Secrets of Singapore - a fun history book for SG50!

For the past month or so, over the June holidays, Lesley-Anne and I have been busy putting to bed this baby:

Yup, it's another Danger Dan book! However, this one is significantly different from the previous series of five books in that it's non-fiction and a solid 232 pages.

How the idea for the book came about

Having seen kids read our Danger Dan series, we noticed something unexpected: some kids, upon receiving the latest book, would turn to the back portion first - where we have two pages of Fascinating Facts offering historical information about the people, places and events covered in the book.

That's when we realised that some kids are very interested in facts and information. Personally, I love the Horrible Histories series by Scholastic and always wished there was a version for Singapore history. Currently, there is no one single children's book that talks about Singapore's history in a fun way and that's a shame.

So Lesley-Anne and I discussed this and to cut a long story short, we set out to write this history book ourselves! It ties in with the historical theme of Danger Dan and acts like a companion to the series.

Writing this book was challenging, not least because of the massive amount of research needed. The larger challenge was trying to explain everything simply so that kids would understand and not get turned off. I was especially motivated because both my kids didn't find social studies in school terribly interesting, especially the political bits. I don't think Andre remembers much, he was only interested in the parts about the war.

I know the textbooks have been simplified somewhat over the years but I feel they still fall short, especially when it comes to the political portions. The problem is that politics is a very alien concept to kids and history books tend to throw in many unfamiliar terms within a section, thinking that giving definitions for key words would sufficiently address this issue. Eg. this is half a para in my kids' history book:

"Although the Labour Front won the most number of seats, it did not have an absolute majority (won 50% or more of the seats) in the Assembly. Thus the LF formed a coalition government with the Alliance Party with David Marshall becoming the Chief Minister."

The definition for "coalition" was given as "coalition government is a government made up of a combination of two or more parties."

Zzzzzz. I can imagine kids nodding off just reading this short segment. Did the writers think that only "coalition" was a difficult word? What about Assembly? What about party? What about seats? Lesley-Anne told me that in primary school, when she read that a political party had won two seats, she pictured a man holding two chairs! Even at lower secondary level, Andre had a foggy understanding of local history. Referendum, alliance, commissions - they all went over his head.

In other words, don't assume that kids would understand any of that stuff, let alone be interested. Why should they? They've lived only about a decade. Politics is something completely foreign to them.

So, with great determination, Lesley-Anne and I set out to try and make local history interesting for kids. Or at least show that "fun history book" is not an oxymoron!

About Secrets of Singapore

We've kept it simple. The language is similar to what we'd used for the Danger Dan series, casual and simple. The target age group for this book is 8-14 years old. Where we've had to use more complex terms, we tried to explain them simply. If it meant omitting details that would leave kids' heads swimming, we chose to do so. For us, it's better for kids to have an idea of the overall concept than confuse them thoroughly with details.

We've kept it fun. Similar to the style of other Danger Dan books, it's quirky. Apart from the chronological retelling of Singapore's history, we also covered a lot of ground in thematic areas, eg. transport, housing, nature, sports, etc. The book is also wonderfully illustrated and designed (Epigram Books' brilliant designer really outdid herself, adding drawings and graphic elements to every page, which lend such vibrancy to the text). Here's a sample spread of the Food section.

We inserted many snippets of information that we call Fascinating Facts to make the narrative richer, on things that we thought kids would find interesting, even if they were not as historically significant.

We've kept it neutral. We tried to stick to the facts, to be as objective as possible. Our aim is to educate in a fun way - we're not interested in making any sort of statement, political or otherwise. When choosing what areas to cover, we focused on what we thought kids would find interesting. For instance, we deliberately chose not to cover the Singapore economy. And because the book is not commissioned by anyone, we're not obliged to include or exclude certain things, or to write it in a certain way.

