From Tots to Teens, 17th April 2011
By DAPHNE LEE
ALLEGRA (Ally to her friends and family) Katz has been playing the piano since she was four. She’s now 13 and belongs to a pre-college music programme at the Juilliard Music School. Her dad is a violinist with a famous quartet, and her mother trained in opera and now sings the blues in jazz bars in Manhattan’s Alphabet City.
Ally’s life revolves around music. She has to practice six hours a day and spends practically the whole of every Saturday at Juilliard, attending various music workshops and classes – theory, chamber, composition, solfege, master class, and her piano lesson proper with the relentlessly demanding and unsympathetic Miss Pringle.
“It felt like the world was passing me by,” says Ally when she can’t make it to her best friend, Opal’s art exhibition. Slumber parties, just hanging out eating hotdogs or watching movies, dating, all the things that most teenagers take for granted have to take a back seat to her music career, or rather making sure that she has music career to look forward to – “How do you get to Carnegie Hall?” “Practice.”
By DAPHNE LEE
From Tots to Teens 29th May 2011
I WANTED to review Warp Speed (Scholastic Press, 311 pages, ISBN: 978-0545122764) by Lisa Yee for three reasons: Firstly, the main character, Marley Sandelski, is a Star Trek fan (as am I); secondly, I thought my son would enjoy reading the book too as he is a Trekker as well; and finally, because it is set in Rancho Rosetta, the same town in which Yee’s books Millicent Min, Girl Genius, Standford Wong Flunks Big-Time and So Totally Emily Ebers are set (I love those books). In fact, Marley first appears in Standford Wong and Yee decided to give him his own book when, during a school visit, a reader asked her about the character.
23 June 1947 - 8 May 2011
On May 8, 2011, Margaret Lim has passed away peacefully in the arms of her loving husband and children. She had lost the fight against cancer and ended her journey on earth, leaving behind lovely memories in our hearts.
Margaret’s work of passion will live on at this blog and, soon, some of her unpublished work will be posted, as well.
We would like to share the following dedication by Margaret’s sister Aileen:
“Maggie passed away on Sunday, 8 May 2011, in Germany. It is a very significant day that is so representative of her life. God could not have granted her a better gift as it was Mother’s Day, and as a creative writer, she would have appreciated the symbol very much. She also only left towards the end of the day, a mother to the last.
Looking back, I realise that she had that special touch of a mother in the way she played her roles in life: as a friend or as a family member – aunt, cousin, niece, sister, wife, and of course mother.
She was always generous, considerate and well-intentioned. She was full of mirth, amidst her seriousness. She never spoke ill of anyone. When an appropriate occasion arose, she always spoke proudly of her immediate family – Wolfhart, SuJen, Einhard, Ken.
I am certain that where she is now, she is shining among the angels, and is so very happy. And why not? In her relatively short life, she has done a lot, achieved a lot, and in no small way as a children’s writer. In this world of children, she was always in touch with God.
Although she and I were supposed to make several small journeys together, and she was supposed to travel to see her relatives and friends, she has gone on a greater Journey, after fulfilling her life’s purpose.
If we celebrate the fulfilled life of this wonderful soul, and be happy with her, our hearts will be healed. And we will remember her in our thoughts as if she has not left us.
Like her paternal grandmother and father who went before, whom she deeply loved, and to whom she dedicated two of her books, she was full of a Mother’s Love.”
- Aileen Lim
From Tots to Teens
By DAPHNE LEE
GO the F**k to Sleep. I’ve just seen the cover of this book and I want it even though I haven’t read it yet. The title is worth the price though. How brilliantly honest! I don’t know about other parents, but “Go the f**k to sleep” is what often crosses my mind when I deal with my childrens’ bedtimes.
Even during my recent stay in hospital, when my son was recovering from heart surgery, I was swearing to myself every time I was woken up in the middle of the night by Elesh wanting a drink or to be sat up or to go to the toilet. Most parents (apart from the saintliest) should be able to relate – we love our kids, we would do anything for them, but it doesn’t mean we don’t wish they would just go the f**k to sleep at the appropriate time.
Recent Comments