The Venue: The Arts House is Singapore’s first court house and former parliament house which is now and an arts and heritage venue.

Keynote speaker Stephen Mooser (USA) delivers the keynote speech “What is the Future of Children’s Publishing”?

Author and literacy advocate Christopher Cheng (Australia) “It Takes Two (or More) to Tango: Collaborating with an Illustrator, Musician, or Animator

Author/illustrator Yangsook Choi (Korea/USA) “Mythical Stories & Images of Asia”

Dr. Myra Garces-Bacsal (Singapore) “On Fairies (Diwata), Mousedeers (Sang Kancil), Merpeople, and Magic Spells – Threads that Bind Children’s Tales from Singapore, Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia”

Here’s Radhika Menon,  founder of Tulika Publishers.  Tulika Publishers is an independent publishing house from Chennai, India which, since 1996, has been publishing multilingual children’s books and stories in translation in a variety of genres. The first publisher of bilingual books in India, Tulika is committed to addressing the needs of children growing up in a pluralistic society. Read PaperTigers’ October 2010 interview with Radhika here,

Author Adeline Foo and illustrator Christine Lim Simpson with their book Guai Wu, The Chinese Elf. Adeline Foo has written 15 books  including the acclaimed Peranakan series (Chilli Padi, The Beaded Slippers) and The Diary of Amos Leewhich made Singapore’s top ten best sellers’ list. Adeline and author Eliza Teoh (Singapore) hosted a collective book launch at the AFCC for the newest books and also gave insights into how children influenced their new books (Adeline’s is entititled Whoopie Lee. Almost Famous and Eliza’s Ellie Belly: Follow that Bird!).
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Last night’s pre-festival panel discussion that I hosted with Tarie Sabido (Asia in the Heart, World on the Mind) and Dr. Myra Garces-Bacsal (Gathering Books) was a success. Over 40 people attended and took part in our discussion Building a Nation of Readers via Web 2.0: An Introduction to Kidlitosphere and the YA Blogosphere . Thanks to all those who attended and a special thanks to Tarie and Myra who were such lovely ladies to work with!

Always true to his gregarious and friendly nature, Chris is one busy and very effective bee when it comes to making connections, spreading the word on good books and projects, volunteering to read to children in schools, and more. And he seems to do it all—it takes a special kind of person, really—without ever losing sight of his own writing. Congratulations, Chris! It’s great to see your hard work and passion for all things book recognized by your peers!

You can read more about the award, which was given during the SCBWI LA Summer Conference (at the Golden Kite Luncheon, on Aug 2) and see some pictures of a stunned and happy Chris here and here.

The first author up is Tanita Davis:

Growing up the youngest of three sisters (in Martinez, California) meant being left out of the older girls’ games. To placate me, I was named Mom’s “helper” and my playtimes combined chores and daydreaming. I would sit on the back porch and shuck corn from the garden, or weed the front yard – and then taking the silk from the corn, combine it with dirt and water, and make “pies” for the dog to eat (Our poor dog. She really did eat them.), or take the “milk” from the stems of the dandelions I was supposed to be eradicating from the front yard (after blowing all of the milkweed clocks and sufficiently re-seeding them throughout the lawn), and use it as glue to adhere dry weeds to the “head” of a cornhusk doll.

Because I was a quiet kid, I got away with a lot – climbing the tree next to my father’s shed, and making a tree-house of sorts on the roof, complete with its own chamber pot (Oh, I got in trouble when my mother found out about THAT) and store of slightly mildew books scavenged from a teacher’s throw-away pile. One summer I played with the hose and made carefully dried adobe “moccasins” that were no more than ten or twelve layers of clay mud I wore on the bottom of my feet as shoes. They lasted for a surprisingly long time before they cracked. As the layers dried, I would lie on my back in the yard and listen to the drone of the planes going to and from the Air Force base, and imagine they were taking people to adventures, just like I would have someday.

And Belle Yang brings the article to a flourishing close:

I was born on the subtropical island of Taiwan. The front yard was the rice paddies, alive with tadpoles like music notes on sheet music. The Sleeping Dragon Mountain, exploding with firecracker red azaleas, was my backyard. Rivulets, home to small fish and crustaceans, came rushing down the hills. My barefoot friends and I looked for tiny crabs as they crawled among the stones, dappled by sunlight and the motion of wind in the acacia.

