The Places You Will Go

An Interview with Shih-Li Kow

From StarMag

A local author who was shortlisted on Monday for a prestigious international literary prize shares aspects of her writing life.

IN 2007, Silverfish Books published News from Home, a collection of short stories by three Malaysians, Chua Kok Yee, Rumaizah Abu Bakar, and Shih-Li Kow.

The writers were participants of the Silverfish Writing Programme, and had been chosen to contribute to the anthology because they showed promise and commitment. Each had a different style of storytelling, but Kow’s stories stood out as the most original and interesting, and also because her voice was the most confident and natural of the three.

A year later, Kow published Ripples and Other Stories, a collection of her own, to critical acclaim locally. On Monday, that acclaim became international when Ripples was shortlisted for the world’s richest short story prize, the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award.

The winner of the ‚35,000 (RM175,000) prize will be announced on Sept 30, at the culmination of the annual Frank O’Connor International Short Story Festival in Cork, Ireland, which begins on Sept 16.

The other titles shortlisted are An Elegy for Easterly by Petina Gappah; Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned by Wells Tower; Love Begins in Winter by Simon Van Booy; Singularity by Charlotte Grimshaw; and The Pleasant Light of Day by Philip Ó Ceallaigh.

In an e-mail interview, Kow, 40, talks about being shortlisted and other aspects of her life as a writer.

Picture Book of the Month: Ghosts in the House!

June 2009
GHOSTS IN THE HOUSE!
Written and illustrated by Kazuna Kohara
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press, 32 pages

A little girl and a cat explore an old house and find it full of ghosts. But they aren't just any little girl and cat, but a witch girl and her witch cat - and out come the pointy hat and the black cat suit! Marvellous!! They round the ghosts up, give them a wash, hang them out to dry and turn them into happy curtains, table cloth, bed clothes and other household linen. I'm not sure if ghosts really want to be functional, but these ones look happy enough. I Love the striking orange-and-black illustrations - that somehow gives the impression of a bright night! And the white tissue ghosts are wispily delightful and look like they could blow off the page!

Malaysian Tales

By DAPHNE LEE

From Tots to Teens, StarMag

IT'S good to see more children's books being written and published by Malaysians. Last week I was introduced to an independent publisher who is dedicated to publishing Malaysian stories. Oyez! Books has a list of titles that are illustrated by Malaysian artists and is on the look-out for Malaysians who wish to write for children. More on this publishing company and its founder, Linda Tan, in another column.

This week, I'd like to highlight a new book published by Marshall Cavendish. Timeless Tales of Malaysia is a collection of 11 folktales, retold by Tutu Dutta. Born in India, Dutta grew up in Malaysia. However, she now spends much of her time away from the country as she's married to a Malaysian diplomat whose next posting is to Cuba!

Dutta has always been interested in folktales, legends and myths, which, she says are "little capsules of culture, history and also human nature". She read and researched a great many stories before selecting those that appear in Timeless Tales. Some of them were tales Dutta remembered from her childhood; others she had read on the Internet and discussion forums; a few were from travel articles and also from published collections. The final selection was based solely on what appealed to Dutta most. "First of all, they had to have an interesting plot and the possibility of character development," she explained to me via email, adding that she also favoured stories that end with twist. Most importantly, the stories had to "speak" to her.

CILIP Kate Greenaway and Carnegie Medal Winners Announced

The CILIP Kate Greenaway winner is Harris Finds His Feet by Catherine Rayner.

The CILIP Carnegie winner is Bog Child by Siobhan Dowd.

Read more and watch the videos of the awards ceremony at the official website.

Kate Greenaway winner announcement video.

Carnegie winner annoouncement video.

New Children's Laureate will Champion Picture Books

 By DAPHNE LEE

From Tots to Teens, StarMag

I READ your column on the sly," a woman in her mid 20s said to me the other day.

"You must have me mixed up with someone else," I said, half-peevishly. "My column isn't about anything you'd want to hide having an interest in." Actually, I knew she had not mistaken who I was; I knew what she was getting that.

True enough, she told me, in a whisper that she loved children's books but didn't want her friends to find out. "So embarrassing," she giggled.

