The 2011 Asian Festival of Children’s Content takes place May 26 – 28 at The Arts House in Singapore. This year’s theme, Connecting With Connected Kids, will address an important and timely topic in children’s lit! Of course books remain popular but how is technology changing the world of children’s and YA lit?  As technology puts media access into children’s pockets and bedrooms, how do content makers stay connected with connected kids? Experts from around the world will provide their thoughts on this topic  in the speaker programs and panel discussions.

I am thrilled to announce that on Wed, May 25th I will be joining Tarie Sabido (Asia in the Heart, World on the Mind) and Dr. Myra Garces-Bacsal (Gathering Books) in hosting a pre-AFCC panel discussion entitled Building a Nation of Readers via Web 2.0: An Introduction to Kidlitosphere and the YA Blogosphere.  Come join us from 5:30 – 7pm at The Arts House and partake in our free discussion.  All are welcome to attend and you can reserve your seat by emailing afcc(at)bookcouncil(dot)sg. If you are already registered for the AFCC, you can officially sign in during our event and avoid the hassle of potential line-ups at the sign-in table on opening day.  All the details are included in the lovely flyer below (click on it to enlarge) which Regina at the Singapore Book Council designed. Hope to see you there!

The National Book Development Council of Singapore has just released more information on activities being held at this year’s Asian Festival of Children’s Content. You will see that the first item noted below is a pre-AFCC panel discussion that I will be doing with Tarie Sabido and Dr. Myra Garces-Bacsal on May 25th! For those of you attending the 2011 AFCC, plan on kick-starting the event by attending our free discussion. We would love to meet you and have you join! Plus, if you are already registered for the AFCC, you can officially sign in during our event and avoid the hassle of potential line-ups at the sign-in table on opening day.

Highlights at the Asian Festival of Children’s Content 2011, Sign Up Now!

As part of this exciting festival’s aims to engage, educate and empower children on a global stage through uniquely Asian content, we are offering a Free Panel Discussion on Building a Nation of Readers via Web 2.0, Specialised Workshops on writing and illustrating, and a Masterclass on Picture Books, led by some of the most accomplished children’s books creators around.

25 May, 5.30pm – 7.00pm
Free Panel Discussion: Building a Nation of Readers via Web 2.0
An Introduction to Kidlitosphere and the YA Blogosphere
by Corinne Robson, Canada (www.papertigers.org), Tarie Sabido, Philippines (http://asiaintheheart.blogspot.com) and Dr. Myra Garces-Bacsal, Singapore (www.gatheringbooks.org)

We know that blogging is the 21st century’s “word-of-mouth marketing”, and it is presently one of the most popular ways to promote a product, but what is Kidlitosphere?

Let us show you how to reach out to your current and prospective readers who are on the Internet. Download event flyer here. Admission is free. To register, email to info@bookcouncil.sg with your name and contact number.

28 May, 9.30am – 12.30pm
Writing Stories for Picture Books (in Mandarin)
by Chen Chih-Yuan, Taiwan

So you want to write a picture book. Stories for young children are usually short and that leads many to think that writing for them is easy. You’ll be in for a surprise as it is even more difficult than writing for adults. Join Chen Chih-Yuan, three-time winner of the prestigious Hsin Yi Picture Book Award, as he shows you how he writes stories for picture books. Download brochure here.

28 May, 1.30pm – 4.30pm
Picture Book Production Workshop (in Malay); Bengkel Menghasilkan Buku Bergambar
by Yusof Gajah, Malaysia & Murti Bunanta, Indonesia

In this workshop, you will have a better idea on producing picture books. Come, learn and expand on your initial efforts into a publishable picture book.Yusof Gajah is a much loved artist from Malaysia who is well known for his iconic elephant paintings, and Dr. Murti Bunanta is children’s literature specialist from Indonesia who has written 50 books for children. Download brochure here.

29 May, 10.00am – 1.00pm
Illustrating Picture Books (in Mandarin)
by Chen Chih-Yuan, Taiwan

Chen Chih-Yuan, renowned picture book writer and illustrator who has books published in various countries; the US, France, Germany, Netherlands, Japan, and Korea, will show you practical, creative techniques and solutions to different types of picture books, from wordless to those heavy on text.
Download brochure here.

29 – 30 May, 10.00am – 6.00pm
Masterclass on Picture Books

Join the AFCC 2011’s Masterclass on Picture Books and get this fantastic opportunity to meet Anushka Ravishankar, one of India’s most celebrated children’s authors, Gavin Bishop, New Zealand’s multiple award-winning author and illustrator, and John Mckenzie, the guru in Children’s Literature at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand.

The Masterclass will take you inside the minds and creative processes of these renowned experts in children’s literature today. Whether you are just beginning the path towards publication, or are already well-established, this Masterclass offers an invaluable guide to the craft of writing and illustrating picture books. Download brochure here.

Sign up early as seats are limited! Also visit www.afcc.com.sg for more information on the Asian Festival of Children’s Content 2011. We hope to see you in May!

It’s not too late to join this year’s Reading the World Challenge if you haven’t already – just take a look at this post for details.

In our family we have all joined together and read picture books set in Mongolia, which is our current focus on PaperTigers. I had to hunt around a bit but we came up with a good selection. I’m not going to go into a great deal of detail here as they are all gathered up in my Personal View, Taking a step into children’s books about Mongolia. We have really enjoyed delving into the culture and heritage of Mongolia and these picture books have been read all together and individually.