We don't claim that the book is comprehensive (although we do cover a lot!) or that it can replace local history textbooks. But we truly believe that it would be a great supplement to help kids better understand what they're learning (and hopefully raise their interest). I wouldn't put it past some adults to enjoy this too. At the very least, it might make you nostalgic reading about some of the things we grew up with!

We've been very encouraged by the positive advanced reviews of Secrets of Singapore.

“A very comprehensive and interesting recounting of Singapore’s history from its earliest times, Secrets of Singapore is wonderfully written in a style that is exquisitely simple and appropriate for young readers.” —Koh Boon Long, former MOE Deputy Director, National Education, and retired principal

“Danger Dan and Gadget Girl have really outsmarted me this time. There are secrets of Singapore that I didn’t even know about! Secrets of Singapore is a comprehensive account of everything Singaporean—from history to politics to transport, education and food—and has fascinating details, interesting commentaries and humorous illustrations. It is a book that should be in every Singaporean kid’s collection.” —Dr Cheah Yin Mee, partner and consultant, Learning Ventures, council member, Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD) Singapore

“I wish Danger Dan and Gadget Girl were around to help me with History back when I was in school. Secrets of Singapore will be a boon for those mugging for Social Studies, as it presents facts about the social and cultural history of Singapore in an interesting way, with memorable illustrations by James Tan.” —Lim Cheng Tju, country editor for the International Journal of Comic Art

“An easy-to-read, interesting book that should appeal to any young reader who wants to find out more about Singapore’s history. It also contains many fun facts that are not commonly known.” —Lee Siong Boon, History teacher

Pre-orders for Secrets of Singapore

Finally, how to buy the book! The book should hit bookstores end July/early August in time for National Day (yes, it was timed that way!) Retail price is $15.95 (after GST).

However, you can pre-order the book from my favourite bookseller Closetful of Books, who has generously offered a 10% discount on Secrets of Singapore, from now till 19 July 2015 midnight. Click on this link and key in the coupon code SECRETSOFSINGAPORE at the last stage of the payment process to enjoy the discount. The discount will apply to my other books as well (other Danger Dan books and The Good, the Bad and the PSLE) and shipping is free if you spend at least S$30!

Secrets of Singapore will be delivered to you within two weeks of its release date (24 July 2015). Lesley-Anne and I will autograph all books purchased from Closetful of Books and they will include a small gift as well.

The Comedy Club takes on the Japanese Occupation

In Andre's Social Studies class, the kids were told to break up into groups, write and enact a scene from the Japanese Occupation. I'm not sure if the teacher mentioned that the skit had to be historically correct but I cracked up when I read the script that Andre's group came up with.

I don't have the full script but the following was a short segment from the skit. Andre was cast as General Percival.


General Yamashita (banging on the door): 'Openupu!'

General Percival (fiddling with the doorknob): 'Hold on, this door is stuck!'

General Yamashita tries to kick the door open. "Ow! Hurry up!'

General Percival (opens the door): "Yes?" (notices Yamashita) "Good heavens!"

After a monologue, General Yamashita drags General Percival to the surrender room. "Do you wish to surrender unconditionally?"

General Percival (mutters): "Yes."

General Yamashita (thrusting a piece of paper into General Percival's hands): "Here, sign this."

General Percival (reads letter): "'Dear Emperor, we are running out of weapons and food. Please give us machine guns, rockets, green tea..' What is...?"

General Yamashita (hastily snatches letter back) "Sorry! Here, this is the one."

General Percival signs the treaty. He then crumples treaty and tosses it at Yamashita.


Apparently, the two boys really hammed it up. Andre put on a dead-pan face and spoke in what he thought was a British accent. I have to commend the teacher for not berating the group for turning the event into a Laurel and Hardy farce.

In fact, after all the groups had presented, the teacher allowed each student to vote for the following awards in a secret ballot: Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Group Performance and Best Script.

Andre's group was voted the Best Group Performance! His best friend aka General Yamashita won Best Actor. Clearly, the kids voted not on historical accuracy but entertainment value.

