Three Orangutans and a Human
Here’s an article by Rebecca Lynne Tan and a picture by Nuria Lang that appeared in today’s Straits Times in Singapore.
Naming the girl in his book proved a tricky task for Grant Clark who had to please both his daughters
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He eventually settled on Romy, a cross between the names of his daughters Rosie, eight, and Amy, 10. And all was well in the Clark household.
The book is about a young British girl who goes on an adventure with several talking orang utans, only to learn about the plight of the orang utan habitat in Borneo.
Monkey Magic has struck a chord with its young fans since the book’s release earlier this year.
‘A group of kids chased after me and hugged me, demanding a sequel,’ says Clark, a Singapore-based sports journalist with an international news agency, who gave a talk about his book at the United World College recently.
The inspiration for his book came in April 2007 when he was on holiday at the Bako National Park in Sarawak with his family.
His daughters begged him for a bedtime story so he came up with one, which was based on their stuffed proboscis monkey Robbie.
He penned down the idea and two years later, the book was born.
But underlying the whimsical tale of talking orang utans are deeper issues of deforestation and logging that continue to destroy the orang utan habitat in Borneo.
Clark says: ‘I haven’t been a conservationist all my life but I have always cared about the issues. It’s a good way to get people thinking about what’s going on around them.’
He adds: ‘This is my way of doing that and as a writer, this is what I can do to spread the word.’
