Starchild: Hop aboard Malaysian children's spaceship of imagination

Vhivaniya Shangkar Kumar, 11

We're looking for more StarChild contributors! Here is our next item:

ITEM: Malaysia will be celebrating its 66th year of Merdeka on Aug 31. Are you looking forward to the Merdeka Day celebrations? Do you watch the parade on television or go to the actual venue? Do you love the fireworks?

Do you feel proud to be a Malaysian? Tell us your happy memories of the country. Are you happy with the multi-racial community, the different festivals or interesting mix of food from different cultures? Are you proud of the country’s famous landmarks?

Draw scenes of Malaysian life that we can all be proud of. It can be a day at the Merdeka Parade, a crowd during the countdown to Aug 31, blowing out birthday candles to celebrate Merdeka, the different races in their traditional costumes, or even our tourist spots.

Email your contributions to [e-mail] by Aug 18. Please put “STARCHILD: Merdeka” in the subject line of your email.

Scanned drawings should be in jpeg format, with a resolution of 200dpi. Your contributions must carry your full name, age (open to children aged 12 and below only), gender, phone contact and address.

Imagine a world where things are way different from Earth. You can build cities with candy houses, trees that grow lollipops, and rivers filled with chocolate. How about having a pet dragon that can talk, or floating on fluffy clouds like a superhero? The sky’s the limit when you design your dream planet.

The response has been overwhelming from Starchild readers on the topic, Planet of My Dreams. Here are the first batch of letters. We will publish the next round of letters the following week.

Lim Sheng Hao, 10

Lim Sheng Hao, 10, wants to make his planet as beautiful as Earth. "My planet would have a lot of resources like uranium, iron, gems and petroleum. Pensioners would receive RM100 each day from the government. Everyone would be healthy and happy. The technology would also be on a whole new level. Shoes would enable people to fly and jump very high. Citizens need not travel long distances to a different country. All they need to do is spend RM50 to use a teleportation machine to get them to the destination within 10 seconds."

Feivul Lee, 10

Feivul Lee,10, wants to name his planet Scobsboggler Olompa-lompa. "It’s a special planet because if you were to see it right now, it would look like a shape of number nine. However, every half a decade, it would change to number six. This is due to the process where the planet turns upside down. There would be no plastic in Scobsboggler Olompa-lompa. They would use something like plastic but after using it, you could squash it with your hands and ‘poof’, it disappears. This is unlike plastics, which would take thousands of years or even more to completely vanish. The air would always be fresh, too, because there would be no vehicles. People can fly in my planet. This would be a wondrous and spectacular planet."

Nadia Asha Solomon, 7

"I would create three different and unique planets. The first one is a Rainbow planet with only colourful sheep as its life form. There is a ring around the planet adorned with rainbow colours which light up on the annual Sheep Race Day. The second planet would be round and ruled by fire, plants and water. The lifeforms here are rather cheeky and can get up to plenty of mischief! The last planet is a diamond-shaped blue planet with just wind to fill it. Tiny cats live here and they have capes to keep them warm from the wind," writes Nadia Asha Solomon, seven.

Chuah Seng Koon, 7

"I would like my dream planet to be square shaped. The best thing about my special planet would be everything is free. The environment would be cleaner and nobody would be poor or homeless. Lastly, there would be more holidays on my planet. My teachers would give my rivals lots of homework but all my good friends would either have less or be exempted from doing homework," says seven-year-old Chuah Seng Koon.

Ong Keat Hsin, 8

“My planet would be round. Its outer layer is blue, but its core’s temperature is 6,000 degrees Celsius. I would call it Biculars 102. My planet will have thousands of spacecrafts and robots. It is in Interstellar Space. I love my planet,” says Ong Keat Hsin, eight.

Five-year-old Asher Wang Qi Chuen wants to name his planet Asherinus. "It has 10 moons and 10 suns with spikes and soldiers to protect it from enemies. An infinite number of people and animals stay here enjoying good soil and many trees. Water cannot make a person wet on this planet. My planet is colourful with a million rainbows. Morning and night, we can see the suns and moons in beautiful colours in the sky."

Asher Wang Qi Chuen, 5

My planet has no life or species except for the thunderstorms striking in it," says Vhivaniya Shangkar Kumar, 11.

Chanyse Wong Jyng En, 12

"My planet is called heart planet or known as love planet because of its shape. It is like Earth, but this planet does not have human beings. We have humanised robots. Every robot has a soulmate or they can create their soulmates. It is the future of humanised robots," writes Chanyse Wong Jyng En, 12.