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Saturday, March 2, 2019

Review: the mark by edyth bulbring.

View onAmazon UPDATE: I have turned off comments for this review. This is a set book for a class in South Africa and I'm starting to get comments asking me to answer assigned question. Also, people have ignored my request that they not ask such questions. If you would like some guidance reading this book, there are a number of youtube videos on The Mark. Link to youtube videos on The Mark .

"There tends to be a common teen-angst thing, like: 'Oh the whole world is against me, the whole world is so screwed up,' " Will explains. Teenagers are cynical, adds Aaron Yost, 16. And they should be: "To be fair, they were born into a world that their parents kind of really messed up." Everyone here agrees: The plots in dystopia feel super familiar. That's kind of what makes the books scary — and really good. Think of it like this: Teen readers themselves are characters in a strange land. Rules don't make sense. School doesn't always make sense. And they don't have a ton of power. The fact that these books offer a safety net, a place where kids can "flirt with those questions without getting into trouble," that's reason enough to keep teachers and parents buying them off the shelf.

Comments are turned off for this post. If The Mark is a set book for your school project, you might find it helpful to look at these youtube videos about the book. Link to list of youtube videos about The Mark. 

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Jerry B. Jenkins, Tim LaHaye

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Language: English

Genre: Young Adult Fiction

Age range: 14 - 18

Author(s): Puku initiative brings Teachers into the Digital Age , Prof MV Mzamane Commemoration , Niki Daly: A Tribute to a great South African children’s author , Elinor Sisulu Receives SA Literary Award , Puku Visits HRH Mohammed Bin Rashid Library , Comrades runner Mpho Ngoepe is racing for literacy, and he's speaking our language ,  #RacingForOurLanguages: What's next? , Tribute to Eusebuis McKaiser , Stir the Dust , Enthusiastic Unisa academic races for indigenous languages , Webinars 2021: The Wonderful Wisdom of Our Words , Thank you to our PESP project independent contractors for their valued contribution this year - names and profiles attached , Ikhatalogu Yethu - Puku’s catalogue of 100 recommended isiXhosa books is now listed on our website , What is the UNESCO King Sejong Literacy Prize? , Find out more about Biblionef, a valued partner of Puku.co.za , Watch our Video introducing the Puku Children's Literature Foundation , South Africa Congratulates Puku Children’s Literature Foundation for Winning a Prestigious 2021 UNESCO International Award , AN INVITATION TO A VIRTUAL EVENT: 'Paul Sithole, The Forgotten Scientist' 20 September 2021: 6pm (SAST) , Puku Children’s Literature Foundation Described as an “Excellent Ambassador for Literacy” at Handover Ceremony for 2021 UNESCO Laureates , BREAKING NEWS: South African Organisation, Puku, Wins 2021 UNESCO Award , Puku’s winning UNESCO project – Read all about it! 'Using digital technologies to promote children's literature in South Africa's indigenous languages' , South Africa’s Puku Children’s Literature Foundation Wins Prestigious 2021 UNESCO International Award , Ikhatalogu Yethu: The list of 100 books recommended by the isiXhosa editorial team , A Position Paper on Prescribed Literature (Setworks) of South Africa’s Major Curricular Bodies: CAPS, IEB, Cambridge and IB , A YouTube Course in isiXhosa on Reviewing Children’s Literature as a Template for Other Indigenous Languages , The Role of Children’s Literature in Preserving and Promoting our Indigenous Languages , Highlights from the isiNdibele webinar / Tuthuko emntwaneni ngelimi lakhe lesiNdebele , Highlights from the Tshivenda webinar ‘Tshivenda manwalo a vhana’ , Highlights of the Sepedi webinar: TlhatloŠo ya Sepedi ngwaneng | A discussion on preserving indigenous languages , Highlights from the isiZulu webinar Iqhaza lezincwadi zezingane ekugcineni ulimi lwesizulu | A discussion on preserving isiZulu , Highlights from the Sesotho webinar ‘Monate wa ho Bala ka Puo ya Letswele: Na Dingolwa tsa Bana di Lekane?’ , Highlights from the Siswati webinar ‘Temibhalo yebantfwana kutfuftukisa Siswati’ , Highlights from the Xitsonga webinar 'Garingani wa Garingani' , Highlights from the Setswana webinar 'Ra reng ka Setswana mo ngwaneng' , A personal reflection about the launch of the first ever N/uu children’s book '!Qhoi n|a Tjhoi / Skilpad en Volstruis / Tortoise and Ostrich' , Open invitation to our webinar in Sesotho – Friday 25th June , Highlights from the 'Conversations about isiXhosa Children’s Books Catalogue' webinar - a report back in isiXhosa and English , Open invitation to our webinar in Tshivenda - 30 June 2021 , Open invitation to our webinar in Siswati - 24 June 2021 , Open invitation to our webinar in isiNdebele – Tuesday 22 June , Launch of the first book ever to be written in N/uu takes place today – purchase the book here, on the puku.co.za website , Open invite to our Sepedi webinar - 25th May 2021 , Open invitation to our webinar in Xitsonga – Thursday 20th May , Open invitation to our webinar in Setswana – Tuesday 18th May , Open invitation to our first webinar in isiZulu , The Puku Children’s Foundation Celebrates Katrina Esau On World Book Day, 23 April 2021 , Open invitation to our webinar in isiXhosa - 22 April , National Book Week , Listen to a Book Circle Podcast with Siya Masuku , LITASA Conferene 2020: There is no frigate like a book: Literacy and children’s literature in contemporary Africa 19 Sep 2020 , International Literacy Day , Puku Receives New 'Dubai Cares' Award , It's National Storytelling Day! , Puku and Hayley Joy Fundraising Partnership Launch. , Why We Should Be Reading Picture Books To Our Children , Reflections On An Afternoon In Coyaba , The Guardian's Children’s and Teens Roundup , Puku presents Moshe by Mogale Sedibe , View: Comments on Trevor Noah's book for children , South African Book Fair Have New Venue. , Black Stories Matter , The Guardian's Picture Book Round-up... , Mosidi by Lorato Trok , Trevor Noah's 'Born a Crime' book now out for children , Puku - Using Children’s Books To Save Languages , My Language, My Heritage , Shortlists announced for 2019 Media24 book prizes , Picture Books to Enrapture Young Readers , Turning Kids into Bookworms - children's laureates share their tips , South African writers nominated for the 2019 Nommo Awards. , Puku welcomes Dr. Nokuthula Mazibuko Msimang , African Classics , Finalists announced for the Sanlam Prize for Youth Literature 2019 , Thoko Vuka! Thoko Muka! Zimbabwean children's book now out. , BOLOGNA PRIZE FOR THE BEST CHILDREN’S PUBLISHERS OF THE YEAR , Calling all illustrators! , Africa’s Cause Must Triumph: The Collected Writings of AP Mda Robert Edgar and Luyanda ka Msumza , International Mother Language Day , New Young Adult SFF Books Coming Out! , Indigenous languages - are they fading from African households? , New Cookbook Offers an Opportunity to Engage Young Readers , Books for pure reading pleasure... , 'Mpumi’s Magic Beads' at Abantu Book Festival , 'Chasing Shadows' by Palesa Manaleng , Puku Welcomes New Online Seller of Children's Books , African languages are at a disadvantage with Voice Recognition Technology , The Roots of Early Literacy Lie In Rock Art , SA’s Youngest Authors Get Audiences Excited to Read , Black Friday Promotions with Supernova Magazine! , Score with Ethnikids this Black Friday! , The African Book Trust is giving away books! , Coming Soon! Elevation 3: The Fiery Spiral , Book Launch Celebrates Albertina Sisulu , Save up to 60% on Supernova! , Why political books for kids are becoming more popular. , Authors And Artists Gather to Celebrate Gcina Mhlophe's 60th Birthday. , Jeppe Girls High School Honours Ruth First With Their Stories , School Library and Reading Summit a Memorable Event. , Children’s book, Frog and the birdsong, now available in five local languages , Book Dash mobilises for more books this October! , Children's Book Shares Experience of Immigration. , Gcina Mhlophe Gifts Her Special Day To Storytelling. , Puku Partners with Gauteng Department of Education to host Reading Summit , Join Puku In Celebrating Gcina Mhlophe's Birthday! , The Nozincwadi Festival – an authentic African experience , Enter the Roald Dahl Imaginormous Challenge! , Picture Books Get Adults Hooked On Reading , 2019 Sanlam Prize for Youth Literature deadline looms! , Why African Storytelling Needs To Be Preserved. , Passing On The Baton of Storytelling. , YA Novels Explore the Truths On Internet Friendships , I-National Book Fair Blog , Celebrating National Book Week in the Heart of the Kalahari! , Review your face children's book and win! , Invitation to a Literacy Day Discussion in Cape Town. , Open Book Festival, 5-9 September 2018, Cape Town. , The South African Book Fair, 2018, Johannesburg. , Attend The Book Launch: 'Songbird and Other Stories' , Promoting Literacy At Home With Nal'ibali. , The Mr. Men are celebrating Chinese New Year! , Art Workshop With Award-Winning Illustrator, Joan Rankin. , Madiba Magic children's book celebrates Nelson Mandela's centenary , Changing Lives Through Books - Interview with Biblionef's, Jean Williams! , Media24 Books 2018 Prize Winners Announced! , Cover2Cover Books release latest teen title & announce new-look website. , 15 Sci-Fi Books To Read For The Fun Of It... , Young writer from Kempton Park publishes book on bullying. , Great reads for Young Adult book lovers. , Kids Etc. - How to write for children. , Interview With 'Literacies' Activist, Theresa Giorza. , 2018 Writing Competition Against Racism launched. , Afrikaans - whose language is it? , June Events: children's book launch, Cape Town. , Help Older Kids Develop a Sense of Imagination with these 8 tips , Why You Should be Reading Books Every Day. , Syafunda Digital Library Transforms Education , Schools belong to the community, let parents take over. , Diverse books matched with classic stories, perfect for today's readers. , The importance of languages in decolonising education. , South African illustrator wins Children’s Africana Book Awards , Why mother tongue has to be embraced now - Q&A with Puku's Lorato Trok. , TED Talks for lifelong readers , Professor encourages students to ‘Work hard, think big and make mistakes’ , Illustrations that continue to remind us of freedom... , Now Out: New Book To Empower Young Female Readers. , Lending books to friends - what are the rules? , Find more books written by Gcina Mhlophe. , SCBWI Workshop: Writing for second-language readers , Baby Riav and the Power of Reading, Part 2. , UMSITHO WAMABALI EPUKU 2018 , Is classroom storytelling a dying art? , Grahamstown, 19-21 April, 2018. , 2018 PROGRAMME , Nal'ibali adds Setswana and Xitsonga stories to their list. , Transform Reluctant Readers Into Avid Bookworms... , What will it take to improve global literacy? , Dr Seuss illustrations are a great way to get kids talking about books , Picture Books, the springboard to visual literacy , Education Expert Calls For More Help In Foundation Phase , Executive Mayor Highlights Library in KwaNobuhle Uitenhage , South African Library Week 2018 , National Library Week comes to Mossel Bay , The most anticipated YA novel for 2018 , Puku Celebrates Phenomenal Woman Rosina Sedibane Modiba. , New 'Little Miss' book launched for International Woman’s Day, 2018 , 'Story Powered Schools' project provides vital literacy support , South African Sign Language (SASL) recognised as a mother tongue language & matric subject , All South Africans Responsible For Country's Reading Crisis , Tshwane Public Libraries take Mother Tongue Further , Now is the time to promote linguistic and cultural diversity. , Maskew Miller Longman Writing Workshops now on. , News: IBBY South Africa Announces Honour List Books ? , SCBWI Event - Writing for Television! , Creating good study habits at home. , How to engage readers who think books are boring... , International Love Stories perfect for Teen Readers , Interview with South African YA author, Sally Partridge. , Mothertongue literacy ensures learning success. , What are readers in Africa thinking? , Should there be more autistic characters in children’s books? , Poetry helps readers to grasp the deeper meaning behind the words they write. , It's World Read Aloud Day! , Nal’ibali highlights 'World Read Aloud Day' with local children's author, Zukiswa Wanner. , Forts & Fairies chats to children's author of 'ANGRY OWL'. , Celebrate World Read Aloud Day. , Call out for a South African 'Multicultural Children's Book Day'. , The success story of renowned children's author, Sindiwe Magona. , Study shows that the villains in children's books are almost always male. , Picture books without text, improve young brain development. , Are fairytales harmful and should they be banned? , Puku Wishes All Readers A Festive Holiday Season! , Brain Picking's loveliest children's books of 2017. , Soweto Book Festival Is A Literary Mix Of Love And Magic , NB-Uitgewers are celebrating author Louise Smit and Haas Das! , Abantu Book Festival, December 2017, saw the children flock in. , Exciting new isiZulu and Sesotho books out now! , Literacy survey reveals 80% of Grade 4 students can't read, Times LIVE , Supernova Magazine's December Holiday Giveaways! , Winner of National Book Award for Young People’s Literature, 2017, announced. , SCBWI End-of-Year Event , This year's Sanlam Awards, celebrate the best in SA Youth Literature , Durban is named Literary Capital of Africa. , Exciting books to carry on the thrills of Halloween... , Children's books about water that are still relevant today. , Tafelberg & Sanlam announce the Youth Literature Award winners for 2017! , Youth Literature Award winners soon to be announced. , Nal'ibali Announces Story Bosso Winner, 2017 , FunDza's Writer of the Week , Children's Book About Kalk Bay Fishermen Returns To Shelves , Children's Book Celebrates Life of Renowned Polka-Dot Artist , Puku’s look at books - October reads for ages 3 to 5 years… , Read the latest Jade Khan Mystery from FunDza! , SCBWI Seminar: Children’s and Young Adult Books , 2017 National Book Award Finalists revealed , Returning Nature's Words To Children's Books , The importance of reviewing children’s books in African languages , Thanks to volunteers, kids get reading , Local Publisher Speaks out on South Africa's Reading Culture. , Discussing The Power of Stories in Education and Literacy , Botlhokwa jwa go seka-seka dibuka tsa bana tsa Setswana , Future Nation Schools Book Fair & Literary Festival , Baby Riav and the Power of Reading. , Puku Goes Live! , Julia Donaldson Brings South Africa's ‘UGLY FIVE’ to Life , Digital writing - is the Internet changing the way we write? , Giving heroism a new face with a South African identity , SCBWI Workshop: Collage, by Joan Rankin , Sindiwe Magona Catalogue , The Day Gogo Went to Vote , Puku Story Festival 2017 , 25 Children’s Books to Teach Your Kids Meaningful Values , PUKU Afri Kids , Books to help kids understand what it’s like to be a refugee , Heavy screen time alters young brains , What does it mean to be literate in the 21st century? , Learning Tools and Puku Story Festival 2016 - Dr Sindiwe Magona

