MERCHANTS OF THE MYSTERIOUS EAST John Lim. Montreal, Tundra Books, c1981. Distributed by Collins. 32pp, cloth, $12.95. ISBN 0-88776-130-5. Grades 3 and up. Reviewed by A. B. Chan. Volume 11 Number 1. 1983 January. Tundra Books has always been noted for its superbly illustrated and richly flavoured children's books. With The Merchants of the Mysterious East, it surpasses even the remarkable West Coast Chinese Boy.* While the book is about the sounds, sights, and beauty of Singapore, it is not simply a travelogue taking hold of a child's imagination. Rather it tells more of the author and illustrator, John Lim, whose love for the place during childhood is neither suffocated by common sentimentality nor sidetracked by melancholic nostalgia. The Singapore he paints is no longer the astrologer .studying positions of the planets, fortune tellers chanting a secret prayer, frog vendors crying through the streets, nor the kite maker pasting rice paper. But with his unique style and subtle prose, John Lim recaptures old Singapore and his boyhood at their finest. *Reviewed vol. VIII/3 Summer 1980 p.151. A.B. Chan, Dept. of Sociology, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK.