Mr Tan Ooi Boon, general manager of The Straits Times Press, said: 'As a book publisher, we believe that good books should be read by the most number of readers. 'We want to recognise and reward the years of hard work that go into good writing, and in turn encourage more writers to come forth,' he said. Mr Peter Lee, group chief financial officer of Popular Holdings, said the awards, which are now in their seventh edition, aim to give local authors a platform to showcase their writing. They included Retire Smart by Sunday Times invest editor Lorna Tan, as well as other titles from The Straits Times Press such as Travails of a Trailing Spouse by Stephanie Suga Chen and Market Smart by Goh Eng Yeow. 'I visited 50 schools in the first year - that's practically one school a week.'Ī total of 30 books across three categories - English (adult), English (children) and Chinese - were nominated for the Readers' Choice Awards. She recalled how she visited school after school to talk about the first book in her series, which was published in 2011. Ms Teoh, who based the title character on her younger daughter Ellie, said years of hard work lie behind her success: 'A book doesn't just sit on the bookshelf and get discovered.' Ms Teoh's book won the first prize in the English (children) category.

Other winners included Spiaking Singlish by poet Gwee Li Sui, second in the English (adult) category, and Ellie Belly: Not A Penguin by Eliza Teoh, the ninth book in the bestselling Ellie Belly series. The awards were conferred on the second day of Popular's annual BookFest at the Suntec Singapore Exhibition and Convention Centre. Both books are published by The Straits Times Press.

Ellie Belly by Eliza Teoh