ASIAN LEGENDS
(The Princess of Mount Ledang, The Lion City, The Unfortunate Lebai, The Legend of the Two Princesses, The Curse of Mahsuri, Bawang Merah, Bawang Putih, Poor Pak Kaduk)
Retold and ilustrated by Mohamad Salmi
Publisher: MPH Publishing

My first impression of these books is that they were illustrated like manga comics to appeal to the current anime and manga craze.

The girls in these books are all illustrated with big bug eyes.

My dislike for bug eyes aside, these books do justice to the tales in them. It's never easy trying to retell an old tale to appeal to a new and young audience. Author/illustrator Mohamad Salmi has succeeded in doing this well.

While this series is called Asian legends, the stories are only from Malaysia and Singapore.

Mohamad Salmi has done an admirable job. I was quite intrigued with the stories (even though I was familiar with most of them) and wanted to know what happened next. Although the stories have been condensed for impact and for the young audience, I felt they managed to maintain their essence and even the moral to each story.

I liked that the author included some tales that are not so popular like The Legend of the Two Princesses.

All the stories have a nice moral to them – don't be greedy, don't fight with your siblings, and don't lie about others.

They have local values and customs and should go down well with Asian children, especially Malaysians.

This series is quite attractively illustrated (despite the bug eyes) and as picture books go, they should appeal well to small children.

I wish the author and publisher would expand the series to cover the other countries. I'm sure the Philippines, India, Thailand and other Asian countries have a lot of lovely stories to share, too.

The illustrations are the main selling point of the book. And, thankfully the author/illustrator has retold the stories in a punchy and fascinating fashion.

My favourites are The Princess of Mount Ledang (Puteri Gunung Ledang), The Legend of the Two Princesses and The Curse of Mahsuri.

There really are not enough children's books based on local stories, and picture books are even more rare.

That is why this series is a gem. It should be bought, kept and the author/illustrator should be encouraged to keep going. I think it's important that our children don't just know about Dora and Paddington Bear; they should know about Mahsuri, the Gunung Ledang princess and even Pak Lebai.

Highly recommended.