I simply gave her my best fake smile. Sometimes, I just can't be bothered to explain that if you're an adult who reads and enjoys children's books, it does not mean that you are mentally deficient. Nor does it mean that you have unusual tastes. If you do read children's books, you'll know that they are about practically everything under the sun. Sex is practically the only thing that you won't find in children's literature, but teen lit does deal with the subject, sometimes quite explicitly (much to the dismay of some parents and teachers who, in my opinion, are in denial).

I also frequently meet parents who tell me, in horror, that they're children still enjoy picture books. For shame! Those are for babies surely!

I suggested that an English language tutor use picture books to teach her 14-year-old student who couldn't read well and had problems concentrating on the reading primers she used. Short sentences and paragraphs interspersed with pictures are less intimidating than large blocks of text; and illustrations can also be used to improve a child's observational and descriptive skills. The tutor, however, felt that the student would be embarrassed if she used "baby" books to teach him. His friends would laugh at him. Well, why not teach his friends using the same books? I don't think you're ever too old for picture books.

Author/illustrator Anthony Browne feels that way too. Browne has just been chosen as Britain's new Children's Laureate. He takes over from poet and picture book author Michael Rosen, and will hold the post for two years.

Browne is looking forward to championing picture books which he said, in an interview with The Times, "are being marginalised and forgotten about".

His own picture books often feature monkeys and apes, especially gorillas. In the same interview, he says, "Gorillas are just fascinating to draw in the way that old people’s faces are more interesting to draw than young people’s faces."

Although the books sometimes deal with serious issues like parental neglect and bullying, the use of apes allows, I believe, for a more child-friendly approach, as animals tend to be viewed by children as non-threatening, and also allow children some distance when reading about these difficult situations.

Browne Laureate

Picture book author/illustrator Anthony Browne has been named the new Children's Laureate.

He takes over from Michael Rosen and will fill the post for the next two years.

Read the full report here.

A gallery of Browne's illustrations can be viewed here.

Happy Birthday Maurice Sendak

Happy 81st!

Stories that Teach and Heal

By DAPHNE LEE

From Tots to Teens, StarMag

THE latest issue of The Horn Book Magazine (about books for children and young adults) contains an article by Lizza Aiken about growing up with Joan Aiken (her mother).

Joan Aiken is of course best known for her Wolves of Willoughby Chase series, set during an alternate period of English history, during which James II was never deposed. She sounds like quite an amazing woman, as was her mother, Jessie, who read and sang to her children, and was acknowledged by Aiken as intrumental in her development as a writer.

Aiken too filled her children's lives with stories, poetry and songs. And although she had to care for a sick husband and young children, and then, when she was widowed, cope as a single parent, she still managed to support her family and write books.

Lizzie Aiken writes that "stories acted as a bandage for the pain we were all suffering" and describes how language and literature were used to "assuage" "difficulties and loneliness".

This reminds me of something Susan Cooper (author of The Dark is Rising Sequence) once said about how stories present children with problems that they can learn to work through without the stress and pain of a real situation of difficulty. You enter a story, live it, you are the character, you feel what she feels, and yet, you're free to leave, free to step back into safety. However, the intensity with which a child feels for a character means that she experiences what the character does almost exactly as if it were happening to her.

Sales Explained

From StarMag

How do warehouse book sales manage to offer titles at such low prices? And why can’t we have those prices every day?

WHAT a time it’s been of late for book lovers in the Klang Valley! We’ve had huge warehouse sales by book wholesaler Crescent; the cheaper books people, Pay Less Books; and Big Bad Wolf Books.

The last was particularly memorable for me: I picked up more than 100 books for about RM600 – this means I paid, on average, RM6.50 a book and this includes hardback picture books (retail price at least RM60) and Nigella Lawson’s best-selling cookbook Nigella Express (also in hardcover)! In fact, prices at the sale ranged from RM5 to RM20. It was a heaven-sent event for book-buyers who were seen leaving with bulging canvas bags and loaded cardboard boxes during the five days of the sale.

How can the organisers of such sales afford to sell their books at such wonderfully low prices?

There are three situations that knock prices down: when books are “remaindered”, that is, they are no longer saleable for various reasons including over-printing and the release of new editions; overstocking, when a publisher might simply wish to reduce stock while retaining a quantity for herself; and returns, when titles are returned to the publisher by bookshops that have overestimated the number of copies they can sell.

There are occasions when customers will find the same book being sold at a regular bookstore at its stated cover price, and at a remaindered store for half or less of that. When this happens it’s probably due to the varying “shelf-life” practised by different book markets.

