Yrc 38 issuu

Building the Next Generation of Thinkers & Writers

Young Reader Club ISSUE 38 / SGD 8.00 ISSN: 2010 - 1376

Try everything! Our Featured Author

Jerusha Watson

shares about finding inspiration in various places, and learning anything and everything Get fired up by our two FEATURED STORIES! Journey with Ophelia Moon and her friends to stop an unreasonable dictator in The Rebellion, and discover Juliet Kingsleigh’s amazing but lethal power in Firestarter Our Janus E-store is here! And to celebrate its launch, we give you the TOP 11 reasons to check it out.

Scan here to know 3about YRC!

Young Reader Club / Issuemore 38

THE YRC TEAM Managing Editor / Publisher Catherine Khoo Editor Natalya Thangamany Circulation Manager

Nannette Marajas-Cruz Designer

Lim Soo Yong Illustrator

Vickie Yong

For advertising and sales enquiries

6336 8985 Education Subscription Agent

Emit Asia 6372 0330 Distributor ilovereading.sg Pte Ltd

9199 3758 Email: info@youngreaderclub.sg Website: www.youngreaderclub.sg All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the written permission of the publisher. Call 6336-8985 for back issues.

Printed in Singapore

by Stamford Press Pte Ltd Additional photos by

Natalya Thangamany

is published by Experiences & Experiments Books Pte Ltd 261 Waterloo Street #03-08 Waterloo Centre Singapore 180261

From the Publisher’s Desk Dear readers, We are nearing the end of 2016, and so much has happened over the past year. We wrap up 2016 with two stories from two finalists from this year’s Young Author Awards. We also speak to the author behind A Tale of Friendship (which was featured in Issue 33), and introduce to you a big online project we have been working on for a while.

Remember that touching tale about how the platypus came to be? We speak to Jerusha Watson, the author of that story and first runner-up in the Young Author Awards 2014/2015. We ask her about her inspiration for that story and we find out what sparks her imagination. Jerusha is an avid learner of life, and she looks forward to gaining new experiences as she enters secondary school next year.

Our two Featured Stories this issue will round off 2016 with a bang; we present to you action and drama that will spark imagination and inspiration in you. In Isabelle Lim’s The Rebellion, what sparked our protagonist off on her journey was an unreasonable ban of potatoes. This drove her and her friends to set off to lift the ban and free their country from tyranny.

The protagonist in Mia Tan’s Firestarter had her own sparks to deal with — born with the power to control fire, our protagonist must keep her gift secret and control her powers before they rage out of control. Reminds you of the saying ‘don’t play with fire’, doesn’t it?

After our Featured Stories, check out our big online project.

After months of preparation and hard work, our Janus E-store has launched. This is our exclusive online bookstore where you can purchase the stories written by our Young Authors, most of whom had participated in our Young Author Awards over the years. Check out our slightly modified Top 10 column to find out more about the Janus E-store and what you can find in it.

All the best for your year-end exams, have a great holiday, and have a New Year. We are gearing up for next year and it is going to bring much change to YRC. Happy reading!

Young Reader Club / Issue 38

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4 Featured Author: Jerusha Watson

Fresh out of the PSLE period, 12-year-old Jerusha Watson sets her eyes on the future as she shares with us the inspiration behind her touching tale, A Tale of Friendship. With a message in mind and an active mind to match, Jerusha gets inspired by what is around her and applies that to her daily life.

Describing herself as ‘random’, she is not afraid to try everything.

10 The Rebellion by Isabelle Lim

No potatoes? No way! But this is no laughing matter; a cruel unreasonable

official has taken over Ophelia Moon’s home, and he has banned the country’s staple to hoard it for himself. Angered by his tyranny, Ophelia and her friends Noah and Areida take a journey through the Enchanted Forest to find him and end his reign.

28 Firestarter by Mia Tan

Juliet Kingsleigh is born with a beautiful yet deadly power — the ability to

manipulate fire. It is a power she hides away from her family and friends, save for her best friend Delilah. Delilah warns her against overusing her powers; fire is quite the ravager, after all. Will Juliet be able to tame her flames or will she face the heat?