Publisher(s): Puku initiative brings Teachers into the Digital Age

ISBN: 9780624068815

Price: R187.00

In the future, the world has flipped. Ravaged by the Conflagration, this is a harsh world where the relentless sun beats down, peoples lives are run by a heartless elite and law is enforced by a brutal brigade. A mark at the base of the spine controls each persons destiny. The Machine decides what work you will do and who your life partner will be. In this world, everyone must make their contribution. Some more than others. Juliet Seven Ettie will soon turn 15 and her life as a drudge will begin, her fate-mate mate will be chosen. Like everyone else, her future is marked by the numbers on her spine. But Ettie decides to challenge her destiny. And in so doing, she fulfils the prophecy that was spoken of before she even existed.

By: Puku initiative brings Teachers into the Digital Age

Posted on: march 25, 2024.

An exciting new initiative by Puku and the ValueEd learning platform will train teachers on digital skills which are essential to navigating the plethora of internet-enabled technologies that will be native to future learners. The partnership between Puku and ValueEd is set to upskill a cohort of teachers by providing them access to the latest trends and insights in subjects that are beneficial to trainee teachers entering the 21st Century classroom. Courses on social media, emotional intelligence, bullying prevention and many others will be hosted by experienced speakers in real time allowing for authentic engagement with the subject-matters.

Puku as an advocate for literature and literacy in Mother-tongue languages sees this as a natural extension of the mandate to get more children reading. The 2023 Reading Panel Background Report noted that less than 50% of learners at Grade 1 have the required mastery of the alphabet to perform the necessary ‘decoding’ of oral comprehension by phonemic awareness to letter-sound recognition which is a pre-requisite of reading and later comprehension.

Furthermore based on research presented by the DSAC via the National Reading Barometer 2023 and from the National Reading Survey 2016 conducted by the former SA Book Development Council, it was found that whilst 93% of adults surveyed believe that reading to children is essential for improving school performance, only 52% of adults who live with children actually read with them. Puku felt there is a clear need for an intervention to remedy this deficiency at that level through the teaching professionals who society charges with imbuing literacy in our children.

Thus the first cohort of teachers for the inaugural sessions are ECD/Foundation Phase teaching candidates from Rhodes University.

One of the Academic course convenors at Rhodes said “…after the physical workshop Puku held here, the students are now much more aware of the importance of literacy as a way of igniting children’s imagination…children who are often distracted by other less-challenging media on smartphones and games…”

Executive Director of Puku, Elinor Sisulu envisioned a multi-layered approach with the digital upskilling forming an important part of of the journey to improving literacy for children, stating, ” Digital upskilling will have immediate benefits to the teachers who will be teaching learners in the ECD and Foundation phase. They will be more confident with digital tools and will contribute meaningfully to literacy by writing reviews of children’s books. These reviews will then be made available as part of the metadata of Children’s books that Puku catalogues and curates on the Puku website. Puku has been working on children’s book catalogues in mother-tongue languages in order to give – not just teachers- but parents, librarians, resellers and others in the book value chain, quality information on children’s books in a convenient way, through the Puku site and new portal currently in development. The partnership with ValueEd in providing these teachers with a world-class e-learning engagement platform is therefore a significant milestone.”

Puku is working on mother tongue language children’s book catalogues in partnership with the National Library of South Africa, UNISA, Biblionef and IBBY. The 100 recommended books have been identified for isiXhosa and SeTswana. Work on selection of the 100 best books in SeSotho is underway.