For example, in Britain, a book may be given six months in a bookstore before its saleability is evaluated, whereas a Malaysian bookstore may keep a book for a year. Titles “retired” in Britain may end up as remaindered stock and find their way to the shelves of a remaindered store in Malaysia. The same book may, of course, still be on the shelves of a regular bookstore.

Authors receive reduced or no royalties for books sold at remaindered stores and warehouse sales, but the upside is that they may find new readers at these places.

For example, Jacqueline Ng, one of the organisers of the Big Bad Wolf sale, says that The Gift of Rain by Malaysian author Tan Twan Eng sold very well at their sale. “Unfortunately, Malaysian readers are still not confident enough about local writers and would hesitate to buy a book like The Gift of Rain for the usual RM36. However, at RM8 they are happy to take the ‘risk’.”

If these readers like Tan’s book, they might pay the full price for his next novel the moment it’s published. After all, many of us have discovered favourite authors at second-hand bookstores and then gone out and bought all their other books at retail price.

Wise and Wonderful

From Tots to Teens, StarMag

JUNIPER, Wise Child and Colman. To look at the covers of the Random House editions of Monica Furlong's books is to love them immediately and deeply. They are the work of Leo and Dianne Dillon, the husband-and-wife team also responsible for the covers of the Eos editions of Garth Nix's Abhorsen trilogy, as well as many other popular and critically-acclaimed books including the Caldecott Medal winners Why Mosquitoes Buzz In People's Ears (1976) and Ashanti To Zulu: African Traditions (1977).

When I read Nix's and Furlong's books it was easy to accept the Dillons' depiction of the books' main characters. It's evident that these illustrators pay close attention to the authors' descriptions of the characters' physical features, as well as their clothes. What's interesting is although the style doesn't change, and every character has a superficially similar look, each one is still distinct, as though the Dillons have managed to capture not just the outer shell of facial features, but also the inner spirit of each one. If only the the books were fully illustrated.

Anyway, I thought that I would highlight Furlong's series this week - because it's so wonderful and comforting, and not at all well-known. Furlong wrote and published them in this order: Wise Child, Juniper and Colman. Here's a little about the books in reading order:

Picture Book of the Month: Fruits

May 2009
FRUITS
By ValerieBloom
Illustrations by David Aztell
Publisher: Macmillan Books, 32 pages
THIS delightful poem, written in West Indian dialect, must be read aloud for maximum effect. A young girl and her baby sister discover a whole lot of fruit - starting from "half a pawpaw" and ending with "ten banana" - and gobble up as much as they can - with the girl taking the lion's share. The bananas finally get the better of her: "Mek me lie down on me bed, quick. Lawd, ah feeling really sick." The children's expressions are a joy to behold, and the whole book, from the jaunty rhythm of the poem to the vibrant colours of the illustrations, just oozes a sunny vibe - it's guaranteed to put a huge grin on your face.

Dealing with Death

By DAPHNE LEE

From Tots to Teens, StarMag

SALLY Nicholls' new book Season of Secrets references the myth of the Green Man, as well as the wild hunt and Herne the Hunter. A pair of sisters are sent off to live with their grandparents when their mum dies and their dad can't cope with his grief and raising his daughters. The younger girl, Molly, literally stumbles upon a young man who, it transpires, is the embodiment of spring and summer.

The Green Man is pursued by a figure on a horse and a pack of wolves or wild dogs, and hides in a shed. He causes an oak tree to sprout from its floor and grows a bluebell in the palm of his hand. Later, Molly sees a man with legs (that look more like a bull's than a man's) covered in thick black fur. In the book this is The Holly King, a version of Herne the Hunter, leader of the Wild Hunt.

I've been fascinated with Herne ever since I watched the Robin Hood telly series back in the 80s. I recently viewed it again and Herne was just a man with a deerhead jammed on. It looked really silly. God, special effects really sucked back then.

Howlingly Good

Today's the last day of The Big Bad Wolf Booksale. Thanks to Jacqueline and Andrew for a fabulous week of great books at ridiculously low prices.

I went again yesterday, and today. As I left today, at 5pm, they were still unpacking boxes. Ah well ...

Here's what I got yesterday and today ...

Illustrated Books
Outsiders by Kevin Crossley-Holland, with amazing illustration by Christian Birmingham

Vampire Loves by Joann Sfar
Quirky graphic novel about a romantic vampire named Ferdinand.