40 Top 11 Things About the Janus E-Store

The Janus E-store is finally here! To celebrate its launch, we are giving you 11 reasons (yes, 11!) to explore the Janus E-store. The Janus E-store is our online bookshop, where you can purchase titles written by our Young Authors, past and present. Other than our Young Authors’ works, you can also purchase our anthology series and other books (we’ve got our Singapore Memory Project on Serangoon Gardens!).

At YRC Magazine, we ensure that stories are kept at their most original form, yet there are times that content is abridged to suit the magazine’s readership. Stories featured in YRC Magazine are abridged as necessary, to fit page constraints. The YRC is a literary magazine that conforms to the reading palate of 10 – 16 year olds. Once a story is featured in the magazine, it is at the discretion of the editor to copyedit articles to a certain extent, to suit the target audience.

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Featured Author

S

omewhere in the lush greenery of the far east of Singapore — coupled with the occasional sightings of monkeys, monitor lizards, and snakes — our Featured Author this issue is kicking it back after being relieved of the hustle and bustle of the PSLE. Meet 12-year-old Jerusha Watson, formerly a student of Meridian Primary and currently taking it easy until the next phase of her educational journey. We sat down with Jerusha and her parents, Mr Watson and Mdm Ninitha, to talk about her experiences as a YAS student, a YAA finalist, and an avid learner of anything and everything.

It was two years ago when we first met Jerusha as a Primary 4 student in Meridian Primary, where she was part of the pioneer batch for the Junior Young Author Scheme (JYAS for short — a version of our champion Young Author Scheme catered for younger primary school students).

You may have come across the story Jerusha wrote then in Issue 33 — A Tale of Friendship, a clever take on the origin of the platypus and the platonic love story between the beaver Dooro and the duck Miena.

The heartwarming piece earned Jerusha second place at the Young Author Awards 2014/2015, and a spot on our newly launched e-store (you can buy Jerusha’s book at catherinekhoo.sg/estore).

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TAKE A CHANCE

Jerusha revealed something when we asked her about being picked by her teachers to attend the JYAS two years ago — she initially did not want to go for the course. “I didn’t really feel like going for it because it was like an extra supplementary class for me,” she shared. “But after a lot of pestering, I decided to go for it, and I really enjoyed it.”

It was Jerusha’s parents who ‘pestered’ and encouraged her to go for the JYAS. We do agree that pestering is one of anybody’s top pet peeves, but seeing how far Jerusha had come as a result, do we (begrudgingly) admit that some nagging is good for us?

“Before I joined the JYAS,” Jerusha said. “I was writing compos in school and getting 20 to 30 marks for them. But when I joined, I learned new words and phrases. I learned new styles of writing compos, and looked at new perspectives. So yeah, it (my parents’ pestering) was really worth it.”

So what did Jerusha enjoy and not enjoy about the JYAS? “When I was writing, it felt like I was in the story, so it was a whole new world for me,” she replied. “But what I didn’t enjoy was that when I was writing, my hand hurt a lot. And also, I had to put what I had written (by hand) into the computer (by typing), so that was a lot of work for me.”

Jerusha’s parents were not just there for her at the beginning of her JYAS journey, but they stuck with her throughout to the end. “We were looking at her compos and we saw that her story ideas were very good,” Mdm Ninitha, a contact coordinator for automatons, shared about pushing Jerusha to join the JYAS. “When she was practising her writing, instead of following the given image, she would write her own stories. So we wanted her to write. We also saw that she used to write out her emotions when she was younger.”

“I encouraged her a lot,” Mr Watson, an aircraft engine servicer, said. “With some nagging.” Jerusha pointed him out as the parent who did most of the pestering to join the JYAS. 8

“He does shift work, so he is home most of the time,” Mdm Ninitha added on. “And when he is home, he would talk to her and pester her about her studies. So it was him who encouraged her to go for the course.

For him, it is encouraging. For her, it is pestering.”

Both parents shared their joy in seeing Jerusha express her creativity through writing during the JYAS and using her time wisely. “It was good seeing her spend her time usefully writing,” Mdm Ninitha shared.

“Sometimes she asks for our help for typing (from first draft into the computer) and emailing to the teacher, and it was a little tiring to do, especially after work.”

Jerusha points out her mother as her inspiration. “She’s a working woman. She goes to work and then comes home, and even though she wants to talk to her friends, she always does the housework first. She’s a busy woman.”

