Meet 4 mothers who wrote books for their kids, about ants, toilet rolls, seashells and even Michelle Yeoh

The stories our parents tell us as children have great power. From creation stories to our family history and birth story, they resonate in our childhood and echo into our adulthood. In an ever-changing world, they shape our beliefs, core values and identity.
Believing in the power of such stories, four Singapore mothers have written books for their children. Told through the eyes of ants, toilet rolls, children and women activists, they are filled with life lessons, hope and love.
CNA Women speaks to these mothers about their inspiration and the hidden messages in these books, for their children.
“I MAKE STORIES UP BASED ON TOPICS THEY COME UP WITH”
What Ants Do On Fiery Days by Sun Xueling
She is a politician by day, an improvisational storyteller by night when she’s with her kids.
Every day before bed, Minister of State for Home Affairs and Social and Family Development Sun Xueling makes up stories based on her daughters’ latest obsession. The mother of two girls aged 11 and seven has created some 30 stories about eggs – inspired by her youngest child’s latest fascination.
The seven-year-old is a gentle soul who also loves ants.
“She had always been kind towards ants, not allowing anyone in the house to kill them. She asked me one rainy night what were the ants to do given it was raining and they did not know how to swim,” Sun said.
Thinking on her feet, the mother created a story for her daughter on the spot, which became What Ants Do On Rainy Days. She shared it on Facebook, and was surprised by the warm reception. This encouraged her to publish the story in 2021.
It was the first of her What Ants Do series. The latest book, What Ants Do On Fiery Days, is the fourth in the series and was published this month.
Fiery Days tells the story of an ant who leaves his home in search of a new land where he builds a home and a better life. Released ahead of National Day, the story celebrates Singapore’s pioneer generation.
The message Sun has for her daughters and the children of Singapore: “There are multiple routes to success and achievement. Every child has their strengths and abilities, and everyone matters.”
“I WANT TO HELP CREATE A WORLD WHERE GIRLS BELIEVE THAT THEY CAN BE ANYTHING THEY WANT TO BE”
Awesome Women Series – Activists by Priscilla and Shawn Tan
She was an accountant who, in 2019, had just left her career to care for her then two-year-old. As a stay-at-home-mother, Priscilla Tan wanted to read inspiring books about female role models to her daughter.
Frustrated that she could not find many such books that were age-appropriate for her toddler, she decided to write her own.
Together with her husband Shawn, she ran a Kickstarter campaign in early 2020 to fund it, raising more than S$60,000. This caught the attention of book publisher Marshall Cavendish, which offered the Tans a publishing contract.
In 2020, they launched six board books under their Leaders series, featuring among them, Singapore’s first female president Halimah Yacob, former American Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and former New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern.
In 2022, the couple launched their Activists series, also six books. It featured women such as Academy Award-winning actress Michelle Yeoh, Pakistani women’s rights activist Malala Yousafzai, and the former First Lady of the United States, Michelle Obama.
In a world shaped by social media, the Internet and television, and where bullying is rampant, Tan, who gave birth to her second daughter in 2022, hopes these role models help her daughters “build a strong core belief system to navigate challenges, friendship problems and other difficult decisions they might face”.
In writing these books, Tan also hoped to be a role model for her own kids.
“I didn’t come from a writing background. From accountancy to writing books, I want to teach them that life is not one straight road. There are different paths that you can take. You can always learn, unlearn and re-learn,” she said.
“I want them to have the belief that they can do anything they want to do and be anything they want to be.”
“EVEN TRASH CAN BECOME TREASURE”
Mr Roll Finds New Life and Ms Jug Finds A Home by Sophia Huang
During the pandemic, when everyone was hoarding toilet paper, Sophia Huang wrote about the existential crisis of a used toilet roll – Mr Roll Finds New Life. It won the Singapore Book Awards for Best Picture Book in 2022.
Two years later, she wrote another story about a used milk jug’s search for purpose, winning the same award this year.
For this mother of three children aged 11, eight and four, these stories were inspired by the 80-plus upcycling projects she has done with them over the past nine years.
Huang is a copy editor for an aerospace consultancy who opted to work reduced hours to care for her children.
“Upcycling was something I turned to as a way of survival. I’m bored at home with my kids, and I’ve taken a step back so I don’t really have a lot of money. So I started to look at all this stuff around the house. What can I make out of trash? Oh, let’s make a marble run,” she said.
Huang started a Facebook page Craftcycle for Kids to document these projects, which led the National Environment Agency to invite her to be featured in an advertisement. This garnered so much interest that Huang wrote her two children’s books in 2021 and 2023.
Huang sees upcycling as a way to open the conversation on green topics such as conserving resources and saving the earth.
“Children really are the future. Unfortunately, the way industries, consumption and pollution are going, I struggle to have hope.
“When I go to schools for my [book] talks, I tell children that you don’t have to buy toys, you can make your own with items found around the home. It brings this very grand concept of saving the earth down to very practical sense. That’s very empowering because they can see that they make a difference,” she said.
It also teaches kids useful skills. “When you upcycle with your kids, you are teaching them creativity, resourcefulness, technology, engineering, art and math,” Huang said.
“WRITING THIS BOOK IS A SIGN THAT I’VE SEEN HIM, THAT I VALUE HIM”
The Seashell Collector by Stojana Popovska
Stojana Popovska is a Macedonian who relocated to Singapore with her family seven years ago to work at an international school as a teacher-librarian.
During the circuit breaker, she began taking daily walks along East Coast Park with her eldest son, who was then 13.  
“We started collecting seashells every day. I was just picking the good-looking ones. He collected the ones with holes and broken edges,” said the mother-of-two, aged 16 and two.
“I was walking in front of him and he said, ‘Hey, you missed a few over here.’ I pointed out that they were broken. And he said, ‘Yes, but they’re all unique, and we’re all broken’,” she said.
His poignant words brought tears to Popovska’s eyes.
Having moved from Macedonia to Beijing, China, and then Singapore for work, Popovska recalled how much her eldest son struggled to cope with the culture shock. He did not feel like he fit in.
After a difficult adolescent journey, her son was finally thriving in Singapore, and Popovska felt that this remark showed how far he had come.
It inspired her so much that she went home and started writing the first draft for her book, with a message of celebrating uniqueness and respecting differences. After 30 to 40 drafts over the two years, she published The Seashell Collector last year. 
“The book has a very high emotional value for me as a mum,” she said. “I wrapped my whole story around what my son said. It is a true story about him. It’s not just my legacy, but also his legacy in a way.”
CNA Women is a section on CNA Lifestyle that seeks to inform, empower and inspire the modern woman. If you have women-related news, issues and ideas to share with us, email CNAWomen [at] mediacorp.com.sg (CNAWomen[at]mediacorp[dot]com[dot]sg).