Award-Winning Book Hunting Expeditions

In My Mailbox (7): Welcome to the Singapore Library Book Sale 2011

When I found out that Singapore will be having its once-a-year Library Book Sale, first thought that came to my mind was: My Heart, Be Still. I’ve been here for three years, but for some reason this is the only time that I knew/learned about the Warehouse sale. Naturally, my family and I drove all the way to Singapore Expo to check out the books.

Yes! Books are only worth 2 SGD each

The weekly meme In My Mailbox hosted by The Story Siren seems to be the perfect venue to share all my 82 book finds from the Library Book Sale (excluding the six books that husband bought for himself). Here they are: yummylicious, fingerlickin’ booksbooksbooks!

Still in their precious bags
 

My Van Allsburg Loot

The Wretched Stone Written and Illustrated by Chris Van Allsburg

The Sweetest Fig, Written and Illustrated by Chris Van Allsburg

Ben’s Dream, Story and Pictures by Chris Van Allsburg

A City in Winter by Mark Helprin, Illustrated by Chris Van Allsburg

NYRB Titles and YA Fiction (now called YP? Young People?)

The Adventures of Pinnochio, Story of a Puppet. Written by Carlo Collodi, Translated by Nancy Canepa and Illustrations by Carmelo Lettere

The Island of Horses by Eilis Dillon, from the New York Review Children’s Collection

The Wind on the Moon by Eric Linklater, from the New York Review Children’s Collection

Clockwork by Philip Pullman and Illustrations by Leonid Gore

Five Little Peppers and How they Grew by Margaret Sidney and Foreword by Newbery Honor Author Ann M. Martin

I, Coriander by Sally Gardner

More YA Fiction

More Weird and Wonderful Words, Edited by Erin Mc Kean and Illustrations by Danny Shanahan with a Foreword by Richard Lederer

Double-Dare to be Scared: Another Thirteen Chilling Tales by Robert D. San Souci

The Color of Fire, A Novel by Ann Rinaldi

Regarding the Trees by Kate Klise and Illustrated by M. Sarah Klise

The Bell, the Book, and the Spellbinder by Brad Strickland

More YA

Some of the titles are chosen by my nine year old – I’m sure it’s easy to figure out what the titles are. Haha.

See you Later, Gladiator by Jon Scieszka and Illustrated by Adam McCauley

Hey Kid, Want to buy a Bridge? By Jon Scieszka and Illustrated by Adam McCauley

Viking It and Liking It by Jon Scieszka and Illustrated by Adam McCauley

Lakenham Prom by Mick Gowar and Illustrated by Clare Heronneau

Amelia’s 5th Grade Notebook by Marissa Moss

Amelia’s Must-Keep Resolutions for the Best Year Ever by Marissa Moss

Rotten School: The Heinie Prize by R. L. Stine and Illustrations by Trip Park

My Precious Picture Book Finds – such a Treat!

Way Home by Libby Hathorn and Gregory Rogers

The Puddleman by Raymond Briggs

The Last Alchemist by Colin Thompson

More Picture Books, Illustrated YA Fiction

Rip Van Winkle by Washington Irving, Drawings by Gary Kelley and Design by Louise Fili

Arthur Spiderwick’s Field Guide to the Fantastical World Around You. Accurately Restored and Described by Tony Diterlizzi and Holly Black

Edgar Allan Poe’s Tales of Mystery and Madness Illustrated by Gris Grimly

Hidden Child by Isaac Millman

Picture Books (and a Graphic Novel/Comic)

The Sign of the Seahorse, A Tale of Greed and High Adventure in Two Acts by Graeme Base

Krazy & Ignatz by George Herriman. “Necromancy by the Blue Bean Bush.” Compunding the Complete Full-Page Comic Strips with some extra rarities 1933-34. Edited by Bill Blackbeard and Derya Ataker

The Adventures of Abdi by Madonna. Art by Olga Dugina & Andrej Dugin

The Happy Rain by Jack Sendak and Pictures by Maurice Sendak

Perfect Picture Books for our Fractured Fairy Tale theme this July/August

Fairytale News by Colin and Jacqui Hawkins

If the Shoe Fits, Written by Alan and Suzanne Osmond and Illustrated by Thomas Aarrestad: A Twice Upon a Time Tale

Frank Muir Retells The Three Little Pigs, Illustrated by Graham Philpot

Wingless: A Fairly Weird Fairy Tale by Paro Anand With equally Weird Illustrations by Atanu Roy

A few Adult Fiction would not hurt

The Dream Stealer by Gregory Maguire

The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas by John Boyne

Portrait in Sepia by Isabel Allende

Unless by Carol Shields

Book Art and Comic Strips

The Museum at Purgatory by Nick Bantock

Beyond the Far Side by Gary Larson

Now Back to Regular YA Programming

The Unseen by Zilpha Keatley Snyder

The Black Book of Secrets by F. E. Higgins

The Pepins and their Problems by Polly Horvath. Pictures by Marylin Hafner

Araminta Spookie: Vampire Brat as told to Angie Sage and Illustrated by Jimmy Pickering

Araminta Spookie: Frognapped as told to Angie Sage and Illustrated by Jimmy Pickering

The Sisters Grimm: Once Upon a Crime by Michael Buckley. Pictures by Peter Ferguson

The Strictest School in the World: Being the tale of a Clever Girl, A Rubber Boy and a Collection of Flying Machines, Mostly Broken by Howard Whitehouse. With Illustrations by Bill Slavin.

