Little Hero will launch at leading Asian children’s content festival

Little Hero’s book launch is two Saturdays from now!

It will be on Saturday 25 May at 11.30am-12.30pm at the National Library (100 Victoria Street). My book launch will be a public programme at the Asian Festival of Children’s Content, the largest of its kind in the region.

Nora Nazerene Abu bakar, Publisher of Penguin SEA, will host my launch event, where I will share how I crafted my historical fiction book and also delve into my family’s real life exploits in 1940s post-war Singapore. 

My father, aka ‘Little Hero’, joins our launch conversation to reveal exciting nuggets of his family’s dramatic lives that inspired my book. 

You will be able to buy my books from AFCC’s Festival Bookstore, and I will be on hand to autograph the books.

Come for my book launch and find out why Little Hero released as Amazon.sg’s #1 Hot New Release and readers pushed it to #1 Bestseller (Children’s historical fiction) on the weekend of its release! 

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Chat on Little Hero, Jackfruit & Ngor Hiang on CNA 938’s Mel Oliveiro

I had the pleasure of chatting on live radio with CNA 938’s Mel Oliveiro about Little Hero for 28 minutes! I was slightly nervous at the start; but soon relaxed to her friendly voice. The interview is available on podcast here: 

https://www.channelnewsasia.com/listen/daily-cuts/little-hero-emily-lim-leh-4316296

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Mel asked me the most insightful questions about Little Hero’s story arc and character arcs, from main character Ying Xiong to his opium-addicted father and hardworking cloth-seller mother.

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As I shared on air, Little Hero is a book for both young and old. A 40-something-year-old friend bought my book, reading it the moment it arrived. Her 12-year-old took it from her after and binge-read it in one sitting. It’s now onto her 77-year-old mother.

For children, this is a story about resilience, courage and overcoming challenging and seemingly limiting circumstances in life. It also offers an insight into the struggles that their grandparents and great-grandparents went through in post-war 1940s Singapore.

For adults, they will be able to connect with many of my father’s memories of old Singapore and their own experiences back then.

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Little Hero is available in the bookstores in Singapore, Kinokuniya Malaysia and e-bookstores! It came in at #1 Hot Release on Amazon.sg when released on Tuesday 30^th April and reached #1 Bestseller (Children’s Historical Fiction) over the weekend. 😊

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Toy Tales, Fables of a Little Hero & the Children of Knightsbridge

Had my first student reactions to a sneak peek which I provided to my soon-to-be-launched Little Hero, published by Penguin Books SEA!

I did an author visit to Knightsbridge International School in connection with their Book Week this week. And I was so heartened as I shared with the 150 children about my first book Prince Bear & Pauper Bear and provided a glimpse into my latest book Little Hero.

I enjoyed the questions that came fast and furiously curious.

Most engaged, deep-thinking question

Boy: Why did the father tie the rope around the children [when their ship sank]?

         Isn’t there a better solution? Why didn’t they just use a lifeboat? 

Me: There was no lifeboat. 

Boy: Oh, it’s like Titanic! 

Me: Yes, isn’t it?

Most-invested-in-storyline Question

2^nd Boy: “Did they die in the end?” (referring to main character, his siblings and father)

Me: “Well, the main character is inspired by my father…and I’m here today. So that’s your answer.” ☺️

Most-happy-to-hear Final Question

Girl: Where can we buy your books?

(Love 😊.)

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Authorly: Prince Bear & Pauper Bear’s page turn to the printing press!

Just signed off on the reprints of my four-book award-winning Toys series today.

This will be the 9th printing of what is a most precious children’s picture book series to me.

My Toys titles were inspired by my personal testimony of losing my voice to a rare disorder and finding a new God-given voice as an author. ❤️‍🩹

My journey as an author started with my debut picture book Prince Bear & Pauper Bear, which was a Singapore Book Council competition winner back in 2007. I had subconsciously written about a poor teddy bear without a mouth, who could not speak.

At that time (17 years back), I was planning to print 3,000 copies of Prince Bear & Pauper Bear in hard cover.

I received discouraging comments from a few experienced industry folks who told me that I had no idea what I was doing. I was told that local children’s books wouldn’t sell in hard cover as it would be priced too expensively. And that a newbie author like me would be lucky to sell 200-300 soft cover copies.

Ben told me to ignore all those negative voices. So, I went ahead to publish under my own Mustard Seed Books imprint. With tiny mustard seed faith, that if I had God’s favour, I could sell the books. And if I couldn’t, I could always donate the books for charitable purposes.

I look back with gratitude on my author journey, which started with these four Mustard Seed Books and I thank God that these little books have grown in reach – with 150,000 copies in the hands of children (and maybe some adults…😊).

…And purpose – with two of my little mustard seed books Just Teddy and Bunny Finds the Right Stuff baked into Our Daily Bread for kids (through their Discovery House publishing house) for fresh consumption.

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Prince Bear & Pauper Bear attend graduation at National Junior College

National Junior College (NJC) principal Lucy Tay read Prince Bear & Pauper Bear to the NJC graduating cohort! 

It was woven in with her speech, which was about how grace is the only constant, not change.💝

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In the lead up to reading my book, she mentioned that my personal story is one that is chock full of grace. She shared about how I experienced two difficult illnesses which I would never have wished for (a rare voice disorder and breast cancer). But in a strange sort of way, how those trials have been a means of grace to me. 🙌🏻

Most privileged that Prince Bear & Pauper Bear were given voices at such a milestone ceremony. 🤩

I hope that the students will hold onto the message of grace as they journey through life’s ups and downs. 🙏🏼

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Authorly: Marky Polo is over the Moon and Beaming for striking Gold

I’m over the moon and beaming! Marky Polo Travels series has just won the Gold Medal for Best Picture Book Series at the US-based Moonbeam Children’s Book Awards 2023! 🤩🥳🥰

(This series comprises: Marky Polo in Tokyo, Marky Polo in Beijing & Marky Polo in Singapore)

This was my experimental series created during Covid when our world went hybrid.

I thought: Why not go hybrid with my picture books? 😊

I hit a creative reset button and broke convention from all I had learnt on picture-book writing. Created a hybrid concept of combining comic book panels into a picture book framework. It was fun writing pacy, humorous conversations in speech bubbles to add a new layer to my picture book manuscript. And my tween son has been my muse for his witty quips.

This series could only have been brought to fruition by illustrator Nicholas Liem who has experience with both children’s picture books and comic books. Being architecturally trained, Nic brought incredibly accurate and beautiful drawings of these cities’ attractions in our books.

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We also had further layers to our series, from augmented reality features to informational text boxes and write-ups on local animals from countries featured, which all cameo-ed as characters throughout the stories.  

Appreciate our publisher World Scientific Education who was totally game for a whole new concept and introduced the augmented reality layer. 👩‍💻👨🏻‍🎨📚.

So grateful for this Gold shine and Moonbeam glow over our intrepid pangolin traveller Marky Polo and his famous family of explorers! 😊🙏🏼

Marky Polo Travels’ series is available in the bookstores and at World Scientific’s e-bookstore – There’s currently a 10:10 promotion going on. From 10.10 till 18.10.23, you get 35% off for a minimum purchase of 3 titles!

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