Book Muse: Paris Pan Takes The Dare by Cynthea Liu

One person whom I have the great pleasure of meeting at AFCC was Cynthea Liu, the creator of 'Great Call from China (S.A.S.S)' and 'Paris Pan Takes The Dare' (G.P. Putnam Sons, 2009 and Scholastic, 2010). I was very lucky to sit next to her during the SCBWI dinner reception and very soon I discovered how amazing and big heart she is.

Besides writing for children, she has raised funds for Tulakes Elementary, she is the founder of Authorsnow! and the coach behind the top ten website www.WritingforChildrenandTeens.com, which is based on her non-fiction (self-help guide?) publication 'Writing For Children and Teens: A Crash Course'. She also conducts writing workshops, provides copyediting services and is also a guest speaker at conferences associated with the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators as well as universities and colleges.

I had the privilege to receive an autographed copy of 'Paris Pan Takes The Dare' for my daughter. Something quite amazing happened - she broke her reading record! She finished this 248 pages middle grade mystery novel in one sitting. Her comment afterward was, "This book gotta be made into a movie!". I emailed Cynthea to tell her about that. She 'laughed': 'Aw, I knew it!  Every girl who reads Paris Pan blazes through it quickly. YES!!!! … I want them to devour the book like its a meal." And she nailed it!

So who is Paris Pan? She is a 12 year old Chinese American girl whose life was, as the author described, in a mess. Every time her father finishes building a house that the family lives in, he sells it and moves them to another place, which happens virtually every seven or eight months. This time, Paris has moved to Sugar Lake, a very small town in Nowheresville, Oklahoma, where every single girl in her new school plays on the basketball team, which does not quite excite this girl who faces difficulties developing friendships that last because of her family's nomadic lifestyle.

Where is the excitement then? It all happens when Paris has no other choice but a must to take The Dare to get her chance to 'win' over a new girl friend, or two out of the three in the entire level. And what exactly is The Dare? It is a rite of passage that every local girl who is turning 13 has to go through by staying out all night in the woods which was said to be haunted. Years ago, that was the location of a murder. Nearly everyone living in Sugar Lake believes the ghost of the murdered girl still haunts the site.

Soon enough, Paris starts hearing noises coming from the run-down shed in her backyard, thinking that the mysteriously dead girl is trying to communicate with her. While she has no plans to make contact with the spirit, her new 'friends' have other thoughts. If that wasn't bad enough, how about plotting Paris's new home right in middle of the creepy woods? To further complicate matters, the protagonist has other 'growing up' problems to deal with - peer pressure, 'cranky' siblings, first crush, adolescence embarrassments, struggling parents, friendship, etc.

To sum up, I love the book and definitely looking forward to Cynthea's upcoming picture book 'Wooby and Peep' (Sterling, 2013) and 'What I Didn't Tell You', a novel. For now, I am enjoying 'Paris Pan', for her courage and the good sense of humour she has towards her problems and 'frenemies'. She reminds me that kids can be much more resilient than we adults. As for her parents and siblings, I like them for being as genuine as they can be - characters who aren't 'linguistically perfect', who have flaws and live in circumstances that I can identify with. And like everyone in the Pan family, the personalities of her school mates, as well as Paris's pet dog, are also so carefully crafted that they leap off of the pages into full life and propel me through the story. 'Paris Pan Take The Dare' has satisfied me with laughter, suspense and some moments that make me go 'aaahh!'. I am glad Cynthea took 'The Dare' to write this engaging novel - one book that shall stay on my daughter's and mine list of favourites.

You can find more about Cynthea Liu's books on her website:
http://www.cynthealiu.com/books

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

Meeting Neil Gaiman and other awesome literary figures at the Singapore Writers Festival

I can't believe that another week has gone by without a new post.

Last week at the Singapore Writers Festival, I met several people whom I "met/knew" online. One of them is Sharon Bakar who writes about books (and authors, and publishing events, and reviews, and interviews, among many other interesting stuffs related to the literary world) on her blog, Bibliobibuli - Woman Battles Book Dependency Problem. So book lovers, head off to the bookaholic's blog to share your views about books, and Second Life if you have one.