One bedtime Older Brother read Horse Song: the Naadam of Mongolia by Ted and Betsy Lewin (Lee and Low, 2008) to Little Brother – quite a long read and they were both engrossed. Watching them from the outside, as it were, I came to an added appreciation of the dynamics of Ted and Betsy’s collaboration, both in the energy of their shared enthusiasm and participation in the events surrounding the famous horse-race, and also of being struck by a busy, crowded scene one page and then giggling at the turn of expression on an individual study’s face the next.

And I’ll just share with you Little Brother’s reaction to Suho’s White Horse, which you can read about in a bit more detail in my Books at Bedtime post earlier this week:

It was a moving story. The governor made me angry because he broke his word and was cruel to Suho and his horse.
[Listening to the musical version played on the Mongolian horsehead fiddle, the morin khuur] Once you know the story, you can tell which part of the music is telling which part of the story. How do they make that music with just two strings? It fills me with awe.

I also read The Horse Boy: A Father’s Miraculous Journey to Heal His Son by Rupert Isaacson (Viking, 2009), an amazing story of a family’s journey to Mongolia in search of horses and shamans to seek healing for the torments that were gripping their five-year-old autistic son’s life: as Isaacson puts it with great dignity, his “emotional and physical incontinence”. If you have already read this humbling, inspiring book (and even if you haven’t), take a look at this recent interview three years on from their adventurous journey. Now I need to see the film!

And talking of films (which we don’t very often on PaperTigers, but I can’t resist mentioning this one), The Story of the Weeping Camel is a beautiful, gentle film that takes you right to the heart of Mongolian life on the steppe. Who would have thought a documentary film about a camel could be so like watching a fairy tale? Don’t be put off by the subtitles – our boys love this film. Take a look at the trailer -

But now it’s time to leave Mongolia and find out what everyone else has been reading… (more…)

The 2011 Singapore Young Author Award Winners were announced last week! Head on over to Gathering Books to find out more and see photos from the event.

Several weeks ago Janet Evans, Literacy and Educational Consultant and Senior Lecturer in Education at Liverpool Hope University, visited the National Institute of Education in Singapore and gave a presentation entitled “Exploring Comics, Graphic Novels and Picture Books as Multimodal Texts with Particular Reference to Raymond Briggs and His Partnership with Controversy.”  Myra Garces-Bacsal of Gathering Books attended the lecture and emailed me soon after to say that she was so impressed with Janet’s presentation that she stayed up until 2am to blog about it!

Truth be told, I have little inkling about who Raymond Briggs was, but I love graphic novels and I adore picture books. I thought that it was another blogworthy post for Gathering Books. True enough, it was the highlight of my day.

Janet’s 60-minute talk this afternoon (and I really feel it was waayyyy too short, I could have spent an entire day just listening and talking to Janet who is a fantastic and animated speaker) – basically centered on the subtle differences between comics, graphic novels, picture books and illustrated books. She also discussed the themes in Briggs’ work as a graphic novelist and how comics and graphic novels can be effective conduits to philosophical discourses, existential issues, and profound ruminations about life, death, war, tragedy, you name it – his picture books have them.

Now I feel like a total lark not knowing about Raymond Briggs. His works are now considered classics, extremely rare (thus expensive), and yes, he has a cult following. When Briggs was just beginning (1970′s) to publish his works which may be seen as a cross between comic strip, picture books and graphic novels all rolled into one – this kind of writing was regarded with a raised eyebrow at the very least in British society. Raymond Briggs has been credited to be instrumental in elevating the profile of comics and graphic novels to an intellectual level. Janet claims that “there is now a burgeoning renaissance in their creation, production, and acceptance.”

Read Myra’s entire blog post here.

Several weeks ago I posted about The Singapore Book Club’s July event: In Conversation with Adeline Foo, Lim Fong Wei and Sangeetha Madhavan. Panelist Adeline Foo recently emailed me and told me that Myra Garces-Bacsal’s attended the event and blogged about it at Gathering Books. Read Myra’s review (which includes pics and video!) and not only will you feel like you attended the event  but you will really get to know best-selling children’s author Adeline Foo as she talks about her work ethic, where her ideas come from and what lessons budding authors must know.

Myra sums up the evening by saying:

Generally, I thought it was a good evening. It was a long travel from my home  but it was well worth the trip. One possible add-in perhaps that may be considered if there is going to be another “book club” is that an actual specific “book” would be discussed by the attendees in greater detail…Strictly speaking, it was more a panel discussion with book authors than an actual “book club” where you discuss specific targeted books and argue about the characters’ motivations, affect, and personalities in the “club.” Considering though that it was the first children’s book club ever organized, I thought it was a success. Kudos to Adeline, Sangeetha and Fong Wei and the National Book Development Council for organizing the evening. I am avidly looking forward to more evenings filled with discussion about children’s books and themes with aspiring writers, book authors, illustrators, and lovers of children’s literature.

One thing that clearly shone through from last night’s book club, and my earlier coffee and conversation with David Seow, another prolific children’s book author in Singapore – is how tenacious and passionate these writers are despite the seemingly-insurmountable odds stacked against them, being situated in a comparatively small country in Asia. Cheers indeed to the fantasy, magic, and enchantment of children’s books. Keep the faith, everyone.