A young Malaysian boy enthusiastically assists his grandmother prepare their Lunar New Year dinner, all the while learning about the history of their traditional cuisine.
Malaysia
Materials from Malaysia
The Weight Of Our Sky
Amidst the Chinese-Malay conflict in Kuala Lumpur in 1969, sixteen-year-old Melati must overcome prejudice, violence, and her own OCD to find her way back to her mother.
Mommy Sayang
Aleeya, concerned when her beloved mother becomes sick, remembers and returns the promise Mommy has made to her–that she will always be by her side.
Ten
In 1986 Malaysia, as she worries about her parents’ constant fighting, ardent soccer fan Maya, age eleven, trains herself and pulls together a team at her girls’ school, despite soccer being a “boys’ game.”
Mango & Bambang: The Not-a-Pig
Mango Allsorts is good at all sorts of things, but she is lonely. Bambang is a talking tapir from Malaysia and is now lost in a very busy city. When the two meet, a friendship begins.
The Bee Tree
In the rain forests of Malaysia, Nazam waits anxiously to climb the bee tree, proving that he is capable of succeeding his grandfather as leader of the traditional honey-hunting clan.
The Kampung Boy
Lat recounts the life of Mat, a Muslim boy growing up in rural Malaysia in the 1950s: his adventures and mischief-making, fishing trips, religious study, and work on his family’s rubber plantation. Meanwhile, the traditional way of life in his village (or kampung>) is steadily disappearing, with tin mines and factory jobs gradually replacing family farms and rubber small-holders. When Mat leaves for boarding school, he can only hope that his familiar kampung will still be there when he returns.
Kancil And The Crocodiles: A Tale From Malaysia
A mouse deer and a tortoise trick some hungry crocodiles into helping them cross a river but fail to plan for their getting back.
Town Boy
Malaysian teenager Mat makes a life-changing move from the quiet kampung where he was born to Ipoh, the rapidly industrializing nearby town. Living far from his rural roots at a boarding school, he discovers bustling streets, modern music, heady literature, budding romance, and through it all his growing passion for art. The companion novel to the critically acclaimed Kampung Boy, Town Boy offers more of Lat’s delicious storytelling and enchanting pen-and-ink artwork. At once exotic and familiar, his cartoon world builds a bridge for readers into another world, another culture, and another time.
Carpe Diem
16-year-old overachiever Vassar Spore, daughter of overachiever parents, who in true overachiever fashion named her after an elite women’s college. Vassar expects her sophomore summer to include AP and AAP (Advanced Advanced Placement) classes. Enter a world-traveling relative who sends her plans into a tailspin when she blackmails Vassar’s parents into forcing their only child to backpack with her through Southeast Asia. On a journey from Malaysia to Cambodia to the remote jungles of Laos, Vassar sweats, falls in love, and uncovers a family secret that turns her whole world upside-down.