Scary Stuff

I interviewed Tunku Halim (left) on Friday and felt like a worm when he said that hardly anyone had reviewed his Children's History of Malaya.

(I interviewed him when that book was first published.)

I squeaked: "I mentioned you in my column."

OK, so it was a very, very brief mention ....

No excuses, so let's just look forward to his new book, 44 Cemetery Road, a compilation of his supernatural shorts.

For what it's worth, I still read CHM to my kids and have recommended it to a couple of home-schooling centres (where it is now used). The book makes history interesting for children. History is, of course, interesting anyway, but most textbooks have an uncanny knack of turning bloody battles, scandals and betrayals, turbulent lives, cruel dictators and courageous people into chunks of boring, lifeless facts. Quite a gift, that!

To get your kids interested in Malayan history, get them CHM.

And check out Tunku Halim's blog Write Lah! Writing for Malaysians.

44 Cemetery Road is due out in April.

Comments

[Hsian]

I have read it and thought it was good too. I was just telling Kent he should use it as a text for his classes when he teaches his kids Malaysian history this year. Like, you said history is actually very exciting but the Malaysian textbooks make it seem so bland. Same with science, so much focus on theory but not on application and also more important relevance to modern day living! I guess its also because most history as taught to us in this country tends to be political history. Social history that touches more on cultural aspects of the human race, is not touched on enough! Just like the way geography is taught here. Talking about cultural aspects of geography (as everyone likes to travel and is fascinated by things from different countries) would be helluva lot more fun than our current fixation on what grass grows in what time zone due to what weather conditions!