Amazing YA Titles from Award-winning Authors

The White Elephant by Sid Fleischman and Illustrations by Robert McGuire

Disappearing Act by Sid Fleischman and Illustrations by Chad Beckerman

The Outcasts of 19 Schuyler Place by E. L. Konigsburg

Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley, and Me, Elizabeth Written and Illustrated by E. L. Konigsburg, A Newbery Honor Book

Up From Jericho Tel by E. L. Konigsburg

Autobiography of my Dead Brother by Walter Dean Myers. Art by Christopher Myers, National Book Award Finalist

The Dream Bearer by Walter Dean Myers. Winner of the Michael L. Printz Award

Because I Heart Jane Yolen

Here there be Witches by Jane Yolen and Illustrated by David Wilgus

Here there be Dragons by Jane Yolen and Illustrated by David Wilgus

A Rock ‘N’ Roll Fairy Tale: Pay the Piper by Jane Yolen and Adam Stemple

Merlin by Jane Yolen

Hobby by Jane Yolen

AVI Titles

Midnight Magic by Avi

The Mayor of Central Park by Avi and Drawings by Brian Floca

Crispin at the Edge of the World by Avi

Silent Movie by Avi with pictures by C. B. Mordan

The End of the Beginning, Being the Adventures of a Small Snail (and an even smaller ant) by Avi, with illustrations by Tricia Tusa

Crispin, The Cross of Lead by Avi

Award-winning YA Books and Classics

Al Capone Does my Shirts by Gennifer Choldenko

Stuck in Neutral by Terry Trueman. A Michael L. Printz Honor Book

The Summer of the Swans by Betsy Byars, A Newbery Award Book

The Penderwicks: A Summer Tale of Four Sisters, Two Rabbits, and a Very Interesting Boy by Jeanne Birdsall

Rootabaga Stories by Carl Sandburg

The Book of Dragons by E. Nesbit

Uma Krishnaswami!

Chachaji’s Cup. Story by Uma Krishnaswami and Illustrations by Soumya Sitaraman

Naming Maya by Uma Krishnaswami

Can’t Get Enough of YA

Walter, The Story of a Rat by Barbara Wersba and Drawings by Donna Diamond

A House of Tailors by Patricia Reilly Giff

Deep Trouble by Debi Gliori

Riding Freedom Written by Pam Munoz Ryan and Drawings by Brian Selznick

The Boy, the Wolf, the Sheep, the Lettuce. A Little Search for Truth (or a rigmarole perhaps) by Allan Ahlberg, with Illustrations by Jessica Ahlberg

Theodosia and the Serpents of Chaos written by R. Lafevers

Now, I need a vacation – just six months alone in an island. Precious time to read through all these lovelies. Who’s with me?

Myra is a Teacher Educator and a registered clinical psychologist based in Al Ain, United Arab Emirates. Prior to moving to the Middle East, she lived for eleven years in Singapore serving as a teacher educator. She has edited five books on rediscovering children’s literature in Asia (with a focus on the Philippines, Malaysia, India, China, Japan) as part of the proceedings for the Asian Festival of Children’s Content where she served as the Chair of the Programme Committee for the Asian Children’s Writers and Illustrators Conference from 2011 until 2019. While she is an academic by day, she is a closet poet and a book hunter at heart. When she is not reading or writing about books or planning her next reads, she is hoping desperately to smash that shuttlecock to smithereens because Badminton Is Life (still looking for badminton courts here at UAE - suggestions are most welcome).

41 comments on “In My Mailbox (7): Welcome to the Singapore Library Book Sale 2011

  1. *gasp!!* *gape* 82 books!!?? for…164SGD?!!! awesome!!

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  2. Me! Me! Me! Or else next time I come to Singapore I’ll bring books from Canada and we can swap. Would love to get my hands on some of the books you have there. Geesh – would have been worth my time and money to fly in just for the book sale! Only $130 cdn for those books?? JACKPOT!!! Enjoy!! (Bet your daughter is in heaven too esp. if she is on summer holidays and can read all day!)

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    • Corinne! We should definitely push through with the Bologna Book Fair in the next two years – I am sure I would enjoy a vacation with you in the streets of Italia or in a secluded beach – imagine the fun time we’d have (among other things).

