More children's books from Singapore hit the shelves

Children can now reach out for more local reads. Singapore publishers are rolling out at least 25 titles for readers aged three to 14 this year, along with e-books and online games.

This is unusual since the market here is traditionally dominated by overseas imprints such as Scholastic's bestselling Geronimo Stilton series, or Abrams, which publishes Jeff Kinney's Diary Of A Wimpy Kid novels.

The closest Singaporean success would be Flame Of The Forest's ongoing Mr Midnight mysteries - now 77 volumes long, with 2 million copies sold since the first instalment came out in 1998.

Epigram Books' The Diary Of Amos Lee quartet, by Singaporean writer Adeline Foo, has also done well, selling over 120,000 copies since the first novel about a primary school boy's diary was released in 2009.