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We caught the crabs and tied white sewing thread to one of their many legs. We took them for walks on the paved paths of the schoolyard, where my parents taught high school. I was delighted with my pet that could only walk sideways.

Do read the rest of the Memories of Playtimes Past – between them, Alan Gratz, Mandana Sadat, Jorge Argueta, Neni Sta Romana Cruz, Chris Cheng, Demi and Larry Loyie, along with Tanita and Belle quoted above, will evoke a smile, or even a laugh out loud – and certainly memories of one’s own childhood… And if you’d care to share some of those with us, we’d love to hear them!

One of the many highlights of the festival was Uma and Rukhsana’s joint panel about their cross-cultural collaboration in Many Windows. Oh how I wish I could have been able to attend it!

Two new children’s book awards will also be announced during the Festival: the Asian Children’s Book Prize, and the Hedwig Anuar Children’s Book Award for Singaporean children’s books.

There was quite a buzz about this Festival at the Bologna Book Fair and I’m sure it will be a resounding success! The event is co-hosted by the National Book Development Council of Singapore (NBDCS), a non-profit organization that promotes storytelling, reading, writing and publishing. NBDCS does a fabulous job bringing the book industry and literary community together through social events, courses, seminars, conferences and author lectures. A visit to their website and blog gives great insight on the literary goings-on in Singapore.

Today while perusing the NBDCS website, I came across the inspiring story of Singaporean author Emily Lim. At the age of 28, Emily was diagnosed with Spasmodic Dysphonia (SD), a rare neurological condition that was robbing her of her speech. A few years later, during a breather from her extremely successful corporate career, Emily decided to pursue her dream of writing and entered her story Prince Bear and Pauper Bear in the 2007 First Time Writers and Illustrators Publishing Initiative, a competition co-organized by the NBCDS. Prince Bear and Pauper Bear, which drew on her own emotional responses to SD, was one of eight winners. With the cash prize and her own savings Emily went about getting her book illustrated (by Neal Sharp) and then published it through a publishing company she set up herself:  Mustard Seed Books.  Prince Bear and Pauper Bear went on to become the first of four in her best-selling, award-winning Toy Tale Series, which features lonely, forgotten toys as main characters who gain new perspectives on life. The series mirrors Emily’s own emotional journey from initial despair to eventual acceptance of her diagnosis. “I see my picture books as small beginnings towards a larger purpose of inspiring both children and adults to find meaning in their lives,” says Emily.

Today Emily is the only Southeast Asian children’s author to have won the well-established Independent Publisher Book Awards and the Moonbeam Children’s Book Award. Her books have sold over 5,000 copies in Singapore and have been turned into cartoons. Her latest book Baby Panda Finds His Way (illustrated by Li Dan) is the second book in the Asian Values series of  simple, engaging and thought-provoking stories which each highlight an important Asian value.

Although Emily’s speech condition cannot be cured, it has improved enough for her to be able to accept reading invitations from schools and book stores.  She will be one of the featured speakers at the Asian Festival of Children’s Content: on May 7th she will co-present the session Singapore Success Stories – New Generation Writers: Writing Asia with author Shekinah Linn.

Writers, illustrators, school teachers, publishers, librarians, literary agents, distributors and retailers, translators, technology solution providers and other media professionals related to the world of children’s content will find this to be a  learning event that they cannot afford to miss. We are expecting about 300 to 400 delegates from all over Asia, Australia, New Zealand, North  America and Europe to attend the event.

Over 70 speakers will be at the festival, and some familiar names to PaperTigers’ readers include: Holly Thompson (Japan), Daphne Lee (Malaysia), Rukhsana Khan (Canada), Naomi Kojima (Japan), Uma Krishnaswami (USA), and  Christopher Cheng (Australia). Since, unfortunately, no one from PaperTigers will be able to attend the festival this year, we look forward to hearing from those of you attending! If you send us feedback, we will be happy to share your impressions, discoveries and/or photos with our readers.

The schedule for the festival has been released and  is as  follows:

Asian Children’s Writers & Illustrators Conference~ May 6-8, 2010

The Asian Children’s Writers and Illustrators Conference (ACWIC) will celebrate children’s books, provide access to children’s literature with Asian content, and promote the writing and publication of Asian children’s books. By providing great workshops and networking opportunities, this conference aims to actively promote and foster the exchange of ideas on the global market.