Managing Director of ValueEd, Mr Vikela Rankin was pleased to play a role in this innovative approach to tackling SA’s literacy crisis, noting, “ValueEd’s unique offering of course is well suited to teachers who will be going into a learning environment that has tech-savvy learners, kids with tablets and smartphones but also with more access to emotional tool-kits than ever before. Teaching these kids can be tough but it is incredibly rewarding. We at ValueEd pride ourselves in individual engagement with candidates on our platform and have pioneered merit-based learning with recognition from big corporates to SMMEs and individuals who wish to upskill themselves in a variety of skills and knowledge not easily found anywhere else and coached by well-versed individuals of exemplary pedigree.”

The Puku and ValueEd sessions for Teachers go live today 25th March, 2024 with more Universities, NGOs, SMME’s and self-employed individuals aiming to participate going forward.

More information on registration is available here

By: Prof MV Mzamane Commemoration

Posted on: february 23, 2024.

The late Professor Mbulelo Vizikhungo Mzamane was many things, including a senior advisor to former presidents Nelson Mandela, Thabo Mbeki,& Jacob Zuma. President Mandela described him as a “visionary leader and one of South Africa’s greatest intellectuals.”

On the literary front, multilingual African literature was his field and passion. He worked closely with African luminaries to inspire people of African descent the world over to read and write in their languages. With the legendary Ngugi Wa Thiong’o and Nawal El Saawadi, the three served as co-chairs of the initiative, “BUWA African Languages and Literatures into the 21st Century.”

Mzamane published extensively on African literature, heritage, and education. His scholarly research and works of fiction have been translated into several languages including German, French, Russian and Dutch. At the time of his passing, Mzamane was the Project Leader & Editor of his self-initiated project, the Encyclopaedia of South African Arts, Culture and Heritage (ESAACH), what he called his last gift to South Africa.

A prolific storyteller who often went into schools the world over to share traditional African stories, he ensured all his books were accessible to the young adult audience (high schoolers and above). He also used a unique child-centred style to write the children’s book, The Race Between the Turtles and Cheetahs (Canberra, The Australian National University: The Herbert and Valmae Freilich Foundation, 2004).

By: Niki Daly: A Tribute to a great South African children’s author

Posted on: february 8, 2024.

By Lorato Trok

If you ask black South Africans who grew up in the ‘70s and ‘80s, and possibly the 90s what their favourite South African children’s book is when they were growing up, they will probably tell you about their favourite African folktale that their mothers or grandmothers used to tell them. We simply did not have children’s books that resonated with us, nor with our lives in the townships and rural areas. No one wrote books for us or about us, unless black children were props in a story where their voices nor humanity did not matter.

Niki Daly‘s pen and crayons changed all that in post-apartheid South Africa. If anyone decolonised children’s literature in South Africa before it was even a thing, it was Niki Daly. His writing and illustrations affirmed the African child in a way that positioned them as clever, curious, feisty and inquisitive, as Dr Xolisa Guzula has described him in her tribute. When a new generation of black South African children’s authors and illustrators started making their mark in a white dominated field, how ironic that they looked to the writing and illustration work of Niki Daly, a white South African man who had so mastered the art of writing about black children? Dr Xolisa Guzula, academic, author and translator of children’s books poignantly says this about Niki:

“Through Niki’s books, I got mentored in ways of seeing the child as being capable and always pushing boundaries as part of their learning and development. I could relate to his themes of family bonds and nurturing that he created through his Jamela and Thoko series books.”

Niki did not only appreciate the African culture, he celebrated it. He wore his South African-ness in his words and through his ink. His greatest joy was seeing his books translated into African languages and being accessible to all South African children. He left us a treasure trove of beautiful stories, now it is up to all of us – teachers, publishers, parents, corporate South Africa and the government through public and school libraries, to take the mantle and ensure that Niki’s books and other South African children’s publications are accessible to children. Our country is facing a literacy and education crisis. Our foundation phase children are not able to read comprehensively. Education and early literacy experts, throughout their years of research have always pointed out to one missing link in getting our literacy challenges right: children need to be introduced to reading as fun in their home languages, even before they could start formal schooling. They need to have as much time enjoying fiction books just as much as they focus on their textbooks and schoolwork.

The post-apartheid generation of all South African children can proudly share with their peers their favourite South African children’ story books that Niki gifted them. Who can forget the mesmerisingly beautiful illustrations in Fly Eagle Fly ? The classic South African picture book, Not so Fast Songololo celebrated the nurturing relationship between a grandmother and a child, a story so rooted in the African culture of every family’s favourite matriarch, the grandmother.

At Puku Children’s Literature Foundation, Niki Daly was a beacon and a light that shone so bright and brought a lot of joy to children and adults alike to children across the nation. We extend sincere condolences to his family, friends and writing family. May he rest peacefully and may all children have access in his books in whatever language they need.

By: Elinor Sisulu Receives SA Literary Award

Posted on: december 12, 2023.

Elinor Sisulu, founder and Executive Director of Puku was pleased to receive the South African Literary Awards Chairperson’s Achievement Certificate and Trophy for outstanding work in the Children’s Literature space over many years as an author, advocate for indigenous languages and as an activist for inclusion in children’s access to books.

SA Literary Award

The prestigious ceremony was held in Potchefstroom after an insightful day of world-class presentations and authentic discourse regarding decoloniality and epistemologies of the Pan-African Literature spaces past and present on the 32nd Annual International Day of the African Writer as declared by the African Union. The Conference was hosted by Write Associates, endorsed by the National Department of Sports Arts and Culture at the North-West University. Key-note speaker at the Conference was the distinguished  Mr Ibrahim Aya from Mali. The 11th International African Writer’s Day media release can be found here.

Elinor was delighted to have bee n recognised amongst such towering literary giants including Professor Pitika Ntuli, Dr Siphiwo Mahala, Sabata Mpho-Mokae and selected others doing the great work of progressing the discoverability of our African literature, languages and indigenous knowledge systems to their rightful place in the world.

By: Puku Visits HRH Mohammed Bin Rashid Library

Posted on: november 9, 2023.

Puku Onix Project teammate, Melvin Kaabwe, had the honor of visiting the Mohammed Muhammad bin Rashid library in Dubai On the eve of the Sharjah International book national book fair and was inspired to find this gentle fountain of knowledge rising out like a sanctuary from the hustle and bustle of Dubai. The library is an architectural and technological marvel for visitors and booklovers built to ignite the imagination.

View of MbR Library in Dubai from train platform looks like an upturned book

Rising out of the desert as a fountain of knowledge, the building is designed to resemble an open book towards the sky whilst simultaneously in keeping with the themes of voyaging by ship which are a prominent feature of most magnificent buildings Dubai. Perched on the banks of the Dubai creek, the Library is a confluence of ancient knowledge, modern technology and the power of books to take one on a journey anywhere in the mind. There are various accessibility options using multimedia displays and augmented reality (AR) particularly for children to be encouraged on their journey to develop a love of reading organically.

Free ticketing at the door is done by an online booking service tablet. As one steps into the library concourse, there is an AR experience that puts one into an epic space adventure story together with resident astronauts on an interplanetary mission just as a start!

Interactive AR display at MbR Library

One user-friendly approach for the MbR library is using augmented reality at various patron touch-points in showcasing what the library has to offer. Patrons can use interactive information kiosks that are set out as 3D renders of the library one can manipulate with their fingers to scroll, flip, stretch, pinch and zoom to navigate the library.

No books are kept on the shelves to be taken out! Patrons do not need to pull out Books. Most books on the shelves are just for showing exemplars of whichever genre is catalogued. Library patrons can instead request any title out of the more than 4 million books (including e-books and audio books) available by simply typing out the book name or other search criteria in a search bar on one of the information kiosks or

requesting it from the librarian. A complex system of conveyor belts and space showing shelving shelving then we’ll get the book and bring it to you.

Interactive display at MbR Library General section

So the issuing of books as well as the returns is completely self-service. All of these library services are possible because of the standardized usage of book data particularly metadata which Puku is prioritizing for the easier discovery of books in our local Southern African languages. Copying excerpts of books directly to USB storage device as document or image format is available with an automated page-turning camera scanner device. The device is programmed to ask the user to acknowledge the copyright implications for any book copied and to accept the consequences of copyright infringement before proceeding. For children there is a dedicated section This section has popular titles for children but is the only place in the library which has a level of joyful energy and excitement you can feel and hear aloud unlike most “shhhh” libraries. The children’s section is lively laid out with pods for individual reading as well as a common indoor obstacle course area with slides, climbing nets, bridging etc for play. Children are encouraged to read with ‘Pepper’ a robot friend.

Pepper the robot reader inside the kid’s library section at MbR Library

Pepper can read to the children as well as give them suggestions, call for a an authority figure and verbalize other types of information. On the upper floors, older children (young adults) such as school going teens and young adults have access access to private study carrels where they can do their assignments from school as well as other research or contribute in study groups at groupwork tables. Individual desks and long tables with glare-free eco friendly smart-lighting are installed throughout the library and pause areas. Other designated sections of the library include a dedicated periodicals section for newspapers, journals, magazines and such. Then as one would expect based on the Emirates great history of nautical prowess, there is a specific maps/atlas and lastly a media section. In each section, a digital screen showcases the most popular book available for patrons based on borrowing statistics. It displays the book cover content, synopsis and availability in an eye-catching way that is reminiscent of an attractive retail window display. There are conference rooms conference rooms available on the upper floors as well. Towards the rear of an exhibition space which is currently showing showing modern art. While simultaneously on the way to the view outside of the Dubai Creek, there is a beautiful exhibition of Arabic calligraphy on framed portraits of the words as poems or scripture extracts.

