TODAY's feature

TODAY, Friday, November 17 2006

THIS LITERARY GREENHORN HAS A GREEN MESSAGE TO SPREAD
by Ashraf Safdar

THERE are resounding symmetries between children and animals.

So it makes sense that first-time novelist Lee Jin Pyn, 31, has brought the two together - in a children's book about animals.

"We have so many social norms to live by; kids and animals don't have that," said Lee, who was given an $8,000 grant by the Media Development Authority to write The Elephant and the Tree.

"When it rains, adults complain. But kids jump into the rain and play."

That's what really connects children and animals, said lee. Both are spontaneous and are naturally curious. And her book is made in a way which will engage this curiosity.

The book, which is printed on black paper, uses green ink to tell the story of a friendship between an elephant and a tree.

The green, symbolically, represents ideas of deforestation, birth and renewal.

The images, meanwhile, are drawn simply - a stream is depicted with a few wavy strokes - because, as Lee believes, "a child will see a line as something else".

The Elephant and the Tree is available from all major bookstores for $18.90. Five per cent of the proceeds will be donated to elephant welfare organisations and Lee hopes that her work will, in no small part, "give a voice to the voiceless".

This, however, is not the first time this former Singapore Airlines flight attendant put her neck out for these "voiceless" animals.

Earlier this year, she and siz other participants were selected from 34,000 people worldwide to take part in Unearthed, a reality TV series during which she learnt howw to film natural history at South Africa's Shamwari Game Reserve.

Unearthed is scheduled to be aired on the Animal Planet in April next year.

Lee said she has always wanted to put the spotlight on the lives of animals through the media - which she certainly has now, on print and on screen.