The conference is broken down into seven tracks:  New Media Technologies & Children’s Content, Alchemy of Writing, Illustrators’ Palette, Librarian’s Menu, Publishers’ Daily Bread, Marketing and Distribution—Creating Bestsellers, and ACWIC Highlights. The detailed scheduled is  here.

Asian Children’s Publishers Symposium~ May 8, 2010

The Asian Children’s Publishers Symposium (ACPS) will consist of workshops from leading players within the industry and interactive panel discussions led by professionals, all designed to foster knowledge, learning and strategies for building a successful children’s publishing industry.

Asian Primary & Preschool Teachers Congress~ May 8, 2010

The speakers and workshop leaders at the Asian Primary & Preschool Teachers Congress (APTC) will collectively provide an overview of comprehensive literacy instruction and showcase its best practices to educators, teachers and parents, to help bridge the gap between theory and practice.

Asian Parents Forum~ 9 May, 2010

Asian Parents Forum (APF) workshops will offer opportunities for parents and interested individuals to get professional advice, support and information on quality content, creative experience and potential, so that participants can become more confident and competent in promoting the reading habits and answering the learning needs of their children.

As you can see, the first Asian Festival of Children’s Content will cover all aspects and formats of children’s content inspired by and based on Asian sources. We encourage you to attend it, if you’re able and in the field. It should prove a wonderful opportunity for professional development and networking!

One of the joys of being a children’s book author (and a teacher by profession) with a wife who is a teacher librarian, is that I am able to drop in to her school on a regular basis to read to the children. One of my favourite classes to read to is Kindergarten. Reading to little ones daily is one of the things I miss about not being a fulltime classroom teacher.

This year I have visited them quite a few times, simply to have the thrill of reading aloud and getting their reactions to the books. I love the fun of making the characters’ voices (if the text says ”he screams”, I will scream!), of making the sounds to accompany the text, of “reading” the pictures with the children… In the past few weeks I have spent a few afternoons there, reading Christmas stories. Since it’s a Catholic school, it is very easy and appropriate to share the religious significance of Christmas with the children through books. Some books focus on the traditional story of the birth of Jesus; some are told from the viewpoint of the animals in the manger; others celebrate the more secular Christmas images—the reindeer, the present laden sack; Santa Claus; snow…

In some Australian Christmas books Santa Claus appears not in a red thickly lined suit, but in board shorts and sun hats (there is definitely no snow Downunder at Christmas time!). He drives a car, instead of a sleigh, pulled not by reindeer but by kangaroos. I like to expose children to both traditional and non-traditional Christmas books.

In addition to reading the stories aloud, I talked to the students. I asked for their impressions, opinions, perceptions, interpretations. We talked about the illustrations and the words used in the books. This year they talked much about presents. Not just receiving presents, but giving mums and dads presents. I really loved it when, inspired by the books we read, the children started talking about their own experiences and plans:

“We go to church the night before Santa comes.”
“I’m giving a present to my mum.”
“We light candles.”
“I’m getting my dad a present.”
“I’m making my own present and it’s a secret, but I can tell you.” (It’s a wonderful privilege to be let in on their secrets!)

Now the school year has ended in Australia. The classrooms are all packed, along with the Christmas decorations. The children are home on holidays—and busy, I imagine, making those secret presents. And it’s a nice, comforting thought to know that, through books, they will continue to learn about the joys of Christmas in all its widely different interpretations—and when it comes to helping spread the joy of reading these and other books, they know they can count on me!

For more on Chris’ work and his reaction to receiving the award, check out his website, and Susanne Gervay‘s (winner of the award in 2007) post about this year’s award dinner, which Chris “attended” via skype from Hong Kong.

60 Australian Poems, edited by him, came out this year by Random House Australia.

His tips for young writers is chock full of other interesting information, all in a lively kid-friendly voice. And here’s a personal views article Chris wrote for PaperTigers about the Australian environment in children’s books.

The July update of the PaperTigers website focuses on literacy, one of Chris Cheng’s passions. When Australia’s Literacy and Numeracy Week comes up in September, 2008, Chris will be an Ambassador for the fifth year. Seems like the sunburnt country couldn’t have a better bloke on the team!

At PaperTigers, Chris Cheng recently took a larger look at Australia’s environment through children’s books, including Winton’s Lockie Leonard, Scumbuster.