Book Events – Page 11

Hello from AFCC 2014!

Greetings from Singapore, where I have just attended the first day of the Writers and Illustrators Conference of the Asian Festival of Children’s Content. It was an amazing first day featuring a stellar ensemble of speakers and inspiring talks, great company (hello friends, old and new!) and a stack of signed books to go in my luggage.

It’ll take some time for me to transcribe all my notes from the conference, and upload the photos from my camera, so in the meantime, here’s a look at the National Library of Singapore, where the Festival is being held. In previous trips, I’ve always passed by the huge library building on book hunting jaunts at the Bras Basah Complex right next door, but I’ve never actually been, so I was quite excited to set foot in this library.

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Countdown to AFCC 2014

The Asian Festival of Children’s Content (AFCC) is an annual event that gathers content creators, producers, parents, teachers, librarians, and other stakeholders in quality Asian content for children around the world. The AFCC returns this year with a host of conferences, masterclasses and workshops, book launches, and other programmes to give writers, illustrators, publishers, agents, distributors, parents, children, teachers, and librarians the opportunity to meet, develop their craft, keep abreast of developments in the industry, and discover business opportunities.

Organized by the National Book Development Council of Singapore (NBDCS), the AFCC is slated from May 30 to June 4 at the National Library of Singapore.

As a reader, sometime illustrator, and book blogger, the Asian Festival of Children’s Content (AFCC) in 2012 was one of the most amazing experiences of my life, and I’m quite excited to attend AFCC again this year.

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ATD Festival of Learning

I’ve volunteered for ATD (All Together in Dignity) Fourth World Philippines before, but last Saturday was my first time to join their annual Festival of Learning, together with my Flipper friends Sana (a long-time ATD volunteer) and Joko (who volunteers regularly for the annual festival).

It was a bright Saturday afternoon when we gathered at the North Cemetery, one of ATD’s communities in the Philippines. I had written a piece on this particular community for one of ATD’s reports last year, and I had read through a lot of documents and watched some video footage to write it, but I’d never actually set foot in the place before, and it was quite a moving experience to fill in my mental image of the area with the faces of the people from the community.

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Mitch Albom in Manila

I was 15 when I read “Tuesdays with Morrie. My Literature teacher in senior year high school (hello, Mrs. P!) had raved about the book, and most of us picked up a copy upon her recommendation. I had not read any of Mitch Albom’s books since “The Five People You Meet in Heaven,” though, so before my scheduled interview with him, I found myself reaching for his latest novel, “The First Phone Call From Heaven” (which I gifted to my mom on her last birthday) over breakfast and finished well before lunchtime.

In “The First Phone Call From Heaven,” the (fictional) small town of Coldwater, Michigan is put on the map by a series of baffling phone calls to several of the town’s residents, all from the deceased, calling from heaven. After serving a prison sentence, Sully Harding returns to Coldwater and is skeptical about the recent turn of events. Sully is determined to find the truth about the phone calls, and in the process finds more than he sets out to uncover.

I must say the novel evoked a sense of nostalgia — it’s been years since I last read an inspirational book, and Mitch Albom’s quality of writing is still as I remember it: clear, clean prose with that trademark emotional tug that has been popular with a wide range of readers all across the world.The mystery component is also a pleasant surprise, as well as the fascinating anecdotes about the history of the telephone and how it has changed human life.

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Best and Worst 2013

At Flips Flipping Pages, our January book discussion is automatically allotted to revealing our best and worst reads for the year, and it’s always a great way to get recommendations from other book club members.

We had our Best and Worst discussion last Saturday at the UP Center for Women’s Studies library. The center is the UP system’s hub for advancing gender, sexuality, and LGBT rights & empowerment, and its library is small but cozy and well-stocked with a growing selection of books.

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