Asian Festival of Children's Content

The Asian Festival of Children’s Content ( AFCC ) brings together content creators and producers with parents, teachers, librarians, and anyone interested in quality Asian content for children.

With a mix of professional conferences, masterclasses and workshops, rights fair and media mart, and public events, AFCC is a unique and popular event right here in Asia that provides an opportunity for writers, illustrators, editors, publishers, agents, distributors, parents, children, teachers, and librarians to meet, learn, develop their craft, and discover business opportunities.

The Book Illustrators Gallery (BIG) is part of the Asian Festival of Children’s Content (AFCC) from 25 – 30 May 2013. BIG aims to showcase the work of local and regional illustrators and artists, across genres and borders, to promote them to a wider audience.

This year’s theme: One Big Story. Give us your interpretation of what One Big Story means in the context of children’s literary content! The works are judged for skill, aesthetic quality, and how well the artist adheres to the theme and accepted from around the world!

At the AFCC event organised by the National Book Development Council of Singapore and National Library Board, Singapore at The Plaza, National Library Building, Singapore on 29 May 2013,  I had the pleasure to meet Malaysian blogger friends Nur Azmi Mokhtar (aka Mie Mambo),  Evi Shelvia and Emila Yusof.

Nur Azmi Mokhta is Malaysia's Premier Graphic Novelist, Best Illustrator, 'Naive' Painting Artist, Aggressive Muralist, Fastest Caricaturist, Humorous Writer, Indie - Songwriter, Lyricist and a punk rock vacalist.  This is a man called Mie Mambo.  His introduction on his blog .

He did a caricature of me within minutes to show on the blog.  How's the result of his speed artwork at a special introductory charge of S$10.00 ?

 Mie Mambo is a young friendly guy, shy and soft-spoken.  He is indeed gifted with lots of talent.

The AFCC Media Mart is a marketplace for local children’s content industry professionals to network, trade and exchange information with the South-East Asian market. Focusing on children’s books, the Rights Fair facilitates contact with Asia-Pacific publishers, regional writers and exploration of a variety of content for children from this region.

Country Focus: Malaysia Country Pavilion Perbadanan Kota Buku

Evi Shelvia, Illustrator/Author is the first prize winner of the afccSKETCH contest 2013.

She is an Indonesian located in Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia.

Evi Shelvia with her first prize winning artwork

KotaBuku (Book City), a government-linked organization set up to invigorate the book publishing industry, will be spearheading the Malaysian participation in AFCC this year. Since last year, Mr Razin Abd Rahman, Senior Manager, and Mrs Norhayati Razali, Manager in charge of activities at KotaBuku, together with their team in Kuala Lumpur, have worked conscientiously to ensure that Malaysia showcases her best children’s books and illustrators’ works at AFCC 2013.

According to Ms Linda Tan Lingard Member, AFCC Board of Advisors, "AFCC is a good occasion to make your presence felt and to  learn more about writing and publishing. It is a privilege to listen to some of the top writers and illustrators in the world, to mingle with your peers, to encourage and celebrate one another’s success, and to simply enjoy the company of like-minded people from all corners of the world". 

Evi Shelvia with her masterpiece and her fans.

Evi described to me her illustration based on the theme for the contest - "One Big Story".

It shows a boy telling a big story to his animal friends - rabbit, peacock, tapir, hedgehog, cat, hornbill bird and a fox on wooden horse.  The story teller was holding a toy made of Minang kabau leaves.while other audience with kids games and toys like bola takraw.

On the illustration are the multi-cultural places of worship in Asia - church, mosque, Hindi pagoda, Chinese temple, the building of the Minangkabau traditional architecture.  The colorful kites of batik patterns and dandelion blowing elegantly in the sky.

Whilst most people would jot some notes in a diary book and capture the moments of their memories with a camera for some snaps, Evi sketch her drawings in a book as a record for posterity.

She kindly shared these sketches on her way to Singapore in a coach to attend the AFCC event.

Spraying at the Immigration Center at the causeway.

Alighting from the coach on arrival in Singapore

Her thoughts in graphic ...

How wonderful ... I only wish I could draw and convey my thoughts this way like her to communicate and express in graphic.  To draw to express,  instead of  blog to express!

Thanks to the illustrators to tell stories in children books which even babies can enjoy long before they learn how to read the words in every language.  Graphics as a media from childhood  is universal ... a picture is worth a thousand words.

When asked when she started illustrations, Evi told me that she started to doodle as long as a little girl and it has not stopped.  Keep up the remarkable talent and skills with illustrations and artworks to share with the world.

Please check out Evi's blog here .

Emila Yusof,  Illustrator/Blogger

 

Meet Emila Yusof on her blog 
.
"Hello! You have just landed here because you are curious about the person behind this blog. I am an Illustrator, a Children’s Book Writer, a Blogger and a Seasonal Traveler. I call it ‘seasonal’ because my son is still schooling and I get to travel with my family only during school holidays. But I do get to travel alone once in a while and I have my husband to thank  for it as he will take care of our son when I am away".

Best wishes to my new blogger friends.  Terima Kaseh !