The Merlion Who Forgot

For more than fifty years, the Merlion has stood by Marina Bay, watching Singapore grow.

Then one morning, just before sunrise, a boy named Leo stands beneath the statue with a notebook full of facts and no feeling for any of it, and whispers a wish: I wish you were alive.

To his astonishment, it comes true. But the magic lasts only until sunset — and after so many years standing still, the Merlion remembers Singapore only in pieces. So the two of them race across the country he loves: the old river and the glass towers, a hawker centre at lunchtime, the Supertrees, a family of otters, Changi Airport, the great ships at the port. At every stop, a memory comes back.

By nightfall the Merlion knows who he is — why he is part lion and part fish, and what it means to be the symbol of a nation. And Leo, who came to Singapore with a school project and his mother’s stories, discovers something he wasn’t expecting either.

• Ages5–9
• Extent64 pages, full colour
• Size8.5 × 8.5 inches
• FormatsPaperback & hardcover
• ISBN—
• PublishedStormglass Press, 2026

Your local bookseller can order it. For schools and libraries, it is available through Ingram at standard trade terms.