WRITER Andy Logam Tan suffered from a poor grasp of Mandarin when he was young. So he appreciates the value of bilingual books which made it easier to brush up on the language.

'It was invaluable - to know what the stories meant in English on one page, and to then tackle them in Chinese on the next,' he says.

Now, the 37-year-old is part of a team at home-grown animation company Peach Blossom Media which is adapting episodes of the animated series Tao Shu - The Warrior Boy into bilingual books for children.

Broadcast on Kids Central, Nickelodeon Asia, and in France and the Middle East, the show features the adventures of a little Chinese boy named Tao Shu and his alter ego, Warrior Boy, as he learns about values such as filial piety, honesty and sibling affection.

Tao Shu: Nian The New Year Monster, the first of the episode-to-book spin-offs, was released last month, just in time for the festive season.

A short and straightforward take on the familiar nian shou folktale, about a legendary monster that terrorises villagers at the turn of the new year, the story follows Tao Shu and his sister Ling Ling as they unravel the mystery of a ravaged cabbage patch, and delivers the universal message of not judging, well, a book by its cover.

Tan says: 'The key to writing for young children is to play up a single event, while keeping it simple enough to understand.'

He knows what he is talking about. After all, the animation series, espousing wholesome ideals like the cohesion of the family unit, received the iParenting Media Award last year.

iParenting, an American media organisation which identifies top-notch child-suitable products, ranked Tao Shu alongside brand names such as Disney and Sesame Workshop.

Books Kinokuniya's children's book merchandiser, Ms Francine Chu, 28, says the books are selling steadily and she expects sales to hold even after the festive period.

She says: 'We have expat customers interested in and asking for titles dealing with Chinese culture, so a market does exist for books like these.'

Tan adds: 'I remember the old bilingual books I grew up reading, and how much benefit and fun I had out of them.

'So the Tao Shu books are about us giving something to the next generation of kids who might face the same problems.'

Tao Shu: Nian The New Year Monster ($8.88 with GST) is available at major bookstores.

This article was first published in The Sunday Times on Feb 24 2008.