All You Ever Wanted to Know About Creating Books for Young Readers

Date: Saturday, 26th Jan 2013 (NEW)
 Time: 10am-5pm (with a one-hr lunch break)
Place: Silverfish Books, 28-1 Jalan Telawi, Bangsar Baru, 59100 Kuala Lumpur
Fee: RM300 inclusive of all course materials.
Registration: Online (link) or at Silverfish books (Tel: 603-22844837, email: info@silverfishbooks.com)
Facilitator: Daphne Lee

Participants may also submit one manuscript per person for evaluation (which will be delivered via email not more than one month after the date of the course).

This 6-hr session is based on the many questions I receive from aspiring authors and illustrators who wish to create books for young readers, amongst them

    What should a children’s book be about?
    How many words are there in a children’s book?
    Should I write a picture book or storybook?
    Should I use difficult words in my story?
    Should I write in rhyme?
    Are there subjects I should avoid when writing a picture book/story book?
    What’s the difference between a picture book and illustrated book?
    What are the pictures in a children’s book for?
    What is a picture sequence and why is it important?
    Who will publish my book?

These and other questions will be answered and discussed with the aim of shedding some light on the art and science of writing and illustrating for children.

In this session, participants will also …

    Read and evaluate published and unpublished texts and picture book art.
    Learn the basics of creating good picture books/story books, including the fundamentals of planning plots, writing dialogue, creating characters, establishing a voice and deciding on Point of View.
    Be introduced to an interesting and wide range of picture books and story books.

Children's book reading and story-telling

EVENT: Children's book reading and story-telling
Date: Saturday, 24th Nov
Time: 5.30 pm
Place: Silverfish Books, 28-1 Jalan Telawi, Bangsar Baru, 59100 Kuala Lumpur
Reader: Alexandra Carey

English author Alexandra Carey will be coming in to read extracts from her children’s books Ted Ted and the Dhobi Ghats and Ted Ted, Trouble in Tokyo.

Based on a true story, Ted Ted and the Dhobi Ghats is about a little English teddy bear who gets lost in Mumbai and ends up at the city’s famous open-air laundry, the Dhobi Ghats.  Following the success of this first book, Alexandra Carey decided to write a follow up – the recently released, Ted Ted, Trouble in Tokyo.  The much-loved English teddy bear continues his adventures this time in Japan’s capital city where he gets into all sorts of scrapes including an encounter with a Sumo wrestler, Nasty Noriko and a Japanese cat fish.

Both books are suitable for children aged between 6 and 10 years and are beautifully illustrated by Antonia Ghazlan.  They are hardback, cost RM 45 each and all author’s profits are donated to charity.  The profits from Ted Ted and the Dhobi Ghats go to a charity in India, Door Step School that provides schooling for slum children.  The profits from Ted Ted, Trouble in Tokyo go to a Malaysian charity, Dignity and Services which helps children and young people with learning disabilities.

Children's writing workshop

EVENT: All You Ever Wanted to Know About Creating Books for Young Readers
Date: Saturday, 17th Nov
Time: 10am-5pm (with a one-hr lunch break)
Place: Silverfish Books, 28-1 Jalan Telawi, Bangsar Baru, 59100 Kuala Lumpur
Fee: RM300 inclusive of all course materials.
Registration: Online (link) or at Silverfish books (Tel: 603-22844837, email: info@silverfishbooks.com)
Facilitator: Daphne Lee

Participants may also submit one manuscript per person for evaluation (which will be delivered via email not more than one month after the date of the course).

This 6-hr session is based on the many questions I receive from aspiring authors and illustrators who wish to create books for young readers, amongst them

    What should a children’s book be about?
    How many words are there in a children’s book?
    Should I write a picture book or storybook?
    Should I use difficult words in my story?
    Should I write in rhyme?
    Are there subjects I should avoid when writing a picture book/story book?
    What’s the difference between a picture book and illustrated book?
    What are the pictures in a children’s book for?
    What is a picture sequence and why is it important?
    Who will publish my book?

These and other questions will be answered and discussed with the aim of shedding some light on the art and science of writing and illustrating for children.

In this session, participants will also …

    Read and evaluate published and unpublished texts and picture book art.
    Learn the basics of creating good picture books/story books, including the fundamentals of planning plots, writing dialogue, creating characters, establishing a voice and deciding on Point of View.
    Be introduced to an interesting and wide range of picture books and story books.

