Singapore Shelf

THE ONE AND ONLY INUKA

CHILDREN'S

THE ONE AND ONLY INUKA

By Alan John and Quek Hong Shin

Straits Times Press/Paperback/ 36 pages/$16/Major bookstores

This picture book commemorates Inuka, the first polar bear born in the tropics, beloved by many Singaporeans, who died earlier this year.


PRINCESS INCOGNITO: A ROYAL PAIN IN THE CLASS

CHILDREN'S

PRINCESS INCOGNITO: A ROYAL PAIN IN THE CLASS

By Neil Humphreys

Marshall Cavendish/Paperback/ 184 pages/$14.95 before GST/ Major bookstores

The first instalment of a new children's series by Singapore-based humorist Humphreys features Sabrina Valence, a young princess who is exiled to a working-class town to avoid a political mess at home. Now, she must adjust to life on a housing estate and survive the school bully.


ONCE UPON A SINGAPORE...TRADERS

CHILDREN'S

ONCE UPON A SINGAPORE...TRADERS

By Tina Sim and Alan Bay

Asiapac Books/Paperback/144 pages/ $17.01/Major bookstores

In this lively heritage comic, Aloysius and his grandfather are transported from the modern day to 1900s Singapore, where they meet people who practisetrades such as cinema-on-wheels operators, kite-makers and kacang-putih sellers.


FREDDY THE EAGER FUNDRAISER

CHILDREN'S

FREDDY THE EAGER FUNDRAISER

By Swapnil Mishra and Lai Hui Li

Epigram Books/Paperback/ 156 pages/$13.80/Major bookstores

When 10-year-old Freddy learns about the Nepal earthquake, he decides to put aside playing football to raise funds for the Singapore Red Cross, but his plans fall through.


AN EPIC OF DURABLE DEPARTURES

POETRY

AN EPIC OF DURABLE DEPARTURES

By Jason Wee

Math Paper Press/Paperback/ 85 pages/$16 before GST/ BooksActually

Wee, an artist who made his poetry debut in 2013 with The Monsters Between Us, opens with obituaries and ends with beginnings in this restrained, elegiac collection of haiku-based poems, in which he tries to come to terms with the Parkinson's disease of his friend, artist and Cultural Medallion recipient Lee Wen.


ANIMA METHODI: THE POETICS OF MIRRORING

POETRY

ANIMA METHODI: THE POETICS OF MIRRORING

Edited by Desmond Kon Zhicheng-Mingde and Eric Tinsay Valles

Squircle Line Press/Paperback/ 184 pages/$17.12/Books Kinokuniya, selectbooks.com.sg and localbooks.sg

More than 70 poets try their hand at anima methodi ("spirit of the method" in Latin), a 16-line form invented by poets Kon and Valles which has two mirroring stanzas, with the last line of the first stanza moving seamlessly across the break into the first line of the second stanza.


THE GODS WILL HEAR US EVENTUALLY

FICTION

THE GODS WILL HEAR US EVENTUALLY

By Jinny Koh

Ethos Books/Paperback/292 pages/ $19.90/Books Kinokuniya, selected Times bookstores, Grassroots Book Room and ethosbooks.com.sg

When seven-year-old Anna plays a prank on her older sister Angie, Angie goes missing. Koh's debut novel traces the slow dissolution of a family in the wake of tragedy as Anna's mother Su Lai places her hopes for finding Angie in a medium, while Anna is stricken with guilt.


LOST AT 15, FOUND AT 50

NON-FICTION

LOST AT 15, FOUND AT 50

By Ashwini Devare

Marshall Cavendish/Paperback/ 256 pages/$23.01/Books Kinokuniya, Times and localbooks.sg

Singapore-based journalist and author Devare, whose 2014 short-story collection Batik Rain was long-listed for the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award, writes her globetrotting memoir, which moves from her childhood in Moscow during the Cold War to attending military college in South Korea and reporting on crime in the United States.

Olivia Ho

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on December 25, 2018, with the headline Singapore Shelf. Subscribe