After the Young Author Awards where she clinched second place, Jerusha found herself with little time to write due to preparations for her PSLE. “I had to focus on the weak parts of my studies,” she shared.

“Now I am focusing on relaxing first, and maybe after that, I may start writing again.”

Now that Jerusha has some time to herself after PSLE, what has she been up to in the reading department? She holds up the title she had been checking out: The Case of Lisandra P, by Hélène Grémillon and Alison Anderson. It was an enigmatic whodunit about the mysterious death of the titular character and the speculation of her husband being her killer.

“I was just browsing through the books, because I couldn’t find anything to read,” Jerusha explained how she came across the title. “Then I came across this book, because it was featured in the librarian’s stack. And it looked interesting, so I took it. And when I started reading it, I really got into it.”

Jerusha shared that rather than sticking to a singular genre, she prefers checking out anything and everything, counted that they interested her. “I’m someone who reads all types of books,” she said. “I don’t really look

“Just let it come naturally, just let it flow”

Magic & Fantasy

The

Rebellion

By Isabelle Lim

I l l u s t r a t i o n s b y V i c k i e Yo n g 10

he way I see it, everyone has something unexpected done or happening to them. You could sail all the seven seas in under twelve hours, spontaneously combust, contract terminal face cancer or marry the future Kaiser of Austria or Germany.

You could get sent to the emergency room on laced-with-a-variety-of-drugs Cherry Cola, you could marry a blue whale called Dung Particles, or you could come across a teacher teaching geography with a gun in her hand, drunk. You also could have seen it rain air-conditioners (wouldn’t that be peculiar?), achieved a Guinness World Record for the Most Asian Santas in an apartment, or set foot on Neptune and Eris.

Mine was getting a law that said you could not buy potatoes without paying $9.9 trillion, but I’ll get to that later.

Hi. I am Ophelia Moon, fifteen years old and living in Harper, California in the present day, 2015. Okay, Harper is slightly more advanced in technology than the rest of the universe (mainly because half the population are tech freaks), but it was not always sunshine and daisies and rainbows and unicorns.

Oh, definitely not.

Ever since our new Minister, Martin Turner, was appointed, life has been a living hell. There are really stupid laws now and that was why three people whom I held so dear to myself were killed.

My mother and little sister Elle were killed in the supermarket for taking one too many tangerines. I know, right? Plus, there was not even a sign saying you could not take more than five tangerines. Stupid, right? Even worse, my dad got killed for having more than four people in his car.

Ugh. My best friends have the same problem — families killed and stuff like that. Now, we live in the Tyrone Kernel Home. I know right, the name; do not ask the staff there about it. They would turn from harmless little bunnies to ferocious tigers, if you get what I mean. Ugh.

My best buddies were called Areida Steele, aka Ari, and Noah Hunter, called a number of stereotypical Texan names by Areida and I, since he was a Native Texan who had moved to Harper.

Anyway, to the potato part.

The Beginning “Y’all girls will be interested in this headline,” Noah said one morning, after picking up the newspaper and going back to our room (yes, all of us became best buddies as we were roommates).

Areida looked up from reading the second Hunger Games book in the series. I looked up from my computer. Noah pointed at the front-page headline. It was gigantic and highlighted in bright red, so it would be hard to miss.

It said, “Turner bans potatoes for all civilians except for those who pay $9.9 trillion.”

At this, Areida, well-known for having a short and hot temper, flew into one of her temper tantrums. “Okay, first of all, what even? What kind of psycho bans people from eating potatoes? Potatoes are a basic necessity of life. Second of all, didn’t I tell you yesterday that those roast potatoes could be the last potato you’d ever eat? But y’all didn’t believe me and said I was partly delusional. Last, Lunch Lady Marian makes the best potatoes in the world! The ministry is THE WORST!” She sank onto her bed, sobbing.

Noah, being a boy, did not understand her painful grief, and made a smart-aleck remark, unintentionally making her feel worse. “Well, here’s the good thing. Maybe we will die in a protest to bring back potatoes and go to Heaven, where we will Young Reader Club / Issue 38

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Featured Story

T

The Rebellion

Featured Story

Story Trivia

Isabelle Lim’s The Rebellion details both a journey and a revolution.

