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In A Book of Hugs, you will find stories of dragons, neon sharks, dancing monsters, spiders, and bananas. You can take comfort in letters of love, savour recipes, and go on slightly-true adventures with some awesomely brave characters. Or perhaps you will paint your world with poems and have a big (or quiet) laugh with comics starring tigers, forts, a humpback whale, and a lonely snowman.Lovingly filled with short stories, poems, and artful pictures, this anthology hopes to give you a great big hug just before you take on the world. All profits from the sale of this book went to Child at St 11 and Superhero Me – two organisations that work to support and empower children of all abilities through art and education. Perfect for 6 to 9-year-old readers.
Alice Bianchi-Clark | Barbara Moxham | Ben Lai | Chan Wai Han | Colin Goh | Darel Seow | Darius Cheong | David Liew | Denise Tan | Elieth Sardinas | Emily Lim-Leh | Evelyn Sue Wong | Felicia Low-Jimenez | Fleur Vella-Chang | Hwee Goh | James Lim | Josef Lee | Josephine Chia | Katherine Wallace | Katie Van Camp | Leila Boukarim | Lianne Ong | Melanie Lee | Melissa Tan | Moniza Hossain | Moses Sia | Namita Moolani Mehra | Nani | Nurulhuda Izyan | Ovidia Yu | Patrick Ng | Patrick Yee | Paula Pang | Pauline Loh | Pippa Chorley | Quek Hong Shin | Rosemarie Somaiah | Sarah Ang | Si-Hoe S. S. | Simon Wray | Srividhya Venkat | Tammar Stein | Tan Si Qi | Tina Jimin Walton | Zahira Mohamed Sedik
Superhero Me is a non-profit inclusive arts movement that arms children from special needs and less privileged communities with creative confidence through collaboration and mentorship opportunities. It focuses on inclusive programming and training, creative advocacy and strategic partnerships and serves as a social mixing platform for children of all abilities. From its birth in 2014 as an early childhood programme in a low-income neighbourhood, Superhero Me has reached out to more than 20,000 people through a myriad of efforts. @superheromeSG
Child at Street 11 is a multi-racial, secular, independent, non-profit organisation dedicated to providing inclusive, accessible and quality early years education to children from diverse backgrounds.These programmes build a child’s full potential. It also provides safe home environments and support systems for children’s parents to achieve economic independence.
To learn more about Child at Street 11, visit www.street11.org.sg
Alexander’s grandmother, Nonna, grows a glorious garden, but struggles to find time to play until Alexander decides to grow seeds of his own. “Before your seeds can grow upwards,” Nonna says, “the roots need to grow downwards.” And Alexander learns that building relationships and nurturing seeds into saplings both take love, patience and time.
Alice has lived and worked in big cities, including Rome, Paris, Beijing, Hong Kong and most recently, Singapore. Perhaps this is why she treasures pockets of greenery, no matter where they sprout. Her supportive husband, menagerie of parrot fish, terrapins, geckos, butterflies and balcony of flowers are still in Singapore. But when her son’s theatrical ambitions stretched to London, she followed. In the absence of a garden or a balcony, she filled the fireplace of their skylit London flat with ferns, ficuses and fiddle-leaf figs. Alice currently shuttles between the two cities.
As an illustrator based in sunny Singapore, Chloe Chang spends her time reading, drawing and applying sunblock lotion. She graduated from the School of Art, Design and Media (ADM), NTU Singapore, with a degree in Digital Animation. One of her first projects was Mediacorp’s 3D animated children’s television series, Lil’ Wild, where she was lead character designer. Chloe now focuses on children’s book illustration and works with local and International publishers to bring stories to life.
Tiger has no stripes. Occasionally, he grows a new spot, but he doesn’t know why. At school, he makes new friends every day with his acts of kindness, but when Zebra makes fun of his spots, Tiger feels small. For World Book Day, the librarian asks Tiger and his classmates to find the picture book that best represents them. Tiger decides to write his own, but his words only tell half the story. Zebra is fantastic at drawing. Could Tiger and Zebra overcome their differences to work together?
Alice Bianchi-Clark has swapped the rainforest for big cities. She has lived and worked in Rome, London, Paris, Beijing and Hong Kong. She currently resides in Singapore with her supportive husband, big-hearted son and menagerie of parrot fish, terrapins and a kaleidoscope of butterflies. She even has a suitcase filled with stuffed animals she takes turns to snuggle with. As a child, she struggled to own her differences and wishes she had had the magnanimity to win over her bullies with kindness.
Shruti is an architect and urban designer. She studied and worked in the UK before returning to India to pursue a PhD in Design. She currently resides in Jaipur where she continues to follow her interest — illustrating. Shruti is a keen observer of all forms of life between buildings. In her free time, if not wandering the streets of Jaipur observing plants, fungi, insects, birds and people, she may be found hiking in the Aravallis with her husband and their inquisitive son.
Nonno, Alexander’s grandfather, is getting too old to look after his stamps. He plans to pass them on to Alexander, but the young boy isn’t sure he wants to be a collector. When Alexander learns about the philatelic museum, he would like everyone to enjoy Nonno’s stamps. “When you have something special, it’s good to share.”
Alice Bianchi-Clark is a collector of sorts. Italian by nationality, she has lived and worked in Rome, London, Paris, Beijing and Hong Kong. She currently resides in Singapore with her supportive husband, big-hearted son, menagerie of parrot fish and terrapins, balcony of flowers and library of picture books. Sharing brings her joy. This story was inspired by Alice’s father, a philatelist, who started collecting stamps as a child, after the second world war. He scrimped, swapped and saved for sixty years until his collection spanned several continents and cultures. When his entire collection was stolen, and Alice’s son wondered why he hadn’t shared it with the world, Alice decided to write this story.
As an illustrator based in sunny Singapore, Chloe Chang spends her time reading, drawing and applying sunblock lotion. She graduated from the School of Art, Design and Media (ADM), NTU Singapore, with a degree in Digital Animation. One of her first projects was Mediacorp’s 3D animated children’s television series, Lil’ Wild, where she was lead character designer. Chloe now focuses on children’s book illustration and works with local and International publishers to bring stories to life.