Another person I enjoyed meeting (a lot) is Wena Poon. Yes, she is the author whose first book, Lions In Winter, was longlisted for the 2008 International Frank O'Connor Short Story Prize, nominated for the Singapore Literature Prize and shortlisted for Popular Reader's Choice Award in Malaysia. The friendly and quick-witted writer was here to speak and launch her new books - The Proper Care of Foxes, published by Ethos Books, and The Biophilia Omnibus, a collection of her first four literary science fiction/fantasy adventure works which she published through BookSurge. She brought in limited copies and I was very happy to get hold of one from BooksActually, the official bookstore for the festival. More of Wena, go to her website www.wenapoon.com.

Jen Hamilton-Emery, director of Salt Publishing (UK) who is responsible for the international edition of Wena's Lions in Winter, was also in town. She was one of the panelists for the publishing industry symposium to talk about poetry, short stories and translation. Jen was very very humble despite having the award winning authors as well as long- and short- listed titles with the publishing firm she run with her partner. Check out their website and buy a book or two to support their Just One Book campaign this Christmas.

At the symposium, I also met Tunku Halim, a Malaysian author based in Tasmania, who, like me, has a deep love for history. He had published several "dark fantasy" stories and a children's encyclopedia on History of Malaysia which was inspired by his late father and took him five years to put together. More information on this well researched book can be found on the author's blog.

It was a pleasure meeting Mr Abdon M. Balse, Jr. (Jun), an award winning novelist and poet from the Philippines. During the symposium, he shared with me the problems of distributing books created by Asean writers and provided insightful information on reading and buying habits in Philippines. It was interesting to learn that books are delivered like pizzas over there! Thank you sir for your time and I too hope that there will be more opportunities to foster better understanding in the area of writing and distribution as well as to establish closer ties between writers, artists, publishers, distributors and booksellers in the two countries.

I attended Felix Cheong's launch for Sudden Youth, a collection of new and selected poems, published by Ethos Books. Felix shared with us his journey as a poet and generously read us almost the whole book. He said this maybe his last poetry book and is working on short stories. I wish you well with whatever you are endeavouring next.

This year, Neil Gaiman, the creator of Sandman, Coraline, Stardust, The Graveyard Book (which won this year's Newbery Award) along with picture books such as Blueberry Girl and The Day I Swapped My Dad with Two Gold Fish, was invited to give a series of talks/dialogs during the Singapore Writers Festival. I managed to get tickets to attend two of the three sessions - Little Lit! at the Arts House and Graphic Novels and Fantasy at the Victoria Theatre. And here's my account.

On Saturday, he talked about writing Coraline, his first novel for children which he started writing in 1991 for her daughters Holly and Maddy. After working on it on-and-off for the next few years, he finally completed the book in 1999 and have it released in 2000. On how kids react to horror story, he felt that children are better at taking scary stuff than adults. He compared Coraline to Hansel and Gretel, which he described as a tale of abandonment and starvation and mass murder. He reckoned that both stories are similar to some extend. So if children aren't afraid of the horrible things in such fairytales, then they will enjoy the chills that run down their spines as they read his story (as proven by Morgan, Gaiman's editor's son). I suppose afraid as they may be, they will also nevertheless be grateful that there is finally an author who refuses to patronise a young audience hungry for an absorbing horror tale.

During the second half of the session, he moved unto more adult stuff. He revealed enthusiastically about his new China inspired project. I am utterly impressed for the fact that he had actually read several Chinese Classics including Dream of the Red Chamber (红楼梦), Outlaws of the Marsh (水许传), Journey to the West (西游记) and Romance of the Three Kingdom (三国演义). He was particularly fascinated by Tang San Zang (唐三藏) and his epic 10000 miles round trip to India to bring back to China the scriptures of Buddhist during the Sui and Tang Dynasty (A.D. 620, 7th century), which basically formed the story of the Journey to The West written by Wu Cheng'en (吴承恩) in the Ming Dynasty, 16th century of China.