It is about how the protagonist and her friends battle an unfair system to set things right for everyone. A revolution, as defined

by Dictionary.com, is basically that — to bring about ‘a radical and pervasive change in society and the social structure’. Such change is usually (and unfortunately) coupled with violence.

The term ‘revolution’ could also refer to ‘overthrowing the current ruling party or government’. You can pretty much say that ‘revolution’ is synonymous to ‘rebellion’.

Revolutions and rebellions have been sparking off on Earth since time immemorial. Some end in peace treaties and new lifestyles, others in bloodshed and lives lost. No matter the outcome, there was always the common goal of changing a current system, where the rebelling parties rise up to crush their oppressors.

Why are revolutions so interesting? Or rather, why are they important?

If one looks at history and in fiction, revolutions happen to change something for the better. There is always an underdog striving for peace, freedom, and equality, to make the world (or at least their home) a better place.

One example of a historical revolutionary leader is Che Guevara. One of the triggers for his revolution was an extensive motorcycle road trip he took through South America when he was a young medical student. It was a journey where he saw the country’s impoverished and ill-treated. Moved by what he had seen, Guevara took up arms and became a key player in the Cuban Revolution, making him a motif of rebellion in modern pop culture.

VV

I A LA

Revolutions can also be found in the media we engage with today, all detailing one’s fight for their rights and their desire to change their world. Suzanne Collins crafted one amidst class disparity in her Hunger Games series. In Star Wars, both the good and evil sides of the Force clash as the rebels fight to overthrow the Empire’s oppressive rule. In the Marvel universe, the Civil War happened because there were disagreements with the government’s methods of surveilling superhumans.

What other revolutions can you think of? How does a revolution solve or not solve a problem?

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Mystery & Adventure

Firestarter

By Mia Tan

I l l u s t r a t i o n s b y V i c k i e Yo n g 28

Firestarter

I

f yer ever been down to that little town – what wos it called? – in the Brookestol area, you’ve probably heard of that massive fire.

Them cops, they couldn’t find no cause for that accident, could they? They got around, what, sixty-somethin’ people all dead? All gone died in that fire.”

This little girl, them locals alive will tell you she got the prettiest hair you ever The man was drunk, way too drunk than gonna see in your life. Bright, shining red he ought to be, and even before he was too orange, they be saying, and eyes as green drunk he had already begun telling all his as the grass in spring. One look at her and stories. He had poured out his entire life you could tell later, when she wos older, she story to the rather tolerant young lady who wos going to be beautiful. The problem with had been sitting next to him earlier. Now, her was ‘ow stubborn she wos. When her he had started another, and this time quite a parents would say to her, you be sleeping at crowd had gathered to hear it. nine o’ clock, she would go out and come “Thing is, yer see – I know lots about back and hour late, just for the sake of that fire, I do – them locals all whisperin’ getting’ on their nerves. They all loved her bout one of them little gals, they all be to death either way. saying she was the cause o’ it. Of course, One of the things is, as she grew older, I wasn’t birthed yet, an’ all. But me mum, she would start to stay out later an’ later, oh, she’d heard all o’ it back when she was with her excuses getting stranger an’ just a girl ‘erself. stranger, till one night she came back at You see here, this little girl, them locals exactly two in the mornin’, and her parents all sayin’ she’d had one too many sparks could bear it no more. But even when they up her sleeves. She was a real sweet child, cornered her and threw their questions at they all say, but way energetic even for one her, she didn’t do nothing, just smiled and girl o’ her age,” he leaned over to whisper gave ‘em one of her usual excuses. They to his listeners. “They say she had those gave up, eventually,” he paused in his story sparks at the tips of ‘er fingers.” to give a hearty chuckle. “They’d shrug it One of the teenagers at the table snorted off. Say she wos being a regular re-be-lliimpatiently. “What do you mean, sparks at ous teen and keep drinkin’ their beer. They the tips of her fingers? Sounds like a ton never really knew what their daughter wos of nonsense to me.” His friend laughed in doing, until what she wos doing came back agreement. to haunt all of ‘em.”

