Winner for the Singapore Book Awards 2025 - Best Young Person's Fiction Title

Talking plants, evil scientists, and mobile book vans—Maizey doesn't know where to start!

Imagination loss has hit everyone over 35, but 11-year-old Maizey Lee has bigger problems that that. Her life is turned upside down when her father disappears in a fire and mother decides to take them globe-trotting in a library on wheels. She has to get back to Singapore in time to sit for PSLE, or she'll be stuck in primary school forever! But with her mother determined to visit the world book capital to keep her Imagination alive, her plant friend Curie causing havoc with her powers, and an sinister pharmaceautical company chasing after them, will she ever be able to get her normal life back?

In this first foray into the world of travelling libraries, talking plants and scientific espionage, it's up to Maizey to save Imagination. As she goes swimming with turtles, plucks coconuts with monkeys and races across Bangkok on a far-too-small scooter, Maizey is about to learn that every encounter she picks up along the way will guide her to understand the power of stories and the importance in keeping Imagination alive.

About the Author

Erni Salleh started writing stories at the age of twelve and has never looked back. Her first novel, The Java Enigma, was shortlisted for the 2020 Epigram Books Fiction Prize. Originally from Singapore, Erni spent many years working as a librarian before moving to the United Kingdom. She currently works at the museum where she combines storytelling with history and public engagement. Erni finds inspiration for her stories in the diverse cultures of both her home countries and regularly disappears into a magical Welsh book town called Hay-on-Wye, on one of her many secret literary quests.