Featured Academic and Storytellers for January and February

We are happy to announce our cast of characters for January and February. Drum roll please!

Academic Nook: Michelle Ong, Ph. D. Cand.

I am proud to welcome Mitch Ong, a very good friend of mine (and fairy godparent to my ten year old daughter as well) here in GatheringBooks. Truth be told, I rely on the kindness and warm friendship of former colleagues for our Academic Nook, who now happen to be in various parts of the globe. Michelle Ong is also the beloved partner/wife of Alwin Aguirre, our featured Academic from last month’s. Here is a short bio of Mitchiko, as we fondly call her.

Michelle G. Ong is currently doing her Ph.D at the University of Auckland. She has been teaching at the University of the Philippines for over 10 years, and has worked together with many organizations within and outside of the Philippines for children. Mitch is mother to Rio, who, to her delight, loves books. One of the first books Rio was ever read is Olivia Saves the Circus, by Ian Falconer, and it remains a favorite to this day. Someday, she’d like to open a library for children.

Meet the Storyteller: Christopher Cheng

I am also very happy to feature the indefatigable and animated Christopher Cheng this January/February here in GatheringBooks. I met Australian author, Chris during the Asian Festival of Children’s Content here in Singapore May of last year.

In fact, I was the one who facilitated his session entitled “It takes Two (or more) to Tango: Collaborating with an Illustrator, Musician, or Animator.” He also spoke about his upcoming book (at the time of the conference) entitled Sounds Spooky (which as I know has already been published fairly recently). I thought that this would be a perfect book to feature as well given our paranormal theme. Chris is also a National Ambassador for 2012 National Year of Reading and has been the recipient of quite a number of awards for his contribution to children’s literature. We are excited to know more about Chris in the next few weeks. If you wish to have a short glimpse into Chris’ prolific history, click here to be taken to his official website. We’re glad to welcome you here in GatheringBooks, Chris!

Meet another Storyteller: Amanda Hocking

In keeping with our paranormal theme, we shall also be doing a Q and A with Amanda Hocking, author of the YA paranormal novel Switched, courtesy of Pansing Books who was kind enough to donate our book prizes for the AWB Reading Challenge 2012 (do sign-up if you haven’t already).

Here is a short description of Amanda Hocking as based on this press release:

Amanda hocking is twenty-six years old and had never sold a single book before 15 April 2010. She will shortly sell her millionth. Her books have been a self-publishing phenomenon – according to the Observer, Amanda is ‘the most spectacular example of an author striking gold through ebooks.’

Lots in store for us in GatheringBooks this 2012! Do join us and let us know if you have recommended titles that you think are in keeping with our Circus/Carnivale/Paranormal theme.