“Y’know, when I first heards this story, Juliet Kingsleigh that wos what I thoughts at first, but later me mum had me all won’dring an’ all,” “I’ve told you a million times, Lilah, he’s the man slurred, downing another glass my cat and I will do what I want to!” the giddily. “Sometimes, in that little town small, redheaded girl huffed irritably and down in Brookestol, them locals would pulled herself up onto the fallen log, after look out them windows and see somethin’ the scruffy black cat perched on it. Another flashing round in the distance. They girl, around her age, obviously the Lilah say those flashes wos of some fire,” he mentioned, crossed her arms and shook her muttered darkly. “No one knew what they head politely, as if she were an adult chiding really wos, but all of ‘em were dead sure a child. they wos of fire.”

“Black cats are trouble, Juliet, you see,

The Drunkard’s Tale

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Featured Story

“

Featured Story

Story Trivia Mia Tan’s Firestarter demonstrates both the beauty and danger of fire, especially if you are as supernaturally powered as Juliet. We use fire every day and we have seen how it is both helpful and harmful to us.

Fire cooks our food, keeps us warm, and lights our way. It is also aesthetically pleasing due to its bright warm hues and thus used in fireworks. However, it is also destructive as it is capable of razing people, objects, and buildings to ash with just a hot blaze. Its heat is so strong that a little lick along our skin could already strip it off and cause us immense pain. We saw an example of that contradictory power in Firestarter.

A volcano in East Java, Indonesia is yet another riveting demonstration of fire’s beauty and lethality. It is called the Ijen Volcano, otherwise known as the Blue Fire Volcano. It is also referred to as the Ijen volcano complex, due to hosting not just the volcano, but craters, crater lakes, and cones as well.

Like its name suggests, the Ijen Volcano’s lava and flames glow blue at night. This is due to its high sulphuric content, which is dangerously acidic and toxic to humans — the blue flames are actually sulphuric gas fumes, combusted at 600 degrees Celsius.

Many workers at the volcano complex have died due to contact with the volcano and its poisonous gases. However, that has not stopped tourists from taking long night hikes (it takes two hours to get to the volcano) to that hazardous zone just to see the volcano’s glowing blue flames. Photos luckily snapped of the phenomenon attest of its beauty despite the risk.

What other things can you think of that are both beautiful and deadly?

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1 THIN 1 P G ut

abo the Janus E-Store

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We at YRC are proud to present to you readers, our Janus E-store.

Recently launched, it is where you can purchase both electronic and hard copies of works written by our Young Authors over the years.

That means you can check out a variety of stories written by under-18s, and maybe get inspired to write your own book (or try out for the next Young Author Awards).

We give you eleven (yes, eleven!) things to know about our Janus E-store, which may be synonymous to eleven reasons why you should check it out and support our Young Authors.

(P.S. You can also purchase previous issues of YRC on the Janus E-store!)

1) Number of Books Just visit the e-store’s homepage and look at the right column.

There are currently 93 titles on the market and ready for purchase, including four genre-specific anthologies (Asian Tales, Tales of Magic & Fantasy, Tales of Mind & Machine, and Tales To Warm Your Heart). This number will increase as we slowly add new titles to the e-store.

Most of the Young Authors featured have been through the Young Author Scheme, others having been finalists of previous Young Author Awards. All have interesting stories to share, so please do visit the Janus E-store to give them your support.

Prices start from $0.99 for e-book to $6.99 for paperback.

2) Most Popular Genre Lovers of tear-jerkers and heart-movers, rejoice. The most popular genre on the Janus E-store (and among our Young Authors) is the ‘Heartwarmers’ genre, the genre that encompasses love stories, tales of friendship, and bittersweet tragedies.

The Young Author Scheme looks at seven genres, with ‘Heartwarmers’ being one of them. The other six are (not in order of popularity) ‘Mystery & Adventure’, ‘Ghosts & Ghouls’, ‘Aliens & Angels’, ‘Asian Tales’, ‘Animal Tales’, and ‘Magic & Fantasy’.

Here are some titles from the ‘Heartwarmers’ department to get you started — The Life In The Old Castle by Gwyneth Low, The Band of Brothers by Muhammad Hasanuddin Bin Mohammad Hanafiah, Through The Stormy Winds by Kimberly Foo, and The Right Thing by Tan Ren Ying.

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