Janet Evans and Jenny Angel

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia. – Four fabulous days in a fantastical world – the realm of illustrated children’s book!

Janet Evans, vivacious and passionate, showed us the magic door which opened into the world beyond the here and now. It is a world which enchants, entrances, imagines, comforts, heals, and nurtures.

With Janet’s exceptionally animated presentation, the ‘Animating Literature Seminar,’ hosted by the British Council of Malaysia had begun. It was the most incredible seminar I had ever attended with 20 delegates, nine speakers/facilitators, and six seminar staffers.

No, I wasn’t a speaker. I was an ordinary delegate and I felt as if I’d become a child again. The speakers stayed with us the whole time, interacted with us, and joined our workshops.

Janet was the first speaker on Tuesday, February 17, 2009 at the Executive Lounge on the 19th floor of Concorde Hotel in downtown Kuala Lumpur. It was a balmy afternoon outside and we had just eaten a lavish buffet lunch.

I had travelled by bus from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur for five hours on that particular Tuesday. Having left Singapore at 7:30 a.m., I felt very sleepy. But Janet’s presentation was so compelling that it didn’t give me any chance to doze off. She talked about how children read and respond to picture books.

The part I liked best was when she shared with us some of the illustrated books which her pupils in the United Kingdom were reading. She read each of them aloud while holding the books and showing us power point slides.

I was greatly touched by the book Jenny Angel by Margaret Wild and illustrator Anne Spudvilas. It’s about the death of a brother whom Jenny tries very hard to protect. But the inevitable comes to pass. It is incomprehensible. It is a loss and a pain beyond words, beyond pictures.

Author Margaret Wild and illustrator Anne Spudvilas hold the readers' hand and help them come to terms with death through Jenny Angel.

I must say that Janet read the book with so much heart and compassion and humanity. We hushed into the silence of our hearts, cried quietly with Jenny, and hugged her tenderly…