SINGAPORE – Local picture book Lemonade Sky has earned a spot in the White Ravens Catalog, an annual selection of the best children’s books from around the world.
The book by author and illustrator JH Low, published earlier this year by Epigram Books, is the only Singaporean title on the list.
The catalog, which is published by the International Youth Library in Munich, highlights notable new titles around the world ahead of major book fairs such as the Frankfurt Book Fair and the Bologna Children’s Book Fair. .
This year’s edition features 200 titles from 54 countries in 38 languages.
In Lemonade Sky, a boy wanders aimlessly through a city much like Singapore, in the company of imaginary friends based on his Dino and Mr. Wang toys.
In the landscape of his imagination, the city is filled with enormous creatures such as a wolf larger than a Housing Commission apartment building or a menacing angler fish. He dreams of flight and freedom.
Low, 50, said he was honored to be chosen. Lemonade Sky, he added, was based on his own childhood memories at Sims Drive.
“As a child, I spent endless hours wandering around many drab and uninspiring city blocks in my neighborhood. There was a familiar atmosphere and a feeling of being locked in.
“To this day, many years later, that feeling has never really left me, but it was most vividly felt during my childhood.”
Previous Singapore titles featured in the White Ravens catalog included Chinese books Xiao Xiong De Xin Yi (The Little Bear’s New Clothes) by Hu Wei last year and Xin Ku Le Hong Tou Jin (The Red Scarf Work) by Lin Denan and Patrick Yee in 2019. Both were published by Lingzi Media.
