This is Book 3 of the thrilling LAST KID RUNNING gamebook series for 10 to 12 year olds. YOU decide how the story unfolds.
You are Runner X, one of six contestants in the final round of Last Kid Running, the craziest game show streaming on the mobile web.
You’ve been waiting eagerly for this. But the pandemic strikes, and the ingenious Dr Yamato creates a home-based VR version of this event instead, to keep the fans entertained.
It turns out to be a wild and futuristic adventure, with five levels full of twists, thrills and tricky challenges. Plus, you’ll need to solve the Riddlemaster’s Remarkable Riddle, which is the most baffling brain-teaser you’ve ever encountered.
Do you have what it takes to be the LAST KID RUNNING?
Read and find out!
Catagory: Young Adult
The House of Little Sisters
It’s August of 1931 in Singapore, sixteen-year-old Lim Mei Mei (Ah Mei) arrives at the home of Eminent Mister Lee on the eve of the Hungry Ghost Month. She has been sold to the family as a mui tsai, an indentured servant girl. At the Lee household, Lim Mei Mei’s life education begins. There she encounters the spirit of Ah Lian, a mui tsai, who paid the ultimate price for her mistake. Through Ah Lian, Ah Mei discovers the plight of mui tsai, who are both helpless and powerful, and uncovers a shameful secret lurking in the shadows in the Lee house. Ah Mei also meets and falls in love with Hassan Mohamed, an Indian-Muslim and an aspiring poet, breaking every clause in the rule book of love in 1930s British Malaya. She becomes Hassan’s Polar Star, and the young lovers must find a way to stay together. Through a twist of fate, Ah Mei finds a solution that will keep her and Hassan together, at the same time gaining agency that will secure her own future as an uneducated servant girl in British Malaya.
Emman, Time Traveller
Emmanuel was in school when he received a strange visitor. It seems that no one but Emman could see the boy who was dressed in an old-fashioned Malay outfit. When Emman approached him, the boy ‘spoke’ to Emman telepathically to tell him that he was The One. When Emman asked him The One what? The boy said, The One to save him. The boy made an urgent plea to Emman to help him, then dashed away hastily. A magic portal opened up and the boy stepped through it and disappeared.
Before he left, the boy had told Emman to attend a talk called The Redhill Tragedy. Curious, Emman searched online and found the talk to be at the National Museum. He asked his Peranakan, paternal grandmother to attend with him. The talk was about a boy Nadim, who was killed in the Redhill Tragedy. Suddenly, the boy Emman saw before, appeared again, telling Emman he was Nadim. He persuaded Emman to save him.
But what could Emman do? Nadim had lived and died in the 14th century Singapura. How could he undo history? And how would he be able to get back to the 14th Century to prevent Nadim’s murder? When he posed his dilemma to his Grandmother, Grandma surprised him by telling him that she can show him a way. But first he must have the courage to accept the quest.
Of Myths and Men
Eighteen-year-old Ava has saved the world 152 times – ever since she got her hands on her first console. It’s all fun and games, but after a mysterious encounter with not-a-vampire Brad, she discovers that the mythological creatures she’s only ever seen in video games are actually totally real. Brad reveals they’re alien refugees living among humans – bonus points because Ava finds the guy really, really cute.
As she’s suddenly thrust into a quest with a surfer wendigo, a friendly manananggal, a telepathic nine-tailed fox, a Sudoku-loving centaur, and a huggable Bigfoot, Ava embarks on an actual mission to fend off an alien invasion – and she soon realizes that this time, she just might need to save the world for real.
Where’s a save point when you need one?
Prophecy of the Underworld
When the prophesied hero dies one day before the world needs saving, 13-year-old Julian Kee is randomly chosen as a last-minute replacement. With absolutely no world-saving skills whatsoever, he must nonetheless lead his friends into the Underworld to retrieve a magical rock that can save their world.
The problem is that the ruling council of the Underworld objects to their quest, and the rock can only be obtained by passing through a series of terrible trials, including navigating an unsolvable maze, enduring unspeakable tortures in the dungeons of the council’s citadel, and facing a really cute bunny. And is the Underworlder who cheerfully volunteers to risk her life to help them simply a girl with a very kind, selfless heart, or is she really a spy for the council?
A fast-paced adventure filled with lots of exciting twists and turns, this hilarious spoof of adventure/hero stories will be enjoyed by both the young and the not-so-young!
Land of Sand and Song
Legend has it that a magical spring lies dormant in the heart of the Khuzar desert. Said to be a gift from the gods, the spring holds the cure to all mortal woes. As mercenaries from everywhere try in vain to find the mystical spring, 17-yearold Desert Rose is on the run after her chieftain father is overthrown and captured by rebel clans. Now out for revenge, she sets out alone to the Oasis Capital to assassinate the person instigating the rebellion: the corrupt Emperor Zhao, who will stop at nothing to possess the elixir of life from the spring. To infiltrate the Imperial Guard, Desert Rose must pass a series of trials to test her wit, mettle, and her loyalty. But the real test lies in navigating the cut throat court politics with no ally but a rogue prince and a latent magic stirring in her – magic that can bring a kingdom to its knees or destroy her from within.
Mist-bound
Winner of the Hedwig Anuar Children’s Book Award 2022
Winner of the Best Young Persons Title at the Singapore Book Awards 2022
Can a girl, armed only with stories, make her way through a land of myth, magic and monsters, to save her grandfather’s shattered memories before they’re forever lost?
His only cure? Memory Glue. To brew it, Alexis just needs eight ingredients: stuff like, nose hair from a baku (dream-eater), sweat from a duyung (sea siren) and … OK. Maybe some are tricky to find in local supermarkets.
To obtain them Alexis must journey to a realm where the fabled creatures from Grandpa’s folktales are alive in the flesh (and often flesh-eating).
At least she’ll have fun company: the nasty kenit (forest imp) who’d cast the horrible spell on Grandpa, and her no-nonsense Grandma, who harbours a secret that will change Alexis’ life forever …
Piece of cake, right?
Oh, there’s also a deadline.
Can Grandpa be saved before he’s forever lost to the mists within his mind?
Based on a true story.
Raffles Readers
Raffles Hotel is the best-known, oldest and most elegant hotel in Singapore. When it was first built in 1887, it stood on Beach Road, overlooking the sea. Presently, Beach Road is in the middle of a thriving, modern city. There are many tales of the weird and wonderful happenings at this beautiful hotel-hundreds of famous people have also stayed there.
This book holds the secrets to a century of adventures, including monsters, missing silver, spies, ghost brides and zombies. Spanning the 1920s to 2000s, these imaginative tales will draw readers into the wondrous world of the iconic Raffles Hotel and the escapades of its young guests.
Everyday Ninja
When Kareem and Raffi see an awesome ninja at the park, they go back again and again, wondering if they’ve got what it takes to be super ninjas too. But the boys are in for a big surprise when the ninja does a perfect arabesque.
Horrid High: Back to School
When Granny Grit is called away on a most mysterious mission, twelve-year-old Ferg and his friends are left at the mercy of Cook Fracas’s frenzied food fights, Colonel Craven’s manic panics and Miss Nottynuf’s nervous nail-biting. To make matters worse, the Grand Plan is still missing and the kids must find it before someone truly awful does.
Can Ferg and his friends survive another term at the world’s most horrid school? Return to Horrid High and find out!