Book launch -- BOLA by Fixi

EVENTS: Launch of BOLA
Publisher: Fixi
Venue: Silverfish Books, 28-1 Jalan Telawi, Bangsar Baru, 59100 Kuala Lumpur (Tel: 603-22844837, email: info@silverfishbooks.com)
Time: 3.00pm-5.00 pm, Saturday, 3 Nov 2012

BOLA ialah antologi cerpen Fixi yang menampilkan 19 penulis. Masing-masing menyumbangkan cerita yang ada kaitan dengan sukan paling popular di dunia ... bolasepak! Buku ini ialah cetakan terhad 1,500 keping dan tidak akan diulang cetak.

BOLA is a short story anthology by 19 writers, each with a story about this most popular world sport -- football! This book is available as a limited edition with only 1500 copies printed. There will be no reprint.

Free admission. All welcome.

Festival Sastera Kanak-kanak 2012

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON CHILDREN’S LITERATURE 2012
in conjunction with Festival Sastera Kanak-kanak 2012
Venue: Lecture Hall B (Dewan Kuliah B) and Lecture Hall F (Dewan Kuliah F), Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, University of Malaya.
Date: 1-6 Nov 2012
Time: 9.00am to 5.00pm

Festival Sastera Kanak-kanak, or Children's Literature Festival 2012, is organised by Kota Buku and will be held from 1-6 Nov 2012 at the Arts and Social Science, Faculty, Universiti Malaya. There will be many activities for children such as batik painting and story-telling sessions by children's book authors and story tellers. Children's books will be sold during the festival and the illustrators' corridor will feature 10 illustrators with their work. 

A key event in conjunction with the festival is the conference by the Malaysian Board of Books for Young People (MBBY).

Entry is open to the public and is free.
Contact Information:
• Fadli Abdullah (MBBY): 017-2478990; 03-79675717
• Nor Zaliza Sarmiti (Dept. of Media Studies, UM): 012-3046428; 03-79675419

Jayzuan and friends

Book launch of two titles: Arsonist Jalan Labrooy by Rabak Lit (a publisher from Ipoh) and Rahsia Dua Pria by SELUT Press, at Silverfish Books, 28-1 Jalan Telawi, Bangsar Baru, 59100 Kuala Lumpur, at 5.30 pm, Saturday 29 September 2012. Admission is free. (The proceedings will be in Malay, but these guys sure know how to have fun. See what the English-lit world is missing.)

1. Arsonist Jalan Labrooy
Sinopsis: Tak ada hidayah atau petunjuk dalam setiap kata. Ini bukan kitab, bukan Nevi'im atau Ketuvim. Yang ada cuma separuh jalan hidup yang tak pernah habis tapi penuh dan cukup penuh dengan segala apa yang berada di bawah dan apa yang diludah. Tak perlu tutur kata dari pemikir agung untuk menjadi manusia. Ambil apa yang pernah dipijak, letakkan di kepala, dan kau akan kenal erti dunia.

Rabak-Lit ialah sebuah rumah penerbitan yang bertapak di Ipoh.

2. Rahsia Dua Pria: Sebuah buku yang menghimpun koleksi cerpen dan puisi dua orang penulis yang sedang digemari, Adi Wafi dan Mosyuki Borhan oleh SELUT Press.

Singapore/Malaysia book launch at Silverfish Books

1. Robert Yeo’s ROUTES. Robert Yeo, a.k.a Yeo Cheng Chuan, (b.1940, Singapore -), is a poet and playwright, novelist and newspaper columnist on the arts, literary and theatre essayist advocating the establishment of a distinctly Singaporean tradition in writing. He was for many years a lecturer in the National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University and was a proponent for the greater inclusion of the study of Singaporean texts in the school curriculum. Poet and critic Aaron Lee has described Yeo as being “the most Singaporean of Singaporean writers”.
2. Dr Wong Yoon Wah’s THE NEW VILLAGE. Wong Yoon Wah (b. 13 August 1941, Perak, Malaysia - ) is one of the few Singaporeans who excel as an international poet, critic and scholar. Prolific in both creative and academic writing, he has published over twenty collections of prose, poetry, and academic writings on Chinese and comparative literature in Chinese or English. For his commitment to promoting literature regionally, he has been awarded the Southeast Asia Write Award (1984), the Cultural Medallion (1986), and the ASEAN Cultural Award (1993).
3. Wong Phui Nam’s THE HIDDEN PAPYRUS OF HEN_TAUI. Wong Phui Nam's poems are regarded as among the best Malaysian ones in English, unsurpassed in their eloquence and linguistic richness. Most of them are contemplative and draw their images from the local landscape. Wong Phui Nam's poetry explores the experience of living in multi-cultural Malaysia. "Before the British set up this country, Malaysia was a totally agrarian society," he says. "Suddenly we get this commercialism and development of plantations to supply a metropolitan power. Even for a writer in Malay, whether he is a Malay or a non-Malay, he has to reinvent the language. All the more so for Indians and Chinese. For a Chinese, when we write in Chinese, we cannot pretend that nothing has happened and try to write Tang poetry. So for us to write in English, we are exiled three times, culturally and spiritually from China, culturally from the indigenous Malay culture, and then writing in English. We cannot claim that it is a tradition. I would say we have appropriated the language. So, in a way, it is a much more interesting medium to work with, to work with the language against the tradition."