An immersive e-reader device at MbR Library

In another path to the creek is an immersive interactive e-book desk counter that animates a selection of titles accessed via an RFID / NFC tile that displays the content on a rap around screen with 3D capable sound. A user controls page-turning and magnification of the illustrations with a simple dial. As one walks into the rear garden there is a multicolored installation of pillars adorned by sayings of his Royal Highness. These plinth like structures are shards of knowledge spouting the Ruler’s wisdom in languages from around the globe.

A plinth in the Library gardens displays HRH MbR sayings in isiXhosa

Puku was impressed to see South African languages including Tsonga, Setswana and isiXhosa well represented in translation from the Arabic script. Puku has been a champion for indigenous languages via isiXhosa festivals and other activities in Southern Africa, it was a distinct experience to see visualized in such a creative manner. This impressive library gives us a glimpse of what is possible to promote children’s books responsibly and with a view to ensure the posterity of our languages into the future given the right techniques and standards for book information now.

By: Comrades runner Mpho Ngoepe is racing for literacy, and he’s speaking our language

Posted on: june 29, 2023.

By Fred Khumalo for the City Press; June 2023

Each of the approximately 20 000 runners participating in this year’s Comrades Marathon has a dream: to simply be seen on TV at the starting point or finish line, to improve on their previous record, or to beat the record of the previous winner.

For Mpho Ngoepe, who has completed nine Comrades in the past, the dream this time is not only to finish his 10th within his record, but also to raise awareness and money for a cause close to his heart: the promotion of indigenous languages.

Ngoepe, the director of the School of Arts at Unisa, will be running under the banner #RacingForOurLanguages.

Poor literacy gives campaign further urgency

In an interview with City Press early this week, a day after he arrived in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal, to acclimatise to the coastal weather, he said:

“We’ve always been deliberate in our campaign to promote our languages, but that campaign’s been given urgency by those shocking results from PIRLS.”

He was referring to the 2021 Progress in International Reading Literacy Study, which showed that South Africa has one of the poorest performances, with 81% of fourth-graders unable to read for meaning in any language.

In trying to turn the situation around, Ngoepe is working closely with the Puku Children’s Literature Foundation, the Indigenous Languages Initiative for Advancement and Unisa on projects that address three intersecting societal challenges: the literacy/reading crisis, the marginalisation of indigenous languages and the digital divide.

In promoting indigenous languages, Ngoepe leads by example, having published two books in his mother tongue, Sepedi.

The first one was Ntshwe, a collection of short stories published in 1995 by Via Afrika, which won third prize in a literary competition run by the Limpopo department of arts and culture.

Focusing on topics such as drug abuse, child abuse, witchcraft and other related issues, the book was prescribed for Grade 8 pupils in Limpopo.

His second book, Morole o Mosesane – also a short story collection – came out in 2007. He also wrote an English biography of veteran runner Ludwig Mamabolo and is in the process of having it published in Sepedi.

It might come as a shock to those outside the publishing industry that only 3% of books published in this country are written in indigenous languages – despite the fact that black Africans who speak them comprise the majority of the population.

Walking for education inspired his running

As for his marathon career, Ngoepe started running when he was a child attending Seshane Primary School in the Bogom area, Limpopo.

He recalled, when explaining how he developed the muscles for marathons:

“We used to walk 15km to school and 15km back home every weekday. In my case, part of the walking was actually running.”

In later years he participated in athletic activities at a competitive level at school and, in the years since then, he has never lost his love of running.

To date, he has run 13 Two Oceans marathons in Cape Town, a number of Soweto Marathons and some in Gaborone, Botswana, and Bela Bela in Limpopo.

“My first Comrades was in 2010, inspired by the euphoria that had swept the country when it was announced we’d be hosting the Fifa World Cup that year,” said the 48-year-old academic.

It took him six months of hard training to prepare for this year’s Comrades. Roughly, his training regime includes long runs of 100km a week, speed sessions and weekly workouts in which he runs up and down a hill five times.

This year’s Comrades is a down run from Pietermaritzburg to Durban, covering a distance of 87.7km. There will be 2 354 international runners from 84 countries, alongside 17 920 South Africans who have qualified to participate.

Ngoepe holds an honours degree, a master’s degree and a PhD in information science from Unisa. He did his undergraduate studies at the former University of the North (now the University of Limpopo).

He urged people to contribute towards the cause of promoting our languages.

Donations will be handled by Puku and can be made by EFT into its current account at Nedbank:1007 111 917, branch code 169745, SWIFT code NEDSZAJJ; address: 51-81 Main Road, Rondebosch Village, 1st floor, Shop 4, Rondebosch, Cape Town 7700.

International donations can also be made to Puku’s fiscal partner, the SA Development Fund, on the SA Development Fund donation page  www.payfast.co.za/donate/go/pukuchildrensliteraturefoundation .

Alternati vely, donors can reach the #RacingForOurLanguages campaign hotline via voice call or WhatsApp on 079 267 7469 during business hours.

By:  #RacingForOurLanguages: What’s next?

Posted on: june 17, 2023.

On Sunday 11 June 2023, Professor Mpho Ngoepe , the Director of UNISA’s  School of Arts, completed his Comrades Marathon in 6 hours 39 minutes and 15 seconds, smashing his personal best by more than 10 minutes. This placed him among the top 200 in a field of 14 896 runners who completed the race and earned him a silver medal, a remarkable achievement for a part-time runner and full-time academic. 

By completing his 10th Comrades, Professor Ngoepe earned his place on the coveted Green Number Roll of Honour reserved for those who have either won the race three times or won five gold medals or successfully completed 10 Comrades Marathons. His Green Number was presented to him by none other than 2012 Comrades winner and multiple gold medalist Ludwick Mamabolo, whose biography he wrote.

Professor Ngoepe devoted his 2023 Comrades Marathon  to a fundraiser to turbo boost efforts to promote children’s books in indigenous languages. He has been a driving force behind the collaboration between the Puku Children’s Literature Foundation , the language advocacy organisation, ILIFA (Indigenous Languages Initiative for Advancement), and UNISA. This collaboration addresses three intersecting societal challenges – the literacy/reading crisis, the marginalisation of indigenous languages and the digital divide.

The significance of the collaboration’s efforts was further reinforced at the launch of the National Reading Barometer on 13 June. Among the major factors identified by the NRB to promote reading was ““more interesting, free, relatable material in preferred languages” would help adults read with children more. Other findings showed that whilst English was almost fully represented with 97% of speakers of the language having at least one book at home in that language, indigenous languages trailed far behind: for example, IsiXhosa and IsiZulu led African languages at 68%, Sesotho at 52%, and isiNdebele trailing at 18%.  Thank you to all those who donated to the #RacingForOurLanguages Campaign and those who are yet to donate. We are delighted that Ntobeko Shezi, a past auditor of Puku, will provide financial oversight of the funds raised through the #RacingForOurLanguages campaign. 

Donations are welcome until 30th June. Donations can be made to Puku via our  online pay system ( click here for Puku’s Payfast ) or via bank-to-bank EFT to our current / checking account at Nedbank: 1007 111 917, Branch Code 169745, SWIFT Code NEDSZAJJ, Address 51-81 Main Road, Rondebosch Village, 1st floor, Shop 4, Rondebosch, Cape Town, 7700. 

You may also reach the #RacingForOurLanguages campaign hotline via voice call or WhatsApp: 079 267 7469 during business hours.  Your support is greatly appreciated.

By: Tribute to Eusebuis McKaiser

Posted on: june 10, 2023.

‘One of the deepest joys of being human is reading. That is why it is crucial that the right to education be enjoyed by every single person. Nothing fuels inequality so viciously as unequal access to education including the injustice of not having an opportunity to learn to read AND to have access to affordable and good, relevant reading materials.’ – Eusebius McKaiser  

Broadcaster and author, Joanne Joseph speech at the memorial of her friend and colleague, the renowned late political analyst, broadcaster and author, Eusebius McKaiser, in recognition of the contribution he made to the book community.

When I was asked to speak about our shared love for books, what immediately came to mind were those many posts – Eusebius at his favourite haunts with a foamy cappuccino in hand, the sun streaming over the pages of a book he was poring over. Those posts became important to us. They were not merely an indulgent peek into Eusebius’s lifestyle. They were an invitation to explore his inner literary world, bursting with the ideas of writers whose words and thoughts he dived into, analysed, digested and critiqued.

For authors whose works were featured and often deeply appreciated in those posts, it was an opportunity at an unexpected, generous endorsement that you knew would drive readers to the bookstores and the libraries to read your works. So many of us are deeply grateful that our books were among those that made it into his hands because we knew he’d treated them with the same love and care with which we’d written them. At times, it pained him to write less complimentary reviews, because he was reluctant to be ungenerous towards other writers. But he was a firm believer that writers ought to be held to a high standard and the public deserved quality reading material.

