By Maureen Tai, 10 February 2022

During a recent trip to my hometown in Malaysia, I visited the shamelessly Instagrammable BookXcess @ Kong Heng and my browsing was rewarded with a gorgeous picture book, The Wonderful Adventures of Nils (ages 6+). I confess to not knowing at the time that the fable-like story was over a century old, and that its author, Selma Lagerlöf (1858 – 1940), is legendary in her native Sweden, being the first woman to ever win the Nobel Prize in Literature (as she did in 1909). I had been attracted primarily to the book’s exquisite paper-cut pages and how cleverly they overlaid the whimsical illustrations on the cover and inside of the book. A blatant case of judging a book by its cover.

By Maureen, 6 December 2021

In Corey Tabor’s delightful picture book, Snail Crossing (ages 4+), an energetic and cheerful snail spies a bountiful field of cabbages on the other side of a dark, grey road. Our heroic – or overly optimistic? foolhardy? naive? – gastropod immediately decides he must get to those cabbages, and sets off resolutely to cross the road. He is oblivious to the dangers , but we, the mildly-stressed readers, are not. We resist the urge to cover our eyes as we turn the pages … The surprising and satisfying conclusion proves that luck and kindness go a long way, even if our lovely snail ultimately does not.

By Maureen, 31 October 2021

In poet Bao Phi’s diverse picture book, My Footprints (ages 5+), a little gap-toothed girl with dark hair and dark eyes imagines herself as different animals as she walks across a snow-covered landscape. Looking at the footprints she’s made, Thuy is, in turns, sad, gleeful, and angry. She’s fed up with being bullied and laughed at in school. With the help of her two moms, Thuy regains her confidence, creating an imaginary alter-ego embodying all that is dear to her. Basia Tran’s gorgeous colour- pencilled illustrations complement this gentle story about coming to terms with your own identity and drawing strength from it.     

By Maureen Tai, 24 October 2021

Guji Guji (ages 4+) is a delightful picture book about love, family, and acceptance. And the perils of being too engrossed in your reading. Mother Duck doesn’t notice that she’s warming an oversized egg that has mysteriously rolled into her nest. When the eggs eventually hatch, she isn’t at all concerned that among her brood of multi-coloured ducklings, is a creature with distinctly crocodilian features. She names him Guji Guji and loves and cares for him as if he were like his other ducking siblings. Will this all change when Guji Guji meets others of his kind, and they turn out to have a ravenous appetite for duck meat? You’ll have to read to find out! Taiwanese author/illustrator Chih-Yuan Chen’s lovely tale will charm readers of all ages.