The Star Online: Lifestyle: Bookshelf
The Star Online: Lifestyle: Bookshelf |
| Posted: 09 Apr 2013 03:19 AM PDT HER time spent volunteering with Voice Of the Children, a non-governmental organisation that advocates for children's rights in Malaysia, clearly left a impact on Quek Sue Yian. Coupled with her experience at the Asian Festival of Children's Content in Singapore in May 2012, it got her to thinking about how to get quality books to poor children. Hence, publishing company Magicbird was born – and alongside it, the One For One initiative, where for each book purchased, another is given to a under-served child or community. "We work very closely with the CIMB Foundation. The people there have believed in our vision from the very beginning. They have an English Literacy Programme and a mobile library. They have taken a large percentage of our books and channelled them to these causes as well as the charities they work with," says Magicbird founder Quek. She says that they also rely on books that they sell directly, whether online through oneforonebooks.org, at trade fairs, or purchased from Borders bookstores where the books are exclusively available. Magicbird has a list of beneficiaries these books are donated to at oneforonebooks.org. Since May last year, a total of 1,648 books have been sold, and 1,359 books donated nationwide. Magicbird also welcomes other English children's books publishers who are interested in coming onboard the One For One initiative, as well as writers, illustrators and other individuals who would like to assist. "We are really looking for anything that could help scale up and increase our impact on getting free quality books to under-served children," says Quek. |
| Posted: 09 Apr 2013 03:18 AM PDT A new publisher of children's books takes a closer look at real life. ONCE upon a time, there lived a homeless little girl named Maya who wandered the streets for all 18 pages of the children's book Who Am I? She doesn't have a best friend, she doesn't have a pet dog, she doesn't have loving parents to look after her. There's no happy ending for Maya. Sounds a little unconventional for a children's book? Sure. But the intention is not to insist on ending on a sad note; the ending is such because the story is meant to offer a more realistic look at life and stimulate discussion about the issue at hand. "Maya's problems are not resolved by the end of the book, and this mirrors reality. To many children living on the street, there seems to be no solution," explains Quek Sue Yian, 38, founder of children's book publishing company Magicbird. "It is not about the ending being happy or sad; the aim is to have thought-provoking endings. We don't want to romanticise poverty or homelessness. Life is not always like it is in Slumdog Millionaire, and we don't want to sugarcoat it," she adds, making reference to the Danny Boyle-directed movie about an orphan from the Mumbai slums who wins it big on television game show Who Wants To Be A Millionaire. Founded in May last year, Magicbird now has three books to its name, the latest addition being Norico Chua's A Cake Reaching To The Sky (see The sky's the limit, below). Each book revolves around a theme: Who Am I? by Marcy Dans Lee addresses the issue of homelessness; Do Noses Grow Long When Lies Are Told? by C.K. Koh and Quek delves into truthfulness; and Chua's A Cake Reaching To The Sky touches on family time. "Apart from the thematic thread running through them, each book has a list of questions that comes after the story that can be used as a guide for discussion," explains Quek. "We have a group of friends comprising teachers, activists, book publishers and mothers that we bounce ideas off. We affectionately call them our Wise Owls. They provide the input on themes and questions for each book," says Quek, who works a full-time job at a management company while also running Magicbird. She points out that "a child will not dance through childhood" without questioning things they see around them. And sometimes what they see can be the hard, cold facts of life that might not be easy to discuss. "We try not to be about just a pretty story, we try to lead into a discussion on topics that might be difficult to talk about. It's sometimes easier to refer to a third person when doing so. These books can help us talk about such issues. The questions help with this, and hopefully it will help the child reader make sense of reality," she says. A child can certainly read the book on his or her own, but Quek maintains that some guidance would be best. And just like real life, it's certainly not all gloom and doom with these books; projects in the pipeline include books about a dog that eats nightmares, a fantastic dream box, and a dancing bear – whimsical concepts used to explore serious issues like child labour and the difference between dreams and reality. "We are also thinking of looking at Malaysian folklore, in particular some of the wayang kulit tales," says Quek. While she says there is nothing wrong with a happily ever after tale, don't expect to read about princesses sitting around waiting to be rescued by Prince Charming in books published by Magicbird. Quek's vision is "to flood Malaysia with really nice books, books that give children the freedom to think and ponder". These books might be sans princes and princesses, and the typical happy endings that come with these characters, but Magicbird shows that it is certainly possible to have fun – and learn while you are at it! – even without them. |
| Posted: 09 Apr 2013 03:17 AM PDT HOW does the author of A Cake Reaching To The Sky describe her book? "It is about brownies made of despair and mint leaves made of hope," Norico Chua writes in an e-mail interview from her hometown of Hyogo, Japan. It is hardly a typical description, but then again, there is more than one unusual thing about her book. Firstly, the book is read from the bottom of the page upwards, reflecting, one would deduce, the protagonist's dream of reaching to his grandmother in the sky. (The boy's life is represented by an array of delicious sweet treats that he bakes in an attempt to reach her.) Secondly, despite the illustrations looking like watercolour paintings, Chua says that they are computer graphics. She was quoted in a press release as referring to the technique as a "trade secret". Not that she offered any further insight in the interview with this writer, but she candidly says that she considers herself "not good at hand-drawing like other picture book authors". She comments that she is "not proud of the technique used" because she "believes that hand-drawing is the best". She adds, however, that it makes her happy if such illustrations set her book apart from other children's books. The book comes with a Japanese translation on the outer band on the book and is aimed at children aged three and above. Chua, who is a 2007 graduate of The One Academy in Malaysia, is married to a Malaysian and has a year-old son. It was through spending time with her son that she decided to write a book for children. "Children sometimes surprise you with the most amazing ideas, ideas that adults have long left behind in their childhood days. For example, when my son sees that it is raining outside, he says, 'Mummy, the rain misses me. He is looking for me'. Or when he looks up to the sky and tells me, 'My hand can't reach the moon. Let's go there'. Normality becomes fantasy in his wondrous world," Chua relates. In working on this book, the illustrations came before the text; she worked on the images for two months at a stretch, two hours each day, and the entire process of producing the book took almost two years in total. Chua believes that such tales of reunion and family are timeless, particularly as the story can convey different meanings at different stages of one's life. "Sooner or later, we have to face the fact that we have to be apart from someone we love in our lives. I thought that it would be nice if after this loss, we build our lives as colourfully as we can," she says. Her advice? Be kind, stay healthy, smile, be happy and live well until the day we fly up to the sky with wings. "Then we can relate this story of a colourful life to our loved ones when we see them again, up in the sky," she concludes. |
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