I'm back with a new book! Habibah: The story of an Island Girl

It has been six years since I last wrote in this blog. Many things have happened since 2014. In addition to my three cats, there was an addition of a dog (who died!) and after that, the addition of another dog named Xena. And this year, 2020, the COVID epidemic hit the world. With more time at home, I resurrected one of my working projects, and my first book for Young Adults (aged 12-15) is now published!

I started writing a story known as "Island Girl" around 2015, and submitted it for the Scholastic Asian Book Awards in 2016. It was shortlisted, the only manuscript in Singapore, and eventually it was placed 2nd runner-up. Initially there was a contract to publish the manuscript but even after many re-writes, the publisher decided to drop the contract. It was pretty discouraging but I still felt great love for this story, and the main character of the book, Habibah, so I continued working on it.

Finally, this year, I reached a point where I felt the story got to the point where it was emotionally truthful, and yet an intriguing. I was happy with the story, and our small business, The History Workroom, decided to publish it. We had the help of our good friends at The Lede who designed the book cover, and did the editing and layout of the book.

Here is the blurb on the back cover:

A shipwrecked sailor lands on a remote island and changes the course of Habibah's life forever.

"Lying in the dark, it felt like any other peaceful night on the island except it was not. My body was tense, my heart raced and my mind could not stop thinking about the sailor and the outrageous things he had said. Could any of this be true?"

Habibah is an emotional and compelling coming-of-age tale set in the islands of the Malay Archipelago.

For details on where to get the book visit: https://www.facebook.com/historyworkroom/

Samsui Girl: My first book

Samsui Girl was my first book published. It is about a cheeky 8 year old girl named Amber. She has the habit of putting her legs up on the chair, and her mother hates this. Amber's mother says that only Samsui women do this. To get her way, Amber decides to be a Samsui girl, but it is not as easy as she thinks! The inspiration for this book came from two sources. One was my own childhood habit of putting my leg up on the chair...when I ate, when I read, practically all the time! The other inspiration was the Samsui women of Singapore. These ladies came to Singapore in the early 1900s from Samsui in China. What was special about these female Chinese immigrants was that they did the man's job of working in a construction site. Many of the buildings (bridges, houses, blocks of flats) in Singapore today were built with Samsui labour. When I was very young, I remember seeing Samsui women dressed in their 'uniform' of a dark samfu and bright red headscarf. You ...

P1 & P2 Social Studies Readers

Last year I was happy to write 4 Social Studies Readers for use in Primary 1 and 2 classrooms. Classroom teaching is so different today compared to when I was in school. Children get to learn from big books with lively pictures and local content! For Primary 1 students, I wrote two stories: Siti's New Home and Don't Cross the Line! These two books feature a sister and brother team who have fun but sometimes get into trouble with each other. The first story Siti's New Home was inspired by Queenstown -- the neighbourhood I grew up when I was a child. For Primary 2 students, I wrote another two stories: New Girl in Town and We are Singapore. In the latter book, we meet a pair of twins -- Emma and Ethan. These characters were inspired by my own niece, Emma and nephew, Ethan. Like the character in We are Singapore , my niece Emma asks a lot of questions. Overall I enjoyed writing these stories and I hope students and teachers will enjoy reading them!

It was not surprising for me to read about a recent survey that found that less than 20% of Singaporean women had local female role models. Even without the survey, this was something we had known for a long time. It was also the reason for my first starting to write stories for children. I wanted Singapore children, especially girls, to have local ladies of inspiration to look up to. Being historically-minded, I thought to the past. Thus, my first book was inspired by the independent and strong Samsui Women. The inspiration for my second book, "Wayang Girl" is less obvious. While one can guess that the inspiration was the traditional Chinese opera known as "Wayang" in Singapore, there was actually a specific woman in mind. When I was working at the Singapore History Museum, I had the opportunity to meet Beijing opera singer, and Cultural Medallion winner Phan Wait Hong. Even though she was in her late 80s when I met her, she had a loud resounding voice and an energ...

Ho Lee-Ling

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