Fatimah's Kampung

by Iain Buchanan

Fatimah’s kampung was the last kampung the city consumed. It was a small kampung, which Fatimah’s moyang had begun when he built a house from the forest. Nearby was the keramat, with its doves and its sacred tree. And on the hill was the last patch of forest, where great rattans grew and tigers hid For generations, the keramat had kept the kampung and its forest safe from Development. Everywhere else, villages had been flattened, precious landmarks destroyed. But Fatimah had been blessed: she still lived in the house her moyang had built, and she could still hear the banana leaves clatter in the rain outside her window. She could explore the keramat, talk to the doves... and still walk in the shade of ancient trees. Then Development came. The forest was cut down, the kampung demolished, and a great factory went up. But it was not the end of the house that Fatimah’s moyang had built. And it was not the end for the doves in the keramat, when their home too was finally flattened ... or for the tiger that had haunted Fatimah’s thoughts for so long.

Fatimah’s story is a parable, for children and adults, about a fast-changing world. It is a reminder of how wonderful the world can be, and a warning of how barren we can let it become.

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According to Iain Buchanan:

"I needed to give my nieces and nephews, and their children, a picture of how wonderful the world can be - and a warning of how barren we can let it become; I needed to do this in a way which young and old could share, which would appeal to reason - and which would touch the heart as well.

So I set out to rescue, from those twenty years of lectures, a picture book for children about the life and death of a landscape. I wanted to tell the story of a forest, a village, and a city, and the succession from one to the other.

I wanted to capture the drama of the change, what it meant to the landscape and the people who lived in it; and I wanted to do this in a way that could celebrate the detail of life, its different scales, textures, colours - from the broad panorama of a forest or a city skyline, to the minutiae of things, like the fretwork on a balcony or the ants on a leaf.

A book like this, I reckoned, would do all I needed to do: it would celebrate the joys that Malaysia had given me."

120 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2008

Reviews

[Khairul Hezry · Rating 3 out of 5]

I bought this for my daughter a few months back. This is her review: "I liked Fatimah's Kampung but the story was too long". She's still not a fan of prose books, even those with pictures. She's six, what do you expect? I'm just glad she likes to read.

[Afifah · Rating 5 out of 5]

sad story...with full of childhood memories..rindukan suasana kampung sawahku...

[Syuhada Jane · Rating 5 out of 5]

It took you to ponder something that you might miss in this sophisticated and developed country but compromised certain aspect in it. This is great!

[Kast · Rating 5 out of 5]

http://kastatelier.blogspot.com/2011/...

[hans · Rating 4 out of 5]

Buat aku rindu rumah atap zink dan dinding papan.

Drawings/illustrations are brilliant!