His social media posts and podcasts were also a call for his followers to be deliberate about the act of reading. We were both equally surprised at how often we’d hear people say ‘I have no time to read’ when what they meant to say was that because time was short, they had simply not prioritised the activity of reading over other pursuits. Eusebius’s posts firstly spoke about the joy of reading, and the infinite pleasure that books gave him. But those posts were also a call to action, exhorting his social media followers to intentionally set time aside to read as a means to expand their world view. For him, learning did not end at university – reading was a consistent part of his daily regime – in the way he exercised his body, he constantly exercised his mind. He was trying to convey that not to read is a dangerous thing, especially in a country where people in positions of power regularly use words to mislead, to misrepresent, to confuse, to detract from the truth and more than ever, to sow hatred and division.

One of the most enjoyable projects I ever did with Eusebius was an online show called Cover to Cover which we co-presented between 2020 and 2021. Our main intention was to have fun with books and authors and just inculcate a culture of reading in the nation, that cohered with the hashtags he often used: #ForTheLoveofReading / ForTheLoveofBooks. Again, Eusebius was highly intentional about his approach to the show. As early as the second episode, we focused on children’s literature. I’ll never forget the pics of him, propped on a large cushion on the bookstore floor, having a heart-to-heart with young readers about the books they loved. For him, reading was the gateway for children to access the world of education, subsequently work, and then the quality of life they deserved in this place of inequality and poverty. It was the point at which his love for words and their tools as levers of social justice coalesced. He once wrote in one of his posts: ‘One of the deepest joys of being human is reading. That is why it is crucial that the right to education be enjoyed by every single person. Nothing fuels inequality so viciously as unequal access to education including the injustice of not having an opportunity to learn to read AND to have access to affordable and good, relevant reading materials.’

On Cover to Cover , he was similarly intentional about his guests. He began the show with three powerful black women writers telling stories of home. He was concerned that when one walked into a bookstore, it was first the international writers whose works you’d encounter while local writers would constantly play second fiddle. Eusebius wanted to change that mindset in the publishing and book retail industry. He longed for us as Africans to find our stories, to take pride in them, to write and read them so we could develop a greater sense of self and our history. He wanted us to break our prejudices by penetrating the lives of the marginalised through these encounters.

He was also a broad reader of multiple genres who could not be limited. On that show, he also interviewed African American young adult writers and the Irish winner of the Booker. He explored Afrikaaps poetry alongside local politics and playwrighting, producing a smorgasbord for the reader out there because he understood that the world is huge place that is home to a multitude of stories of humanity and we have a duty to bear witness to the stories of all communities around us, to their suffering and their triumphs as captured in the written word. This was the subject of many of our late-night conversations as mutual insomniacs: how in this short length of time we spend on this earth, we absorb all the storytelling we can from sources close to us and those whose lives we will never encounter personally except through a book. He loved the kaleidoscope of possibility that existed in that – that one could sit here, on the tail end of Africa and yet travel so far into the mysterious lives of others continents away, experience their geographies and relationships and dilemmas, and glean some sense of how all of humanity is connected, how our strivings and difficulties are essentially the same although they may take different forms. Though we had the same interests, we didn’t always read the same books. He would offer me a detailed synopsis of whatever race theory book he was reading at the time. I would give him a rundown of the latest historical fiction novel on my bedside table. So, we joked, our short voice notes first grew into podcasts, and later, into audiobooks.

I’m profoundly sorry that he never got to produce the next book he was thinking about. We are fortunate that, as an author, he produced three books on racism and politics that are still widely available, and his free form writing abounds everywhere on social media while his commentary continues to live on news sites and endures in the form of his podcasts. His words have guaranteed his immortality.   

Yet we grapple with the reality that one of our greatest book exponents has now left us, although his call to action remains. What does this mean to you? Does it mean you will leave this place today and pick up a book after a long time? Does it mean that for a time, you will put aside the escapist reading to pick up a different book – that ‘heavy’ literature that you’ve been avoiding, to find a window into the lives of people around you whose suffering has thus far been invisible to you, and that you will take a moment to acknowledge that? Does it mean you will read your child a bedtime story tonight, or support a literacy organisation that will grow the reading skills of other children, many of whom cannot read with understanding in our country? Does it mean that as an aspiring writer who has never thought your story worthy, you will finally put pen to paper today? Whatever it is, I ask us all here to do something substantial for the cause of literacy in memory of Eusebius.

Eusebius, go well. You accomplished so much in the short space of 44-years. We no longer have you. But we still have your words and we will still find the essence of you in them. Now rest in brilliance. We will always love you.

By: Stir the Dust

Memoirs of a Comrades Champion, Ludwick Mamabolo, by Professor Mpho Ngoepe

Against seemingly impossible odds, a determined young boy from a South African village rises from the dust to become one of the world’s greatest ultra-distance athletes. A win in the grueling Comrades Marathon requires this, and cannot be done, unless, in that moment the winning men’s athlete has become the greatest of all humans who runs. Stir the Dust, Memoirs of a Comrades champion reads like a fable. And yet, it is not one. 

Stir the Dust is the remarkable real-life story of the journey to immortality by Ludwick Modibe Mamabolo (Lodi). For all Comrades Champions, men and women are indeed immortal. Since the first running of this most glorious of human endeavors in 1921 hundreds-of-thousands have started and finished the Comrades Marathon, all of them winners. Many have tried to arrive as the first human to cross the finish line but only an elite group of 51 in the men’s category have done so. Of this elite group, only twelve are Black South Africans. Notwithstanding that black people (and women) were barred from competing until 1975, winning Comrades from the starting point of South Africa’s unequal history is an achievement almost beyond comprehension. That some have done so, and on more than one occasion in some cases, or have won multiple top ten-finisher gold medals at Comrades (as Lodi has done) are stories that must be made available to the world to be shared and known. Like all of us, these humans will pass. But we dare not let the tales of what was accomplished to pass too. 

This then is an important story of what it takes to lead, as Lodi has done, on and off the road. There are other stories of many great South African distance runners which must also be told. Sadly, these stories have not been recorded into written words yet. Until they are an important history of a unique element of South Africa, in which we have run together, and in the same direction will forever be lost. 

Like me, other readers of Stir the Dust will recognize the importance of this story as a trailblazer in recording the remarkable journeys that Comrades dreamers have taken on the road to accomplishing the impossible. “Everything is impossible, until it is done” said our beloved Madiba. This book inspires us all, not only to do the impossible, but to record the stories of all of those who have done so. It was not surprising that the book sold over a 1000 copies in the first month of its publication.

* Book Review by Graham Moore (November 2020)

By: Enthusiastic Unisa academic races for indigenous languages

Posted on: june 6, 2023.

In an inspiring move to promote and preserve indigenous languages, Professor Mpho Ngoepe, Unisa’s School of Arts Director in the College of Human Sciences (CHS), dedicates his participation in the upcoming 2023 Comrades Marathon to raise awareness and funds for indigenous languages. The partnership between Unisa, Indigenous Languages Initiative for Advancement (ILIFA) and Puku Children’s Literature Foundation, aims to address the lack of access to books and to quality children’s literature in African languages.

According to recent reading comprehension results, a staggering 81% of South African Grade 4 learners struggle to read for meaning in any language, representing an increase from 78% in 2016. These figures emphasise the urgent need for investment in multilingual literacy. Surprisingly, only 2% of all books published in South Africa are in African languages, even though 80% of the population speak a home language other than English or Afrikaans, which dominate the publishing industry. Furthermore, a mere 8% of public schools in the country have a library, and many teachers lack the necessary skills to teach children how to read.

Reflecting on his passion for indigenous languages and heritage, Ngoepe shares, “Having written award-winning anthologies of Northern Sotho short stories, I realised that indigenous languages are often neglected. The limited exposure and usage of these languages in education, politics, health, economy, science and social contexts, mean that even native speakers struggle with reading and writing.” Ngoepe adds, “I believe that it is our collective responsibility to empower children to become proficient and proud speakers of indigenous languages.”

Ngoepe had previously participated in nine Comrades Marathons and expresses his determination to complete the race the tenth time to raise awareness for the development and preservation of indigenous languages. By producing high-quality books in these languages, he believes that South Africa can compete at a global level. With his goal of securing a green number at the marathon, an achievement awarded to participants who complete their tenth marathon, Ngoepe hopes to inspire others to embrace the significance of language and heritage.

On 11 June, Ngoepe and his fellow runners will embark on the arduous journey from Pietermaritzburg to Durban in the KwaZulu-Natal Province. Ngoepe urges the public to support his cause, whether by cheering from the side or contributing to the #RacingForOurLanguages campaign by calling the hotline on 079 267 7469 (available via voice call or WhatsApp during business hours) to make their pledge.

The Puku Children’s Literature Foundation, renowned for its award-winning contributions to children’s literature, has taken the lead in collecting donations through their website. They humbly request contributions of any amount to support this cause.

Let us come together and rally behind Unisa’s astonishing academic as he races for indigenous languages, taking a significant step towards creating a brighter future for South African children and their linguistic identities.

Click here  to access Puku’s website and pledge your support.

