverishment in the standards of adult reading rather than the other way around.' Anne Fine's web site is: www.annefine.co.uk