It all started when I was looking for new book titles for YH. I wanted stories that are not about princesses, fairies and boarding schools, stories that YH can relate to. Then a fellow mum blogger recommended Ellie Belly, a series of titles based on a local 7 year old girl very much like my own YH. What’s more, it is written by a local author Eliza Teoh.

So I went in search of Ellie Belly without much luck (ok, I admit, I wasn’t actively looking). Then one day, YH came home from school and passed a leaflet to me. Apparently, Eliza Teoh visited her school to promote Ellie Belly with an autographing session. YH informed me that a book vendor will be at her school the next day and insisted that I gave her some money to buy Ellie Belly. And so we got our first Ellie Belly: Huffy Puffy Panda. I love the simple storyline in a local set up which YH can relate to (hey, Huffy Puffy is about a Panda in Singapore Zoo, you can’t get more local than that). I love the simple English with occasional BIG words thrown in. I love how the BIG words are highlighted in bold and explained in easy-to-understand English in a call out box (knowing very well that most children will not be bothered to check out those words in the dictionary). I love how the author included real diary entries submitted by children (some entries are really funny).

We have since added two more titles to our Ellie collection and we heard that the sixth book has just been launched, awesome! Meet Eliza Teoh at the launch party on 10 Nov, 10am at SMU. There will be titles by other local authors as well. Find out the details on Ellie Belly fans page here. Hope we are able to get an autographed copy this time, see you at the party!

Big words are explained in call out boxes

Sample page of a diary entry