Someone asked for his views about book sectioning at bookshops, working on Good Omens with Terry Pratchett whom he referred to as someone with very similar head, and on him releasing the beast in him through writing. He answered each question insightfully. On working with various media, Gaiman hopes to conquer the stage in the future. He didn't talk much about The Graveyard Book but read a good whole chapter from it.

One hour was really short. So on Sunday, I went to listen to the man talked once more, with Hannah. This time, Neil Gaiman, who was cladded again in black, made his appearance in front of 800 fans at the Victoria Theatre. After an introduction, he thanked everyone for "braving the long queue, braving heat and braving whatever mysterious secret messaging system that you know that tickets were available for getting in here". He talked about how "ok" he felt about turning 50 because he has had an amazing life, has written a lot of things he wanted to write, has raised a couple of really cool kids and has the world's coolest girlfriend (Amanda Palmer). He claimed that the only time he was afraid of the plane crashing down was in 1988 when he had to take 100 pages of Dave Mckean's original artworks for Black Orchid from UK to America. He said that he had to work very hard to keep the plane afloat with his mind throughout the entire journey.

The other thing that Gaiman seemed to enjoy talking about during both sessions was Singaporeans' crazy obsession with eating and food. Imagination ran wild with his really humorous theory about an unique viand called "stuffed authors - where you take a nice English author who spends a lot of time in America, about 50, feed him wonderful food until he's completely stuffed, and then slice him up and make him up into little pink packages." He also described Singaporeans as "very enthusiastic, but in a quiet, polite and very organised way" and made a terrible joke about Philippinos, which he quickly apologised.

He also chatted away gleefully, like the way a child talks about his first exotic pet, about his bees, on his mission to save the bee colony, and about how he got into bee-keeping and the second blue ribbon in the county fair that he and his bee-keeping team (Loraine and Birdchick) won for Extracted Honey and for Comb Honey. For him, that was the third best award ever. It beat a dozen of others literary prizes including the new 2010 Les Grands Prix de l’Imaginaire Award for translated short fiction of Des choses fragiles (Fragile Things, collection), he said. The top two are Newbery and Hugo.

Of course again, he told us about his new nonfiction project inspired by the Chinese Legend Journey to the West (西游记) and bits about his day with Mr Liu Xiao Ling Tong (六小龄童) - the Chinese actor who acted as Monkey King (I watched him on TV when I was 9 or 10, can't believe it was so long ago). He also commented that his new books will contain stories about his near impossible meeting with the fourth high-level monk and all the peculiar encounters he had during his various adventures in China including the one about a hawker trying to sell him a human elbow.


I am not surprise with what one can find and experience in a country with a history of over five thousand years. I personally discovered quite a bit online when doing my research for my book Guai Wu The Chinese Elf. As for the subject of Monkey King, in fact, two months ago Lak Khee, an illustrator-friend of mine who is currently based in France, and I had a discussion about this Chinese folktale character whom almost everyone knows. And in my Little Lit! talk at The Arts House in May, I mentioned, in connection to incorporating Asian elements to children's book, Professor Ma WenHai, another illustrator-friend of mine, who created a series of children's books based on the tales of the monkey god for the American market. In his 4th, which is also the latest, book Monkey King Defeats Red Boy, he had put my kids in as characters for his watercolour paintings. His books had been translated to other languages. That goes to show the popularity of this mythical character that most Chinese grew up with. So I look forward to read Gaiman's take on the legend.

Someone in the audience also ask him to talk a bit about his visit to the amazing Studio Ghibli. He said, as he looked back, meeting Mr Hayao Miyazaki, the prominent Japanese filmmaker of many popular animated feature films including Totoro, Spirited Away and, most recently, Ponyo, and spending an afternoon in his studio was one of the best day ever for him. With regards to Totoro's appearance in the background of the illustrated version of Stardust, Neil's answer was that the idea was from the artist but he would have done that too if he had thought of that.

