Last Friday, Sofia, Adeline and I had an amazing time at Woodlands Regional Library. We were at our first session of the Young Author Club. I must admit, we were a little nervous at first. We hoped the participants coming in would enjoy themselves, would listen and most importantly, would participate.
Read the rest of YAC – The First Session! »

YRC features a guest blogger regularly. This week, 13-year-old Deepika shares with us her love for reading and a poem she wrote about  success and hard work.

“Catch them young and they will read for life”.

This is my mother’s favourite refrain. She wanted me to develop a reading habit at a young age and true enough, I started my love affair with books when I was only two years old. Since then, reading has been my hobby. Every time I read, I learn new words and my vocabulary expands.

The first poem I wrote was about a teddy bear. I was six and I thought of it while bathing! It was also the first poem that I actually wrote down. I felt very satisfied; that was the groundwork of my writing.
Read the rest of To Bee or Not to Bee »

Hi guys! Guess what? Your Friday afternoons are bound to become more interesting!

The YRC team is starting a club and you can be a part of it. You can even join every single session if you want. Are you an aspiring writer? Have you written stories but never had the guts to show it to other people? Or perhaps, you want to write but don’t how to begin? Or are you an avid writer and want to exchange ideas with like-minded peers?
Read the rest of Young Author Club »

Here’s something new I read about on the Straits Times today; it’s got me all excited!!!

Is this our future of fashion?
Read the rest of Cloth that can listen »

Hi everyone,

I headed off to Hong Kong (my family was in town) a few days after Charlene came back to Singapore, all jet-lagged and bleary-eyed. ;p

Our second issue, if you haven’t seen it yet, has a DIY feature on statement tees and a little mention of Engrish, the garbled version of English.

I found myself looking for that penultimate Engrish tee when I was in Hong Kong. I had looked, on the previous trip to Hong Kong, but nothing seemed to really fulfill that criteria I had set out for myself.

This time, though, I succeeded! I FOUND IT. Partially because I had spent the last few weeks musing over Superheroes and men in general (ask any colleague; they’ll tell you what I’m like), but I FOUND IT! I finally found it. This Engrish tee was more than just an Engrish statement tee – it was littered with all sorts of strange statements that contradicted each other.

The Statement Tee

"Guys in the fight evil"

"He is rogue in grain, (false face"

Someone tell me what this all means. I’m so confused!

Better than that – someone correct the English and THEN tell me what it’s supposed to mean!

Cheers everyone.

When I was in London two weeks ago, we went up to Belvoir Castle for my cousin’s wedding. It has been the ancestral home of the Duke and Duchess of Rutland for the last 1000 years and is still occupied by the 11th Duke and Duchess and their five children. In fact, the Duchess’ daughter’s Shih Tzu crashed the wedding dinner and caused a fuss. It was hilarious!

While there, they brought us on a guided tour through a hall of paintings. One of them, The Proverbs by David Tenniers the Younger, caught my eye. It contains pictures depicting 43 medieval proverbs and I thought that would be an awesome theme for a post.  Can you figure out what these two common sayings are?

Let us know in the comments!

We are bombarded by so many ads that scream for us to buy the latest fashion, the latest pair of shoes … Then I came across this very eye-catching poster, advertising, of all things, a “garage” sale when I was in Seoul for the recent Seoul International Book Fair. Check it out! Sometimes words become redundant … a picture says a thousand words!

Hi everyone!

I’m Sofia, YRC magazine’s editor. I hope you’re enjoying the blog so far! This is my first post so I think I should briefly introduce myself.

Ever since I was a kid, I’ve always loved reading and writing.  I hope to share this passion with you.  Other than books, I am deeply in love with travel, culture and history. Spontaneous moments make me really happy, my little sister is my best friend, and one of my biggest dreams is for every single child in the world to enjoy the basic right to EDUCATION. And oh,  I love running and cycling!

Working on YRC means working with young people like you and I must say, you guys are simply amazing! You have so much talent and ideas – your creativity is just inspiring. We feature aspiring artists (writers, poets, illustrators, comic artists, designers, etc) in every issue, and who knows, you might find your masterpiece in our magazine someday! We would love to hear your thoughts on YRC, writing, or pretty much anything under the sun. Drop us an email at YRC@catherinekhoo.sg.

Have a great week ahead!

So. It’s that time of the year again when (almost) everything goes on sale. Or so they say.

I can’t help feeling a little deflated as I scour the shops for good buys. Note: “good” buys, not just “cheap” buys. Does anyone else have that feeling?

One little goodie I’ve come across, though, is this voucher here -

Ministry of Press

The full voucher can be downloaded and printed from this url here – http://www.greatsingaporesale.com.sg/2010m/english-html/coupons/coupons-c-app-ministrypr.html

Let’s do our part to support our own homegrown talent. If you’re a fan of Threadless tees (I know I am) you’ll love the pieces at Ministry of Press. Also – both Ministry of Press and Threadless (it rhymes! … sort of…) are printed on American Apparel tees. AA tees are fantastically-comfortable. I love them.

If you’re not a fan of Threadless or don’t really care about the branding, a T-shirt is something so basic that everyone needs one. ;p

I’ll keep my eye out for any other interesting or special discounts.

In the meantime, happy shopping!

When I was but 13, which was way back in 1970, I had my very first short story published in the Straits Times. It was a story about a young girl opening her eyes to the reality of growing old. I remembered I wrote this in one sitting as I contemplated my grandfather asleep on his armchair. He seemed so contented, so at peace with himself… Therein begins my lifelong passion for the written word. I loved books and my first ambition was to be a secondhand bookseller… anything to be near my favourite pastime: reading!