The teacher gave out 'Oscars' to all the winners which I thought was highly sporting of him.

Some may say this isn't the way to teach Singapore's history but I'm certain the kids will remember this lesson much more clearly (and fondly). And maybe Andre can explore an alternative career in stand-up comedy.

The best Mother's Day

Saturday morning, Kenneth and the kids brought me to Epicurious Cafe at Robertson Quay for a Mother's Day breakfast. It's a quaint, family-run cafe popular for its weekend brunches and relaxed riverfront setting.

The food was unpretentious and tasty, the perfect way to start a lazy Saturday. Here's what we ordered:

Eggs Benedict with smoked salmon, sausages and roasted potatoes (we had two platters to share)

Pancakes with fruit and syrup

English breakfast tea with a complimentary serving of banana cake

The kids made me a lovely Mother's Day card (although Andre became rather evasive when asked about his contribution). As always, full of creativity and love.

But the absolute best Mother's Day gift for me was this:

Photograph: Roslan Rahman/AFP/Getty Images for the Guardian, UK

It took 22 long years but our nation has finally awaken from its slumber and made itself heard. The voices can no longer be ignored or brushed aside. Part of our pledge reads, "...to build a democratic society, based on justice and equality." Powerful words and it gave me chills to see people standing up for these values.

As I told Lesley-Anne, it's one thing to read about Singapore's history in history books, it's another to see history being made. And no doubt, 7 May 2011 will go down in Singapore history as one where the people grasped the reins and steered the massive political mothership through sheer willpower. I feel immensely proud of my fellow Singaporeans.

Stand up for Singapore!

Afternote: Came across this well-written political essay by Singaporean author, Catherine Lim. Worth a read.

Studying about the environment

This post is a follow up to the one I wrote on GEP Social Studies. Apart from learning about Singapore's history, the kids also study other modules like one on Man and the Environment in p5.

They really go into detail, from discussing how energy needs cause environmental problems to renewable resources, from climate change and global warming to how cities are working on green efforts for more sustainable development.

The biggest takeaway from this module I find is the lesson that human beings' actions have consequences on the environment. This raises awareness of the interdependence between the physical and human environments, and promotes environmental conservation efforts which I guess they hope these kids will carry through to adulthood.

This is a worksheet that they had to do (after reading a story), underscoring the cause and effect relationship between humans and the environment.


Reproduced here: (Lesley-Anne's answers are in blue)

The Greatest Environmental Crisis Ever for Humanity

Using what you have learnt from the story, complete the worksheet to illustrate how a particular generalization is true.

1. "An effect can be the result of multiple causes with different degrees of influence". Identify the causes of climate change.

- Deforestation --> climate change
- Large scale burning of fossil fuels --> greenhouse effect --> global warming

2. "Causes can trigger simple effects or chain of related effects". Give an example of a simple effect and a chain of related effects of climate change.

- global temperature increase --> melting of glaciers (simple effect)
- eractic weather --> increase frequency of draughts and floods --> destroy agriculture --> disruption of global food supplies (chain effects)

3. "Causes may have predictable and unpredictable effects". Give an example of a predictable effect and an unpredictable effect of climate change.

- global temperature increase --> spread of infectious disease to higher latitutes (predictable effect)
- climate change --> social and political conflict --> environmental refugees (unpredictable effect)

4. "Causes have short-term and long-term effects". Give an example of a short-term effect and long-term effect of climate change.

- climate change --> destroy natural habitat (short-term effect)
- climate change --> extinction of animal and plant species (long-term effect)

Learning about Singapore's history under GEP

One of the significant differences between the GEP and mainstream curriculum is the former's focus on Social Studies. In the mainstream, Social Studies is relegated as one of those "soft" topics, like Health Education and Moral Education. From what I've heard, the exam paper consists of 20 multiple-choice questions and only covers a broad overview of the subject.