Despite being a rock-star in the literary scene, Neil Gaiman is an amazingly open, unpretentious and down-to-earth person who take time for each one who patiently queue to meet him in person. He is also a very witty and incredibly charismatic storyteller. Hannah shook hand with him (nervously) and had her book signed. As for me, I am thankful to him for an opportunity to revisit my childhood memory through Sun WuKong, the curious and fearless monkey, whose dream to become immortal, brings to life a series of awe-inspiring adventures as the Great Sage Equal to Heaven who continuously creates havoc in the celestial world, had kept me amused and entertained when I was little, and still does even as adult.

If you like to hear from Gaiman himself, go to www.razortv.com. There is a series of interesting interviews from the press conference that happened during his visit.

In one of the recordings, he talked about bribing a watchman to enter a closed down monkey amusement park that ended with seriously disturbing scenes of hell where sinful people were tortured. I can totally relate to the same terrifying experience he described about a young child who walked through the eldritch tunnels. The trip to Haw Par Villa with my parents when I was six or seven at that time had haunted me for years. After walking out of "18 levels of hell", I remember saying to myself that I want to find another religion (or change god) so that I can go to heaven. I later discovered that it is "possible" with the "western" god. Seek and ye shall find!

Ok. With that, I shall end my long post and thank the hardworking team at National Arts Council, The Arts House and the Singapore Books Publishing Association for organising such a wonderful festival.

I wish you (mummies and children) a good school break. My family and I will be taking an adventurous three weeks holiday in New Zealand. Can't wait to breathe the clean crisp air.

Reading For Pleasure - Nurturing Lifelong Learners

Dear friends and readers, how have you been? I hope you have been kind to yourself. I am happy to announce that my book Guai Wu is now in the reproduction stage. There are still lots of things to do - colour corrections for the scans, touching up, colour proofing, cover design, text layout, final press check, etc, before the book goes to the bookstores.

In the meantime, I just want to share with you on the topic of reading for pleasure.

The Strait Times published an interview with Dr Ken Spillman, an Australian author of over 20 books including Blue and Love is a UFO, both acclaimed novels for teenagers, about "Getting the young to read for pleasure".

(Please click on the image to read the article.)

An evangelist of reading for pleasure, Dr Spillman visited Singapore on 24th August to gave a talk on literacy in the interactive world at a conference that is part of the 5th Read! Singapore campaign.

As a parent, I would like to thank Dr Spillman for reminding us the benefits of reading for pleasure. He recently published his new juvenile fiction entitled Jake’s Gigantic List*, which is especially dedicated to Children’s Book Council of Australia for being “so tireless in promoting the wonder of books”.

Jake’s Gigantic List
Jake’s Gigantic List is about discovering the magic of a great story. The protagonist is a little boy who wants it all. Like most kids, he loves birthdays and presents. He has pretty much everything a kid wants, though not enough. So for his coming birthday, his father tells him to make a wishlist which includes everything he has imagined to have - real spaceships, pet crocodile, friendly pirate, remote control football, a good mood tablet for teachers, etc. The list grew longer and longer, and more and more inventive. Luckily for Jake, Auntie Lyn knows just where to find them all. Filled with cute pencil sketch illustrations by Chris Nixon, Jake’s Gigantic List makes a fun book to read at anytime.

I personally had enjoyed reading Jake’s Gigantic List to Hannah, Heather and Yuri (my Japanese neighbour’s child) at bedtime. They all love the story to bits, especially the idea of creating their own adventure packed birthday list. Chris Nixon’s cartoonish, black and white drawings added extra playfulness to the lighthearted story.

You can find out more about Dr Ken Spillman on his website: www.kenspillman.com
Jake’s Gigantic List is published by Fremantle Press. ISBN 978 1921 361 71 5. You can purchase online http://www.fremantlepress.com.au/books/1111

Why reading for pleasure is so important to a child?
The world was once a place where books were not only for knowledge, book were also for entertainment, therefore for pleasure. Reading for fun was a favourite pastime of most children, teens and adults before the 50s. Then TV struck. Back then it was thought that TV would replace movies. Little did they know that movies would survive and reading for pleasure would fall by the wayside.

As TV watching increased, reading for fun decreased in direct proportion. With the birth of computers, popularisation of Internet and portable games gadgets in the 90s, as well as education system reform that stresses on academic achievement, people started to turn away from books to other form of activities for pleasure.

