AFCC Day Two: Picture Books and After Reading Activities with Ying Chang Compestine and Dr George Jacobs,

Like a bird of prey circling one of its victims, it was only a matter of time before the talons of the sniffles, I felt coming on the previous night, snatched the last vestiges of my health yesterday morning.  Good thing is that I didn't have a fever and he said it wasn't viral!

So I downed some cough syrup and lemsip that was past its expiry date.  It's safe to do that, isn't it? Oh, well, if it isn't then perhaps my books will eventually sell well. Denise, I bequeath you sole distributorship of all my books and some of my original author illustrations! To  Felicia and Adan, I leave my treasured action-figure collection! It should be worth something some day.

My Star Lord Action figure.

Anyway I made it down safely and without incident to the library for the second day of AFCC, where I was scheduled to moderate Picture Books and Activities for After Reading  with best-selling and award-winning author Ying Chang Compestine and Dr George Jacobs. 

I met Ying when she was in town last year to talk about her brilliant book Revolution is Not a Dinner Party! And I only managed to meet Dr Jacobs a few days before. So we didn't much time to discuss how the session would unfold, but I didn't have anything to worry about as they are both fantastic speakers. 

We met up  at Closetful of Books festival bookstore before adjourning to the Multi-purpose room for their session . And the room was packed. And I mean totally packed!

The room was packed!! I fumbled over my introduction and then Ying  started her presentation.  She had the audience enthralled from the get go as she went through the picture books that she's written and the inspiration behind each of them. As a great cook who's hosted her own Cooking Show, it's no surprise that she's added the element of food to many of her stories.  I suppose you could say that they're absolutely delicious reads! 

 Ying ended her presentation with a video clip of her cooking one of her Chinese New Year delicacies with her son, Vinson. Incidentally, Ying and her son and co-author, Vinson, are shortlisted for the Golden Dragon Award in Hong Kong for their book 'The Secrets of the Terra-Cotta Soldier'.  It's also garnered interest from the entertainment world so you could be watching it on the big screen sometime in the near future! Congratulations, Ying and Vinson!

Then Dr Jacobs and his co-presenter Jiexin discussed the strategies that can be used to engage children after reading and I have to say I wish I could have used those strategies back when I was babysitting my niece and my nephews all those years ago.  

The session ended with lots of great questions and a lot of laughs too. I would tell you a lot more about it but, to tell you the truth, you should have bought an AFCC ticket and been there yourself. There's still time to do so. AFCC ends on Friday!

Artwork for The Lion Dance

My wonderful illustrator, Soefara keeps out-doing herself. These are her latest pieces from our upcoming book, The Lion Dance.

Book Launch for A Day with the Duchess

A week after we returned, Emma and I had back to back book launches at Books Kinokuniya. We were both very thrilled to say the least.

Erin, Sheri and Ilangoh with the help of our Kino friends promoted A Day with the Duchess via facebook and other social media, hoping to drum up some level of interest. Erin was in constant contact with me whilst I was in London, emailing ideas for activities for the children for the one hour launch.

As for goodies that the kids could take home with them, we had paper dolls of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, a paper hamster on a stick and stickers, lots and lots of stickers!

I invited William, Vicky, Mikey and Alice Adeney whom I met when we were waiting for the Duke and Duchess at the Gardens by the Bay. Incidentally, the book is dedicated to Mikey and Alice and you can see their illustrated likenesses in the book.

At two a small group of children and parents had gathered and we started the reading session of the book kaunch. As Emma has a far nicer reading voice that I do, she graciously agreed to read the story for me.  And it's needless to say that she did a fantastic job!

After the reading we played a game with the kids. They had to guess the whereabouts of  Kate the Hamster and whoever found her would win a prize.

Quick thinking Alice, found her and for her efforts, she won a Kinokuniya voucher, a bespoke sketch of the Duchess of Cambridge signed by Soefara and the opportunity to be an illustrated character in the next Sam, Sebbie and Di-Di-Di book.

Then Soefara did a drawing demonstration and she gave away two of her sketches before it was time for us to sign some books.

With that, our book launch was over and we had half and hour to get ready for Emma's book launch. Thanks to Emma, Soefara, Sheri, Ilangoh, Richelle and Erin for making this happen. Thanks to Mum, Auntie Susanna, Tilly, Kenneth, Simon, The Adeneys, Sarah, Linda, Tracy, Evelyn,  Dave, Jason, Jim, Edmund and everyone for coming out to support us.

Watch out for my next blog post on Emma's book launch. If you missed both our launches and you would like to attend  launches at the Asian Festival of Children's Content Just Click This Link to register.

I'll Write For Cookies

Vivian Kirkfield very kindly invited me to answer a few questions on her blog. Thank you so much Vivian! Please click on the link below to head on over to Vivian's blog!



Will Write For Cookies