Under GEP, Social Studies is an examinable subject and the kids have to garner at least a 50% pass to maintain their GE status. The curriculum is very extensive and detailed, with particular focus on Singapore's history. The exams test in-depth understanding of the topics and are mostly open-ended questions.

I'm guessing that this is part of MOE's determination to cultivate social and political awareness among this group of kids, as well as foster patriotism and nation-building. A few of us mothers sometimes roll our eyes at what we deem as "national brain-washing" but at heart, we agree that it is very important for our kids to grow up with an understanding of how this country evolved.

The textbook for the Singapore portion of GEP Social Studies is Understanding Our Past - Singapore from Colony to Nation, MOE Singapore, Times Publishing, 1999.

In my opinion, it's quite well written. History books are usually so dull but this one is written in a casual narrative style that's easy to understand, yet is very informative and detailed (it's almost 260 pages). It also has loads of pictures and the visual layout facilitates reading. Another reason I like it is that it keeps largely to the facts, none of that preachy propoganda that some of the primary level social studies materials tend to feature.

Note: GEP Social Studies doesn't just entail Singapore history but I estimate that this makes up about 75% of the curriculum.

The Singapore portion is studied at the various levels as follows:

p4 - Origins of Singapore, World War II
p5 - Post-war, Merger and Separation, Independence
p6 - Industralisation, Modern Singapore

Most of the lessons are supplemented with worksheets and go beyond superficial awareness of events. In p5, the topic on Singapore Independence leads to an interesting discussion on what is involved in building a national identity.

When the kids are learning about racial riots with the Maria Hertogh Riots as a case study, they don't just study what happened. They have to examine the surrounding circumstances and the different points of view in order to come up with a more complete understanding of the implications of such an event. In addition, they have to discuss an article about the event, analysing the author's purpose of writing based on the way the information was presented, his own interpretation and inferences. This part of the study I feel is very important because it teaches the kids that writers have their own biases and opinions, and they shouldn't just take everything they read at face value.

This is followed by a worksheet where they have to write their own reflections on the event.

In case you can't read it, the instructions are:

Write a reflection on the Maria Herogh Riots. Your reflection should include

• an outline of the causes and consequences of the Maria Herogh Riots
• the lesson learnt from the riots
• recommendations to schools nationwide to advise the youth the importance of promoting racial harmony in Singapore

This was what Lesley-Anne wrote:

The causes of the riot was that the Malays felt that there was no respect for them. The consequences that then followed was that a curfew had to be imposed for two weeks before the police could gain control of the situation and 18 people were killed and 173 were injured.

The lesson learnt was that we have to preserve racial and religious harmony as racial disharmony can disrupt our daily lives. The media also had to exercise more discipline in the coverage of sensitive issues.

My recommendations to schools is that they should tell the students about the cultures of different races so they can be sensitive to each other. They should also tell the students about each others religion so that they can be sensitive too. This can promote racial and religious harmony.

This is only my personal opinion but I feel that the mainstream kids would benefit from the same focus that the GEP places on Social Studies. Or maybe it will be introduced to them at the secondary school level. I hope so. Afterall, understanding our history is a critical component of knowing who we are and being able to plan for our future.

Lessons from Earth Hour

This is a more detailed post on what happened during our observation of Earth Hour on Saturday. I found out that four of us in a small room makes for very strange conversations that no scriptwriter can ever dream up. Especially when we have our resident comedian, Andre.

Doing justice to the event, Lesley-Anne tried to explain the concept of global warming to Andre. There was a long garbled exchange between the 11-year-old conscientious environmentalist and the 8-year-old sotong. Part of it went something like this:

Lesley-Anne: When the power company makes electricity, it releases carbon dioxide.

Andre: You mean they can make electricity?

Lesley-Anne: Electricity is made, where do you think it comes from?

Andre: From the wires lah!

Kenneth: Right, just like milk comes from the refrigerator!

Me: When we want to use electricity, we turn on the switch and the electricity comes through the wires, but we have to pay for it.