Professor Mohammad Quayum, of the International Islamic University of Malaysia will moderate the event, which will include discussions with regards to the development of Malaysia/Singapore writings in English.
 
Venue: Silverfish Books, 28-1 Jalan Telawi, Bangsar Baru, 59100 Kuala Lumpur. Email: info@silverfishbooks.com  Tel: 03-228 448 37.
Date: Saturday, 22 September 2012
Time: 5.30 pm

Admission is free. All welcome, but seats are limited.

Children's Book Week

Children's Book Week 12-19th May 2012
at Silverfish, 28-1 Jalan Telawi, Bangsar Baru, 59100 Kuala Lumpur

We are celebrating Children's Book Week at Silverfish Books this May with and exhibition of new books and a one-week-only special promotion. To kick off Children's Book Week, we will be having a party on Saturday, 12th May at 11.00 am. Come, meet authors and illustrators from Malaysia and the region. there will be story telling session and gift packs for children at the party! All are welcome.

The Children's Book Week is jointly organised by the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI), Malaysia and the Yusof Gajah Lingard Literary Agency.


Please RSVP Phek Chin at Tel: 03-2284 4837 or e-mail: phekchin.silverfish@gmail.com


Admission is free.

It's a book party!

Come Saturday, 14 April 2012, 5.30pm, we are having a book party at Silverfish Books, 28-1, Jalan Telawi, Bangsar Baru (Tel: 22844837) in celebration of Dina Zaman's King of the Sea. (Well you can call it a launch -- hard or soft -- if you want, but as Eddin said, ‘One launches ships not books.’ Watch out, get out of the way, here it comes! I got an email from Dina saying that Sandra Sothy has agreed to read from the book, and have also heard rumours of a 'Masbabu cha cha' session! What else? You have to ask Dina. If she promises you a party, it will be a party.

King of the Sea is one of the fastest selling book in the history of Silverfish Books (rivalled only by I am Muslim) and it has taken Dina, by her own admission, 13 years to complete it. And it is already on the longlist for the Frank O'Connor Short Story Award. (Received their email.) Frankly, didn't think anyone outside Malaysia would 'get it'. Obviously, I was wrong.

Dina Zaman, a survivor from the I Am Muslim tsunami, has been writing in the Malaysian media for over 17 years. Her first book, a collection of short stories, night & day, which was part of the Black & White series, was published by Rhino Press in 1997. She has had her works of fiction, and non-fiction, published in many journals and periodicals, locally and regionally. She is currently studying saints, and other holy men and women, and their impact on Malaysia for her next book Holy Men, Holy Women under the API Fellowship 2012-2013 programme that she has just been awarded. (She went to the orientation programme in the morning of 25 March, got ill and fainted, but that didn't stop her from showing up at the Annexe that evening for a reading of her book. That's Dina for you.)

All friends and fans (and the merely curious) are welcome, and admission is free. (It might get a little crowded, so do come early.)

So, You Want to Write a Children’s Book?

The Malaysian children's publishing industry is still in its infancy and one of the things it lacks is authors who are passionate about writing children's literature.

This 6-session course, conducted by Daphne Lee, will help aspiring writers of children's books get started in their chosen field.

The course (each session lasts 2 hrs - the course is held over 6 weeks) covers:

- an introduction to children's literature, including types of books for children
- finding the right genre and subject to write about
- finding your own voice
- creating characters and plots that young readers will enjoy
- how to avoid dumbing down
- writing in vernacular English
- illustrations for children's books
- what to do once you've written your story

Dates: Sat, 21 & 28 April, 5, 12, 19, 26 May, 2012 (2.30pm to 4.30pm)
Venue: Silverfish Books, 28-1 Jalan Telawi, Bangsar Baru, KL. Tel: 03-2284483
Fee: RM500.00 for the 6 week programme (Those interested may register online by clicking here.)
(There will be an early bird discount of 10% for registrations by 31 March 2012.)