The Fiction
A Country Christmas by Miss Read
Nooo ... not the plus-size store ...

Heaven's Net is Wide by Lian Hearn
It's the prequel to the Tales of the Otori trilogy. Now I need The Harsh Cry of the Heron, the sequel to the trilogy.

Non-Fiction
Spellbound: The Improbable Story of English Spelling by James Essinger
Probably because I can't spell.

The World is What It Is: The Authorized Biography of V. S. Naipaul by Patrick French
Morbid fascination.

Time was Soft There: A Paris Sojourn at Shakespeare & Co by Jeremy Mercer

Battlefield Walks: Kent and Sussex by Rupert Matthew
Because I miss Sussex.

Julie Andrews: An Intimate Biography by Richard Stirling
Impossible to resist. I love Julie Andrews - even in The Princess Diaries movies.

Homer's The Iliad and The Odyssey: A Biography by Alberto Manguel

The Origin of Species and The Voyage of the Beagle by Charles Darwin

Led Zeppelin: When Dinosaurs Walked the Earth: A Biography by Mick Wall

Plus about half a dozen others to give to friends. And a whole lot of board books, and DK books that my children chose for themselves.

Books I Bought at KLAB

I raved about the books I got at the Big Bad Wolf Sale but realise I never blogged about the ones I bought at the Kuala Lumpur Alternative Bookfest.

Being KLAB (alternative to the boring old mainstream bookfest that flogs mainly text and self-help books, and the all the usual stuff found at bookstores), it was mostly about local small presses, distributors and authors. The Dram Projects was allowed to sell secondhand mainstream internationally published books because we were fund-raising - thanks Amir and Zulhabri.

Anyway, here's what I picked up at the festival:

The Book That Was Handed Down by Yixian Quek, illustrated by Grace Duan Ying
(a picture book that was self-published with funds awarded as part of the Singabore National Book Development Council's First Book initiative)

Still Life: An Autobiographical Novella Comic by Ming
What it says.

A Nation Cheated by Chee Suan Juan
The author is the leader of the Singapore Democratic Party.

Window Shopping for Enlightenment by ... A.N?
(A sort of graphic novel thing inspired by Tarot suits)

 A Love Letter by Chin Yew
A short comic I helped to edit. Looks pretty, printed on recycled paper.

mostpodern by Munkao
Typical of Munkao's zines - wacky, weird and weirder.

Akulah Perempuan Muda Itu: Himpunan Puisi Pop Untuk Pari2 Terbuang by Shaira Amira (Sang Freud Press)
A collection of poetry.

Kacip by Pipiyapong (Sindiket Sol-Jah)
A compilation of blog posts by Pipiyapong

Why Does She Laugh at My Tragedy by Chi
Stick figures ponder the tragedy of love gone wrong

Godspeed
A zine from Spore

Untitled by Adila
A zine about the strange world of Adila Abdul Malik

Che Untuk Pemula by Sergio & Agung Arif Budiman (Resist Book)
Che Guevera for beginners, a graphic guide, from Indonesia.

Marxisme untuk Pemula by Rupert Woodfin and Oscar Zarate (Resist Book)
Marxism for beginners, a graphic guide, from Indonesia.

 Perempuan Simpanan (Sindiket Sol-Jah)
A compilation of blog posts by various women bloggers

A short story by Zedeck Siew, illustrated by Sharon Chin
(see illustration at the top of this post)

Just love the covers indie publishers come up with. Why do books by some of the big local publishing groups look so godawful???

Hands, Teeth and Disintegrating Noses

By DAPHNE LEE

From Tots to Teens, StarMag

ZOMBIES. Hmmm .... I've never found zombies scary. They're pretty disgusting, but I'd be more likely to laugh at them than run screaming or cower under the bedclothes. I invariably think of zombie movies as comedies. Rotting men and women with bits falling off ... so what? Is it because I used to work in a hospital that bloody putrefecation holds no horror for me?

Perhaps if they moved more quickly ... I mean, sure it's horrible to be eaten alive but if you can outrun those that want to make a three course meal out of you then what's the big deal? Plus, a few whacks with a chair and they fall apart. Of course zombies might be a metaphor for demanding, permanently emotionally-hungry men who fall apart easily. Now, that's something to keep you up nights!