Only in Singapore do the citizens need a national initiative to buy books.

Not that I’m complaining.

On the first day in which I could utilise my $100 SG Culture Pass to buy Singapore literature, I scurried to my trusty bookstore to snap up these two books.

Fatherhood has irrevocably influenced my consumption decisions. Got the son to choose two children’s titles because I thought it was more important to seize the opportunity to get him hooked on reading fiction than read for my own pleasure. Parents everywhere make this kind of hard decisions every day.

I thought “The Day I Forgot My Flag” was ingenious in centering the story around a problem and getting the main character to solve it quite creatively. It’s a perfect fit for parents to introduce the concept of problem solving and thinking out of the box for their children who would soon join the ranks of their elders conditioned to the notions of productivity and the efficiency!

“Dragons in Chinatown” was presented in the form of a poem. Four-line stanzas with rhyming words. It made reading aloud a more pleasurable task. The illustrations were chock-full of colour and detail. Unfortunately, in this AI-saturated era, some readers would dismiss these vivid images as AI-generated. But I think that the illustrations still qualified nicely as the standout element, with the four-line stanzas serving as catchy and snappy captions.

We have already finished reading the books on our way to a shopping mall called Jem. Each book cost $16.24, so I could still buy four more such books. Wonderful initiative by the authorities in charge. I’m tempted to ask my dad to donate his $100 pass to me so that I could benefit more.