In UK, The Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (Pirls) showed that the amount of reading overall outside school continued to plummet since the last study, six years ago. Only 33% of children in England and Scotland read for pleasure, compared with the international average of 40%.

The children's secretary, Ed Balls, said: "This study shows that our highest achieving children are reading less, with children's busy days leaving less time for books at home. As parents we have to get the balance right and as a society we have to send the right messages about the value of reading to our children."

Liberal Democrat shadow children's secretary David Laws said "Despite the success of books like Harry Potter, there is still a worryingly large group of our young people who have absolutely no interest in reading. We have to ensure that youngsters can not only read and write but that schools and parents breathe enjoyment back into what otherwise can be a rigid programme of learning."

In another interview, an award-winning children's author has suggested the current schooling system is putting kids off reading for pleasure.

While some independent schools may be exceptions to the rule, Frank Cottrell Boyce, told the Telegraph that continuous assessment and a focus on literacy may have improved the skills of some, but has taken the joy out of reading for many.

The author was awarded the Carnegie Medal for children's writing after the success of his book Millions, but told the newspaper he feels the focus on how children read is damaging.

"It is like comparing health to sport," he said. "One is something functional - the other is something you do because you enjoy it." Mr Cottrell Boyce told the newspaper children who read for pleasure should naturally do better at school.

New Children’s Laureate encourages reading picture books for pleasure
Anthony Browne, the new Children’s Laureate, has recently called for greater emphasis on reading for pleasure. Accepting the Laureateship in June he said, “I hope to encourage more children to discover and love reading, but I want to focus particularly on the appreciation of picture books, and the reading of both pictures and words. Picture books are for everybody at any age, not books to be left behind as we grow older. The best ones leave a tantalising gap between the pictures and the words, a gap that is filled by the reader's imagination, adding so much to the excitement of reading a book.”

And, “if children are not encouraged to read for pure pleasure, if they are dragged away from reading books they enjoy – including picture books – and pushed into reading educationally worthy books, then we are in danger of creating a generation of non-readers.”

He also encouraged educators and teachers to revisit picture books. “Picture books are special – they’re not like anything else. Sometimes I hear parents encouraging their children to read what they call proper books (books without pictures), at an earlier and earlier age. This makes me sad, as picture books are perfect for sharing, and not just with the youngest children. As a father, I understand the importance of the bond that develops through reading picture books with your child.”

‘We have in Britain some of the best picture book makers in the world, and I want to see their books appreciated for what they are – works of art.”

Schools have been ordered to overhaul their English teaching after a three-year study by the education watchdog, Ofsted, found that 30% of lessons are not good enough and little attempt is made to encourage teenagers to read for pleasure.

The report was based on inspectors’ visits to English lessons in 242 schools from 2005 to 2008. Although recent developments were praised, test results on the whole have hardly improved since 2004.

Singapore children asking for more time to read for pleasure
In Singapore, children in primary schools are engaged daily for at least 30 minutes of silent reading, which is usually carried out in the assembly hall; although the activity is recently held in classrooms instead due to H1N1. Students are allowed to read anything other than text books, comics and other academic materials such as composition handbooks. As to whether a child is truly reading a book, or simply glancing at the words in it, is probably still a question only he or she can tell you.

A study made by an associate professor at Nanyang Technology University on the reading habits of Singapore children revealed that 62% of the students said that they read to get better grades in their tests and examinations or taking reading as a way to improve language skills as their motivations for reading. Slightly over 20% of the students said that most of the time they read because their parents or teachers asked them to do so.

Clearly, only a limited number of the students were reading for relaxation. This could only possibly be due to stressful Singapore education system which places high emphasis on meritocracy and good grades. Students, including those in the lower primary level (6 and 7 years of age), often face pressure from their parents and teachers to improve their academic performance. Many expressed the wish to have more time for fun reading.

It is, therefore, desirable that Singapore Ministry of Education (MOE), schools as well as parents should consider reducing workload of primary school children so that they may find sufficient time and energy for fun reading.