* By Tebogo Mahlaela, Communication and Marketing Specialist, College of Human Sciences

By: Webinars 2021: The Wonderful Wisdom of Our Words

Posted on: august 3, 2022.

by Nomvuyo Lerato Mzamane

Between April and June 2021, Puku hosted a series of curated conversations amongst writers, academics, publishers, activists, and institutions in the indigenous language ecosystem on the role of children’s literature in preserving and promoting our indigenous languages. These conversations took the form of nine webinars in isiXhosa, isiZulu, Setswana, Xitsonga, Sepedi, isiNdebele, Siswati, Sesotho, and Tshivenda. The isiXhosa webinar was organised in partnership with the University of the Western Cape. The remaining eight webinars were organised in partnership with PanSALB and ILIFA – the Pan South African Language Board and the Indigenous Language Initiative for Advancement, respectively. 

Significantly, this was the first time ever that a webinar series of this nature was conducted in our indigenous languages and there was consensus among webinar panellists and attendees that it should not be the last. Most welcomed by the experts and activists, was that they had never at this level, had discussions about their language, in their language, and for the benefit of the African child. 

Panellists represented academia, broadcasting / media, the performing arts including actors and poets, business, linguists, storytellers and writers of several genres including children’s literature, educators and independent publishers.

The webinars were each facilitated by a Moderator and hosted by a member of the Puku team who also delivered the Vote of Thanks. A Rapporteur was appointed to provide a report of the proceedings in both the language of the webinar, and to craft highlights in English. 

Whilst each webinar was unique in its own right, with noteworthy panellists and informed and informative discussions, recurring themes were identifiable. A comprehensive synthesis culled the webinar discussions and their accompanying reports into an analytical reflection, listing the major issues arising and highlighting key suggestions for the future.

All webinars were recorded and are available in their entirety of approximately two hours each, on the “PESP Webinar Project” playlist on the Puku Channel on YouTube .

The written reports of the webinars in each indigenous language are available on Puku’s website in the Blogs, Features, Opinions & Editorials section.

COMMON THREADS FROM THE WEBINARS

• Early childhood is where to start. Across the heritage landscape.
• Significant emphasis was placed on African languages development in both the first 1000 days of life (conception to age 2) and in early childhood 0 to 9 years of age (up to grade 3).  
• The primacy of storytelling was particularly named with a robust call-to-action being the regeneration of indigenous spoken languages in homes, and the embrace of all other child literary legacies: songs, poetry, play, toys, visual aids, and sayings-idioms-proverbs. In addition, newer children’s literature genres must be made in indigenous languages; graphic novels (comic books), colouring books, and news and information, to name a few.
• It is the responsibility of every adult to tool and inspire children to be skilled and proud speakers of indigenous languages.
• A clarion call was made to all adults, be they parents, older siblings, teachers or community members, that this movement needs them not just as producers and presenters of this content, but also as exemplary role models and vigorous influencers.
• Every child must be able to access books nearby. Those books must be in languages they understand.
• 80% of South Africa’s 24,894 public schools (June 2022), do not have a school library. This number excludes the many different kinds of early childhood centres, institutions and homes.
• Just 2% of the books published in South Africa are in an African language.
• 21st century technologies are the only way forward.
• We are in the 4th Industrial Revolution. Contemporary digital tools and resources must be deployed to promote children’s literature in African languages 
• The possibilities for contributors in this space are limitless and themself require specific South Africa-centric avenues of discourse, planning and implementation. There are unique opportunities for us to be global leaders. We have the motivation and skills sets, what is elusive are the resource investments.
• Our languages need a significant creative presence in the multimedia universe.
• Edutainment is an impactful tool for preservation and promotion in children’s worlds.
• New opportunities are forever presenting themselves such as the digital video streaming services and social media.
• Radio is still royalty in many South African homes. We need to make greater use of radio to promote books in our languages.

Today’s young demand diverse genres and more complex topics in their children’s liter ature. 

• Themes for children’s literature must themselves reflect contemporary affairs, engage with complex issues youth are facing today, present real triumphs of the majority of our children, and tackle “taboo subjects”.
• New genres enjoyed by children in non-African languages must find their way into indigenous literature:  cosmology, science fiction, space science, modern fantasy, present-day magic, historical fiction, and biographies and autobiographies. 
• Professional development offerings need to be made available to current and future writers of children’s literature.
• We must replicate the rich supportive ecosystem that is common among, for example, writers of children’s literature in English: resources showcasing how one writes for children, what one ought to write about, where and how to get published, show-and-tell videos abound, associations and chat-groups, quality social media accounts, guidelines, free e-learning courses at reputable institutions,  and other elements of a nurturing ecosystem.
• In literature, children’s needs and wants are unique and the African child is especially deserving of quality content reflective of their often underrepresented and misrepresented worlds. 

Schools and the educational systems have a monumental responsibility to preserve and promote our indigenous languages.

• National and provincial governments including minimally, the departments of education, arts and culture, human settlements, agriculture, forestry, digital communications, health, higher education, tourism, water and the Presidency could contribute significantly more to the children’s book production ecosystem. 
• Some queries: Who will write books in our languages in adulthood when these languages are not widely taught at schools in childhood? How will our children read for meaning when the books are written in languages they neither know, nor learn in the real world they live in but only in the isolation of their classrooms? How do we promote social cohesion when we are so fragmented as language and literature workers? What uniquely South African experiences are lost when our children’s literature is not an early introduction to one another and to our country?
• Children’s literature must become a serious area of intellectual inquiry; a plea to higher education.
• The preservation and promotion of indigenous languages, including endangered languages, is doomed without the robust and wide involvement and leadership of academia, including but not limited to inter-institutional collaboration.
• The tensions and imbalances in institutions of higher learning need a resolution; “institutions of higher learning need to review policies in which indigenous language literature, compared to academic papers, is not highly regarded for grading academic production.” 
• Repatriation and inter-translation must be pursued with vigour.
• There is a dominance of works translated from European colonial languages to Africa’s indigenous languages. Much is lost in this cultural chasm. Children’s literature needs more inter-translation, the cross-lingual rendition between African languages. 
• In addition, we need a repatriation of children’s literature, the transposition of literary works from English (and other European languages) back into the languages of the authors and their language communities, e.g. Sol Plaatije’s works being translated into Setswana. 
• Repeatedly, alarms were raised about how translations into African languages have mainly delivered work devoid of technical quality and full of cringeworthy and inaccurate cultural nuances. Furthermore, translating for children is a particularly unique subset competency of translation. We need a plethora of professionally trained translators specifically for children’s literature, a role South Africa’s multiple qualification bodies could embrace. 
• We need an enabled and enabling publishing terrain.
• Prohibitive. That’s the word/synonym many used about South Africa’s indigenous language publication universe. For most who have wanted to pursue this dream further, everything about it is repressive and gatekeepers include commercial publishers, bookstore corporations, independent and self-publishers, and, getting on to the Department of Education’s setworks list is akin to “attempting space travel when all you have is a bucket and a dream.” In summary, unless we address blockages in the current ecosystem our languages will be threatened with extinction. 
• Questions that must be asked and addressed: What are the real investments of programmes and initiatives across all government structures in indigenous language children’s literature publications? What are the actual monetary investments in publications made by NGOs working with reading, children’s literature, languages? How many corporations support indigenous language children’s book publishing as their CSI? What aspect of indigenous languages children’s publications are high networth individuals (HNWIs) making? What about bookstores? Digital spaces? Any other entities?
• Public celebrations of children’s literature in indigenous languages must be plentiful and magnificent.
• We must affirm and honour our stories, our books, our writers and illustrators, our literacy activists, and our publishers. 
• We need to address some serious challenges: How many children’s literature awards do we have? Do our parents and teachers rush to go buy the books that have just won prestigious or less well known awards? Do publishers do a rushed reprint to fulfil the consumer’s appetite after the announcement of such a prize? Do our motion picture studios and directors rush to the laureate to negotiate having their book made into film? Where is our Brand South Africa recognition in the indigenous languages children’s literature universe? 

Existing strategic partnerships in the indigenous languages ecosystem must be strengthened.

• Our children deserve for our collaborations to be values-based and outcomes-focused, and always attending to what is in the best interests of the African child. What are we actually achieving for our children? 
• The clarion call for all the needs of preserving and promoting indigenous languages in children’s literature, requires all of society, not just those involved with the book ecosystem.
• We require differentiated investments made in and tailored attention paid to endangered languages.
• The UN has declared an International Decade of Indigenous Languages 2022-2032, at a time when half of the world’s approximately 6000 languages are at risk for extinction by the end of this century. This includes our endangered languages like N/uu.
• We need an intensive focus on our languages spoken at home by the fewest South Africans: isiNdebele (1.6%), Siswati (2.8%), Tshivenda (2.5%) and Xitsonga (3.6%). 

The webinars concluded with a call for similar engagements to be held with  greater regularity and each concluding with a proactive call-to-action. Potential future topics were listed and appreciation was expressed to Puku for the groundbreaking webinar series.

By: Thank you to our PESP project independent contractors for their valued contribution this year – names and profiles attached

Posted on: december 13, 2021.

Puku was fortunate to receive a grant from the Presidential Employment Stimulus Programme (PESP) administered by the National Arts Council. We are very thankful to all the independent contractors who participated.in the PESP project with us. The UNESCO Literacy prize is not our accolade alone. It also belongs to all the people that took part in the PESP project, and to all our partners.

We have created a website post showing all your profiles and we wish you productive and satisfying work opportunities in the coming year. (If we have somehow not included your name in the list, or you would still like to send in you bio as an independent contractor in the 2021 PESP project, please write and advise us: [email protected] )

By: Ikhatalogu Yethu – Puku’s catalogue of 100 recommended isiXhosa books is now listed on our website

Posted on: december 11, 2021.

