The Watchtower Warrior written by Shekinah Linn and illustrated by Seow Wei was published with the support of Singapore's First Time Writers and Illustrators Publishing Initiative in 2008. The soft watercolor illustrations captivated me along with the cheeky girl called Little Bud, who dreamed of being a warrior like her heroine Hua Mulan. I loved how a little girl was able to convince an entire town to build a proud watchtower in the village square to save the people from rogue bandits. While she is consistently shunned by the Village Elder for being “too young”, and the watchtower not being “a place for children”, her steadfastness, sparkling enthusiasm, and desire to be a watchtower warrior made her who she is in the end: a heroine.

Salted Fish is written by Yeo Wei Wei and illustrated by Ye Shufang. The book was published by the National Art Gallery in Singapore in 2010 as part of their Dreaming Art Series. Here, the authors weave together a simple story of a memorable museum visit, where art, smelly salted fish in the form of "19 fishes hanging on the line", and distant memories of a time past converge in the present moment. The narrative is inspired by Cheong Soo Pieng’s painting ‘Drying Salted Fish’ executed in 1978. I enjoyed the white spaces and the quiet illustrations, reminiscent of how it is like to walk through a museum, with all its magical and otherworldly vibe.

Emily Lim’s Bunny Finds the Right Stuff published in 2010 and illustrated by Neal Sharp, was awarded the Silver Medal at the 2010 IPPY Awards (Independent Publisher Book Awards) – this marks Emily's 3rd consecutive IPPY win and her 4th international award. This book is a reminder of the emptiness one struggles with each day, the selflessness generated by true friendship, and what it means to constantly reach for the clouds – in yearning, in truth, in blinding aspiration – and finding one’s completeness in the groundedness of everyday ‘stuff’ that is just ‘right.’

I was also riveted by The Ice Ball Man and Other Poems by Margaret Leong and edited by Shirley Geok-lin Lim and Angelia Poon with illustrations by the celebrated artist Susanna Goho-Quek. This collection of poetry written by Leong was launched during the recent Asian Festival of Children’s Content in Singapore last May 2011. In the Introduction written by the editor Geok-Lin Lim, she described Margaret Leong to be a ‘transnational’ Singaporean, an American who was based for an extensive period in the Singapore of the 1950s. The lyrical quality of the poems effectively captures bits and fragments of a Singapore that is now lost and gone – in verse. Through the stark simplicity of Leong’s poems, one is taken back to a portrait of “Ducks in the Padi” (p. 57), “Mangrove Swamps (p. 38), the “Ice Ball Man” (p. 74) and not to forget “The Kitchen God” (p. 29).

My absolute favorite, though, is Like Fins for Feet written by Perry Ho & Kristal Melson. I cannot stop gushing at the whimsical illustrations that moved me tremendously with their wavy, whale-y, blue-y brilliance. In a stunning switch in perspectives, one gets to have a drop of the profound with lines such as:

"Sometimes, happiness is falling upwards.
Other times, happiness is looking inwards.
It has taken the bigness of something
for you to notice the smallness of others
while the smallness of others
shows you infinity."

An unusual dream within a dream of a Blue Whale Dreaming or a Brown-haired Child with "fins for feet" finding an Odd Blue Whale in her room. It is a circuitous celebration of 'oddity' – of acknowledging one’s difference – and the sense of alienation this engenders: "The answers are a long way out." Yet, one finds beauty in a blue whale in one's hand and the deep dreaming of a meandering baby whale of "a place not as soft as here" but wonderful nonetheless.

Posted August 2011