Perfect Match Primary Health Education is a series of Health Education textbook-cum-activity books written by Dr Michael Chia (and later with Dr Cecilia Leong and Dr Albert K. Liau,) based on the approved syllabus produced by the Singaporean Ministry of Education. The textbooks are always divided into three parts; Physical Health, Environment and Your Health, and Emotional and Psychological Health.
Rather unusually for a textbook, these textbooks contain a certain set of characters and something resembling a Slice of Life plot. They revolve around 6 friends, Haron, Eileen, Arul, Lance, Ting Ting and Harry. The book explores the daily life of the superfriends, as well as the health-related issues that arise.
Perfect Match Primary Health Education provides examples of:
- Cerebus Syndrome: The books made for Upper Primary levels discuss more serious topics.
- Cigarette of Anxiety / I Need a Freaking Drink: Arul briefly considers this when some boys offer him some cigarettes and beer.
- Creator Provincialism: These books are written by Singaporeans, and are designated for Singaporean students, so naturally, the books take place in Singapore.
- Drugs Are Bad / Smoking Is Not Cool: The readers are highly encouraged to stay away from addictive substances such as cigarettes, alcohol and inhalants. It is also made clear that using such things will get the reader in legal trouble.
- Fun with Acronyms: The books make good use of acronyms, such as WEIGHnote .
- In fact, the superfriends' initials form the word HEALTH.
- Lethal Chef: Downplayed. The superfriends entered a cooking competition in the Primary 3 textbook but failed to prevent their food from getting contaminated. Naturally, the judges aren't happy.
- Happens again when Harry, Ting Ting and Arul operates a food stall for a fundraiser event.
- Peer Pressure Makes You Evil: Sometimes subverted, as the book makes a distinction between positive and negative peer pressure.
- Shout-Out: A subtle one- Lance's siblings are named Linus and Lucille.
- Stranger Danger: Touched on during the Primary 4 textbook.
- Textbook Humor
- That Makes Me Feel Angry: This shows up a lot in the Emotional and Psychological Health section. Justified as that section is dedicated to teaching the reader how to deal with their emotions.
- True Companions: The superfriends support each other through thick and thin.