The Puku catalogue of 100 recommended Foundation Phase  isiXhosa books has been placed on our website under Latest/Catalogues . These were  selected and are currently being reviewed by Puku’s specialist reviewers. All of the books with their details have been uploaded to the Puku website. 

These recommended books were curated by our specialist reviewing team, from books listed on the Biblionef’s catalogue collection of over 240 isiXhosa books.  The book donation organisation, Biblionef, has curated extensive collections of children’s books in all South African languages.  You will also find links to these on our website . The collections reflect Biblionef’s commitment to culturally and linguistically appropriate books that foster a lifelong love of reading. These books are still in the process of being  reviewed by Puku’s reviewers and each review is added to the website as it is sent to us.

Here is Puku’s Ikhatalogu Yethu

By: What is the UNESCO King Sejong Literacy Prize?

Posted on: december 8, 2021.

Puku Children’s Literature Foundation was recently awarded the 2021 UNESCO King Sejong Literacy Prize for its work on “Using digital technologies to promote children’s literature in South Africa’s indigenous languages”. 

But what is the UNESCO King Sejong Literacy Prize? Wikipedia describes it like this: “ The UNESCO King Sejong Literacy Prize is an annual prize awarded to three institutions, organizations or individuals for their contribution to the fight against illiteracy.”

The  UNESCO  King  Sejong  Literacy  Prize  was  established  in  1989  by  the UNESCO Executive  Board through the generous support of the Government of the Republic of Korea. It was created to honour the outstanding contribution made to literacy by Sejong the Great who created the Korean alphabet Hangul . 

The purpose of the Prize is to honour the outstanding programmes of institutions, organizations and individuals  to  support  effective  literacy  practices and to and  to  contribute  to  the  promotion  of  dynamic literate  societies.  

This  Prize  gives  special  consideration  to  mother  language-based  literacy  development,  while  applying  a  broad  concept,  in  which  literacy  is  considered  as  a  continuum  of  learning and proficiency in reading, writing and using numbers, from a lifelong learning perspective.    The award comprises a silver medal, a diploma and a cheque.

Puku feels very honoured to be a recipient of this coveted award.

Credits The image ‘gwanghwamun, sejong, gyeongbok palace’ is a free download from www.pikist.com

By: Find out more about Biblionef, a valued partner of Puku.co.za

Posted on: november 14, 2021.

Biblionef is one of Puku’s valued literacy partners. Earlier this year the Puku team had a wonderful Zoom call with Sunitha Arnod, the Managing Director of Biblionef. It was inspiring to hear about the work that Biblionef does in bringing only the best storybooks to the children of South Africa.

Biblionef – Puku History

The relationship between Puku and Biblionef goes back to even before the formation of both organisations. It started when a founding member and current executive director of Puku, received a call from Max Vegelin van Claerbergen around 1995.  He explained that he was a former Dutch ambassador to France who had founded an organisation called Biblionef in 1989. He had contacted Elinor who was a member of the Book Development Foundation working with the Centre for the Book at the time, because he had heard of her interest in children’s books and he wanted to explore the possibility of starting a Biblionef chapter in South Africa. 

Ambassador Van Claerbergen had a long meeting in which they exchanged ideas about their passion for children’s books and their determination that no child should be denied the opportunity to read books for enjoyment from the earliest age. Ambassador van Claerbergen explained that when he was Ambassador of the Netherlands in Suriname, he was disturbed to discover that the majority of children in that country had little exposure to books and many did not read at all. This prompted him to start a book donation organisation to provide children in disadvantaged areas of the world with storybooks to read for enjoyment. The word ‘Biblionef’ derives from “biblio” referring to books and “nef” referring to a ship, a fitting name for an organisation that ensures that books travel to children in remote parts of the world. Ambassador Van Claerbergen explained that Biblionef offices in different countries worked independently of each other.

Elinor Sisulu was initially skeptical of the need to have a Biblionef office in South Africa. I felt that  South Africa already had a publishing industry, and needed to strengthen it further. I was wary that a flood of book donations from abroad might undermine the South African publishing industry. Ambassador van Claerbergan took me quite seriously and he recognised that the situation in South Africa was not comparable to other countries that had no children’s book publishing industry at all. We agreed on the importance of books in mother tongue and that a South African chapter should focus on sourcing books locally wherever possible.  I’m proud to say I am one of the voices that encouraged Biblionef to focus on South African authors.“ 

Ambassador Van Claerbergen got South Africa’s Biblionef chapter off the ground in August 1998 with the financial assistance of the Biblionef International and the Dutch Government. He was fortunate to identify a remarkable and visionary Executive Director in Jean Williams. In her years at the helm of Biblionef, she made remarkable progress in building a competent team and systems that would ensure a body of South African children’s literature published in all languages. Puku shares Jean’s strong conviction that: “ Books really can change your life. They open your mind and that changes your attitude towards life and the world around you. Once you taste the joy books bring you, you’ll become a life-long reader and readers are normally good citizens who can act wisely. ”http://bookslive.co.za/blog/2018/06/27/books-really-can-change-your-life-a-qa-with-jean-williams-executive-director-of-book-donation-ngo-biblionef/

Sadly all good things have to come to an end, and Jean Williams retired in 2018 after 20 years of service to Biblionef. We think her sterling contribution to the organisation she led and the South Africa’s children’s literature and reading ecosystem as a whole, has not been sufficiently acknowledged and lauded. But that is a story for another day. 

Thankfully Jean has a capable successor in Sunitha Amod who herself has over 14 years of experience with Biblionef. This has enabled Biblionef to continue its mission of making books available to all children so that they can have the opportunity to read for pleasure and enjoyment in their own languages.

Catalogue project partnership

In pursuit of one of its main objectives i.e. to develop a more structured and organised system for selecting, reviewing and sharing accurate data on children’s books, Puku initiated a concept for the collaborative development of catalogues in indigenous languages. Concerned about the lack of a central, easily accessible source of data on children’s books in all South African languages, Puku approached a number of partners to collaborate on developing digital catalogues for each language that could be widely shared and updated. Puku envisaged that catalogues developed through a collaborative process involving experts from respected institutions would have more value and weight than anything produced by a single organisation. 

Puku secured the support of the National Library of South Africa (NLSA), the UNISA Department of Information Science, the International Board for Books for Young People (IBBY) SA  and Biblionef. The organisations initially agreed to collaborate on three languages as a pilot, but due to funding constraints narrowed it down to one language isiXhosa. Funding from the Presidential Employment Stimulus Programme (PESP) enabled the engagement of an highly accomplished editorial team to recommend 100 books in isiXhosa for the catalogue that they promptly referred to as Ikhatologu Yethu. 

To restate the observation made in our first newsletter, the value of great collaborations is the ability to leverage the strengths of partners. One of Biblionef’s major achievements is that it has curated extensive collections of children’s books in all South African languages. The collections reflect Biblionef’s commitment to culturally and linguistically appropriate books that foster a lifelong love of reading. Rather than reinvent the wheel and start building a collection from scratch, the Ikhatologu Yethu partners decided to select books from the Biblionef collection. Four members of the editorial team for isiXhosa books spent a day at the Biblionef offices in the Cape Town suburb of Pineland. From the Biblionef collection of over 240 isiXhosa books, they recommended the 100 books for the catalogue. 

Fundraising to develop the remaining catalogues continues. The task is made much easier by the fact that Biblionef already has produced catalogues in all eleven South African languages.

Visit the page http://www.biblionefsa.org.za/view-catalogue/ to download the Biblionef catalogues.

How does Biblionef operate?

Biblionef is a registered Non-Profit Company, and all donations made to the organisation are tax-deductible. Biblionef South Africa donates new books in all 11 languages to organisations with an educational focus, e.g. schools, ECD Centres, literacy organisations, drop-in centres, children’s homes, etc. The majority of the books Biblionef donates are locally produced and contain beautiful illustrations that South African children can relate to. These books support endeavours to improve literacy levels and help create the right circumstances to foster a love for reading. 

When funding allows, Biblionef also provides teacher support and training to Foundation Phase teachers on incorporating storybooks into the CAPS Curriculum.

The Biblionef website can be found at: http://www.biblionefsa.org.za/  

How does Biblionef acquire its books?

Biblionef  obtains their  books in several ways:

• Purchasing titles from publishers and booksellers at a discounted price. The affordability of the book is an important issue.
• Receiving book donations from publishers, booksellers and individuals.
• Commissioning the publishing of appropriate titles.

Biblionef tries to keep to story books only rather than readers,so that they can avoid having to grade books which Sunitha described as ‘a big, complicated issue.”  The actual selection of books is done by the team with the assistance of an educational consultant.

Visit the Biblionef website and download other free literacy resources

Biblionef has developed six short films and a training booklet to help educators teach reading and writing for meaning. If you wish to view these free resources, you can follow this link to the Biblionef resource page: http://www.biblionefsa.org.za/about-2/

By: Watch our Video introducing the Puku Children’s Literature Foundation

We are proud of Puku’s achievements this year. At a virtual ceremony broadcast from Paris in September, Puku Children’s Literature Foundation was awarded the coveted 2021 UNESCO King Sejong International Literacy Prize for its work on “Using digital technologies to promote children’s literature in South Africa’s indigenous languages.” But have you ever wondered what Puku is all about? The video entitled ‘A video introducing the Puku Children’s Literature Foundation’ explains what Puku has achieved over the years. 