      Oh yeah, it’s about the books, right? Yup, Nearly forgot. Yes, we’d bring the books too. Hahahahha. Great conversation starters too – imagine the possibilities. Hahahah.

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  3. Oh my gosh, I’m pretty sure my whole mouth filled with saliva reading this post.
    You have no idea how jealous I am right now!

    Hope you enjoy them and.. if you, uh.. need any help getting through them.. you know where to find me.

    😉

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  4. OMG. Nice haul. That’s an amazing deal no matter what. Come visit me over at Livre De Amour-Books of Love. New follower.

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    • Yes, it is truly an amazing deal. And it only happens once a year. It’s Christmas in July for me. =) It’s good that I’ve been a good girl this year. =)

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  5. Great set! I love big library sales. I’ve been wanting to read Al Capone Does my Shorts.
    My IMM

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    • I’ve also borrowed Al Capone a number of times from the library and end up returning it for not having time to really read through it. Now it’s mine! Yay!

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  6. 82 books?! That’s got to be some kind of record!!! Well done!

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  7. Oh goodness, MY HEART be still!! I love book sales, and it looks like you got an awesome haul! Happy reading!

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    • Hi Penelope, I know. I had to restrain myself from coming back in the late afternoon. I knew I had enough. It helped that the book sale is quite far from where we live though. =)

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  8. Wow great haul! You certainly made the most of the book sale. What a fun event! Hope you and your daughter enjoy all your new treasures.

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  9. Wow. Just, wow. I can’t even begin to say which ones look great though I am a little jealous of the Edgar Allan Poe picture book!

    Once Upon A Time

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    • I believe I’ve reviewed this Edgar Allan Poe picture book for our Haunting Tales November of last year. I just feel bad that I was not able to see the other one – I know there are two Gris Grimly books on Poe, it’s good that at least I managed to get a hold of this one. =)

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  10. OMG! I would love to go to a library sale. The books by Angie Sage look super cute! Hope you enjoy :).

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    • Yup! I just realized that I put back the Angie Sage book 2 – now I end up with Books 1, 3, and 4 – see? So I really had to physically restrain myself from returning in the evening. Hahaha.

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  11. That is so awesome! I am so glad you were able to get a ton of wonderful books. Have fun reading 🙂

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  12. :O Wow…. I am in awe!

    And Jane Yolen and Chris Van Allsburg- you are so many kinds of awesome!

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    • Hi Coranne, thanks for visiting. I am particularly intrigued with Here There be Dragons and Here there be witches – I’m saving that for the last. And of course Van Allsburg is Love too. =)

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  13. Wow that’s a lot of books. I’m pretty jealous of some of those titles 🙂 Great IMM

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  14. 82 books?! You had a GREAT haul this week! I could never fit that many in my house so good thing that sale isn’t here! Thanks for stopping by Book Brats earlier, new follower here! 😀

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    • Hi Megan, it was my pleasure to visit your site. You had a good set of books as well. I think I might need to get a moratorium from buying books after this one. =)

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  15. That’s incredible! I love library booksales. Mine is under construction so we haven’t had a huge one in a long time. I’m so jealous! I added Here There Be Dragons to my list. Thanks for sharing. This post must have taken forever to put together.

    Thanks for checking out 100 Stars Or Less. If you like YA (which I seem to think you do ;)) I wanted to share my other book blog with you, One A Day Y.A. (www.oneadayya.blogspot.com). Have a great week. Enjoy your books!

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    • Hi Erika, thank you for dropping by. Yes, it took quite a while to complete – what with the photos and the typing and the layout – but I’ve never had so much fun. I would definitely check out your other blog! =)

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  16. I’m just happy those things don’t happen here. I’m out of money and i would have probably buy the same amount of books as you, no matter!!

    I saw some good ones there. Especially the YA stash looks interesting 🙂

    Also thanks for visiting my mailbox too:)
    Splash of our Worlds

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  17. OMG I’d love for my local libraries to have sales like that!!! Amazing LOL

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  18. Hello from a Singaporean living in the US. I arrived at your blog via the Paper Tigers article, couldn’t find a comment button there but wanted to say thanks for it. My son is now just four months old but I would love to get hold of some Singapore picture books when we visit in November. Now I have an idea of which titles to pick up!

    Also, what a great haul! Despite my many years as an nlb visitor, I never made it to a library sale. But seeing your loot changes my mind about library sales! Great blog by the way, I look forward to seeing what other recommendations you have.

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    • Hi Olduvai, so good to hear from you. San Francisco is one of my favorite cities – I lovelovelove visiting Green Apple. In the absence of Singapore’s Bras Basah and the once a year library Book Sale – I am sure that the delectable selections in Green Apple in the Bay Area would be a wonderful substitute.

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