Report: “Asian Currents—Encountering Picture Books from Southeast Asia” Talk Event

Picture-book critic Hiromatsu Yukiko served as moderator for the event and shared opening remarks on how it all came to be.
The story begins in April 2025, when JF co-hosted a booth at the Bologna Book Fair with the Japanese Board on Books for Young people (JBBY). A panel session organized by the two organizations and featuring the four Southeast Asian editors was so well received that it was decided to bring the appeal of Southeast Asian books and news from the forefront of publishing in the region to Japanese readers and editors, too. The Bologna Book Fair was the first time that JF staff had met the editors, and they were deeply impressed by their achievements. With the assistance of JBBY, JF Japan Foundation invited the editors to Japan for a similar event in September.

Laura Peh (Cinnamon Art Stories)

The first editor to speak was Laura Peh, founder of Cinnamon Art Stories, who shared news of Singapore’s growing children’s literature scene. The International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY) has established a branch there alongside the two major industry organizations, and two children’s literature–related events are now held regularly.
Peh founded Cinnamon Art Stories as a passion project in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. The publishing house maintains a strategic focus on high-quality content, superior design, and attractive illustrations. For sustainability reasons print runs are capped at less than 1,000 copies. Themes that tend to receive less than their due attention, such as digital natives, sustainability, and social issues, are highlighted as matter of principle at Cinnamon Art Stories.

The company also actively pursues collaborations with other organizations inside and outside Singapore. Peh introduced three picture books produced in this way: Mindful Consumption: Fish is about sustainable consumption of animal protein. Pacita Abad: The Woman Who Painted the World, which was selected for the Amazing Bookshelf at this year’s Bologna Ragazzi Awards, is a biography of a Filipina artist who achieved global recognition, with an appendix containing a glossary and discussion questions for parents and children. The Donkey Who Carried the War on her Back, produced with Palestinian educational organizations, depicts the conflict in Gaza from a donkey’s perspective. The book has won international acclaim, with translation rights already sold in multiple countries.

Le Thu Phuong Quynh (Crabit Kidbooks)

Next to speak was Le Thu Phuong Quynh of Vietnam, editor-in-chief of Crabit Kidbooks.
Vietnam’s publishing market of children’s literature is trending upward, but in 2022 more than half of all volumes published were textbooks or study aids. Parents place emphasis on educational value, so selling picture books with their sparse verbiage is a challenge, Le shared.
Le entered publishing after working with international NGO Room to Read, where she became aware of the dearth of books suitable for children aged 6 to 10 in Vietnam. Because the nation’s writers and illustrators lacked experience when Le began, she has run workshops through Room to Read to cultivate talent, helping to establish standards for picture-book making in the country.

Sớm mai (At Dawn) is a picture book for young readers published by Room to Read after a workshop. In 2022, it was selected for White Ravens, a list of recommended books for young readers published by the International Youth Library in Munich. Khu vườn trong tim ta (The Garden in My Heart) is a newly released picture book by Crabit, depicting a child overcoming the grief of losing their grandfather. Kế hoạch nghỉ hưu của Mèo Miu (The Retirement Plan of Miu the Cat), a picture book about a cat’s cheerful retirement planning, sends a message to children from a comical perspective.

Hoi Wing Yan (Odonata Publishing)

Third to speak was editor Hoi Wing Yan of Odonata Publishing.
Malaysia is a multilingual society, with Malay, English, Chinese, Tamil, and other languages in common use. Demand for multilingual education is high, and the publishing trade is notable for the prevalence of bilingual picture books with educational value. In fact, educational materials account for more than 50% of the market overall.
Odonata Publishing, founded in 1999, began by publishing reading material in Chinese before its series for preschool children and young adults became bestsellers. Picture books are a comparatively new field for Odonata, which discovers and cultivates authors in the country through contests. More recently, they have been active in the field of literary IP, not only selling publication rights for China and elsewhere but also promoting video and audio book projects.

朵朵不开心 (Ellie Is Upset), a picture book in Chinese with educational elements, helps children learn to verbalize their emotions through its depictions of a child with a temper. 外婆的童年真好玩！ (Let’s Have a Fun Childhood with Grandma!) is a contest-winning work published in Malay, English, and Chinese. It depicts play on a farm in an age before modern technology, showing how rewarding it can be to find fun in one’s surroundings. 我知道为什么为什么圣诞老公公不来我家 (Why Oh Why Doesn’t Santa Come to My House?), another contest-winning work, is a bilingual book in Chinese and English. Taking a child’s innocent question about why Santa Claus doesn’t come to Asia as a starting point, it explores cultural differences in a humorous way.

Kuerkamol Niyom (Saan Aksorn Publishing)

The final speaker at the event was the director and editor of Saan Aksorn Publishing, who goes by the name Gee.
Saan Aksorn is a non-profit publisher run by a school’s foundation. It puts this connection to use, but also specializes in the painstaking publication of experimental books with few educational elements. Including “Thai-ness” is another key concern. Gee reportedly learned a great deal from Japanese publishers, particularly Fukuinkan Shoten Publishers.
In Thailand, reading culture is often oriented less toward the enjoyment of stories, illustrations, or art and more about intellectual and moral education. As a result, the most popular children’s books tend to be textbooks, educational materials, and guides that train children in daily discipline, safety and manners. In response to this narrow perception of reading, Saan Aksorn actively engages parents and teachers through social media, seminars, public events, and podcasts, aiming to raise awareness of picture books and to encourage more open-ended ways of enjoying them.

ถนนสายเล็กๆ (A Small Road) is a picture book written as a sort of periodic observation of the path around a pond, capturing the everyday scenery of Thailand and the perspective of the animals that inhabit it. ใบไม้แปลงร่าง (Leaves Transformation), a non-fiction picture book that introduces art made using leaves, highlighted one difficulty in the Thai market: books can face criticism for not containing enough words. นานา (Nana), which was selected for the 2024 IBBY Honour List, depicts the bravery of a girl on a difficult journey against a backdrop of single parenthood, with her mother’s love revealed at the end.

Inspired by a chance encounter at the Bologna Book Fair, this memorable event brought together editors at the forefront of publishing in four Southeast Asian countries. Each spoke of their local publishing scene and the challenges faced by its reading culture, and presented a trio of picture books. On whole the occasion was both a valuable opportunity to learn about Southeast Asian children’s literature today and a promising start for further interaction in the future.

Text by Yamamori Kentaro