Category: Ages 5-8

Town Boy by Lat

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By Maureen Tai, 10 May 2018

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“And so…there we were – my family and I … beginning a new life in this new place. We have become town people…”

On this first day of a new era for my home country, it is fitting that I should pay tribute to one of my favourite comics from my youth.  Malaysia’s much-loved cartoonist, Datuk Mohammad Nor Khalid (fondly referred to as Lat, short for bulat or round) wrote Town Boy almost three decades ago.  It is an semi-autobiographical tale, set in the 1960’s, of a young Malay boy growing up in a small town.

It is my childhood too. And it is the childhood of several generations of Malaysians. Continue reading →

The Bear and the Wildcat by Kazumi Yumoto and illustrated by Komako Sakai

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By Maureen Tai, 6 May 2018

“One morning, Bear was crying. His best friend, a little bird, was dead.” 

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With that opening line, there is no doubt about it. This picture book is about death.

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Violet Mackerel’s Personal Space by Anna Branford and illustrated by Sarah Davis

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By Maureen Tai, 2 May 2018

“On the last morning of the holiday, everyone puts all their things back in their suitcases.  Violet takes the sheet down from the bunk bed and folds it up. One minute it looks as if her family actually lives in the beach house, and the next minute it looks as if they have never stayed there at all.”

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I had the pleasure of meeting and supping with the delightfully scintillating self-taught illustrator, Sarah Davis over a year ago when she was in Hong Kong. Sarah also ran an illustration workshop that my daughter Anna attended and loved, and that’s when I too, fell in love with her work.  Sarah’s beautiful drawings subsequently led me to Violet Mackerel, a charming early reader series that has similarly stolen my heart.

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The Gardener by Sarah Stewart, illustrated by David Small

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By Maureen Tai, 28 April 2018

“All the seeds and roots are sprouting. I can hear you saying, ‘April showers bring May flowers.’ ” – Lydia Grace Finch

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It is the mid-1930s in small-town America.  Even though Lydia Grace and her grandmother’s garden is bountiful and overflowing with vegetables and flowers, there is no work for Papa nor for Mama. Times are hard for the Finches.

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