Bio:
Daphne Lee is a writer, editor, and book reviewer. Her weekly column about children's and YA books appears in the Malaysian daily, The Star, and, for eight years, she wrote the book blog The Places You Will Go. She currently runs a Facebook group, also called The Places You Will Go, for readers who love children's and YA books, although all kinds of books are discussed there.

Daphne has published six picture books, and short stories in various anthologies. She is editor at Scholastic Malaysia, and also edits on a freelance basis. Her most recently published project is Malaysian Tales: Retold and Remixed (ZI Publications).

She has taught creative writing to adults and children for more than 10 years.

Children's writing events by SCBWI

Calendar of events by the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) Malaysia for 2012 at Silverfish Books, 28-1 Jalan Telawi, Bangsar Baru.

The Talks are organised by SCBWI Malaysia with Yusof Gajah Lingard Literary Agency. All meetings are from 2.30-5.30pm unless otherwise stated. Dates, topics and speakers are subject to change and will be updated as soon as we can on our website as well as on our Facebook page. The main speaker will be Linda Tan, president of SCBWI Malaysia but we will update accordingly when there are other speakers. If you have a topic you wish to discuss, please contact lindalingard@gmail.com. Token entry fee of RM10 for tea and handouts.

Jan 2012, Sat  7  -- Getting my book published - Overview of the Publishing Process  / The Calistro Prize and Q&A

Jan 2012, Sat 21 -- What do literary agents do and how they can help you / The query letter

Feb 2012, Sat 4 -- Bring your ms for reading at the Silverfish Writers' Forum. Illustrators may bring your portfolio. Free forum.

Feb 2012, Thurs 9 -- 10am-12pm - Learning and developing as a writer/illustrator / SCBWI & The Asian Festival of Children's Content. (The Asian Festival of Children's Content will be held this year on 26 May in Singapore. There will be a special price for SCBWI members. Not yet a member of SCBWI? Become one and enjoy the benefits immediately.  We are this meeting  to provide you detailed information on how you can benefit from the Asian Festival of Children's Content. Among others, the benefits include:

1. Learn from experts from around the world in the field of children's literature - whether writing or illustrating
2. Promote your work at the festival to publishers and agents
3. Network and get to know industry professionals4. Launch your book at the Festival and introduce your book to attendees from the region and other parts of the world
4. SCBWI Malaysia and the Yusof Gajah LIngard Literary Agency will be pleased to help you promote your works at the Festival.

Speakers from Singapore will also be present at this talk to answer all your queries. Please also take this opportunity to bring along your books or portfolio to show. For those who cannot come on this day, please do not hesitate to contact us by email:malaysia.scbwi@gmail.com

Feb 2012, Sat 18 – How can I protect my Copyright / The Publishing Contract

Mar 2012. There will be no SCBWI meetings in the month of March but writers are welcome to join the Silverfish Writers' Forum. Free.

Apr 2012, Sat 7 -- Literary/Illustration Award sources / Promoting your work

May 2012, Sat 5 -- SCBWI and Yusof Gajah Lingard Children’s Book Week / Group book launch

May 2012, Sat 26 to Tues 29 -- The Asian Festival of Children's Content, Singapore. Don't miss the Early Bird Rates!

June 2012, Sat 2 -- Bring your ms for reading at the Silverfish Writers Forum. Illustrators may bring your portfolio. Free.

June 2012, Sat 23 -- Book categories / Picture book fundamentals for writers and illustrators.

Jul 2012, Sat 7 - Bring your ms for reading at the Silverfish Writers Forum. Illustrators may bring your portfolio. Free

Jul 2012, Sat 21 -- The dollars and sense of publishing / should I self publish and how to go about it.

Aug 2012, Sat 4 -- Bring your ms for reading at the Silverfish Writers Forum. Illustrators may bring your portfolio. Free

Aug 2012, Sat 18 -- Marketing yourself / your book - tools and tips

Sept 2012, Sat 1 -- There will be no SCBWI meeting in Sept but you are encouraged to join the Silverfish Writers' forum. Free.

Oct 2012, Sat 27 -- How do I protect my copyright?

Nov 2012, Sat 24 -- I have written a book – what’s next?

Dec 2012, Sat 1 -- The Publishing Year in review – key developments and how it affects you