The other dimension of this issue is that often children of Generation Z have a fixed amount of time and energy for leisure activities and, in addition to fun reading, many activities are competing for their time and attention. With more and more children being technologically savvy, books may perceived as less appealing and exciting in comparison to, say, a cutting-edge handheld game gadget, a fashionable mobile phone or the latest computer activities. Afterall, it does take a bit more brain cells and patience to digest a good story than watching a DVD or playing games on the Internet.

However, we already know that at the end, their imagination and intellectual curiosity is more likely expand hundred times more with books. Through the power and music and magic of stories and poems that children can also develop the empathy and awareness that they will need to tackle the complexities of their own emotions, of the human condition in which they find in themselves.

What can you do to encourage reading for pleasure?
Teachers and parents can play an important role in educating children how to keep a balance in their leisure activities, including reading for pleasure.

Children model after their parents’ lifestyle. I think that how do you instill in a child not to pick their food is similar to how you instill the joy of reading in a child. With eating, you, as a parent, must not be choosy or overly bias (with exception to junk food) and encourage your child to try out a good variety of healthy food. With reading, you must first make sure your child sees you reading for pleasure other than at read-aloud time that you and your child can do together before sleeping. Sharing with your child your enthusiasm for whatever you are reading is also a good way to cultivate his or her interest in reading.

My story:
I think I am personally a fairly late convert. My parents speak only Mandarin, Hokkien and Teochew. They were born during post occupation. They came from poor family and had only a few years of education. My mum learnt Teochew (a chinese dialect) through Chinese opera performing, which was her career for many years from the age of 12 until she married my dad. She learnt to read Chinese characters in the opera script. Mandarin was picked up probably in the 80s when television became popular in homes. My dad had to work since very very young, probably about 6 years old. He helped in the farm, grew vegetable and crops, raised pigs, chicken and ducks. My grandmother, who came to Singapore from China in a junk with her mother and sister, was a single mum to nine children, including those of my grandaunt’s own and adopted. All of them lived together under one scrap-metal roof where the toilet was a few yards outside the house. My grandaunt worked as a samsui woman (labour worker at construction sites) while my grandmother ran the household and a farm at home. My father had to give up school before he became a young adult to work as a carpenter, a chicken rice seller and a hawker to live. He had never given up learning languages and acquired sufficient reading skill to comprehend the newspaper and written materials that he finds interesting to read.

During my primary school days, if I am honest, I read to get through book reviews and exams. I didn’t do well in English because there was no help from home and school. And because English was my weakest subject, I find myself struggling with chapter books, which were the only kind of books we were allowed to read and review. I can’t recall much of what I read other than some of Enid Blyton’s and Hans Christian Anderson’s books, and Z for Zachariah by Robert C. O’Brien, a story about life after a nuclear disaster. No one introduced me to AA Milne, Beatrix Potter, Dr Suess or Roald Dahl, whom I believe I would have love to read if I had known them.

Time flew and I was in secondary school. I don’t know how or why I became very interested in literature and turned out to be good at it. Shakespeare was my favourite. I even bought the whole collection of his works later on in life. I guess it was probably then I began to like books a little more. I also signed on as a student librarian at my school for a year or two. As I grew older, books became my life companion. I even worked in a bookshop for a while. After meeting my husband, who is an avid reader, I was introduced to some more world’s best authors including J R.R Tolkien, CS Lewis, Issac Asimov, and many more.

I feel very fortunate to be in the children’s book industry. Not only that I get to read for knowledge and pleasure, sharing stories with children, I even get to meet and work with authors and be the first few to read their stories that can add sparkles to a child’s life (and mine too). Every night, I also get to read aloud to my daughters all the best books ever written. What a blessing … all from my love for reading.

So, it’s really never too late to become a bookworm or raise one.

And it’s definitely not too late to experience every little heartfelt magical moments that you can discover between the lines in books.

Dr Seuss in I can Read with my Eyes Shut said: “The more you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.” While Roald Dahl in Charlie and Chocolate Factory beseeched: “So please, oh PLEASE, we beg, we pray, go throw your TV set away, And in its place you can install, a lovely bookshelf on the wall!”

