I think the best indication of how well this trip went was how many books the Singapore American School sold! They’ve had some wonderful authors in the past, some really nice names, but the head librarian of the intermediate school told me that they’d NEVER sold as many books as they had with me! And […]

That’s what one kid said to me yesterday. She was in the grade five class and they’d actually come into the library to return books, but when their teachers hadn’t opted in for the Roses in my Carpets presentation, I decided to do an impromptu presentation for as many grade fives as I could fit […]

Saw a watch advertisement today with a cocky looking Daniel Craig standing there like a fortress, his arms crossed, saying this watch was the same one as the one the new James Bond wears. So… Does that mean if you buy it and wear it, you’ll have something in common with James Bond as played […]

Asthaghfirullah! I can’t believe Arab Muslims would have said that to my hosts, librarians who spent some time in Arabia. My hosts are amazing! They won’t even let me lug my presentation case up the stairs! She insists on carrying it for me. We were having a conversation this afternoon, and the inconsistency of Muslims […]

That was the first question a spunky grade two kid asked me this afternoon when she and her classmates marched in to see my presentation Picture the Story. Talk about RANDOM! Reminds me of that famous youtube video that went viral about that kid who was being interviewed by a reporter who asked him some […]

I didn’t expect to experience anything different this time round in Singapore.. I mean it’s my third time. I thought I saw it all. But apparently not. The hotel I’m staying at is downtown. Highrises and more highrises, sterile, and kind of boring. And yet for the past two mornings I’m sure I heard some […]

I’m writing this from my hotel room a day after I arrived, my legs are still swolen like overstuffed sausages, but alhamdulillah, I had a good day! Visited a LOT of little primary kids! Oh they’re SO hard! Squirmy little things! And they’d just come back from a four day weekend! I’m so fortunate! I […]

Recently, there’s been a HUGE push in schools to address problems with bullying. There’ve been suicide videos, the most recent from a girl named Amanda Todd, and bullying and suicide seems to have really reached a peak in terms of social consciousness. Parents and educators are really feeling compelled to do something about the ‘epidemic’. […]

feels a bit like a waste of time. Sometimes the feeling of impotence in the face of global dilemmas is just excruciating. This is one of those times. It seems to crop up every so often. It’s like tensions build and build in Israel and Palestine, and they start fighting, and people start dying. And […]

by, of all people, a Russian! Theodore Dostoyevsky! Oh why, oh why, did I take so long to discover him??? It seems I’ve been hearing his name all my life and yet niggling prejudice tainted it. I thought to myself, “Why would I read a book by a guy named Dostoyevsky? It sounds so Russian! […]