{REVIEW & GIVEAWAY} : How Long Is Eternity?

How Long Is Eternity?

is an adaptation from the famous story of “The Shepherd Boy” by the Brothers Grimm.  In The Shepherd Boy, it tells of the fame and wisdom of the boy who gave wise answers to every question and  eventually got to live with the King in the palace and looked upon by the King as his own child. When we received How Long Is Eternity? from Wild Crane Press, we were captivated by the beautifully-formatted book in hard-cover concertina style and it also comes in a slipcase.  The book, when fully opened, measures more than 2.5 m long.

Dual book cover

This book is written and presented in a unique four-direction format.  Each time we read this book with the kids, we found it amusing and had lots of fun.  Personally, I am worried that the kids will tear the precious book due to rough handling.  So I made sure to keep the book immediately after each read.

…….

The Intro

…….

The King asked the shepherd boy,

‘How many seconds are there in eternity?’

The shepherd boy replied,

‘In Lower Pomerania, there exists a diamond mountain.  This mountain measures two miles in height, two miles in breadth, and two miles in depth.  Every hundred years, a bird will come to the mountain and sharpen its beak on it.  By the time the mountain has been worn away completely, the first second of eternity will have passed.’

The tree on which the bird resides.

How Long Is Eternity? is a bilingual book but doesn’t come with the mess of having both the English and Chinese texts squeezed onto the same page.  The text layout doesn’t fight for space with the illustrations at the same time too.  The English version is printed in monochrome, on one side of the book.  One reads it from front to back, by which time the little bird would have reached the diamond mountain to sharpen it’s beak. One then turns the book upside down to continue reading back to the first page, where the little bird sets on it’s journey home after having it’s beak sharpened, and reaches home at the first page.  The Chinese version 《永恒有多久》 is printed on the reverse side of the book in rich, full colour.  It brought on a totally new reading experience compared to the English version.

L : English version R : Chinese version

The kids have never seen a concertina book before and found it very amusing.  They also liked the illustrations being linked from one page to the next, with few pages combined to make one scene.

One of the scenes where the bird braces itself against lightning and stormy weather on it’s way to, and back from the diamond mountain.

We have been holding onto this title for coming 3 months.  And couldn’t decide how best to review this special format book.  Finally recently we decided to do a story-telling on video so as to capture the true essence of the beauty in this book.  Pardon my not-very-sweet-voice because K refused to do the story-telling for me on video 😦 http://youtu.be/Z96R5vYdGsQ The story is probably tough to understand for smaller children.  They equate 5-min wait to eternity when it is actually a state of timelessness.  Even as an adult, I often sense such feeling too. Despite being not able to understand the story well, the illustrations had however, brought the story to life for the little ones who so ever enjoyed story-telling from mummy me.

HOW LONG IS ETERNITY?

Author(s):	Cheng Pei Yee, Rayne Ngoi
Illustrator(s):	Wang Lu Bo

Pages:	48
Format:	Hardcover concertina book with slipcase
Presentation:	Double-side printing in colour and monochrome
Dimensions:	110 x 156.5 mm (Text) 116 x 162.5 mm (Cover) 125 x 175 x 18 mm (Slipcase)
Language:	Bilingual (Chinese and English)
ISBN:	978-981-07-7756-2

How Long Is Eternity? is brought to you by Wild Crane Press and is available at all major bookstores like MPH, Times, 友谊书斋 (Maha Yuyi), Union, Music Book Room, Junior Page 和 Booktique.  Right now at the publisher’s WEB STORE, there is a storewide HALF PRICE promotion (SG50 Promotion).  And with any single purchase of min. SGD50 transacted, there will be free delivery within Singapore, complimentary from Wild Crane Press. SAys! Happy Mums is glad to receive two copies of the above title for review.  All pictures are from Wild Crane Press, unless otherwise stated.  There is no monetary compensation and all opinions are our own.

>>>   GIVEAWAY FOR READERS OF SAys! Happy Mums   <<<

We would like to thank the kind folks at Wild Crane Press, for repeatedly trusting us, and has also showered us with lots of encouragement.  With the new year in 2015, we hope that Wild Crane Press will do well and continue to bring to Singapore more beautiful books.  We support local writers!

Once more, we have a total of 5 sets worth the amount of $80 to be shared with our readers.

 To participate, simply complete the following steps :-

1. Leave a comment under this blog post providing your Facebook Name (used to join the contest) & email address.  Name the authors of How Long Is Eternity?.
2. Like Wild Crane Press.
3. Like SAys! Happy Mums.
4. Like & Share this post on Facebook with this message on your wall and tag 5 friends “[Tag @Friend A] [Tag @Friend B] [Tag @Friend C] [Tag @Friend D] [Tag @Friend E] Review & 5 Copies Giveaway by SAys! Happy Mums!“.  Make sure your shared post is set to PUBLIC so that we can see.  An example is shown in the picture below.

Please note:

1. This giveaway is only open to readers residing in Singapore.
2. Incomplete entries will be disqualified without notice.
3. This giveaway is not in any way associated with any other social network unless otherwise stated.
4. Prizes are subject to change and fulfillment by the sponsor. Winners are not allowed to change the prizes or exchange them for cash.
5. While we take responsibility to ensure a fair draw, the outcome of the draw will be final unless otherwise stated.
6. All fake (or suspected fake) social networking accounts will be disqualified without notice.
7. Giveaway ends on 5 April 2015 [edited : postponed due to National Mourning of Mr Lee Kuan Yew] at 2359hrs.  Draw Date will be done in the same week.
8. Winner(s) will be announced on Facebook and notified by email.  Winner(s) are expected to respond within 3 days, failing which a new winner will be drawn.
9. Winner(s) will be strictly required to SELF-COLLECT (or AUTHORIZE TO COLLECT) the books from

Wild Crane Press

33 Ubi Avenue 3

#06-37 Vertex Tower A

Singapore 408868

WINNERS ANNOUNCEMENT

[Edited 9th Apr ’15]  The above giveaway has ended.  Congratulations the the following winners.  We will be contacting you shorting via email with regards to prize collection.  Thank you for joining us here.  Hope you will enjoy the book with your children too.

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SAys! Shirley