Lesley-Anne: So when we use a lot of electricity, more carbon dioxide is released.

Andre: I don't know what is carbon dioxide!

Lesley-Anne: It's a type of gas, the type you breathe out. It creates a layer in the atmosphere and traps the heat.

Andre: I'm confused.

Lesley-Anne: Aiyah, the carbon dioxide makes the earth hot, that's why there's global warming!

Andre: Global warning?

Lesley-Anne: WARMING lah, not warning!

Kenneth: Actually, it's not just carbon dioxide...

Lesley-Anne: I know, there's also methane, which is from cows' farts.

Andre: HAH?!!

Kenneth: And do you know why some people don't want to eat meat?

Andre: Because the cow is smelly!!

Environment lesson fail! Kenneth suggested playing a word game, where we would tell a story with each person saying just three words at a time. It went something like this:

Me: Once upon a

Andre: time, there was

Lesley-Anne: a boy called

Kenneth: Andre who liked

Me: eating smelly cows.

Andre: Oy!! Everyday, he went

Lesley-Anne: to school with

Kenneth: Paul who also

Me: liked to eat

Andre: hamburgers and french fries.

(Me: That's four words!)

(Andre: no what, hamburgers and frenchfries!)

(Me: French fries is two words!)

Andre: ok, ok! hamburgers and fries.

Lesley-Anne: When they went

Kenneth: to eat hamburgers,

Me: their mothers shouted,

Andre: "This is disgraceful!"

(interruption due to laughter all around)

Lesley-Anne: It costs ten

Kenneth: sheep and goats.

Me: The boys said,

Andre (delightedly): "I love it!"

It turned out to be really fun and you can always count on kids' creativity to come up with something very unexpected. We also played one round where each one could only say one word at a time (this is easier) as follows:

Me: Once
Andre: upon
Kenneth: a
Lesley-Anne: time
Me: there
Andre: was
Kenneth: a
Lesley-Anne: mermaid
Me: who
Andre: hated
Kenneth: swimming.
Lesley-Anne: Everyday,
Me: she
Andre: ate
Kenneth: seaweed
Lesley-Anne: that
Me: tasted
Andre: poisonous.
Kenneth: Unfortunately,
Lesley-Anne: she
Me: fainted
Andre: happily
Kenneth: ever
Lesley-Anne: after.
Me: The
Andre: end.

If you're looking for an innovative way to occupy waiting time, especially in the car during long journeys, this is fun and easy - no preparations needed. Try it!

Can we save the Earth in air-con comfort?

Yesterday at 8.30pm was Earth Hour. If you don't know what that is, Earth Hour is an international event organised by the WWF which calls for households and businesses around the world to turn off non-essential lights and electrical appliances for one hour to raise awareness on the need for action to stop climate change. Earth Hour is held on the last Saturday of March each year.

Flashback to about a week ago when a flyer for Earth Hour arrived in the mail.

Me: What's that?

Kenneth: Earth Hour, supposed to turn off lights for one hour.

Lesley-Anne (self-professed tree hugger): Let's do it!

Me: Hmm... I guess I can still play computer games in the dark.

Andre: Ok, I can watch tv.

Kenneth: Cannot lah, you're supposed to turn off all electricity!

Me: What? I thought it's just lights?

Andre (alarmed): Hah? Cannot turn on air-con also?

Lesley-Anne: We're supposed to save the earth!

Me: Then what, we just sit around in the dark for one hour?

Andre: Without air-con?

Kenneth (reading the flyer): Oh, we're invited to go the shopping centre where the lights will be turned off for one hour.

Me: Then what, we all stand around in the dark for one hour?

Andre: Never mind, there got free air-con!

In the end, we dutifully sat in the bedroom in the dark with one lit candle. From 8.30-9.30pm, we played word games and had Lesley-Anne attempt to explain global warming to Andre... but with the air-conditioner on. Sorry, if you want Andre to join the revolution, you'll have to move him out of the tropics.