Tag Archives: Sher Rill Ng

Nov3

Be Careful, Xiao Xin! – Alice Pung/Sher Rill Ng

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Harper Collins

September 2022

  • ISBN: 9781922033932
  • ISBN 10: 1922033936
  • Imprint: Working Title Press AU
  • List Price: 24.99 AUD

There will be many who will welcome this beautiful book as a fitting addition to their multi-lingual collection, and, in particular, if Mandarin is a taught language in the school. However, it will be equally well-received by those who are looking to empower their youngsters with self-confidence and resolve.

It is all too easy as adults to project our fears and worries onto our children, not because we want frighten them but simply because of our natural urge to protect them. At times though, this can become like a suffocating blanket we wrap around kiddos, creating anxiety and insecurity. As educators, all of us will have experienced, no doubt countless times, the ‘helicopter’ parent who diminishes and thwarts their child at every turn.

Xiao Xin sees himself as a fearless Red Warrior. His family see him as a little boy incapable of taking care of himself or keeping himself safe. The subtleties in the illustrations as the adults’ worry monsters appear around the edges, the use of colour to emotively convey the feelings of the fretting adults and the bravado of the little boy and (once unpacked) the meaning of Xiao Xin’s and Fan Xin’s names combine to give this narrative a powerful depth which will provide fodder for much rich discussion. Some of this will be simply focused on the protective strategies of parents/adults and the self-belief that children may have but there is certainly a wonderful opportunity to compare the cultural norms and expectations around the freedoms of children to learn, take risks and become independent.

Alice Pung’s text is spare but evocative and Sher Rill Ng’s illustrations take this to a breathtaking level, which will both engage and move readers and the cleverness of that cover art – just wow!

Highly recommended for readers from Prep upwards.

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Apr18

The Night of the Hiding Moon – Emma Allen & Sher Rill Ng

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9780642279583

National Library of Australia

March 2020

ISBN:   9780642279583

RRP: $24.99

‘Late one night, Felix heard a thousand giants march across the sky and the round, silver moon went into hiding.’

Many children are fearful of storms – especially when they are ferocious. The Kid was one of these and would quite literally turn white and visibly tremble. It took a couple of years to build her up to a point where now she almost enjoys a storm – except for when they are really wild and then she will always sit quite close!

When Felix can’t cope with the tremendous crashing and the horrid dark he decides to put his torch to good use and create a ‘light’ friend. What follows is a cavalcade of strong and brave shadow creatures and all are impatient to play. A little uncertain at first, Felix is soon frolicking with them all, confronting his fears of the night and becoming empowered in his own resilience.

Readers will be truly enthralled with the wonderful traditional shadow shapes and will be uber-excited when they reach the end of the book to find some fabulous information on shadow puppets in general and their cultural importance in Asia. To top that off they will able to create their own shadow puppets with the templates and instructions which conclude the book. Puppetry is a dramatic art which never fails to engage children of all ages (our own Year 9 students have been creating puppet play scripts and using some fabulous ‘muppets’ to perform them). Shadow puppets are possibly one of the simplest to achieve with ready-to-hand materials at home which is a big plus and very handy in these times!

Perhaps readers could create their own scripts which echo the bravery and imagination in Felix’ story and then perform them for family.  Alternatively, they might like to recreate favourite stories using shadow puppets. This would certainly be a very rich learning experience all round.

I would highly recommend this for children from around 6 years upwards and the follow-up for families who are looking for a different activity to reduce a little screen time.

You could even make a theatre for your puppet play…