What fun! Micro-robots too small to be seen, a ballooning sun about to gobble up earth, aliens galore and even an old legend intriguingly woven into a story about aliens.   Golda has all these and more in her sci-fi story book coupled with Lay Koon’s imaginative black and white illustrations. Each story ends with a short review of real scientific facts that have been carefully woven into the story line. Here are snapshots of a few of the stories.

In Golda’s first story, ‘Nanobots’, Manujam, a slave boy controlled by an evil alien discovers a tank full of a strange looking liquid which attacks metal alloys. They are Nanobots. Can Manujam free himself and his friends from the evil alien with the Nanobots? Do you know what Nanobots are? See the science page at the end of the story.

In the final story, ‘The Way of Puteri Gunung Ledang’, Golda weaves an old legend into the future. The beautiful alien Milipa does not wish to marry the great alien general Pedo. In desperation she turns to her human slave girl, Anita, for help. Anita tells Milipa  the story of the demands made by Puteri Gunung Ledang when Sultan Mansur Shah sought her hand in marriage. Can Milipa use the same trick to ward off general Pedo?

The heroes meet Tunku Abdul Raman, Malaysia’s first prime minister who is searching for the right music for a new national anthem to be introduced on the day that the country gains its independence from Britain in just a few days time.

The heroes discover the original source of the National Anthem and go back to tell Tunku where to find it. But it’s the wrong tune. Has someone else travelled back in time and altered history?    

Dina is back! This time she is helping her father in his farm. We have seen a very sweet Dina dreaming of butterflies in her mother’s garden. We saw her watching her mother very carefully as she cooked in her kitchen.


But this time we see a more purposeful Dina determined to help her father with his chores around the farm whilst enjoying herself at the same time.

One of the more endearing features of Emila’s illustrations of Dina is the way in which she captures typical expressions and behaviours of a young girl. It is almost as if Dina is real. The feature of this book which differentiates it from the two previous Dina adventures, is the presence of animals which children love; rabbits, chicken, cows, sheep, a cat and ducks among others.
 
The story starts with a happy Dina flying a paper aeroplane while sitting on the fence of her father’s farm surrounded by animals.

In the last story Xiao Rae and Nazri go by speed boat to visit Nazri’s aunt who cooks her famous prawn noodle soup. Pulau Aman is a very small island where there are no roads and the environment is still unspoilt.  

Written around 150 years ago by Hans Christian Andersen, The Last Dream of the Old Oak Tree has not lost any of its poignant beauty for readers today. This version produced by Oyez!Books has been modernised and simplified for children of today but this has not in any way changed the central theme of the story. Indeed the illustrations by Chooi Ling have brought out the beauty of the story. She has captured each scene in the most alluring way with her art.
 
The story commences with a  broad view of ships lying at anchor in a small harbour as nearby the 365 year old oak tree spreads its leafy branches.