To end, I would like to quote from author Emma Walton Hamilton, author of Raising Bookworms: Getting kids Reading for Pleasure and Empowerment:

“Let’s help our kids to access the innate joy and empowerment in exploring the ideas and insights of great writers, thinkers, artists, and philosophers. Let’s imagine a world in which they actually participate, with active voices, informed opinions, and the real hope of being heard. Let’s get started right now.”

I am off to read John Danalis' new novel Riding The Black Cockatoo before I hit the sack. He said to me: "There is healing smokes within the pages. Breathe and enjoy!"

Sources and links:
Telegraph UK
Guardian UK
Independent UK
Timesonline UK
Children's Laureate UK
Children's Book Council of Australia
Wall Street Journal Online

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28 October 2011 - Myra Garces-Bacsal did an extensive series of interviews with Ken Spillman on his works at Gathering Book: Intro, Part 1, Part 2, Part3 and Part 4.

An afternoon of enriching the creative minds at Little Lit

The inaugural “Little Lit: Enriching Minds & Igniting A Writer’s Spark”, a Pre-Festival Event of the Singapore Writers Festival held at The Arts House on 24th May 2009, was a huge success.

Many heartfelt thanks to our sponsors and organisers - National Arts Council, The Art House, Monsters Under The Bed and Singapore Press Holdings, our publishers Ethos Books and Epigram, our distributor Marketasia everyone who helped out as well as ALL who attended the event.

The panel of speakers including poet Aaron Lee, authors Adeline Foo and Felix Cheong, together with illustrators Joshua Chiang, Lee Kowling, Stephanie Wong and myself were greeted by 200 odd attendees including children, parents, teachers, writers, aspiring writers and illustrators, plus many others who are keen to learn more about writing and illustrating for children.

All of us had lots of fun sharing with everyone our knowledge, journey and passion for children’s literature.

Adeline Foo, author of 13 children’s books, talked about the various career choices for a writer, and other aspects of writing such as book marketing, as well as sharing her process of writing The Diary of Amos Lee, a new book she collaborated with illustrator/book designer Stephanie Wong, who talked about the process in designing the character for Amos Lee and how to create illustrations and book cover for a novel that works.

Aaron Lee, a prize winning poet, an excellent speaker who was also the brilliant moderator for the event, talked about his love for poetry. He shared with us many inspiring poems that touch the hearts of children and adults.

Felix Cheong, an award winning poet and novelist, shared his wisdom on writing fiction for the tweens (children between 9 to 14 years old)and tips on penning the first word. A former TV producer and studio director,with the help of three youngsters, he demonstrated the use of sound to dramatise storytelling.

For me, it was a great privilege to speak at “Little Lit”. This is the first time artists are featured as part of the Singapore Writers Festival, which is Singapore’s most prestigious and only national literary festival.

My talk about Asian Influence in Children's Books covered a brief presentation of my work and illustration style for children’s books,a showcase of children's book illustrators in Asia, an introduction to Asian heritage, a peek into my childhood as a child to a Chinese opera performer and how I incorporate Asian elements, in terms of Chinese values and arts, in my new book “Guai Wu The Chinese Elf”, a story set in China during the Qing Dynasty, which should be in major bookstores by July.

Joshua Chiang, an all rounded animator and illustrator, shared his experience, tips and tricks on how he goes about creating his characters for cartoons and his first children’s book. His philosophy “Remain a child at heart always” conveys the message from every children’s book writer and illustrator.

Lee Kowling, a veteran in the book illustration scene, took us through her journey as an illustrator from the 90s till now. She explained how she developed a wide variety of illustration styles to meet the needs of the stories she worked on. It was a visual feast for the audience.

We look forward to bringing back the event again.














Little Lit, grooming Singapore's next generation of writers
From 8 to 16, they came and absorbed everything about writing and publishing

Mr Phan Ming Yen (Director of The Arts House) gave an opening speech.













Speakers Felix Cheong, Adeline Foo, Stephanie Wong
Illustrators panel - Joshua Chiang, Christine Lim Simpson, Lee Kowling

Poet, emcee and moderator Aaron Lee















The crowd of 200 plus parents and children (Many others had to be turned away, our sincere apologies)