Click on this link to watch the video on our Puku channel on YouTube.

By: South Africa Congratulates Puku Children’s Literature Foundation for Winning a Prestigious 2021 UNESCO International Award

Posted on: october 23, 2021.

South Africa’s Puku Children’s Literature Foundation has been awarded the 2021 UNESCO King Sejong Literacy Prize for its work on “Using digital technologies to promote children’s literature in South Africa’s indigenous languages” . Puku is proud to be named a 2021 UNESCO Laureate.

UNESCO selected six outstanding literacy programmes as winners of its International Literacy Prizes to be awarded on 8 and 9 September as part of International Literacy Day 2021. Puku’s award is in recognition of its work contributing to mother language-based literacy development. Puku received a medal, a certificate and a cash prize of US$20,000. The awards were presented during a virtual International Conference entitled “ Literacy for a human-centred recovery: Narrowing the digital divide.”

UNESCO South Africa’s event, led by the Education Sector Committee (ESC) hosted an advanced celebration webinar of International Literacy Day on Tuesday 7 September 2021. Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga congratulated Puku on behalf of the country. The event video, the programme and all presentations are available here: https://www.education.gov.za/ 2021LiteracyWebinar.aspx

By: AN INVITATION TO A VIRTUAL EVENT: ‘Paul Sithole, The Forgotten Scientist’ 20 September 2021: 6pm (SAST)

Posted on: september 20, 2021.

‘Jacana Conversations’ invites you: Join Puku Children’s Foundation and Jacana publishers’  virtual event this evening ‘The Forgotten Scientist: The Story of Saul Sithole.  Lorato Trok, author of The Forgotten Scientist: The Story of Saul Sithole , and Elinor Sisulu, Executive Director of Puku, will discuss and celebrate the life of Saul Sithole on his birthday, 20 September, at 6pm. The discussion is presented in partnership with Biblionef and The National Heritage Council.

When: 20 September at 18:00 (SAST)

CLICK HERE TO BOOK YOUR SEAT: https://www.crowdcast.io/e/saulsithole/register.  CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE THE BOOK : https://jacana.co.za/product/the-forgotten-scientist-the-story-of-saul-sithole/ 

What will take place? Join Lorato Trok, author of The Forgotten Scientist: The Story of Saul Sithole, and Elinor Sisulu, executive director of PUKU, as they discuss and celebrate the life of Saul Sithole on his birthday, 20 September, at 6pm.

Who is Paul Sithole? A pioneering black scientist, Saul Sithole’s great contribution to the fields of anthropology and ornithology in South Africa has been ignored and largely forgotten. This book has gone some way in rectifying this by telling Sithole’s story of dedication to his craft and his role in the advancement of our knowledge of birds and fossils through his 62-year career at the Ditsong (previously Transvaal) Natural History Museum.

Who is participating in the discussion? Lorato Trok, the author, has more than 10 years’ experience in publishing, writing and story development in children’s literature. Lorato was project coordinator at the Centre for the Book in Cape Town, worked as publishing programme manager at Room to Read South Africa and was the South Africa, Lesotho and Zambia country coordinator for the African Storybook Initiative. This is her second biography for young people and forms part of the series about unsung South African heroes and heroines.

Elinor Sisulu is a Zimbabwean-born, South African human rights activist, and the the author of the Noma award-winning biography Walter and Albertina Sisulu: In Our Lifetime (2003) . She is a founder member and current Executive Director of the Puku Children’s Literature Foundation, a winner of the 2021 UNESCO King Sejong Literacy Prize.

Click here to see the full invitation: https://bit.ly/39kMMYJ

By: Puku Children’s Literature Foundation Described as an “Excellent Ambassador for Literacy” at Handover Ceremony for 2021 UNESCO Laureates

Tshwane, South Africa.   17 September 2021

As part of UNESCO’s inauguration of its 7th South African National Commission for UNESCO, of which Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga is President, Puku Children’s Literature Foundation received their award and medal as UNESCO 2021 Laureates of the International Literacy Prize. The special event was held at Sol Plaatje House on the DBE campus in Pretoria.

Minister Motshekga concluded her keynote address with the following: “We have the winner of the 2021 UNESCO International Literacy Prize in the house. UNESCO has requested me to hand over the Diploma and Medal to the Executive Director of PUKU Children’s Literacy Foundation, Mrs Elinor Sisulu, for winning the UNESCO King Sejong International Literacy Prize. Ms Sisulu and her PUKU Children’s Literacy Foundation have made our country proud. On behalf of our people, we thank you again for being an excellent ambassador for literacy. We are so proud.”

The Minister further lauded Puku for exemplary representation on the international stage; “It is no longer just a Puku prize, it is South Africa’s national award now.”

“This is the most prestigious award that UNESCO has,” added Professor Hubert Gijzen, Director of UNESCO’s Regional Office for Southern Africa (ROCA), who also affirmed the importance of literacy.

Puku has had a whirlwind week of presentations, appearances and accolades after it was named a 2021 UNESCO Laureate for its work on “ Using digital technologies to promote children’s literature in South Africa’s indigenous languages ”. The other five outstanding literacy programmes came from Côte d’Ivoire, Egypt, Guatemala, India, and Mexico and each will receive a medal, a diploma and a cash prize of US$20.000.

Puku Children’s Literature Foundation is a non-governmental organisation established in 2009 with the objective of promoting reading and book development to help all children, especially those living in the most economically deprived areas, so that they may have access to books in all South African languages. Puku aims to ensure that all children have access to quality, culturally relevant literature in the languages they understand. Puku does this by working to create systemic change in the reading and book development ecosystem through digital platforms that provide a structured and organised system for selecting, reviewing and sharing accurate data on children’s books in all South African languages. Puku also hosts community events celebrating books and reading, advocates for the book publishing ecosystem, and conducts writing and reviewing workshops for storytellers, writers, teachers, librarians, language practitioners, cultural and literary activists and academics in indigenous language communities.

Nomvuyo Mzamane, Puku’s Education & Multimedia Edutainment Specialist notes; “The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the need for South African children and youth to become independent readers and have access to reading resources in the languages they most need. As the pandemic has forced a shift to distance learning, the task of producing enduring and memorable content in all South African languages through digital platforms becomes more urgent.”

With support from the Presidential Employment Stimulus Programme (PESP) as administered by the Department of Sports, Arts and Culture’s National Arts Council, Puku ramped up its digital products and services. Puku spearheaded the publication of the first-ever book in the N/uu language,made progress towards the completion of

the first in a series of catalogues of indigenous language books for early childhood and foundation phase,  and used radio and social media to enhance its work in the promotion and preservation of all South Africa’s indigenous languages. Puku also designed and produced what is the world’s first video tutorial on the subject of reviewing children’s literature that affirms the African child in an African language, with the pilot being in isiXhosa.

Through webinars, radio and social media, Puku organized a campaign to promote and preserve indigenous languages, with a special focus on the promotion of reading in indigenous languages from early childhood. As a thought leader in the children’s literature space and acting as a strategic convenor, Puku was able to connect institutions and organizations, leading experts in the indigenous language communities with voices on the ground. The nine Puku webinars, all available in their entirety on YouTube’s Puku Channel, are the first ever webinar series in indigenous languages within and between linguistic communities.

Puku’s leadership in unique, multi-sectoral collaborations and advocacy for indigenous languages, including this award recognition, would not be possible without its partners. Puku is most grateful for ongoing and far-reaching collaborations with the University of South Africa (UNISA), the National Library of South Africa (NLSA) , the Pan South African Language Board (PanSALB), the Indigenous Language Initiative for Advancement (ILIFA), the book donation non-profit Biblionef, the International Board for Books for Young People (IBBY), and the University of the Western Cape (UWC). We are also thankful to Ouma Katrina Esau, her family and the Northern Cape Provincial government for our collaboration on the N/uu language children’s book.

As COVID-19  continues to force increased uptake in virtual communication, making it easier and cheaper to organize meetings that reach a larger audience with less time and financial investment. However, Lorato Trok, Puku’s Specialist Multilingual Editor notes; “Virtual worlds have also brought the emotional burden of lacking physical interaction with other human beings, especially direct contact with our children.” Other significant challenges include the great digital divide whereby those who do not have access to infrastructure, devices, and data are excluded.

Looking beyond the Literacy Prize, Puku aims to mobilize the resources needed to have a complete digital refresh and upscale their website into Pukupedia, an online encyclopedia for children’s books in all Southern African languages. Puku will seek funds to continue supporting the production of books in the endangered Nama, San and Khoi languages. Puku also looks forward to sourcing investments to expand its indigenous language e-learning opportunities, its African language book catalogues for children of all ages, and its think-tank work through webinars and other engagements.

In the spirit of International Literacy Day, Puku acknowledges the vital role in which extraordinary storytellers, educators, writers and language practitioners have to cultivate literary traditions within linguistic communities. ‘We need to harness their talent and abilities to populate our digital platforms with the enduring and memorable content that our children desperately need.  Just as Nelson Mandela wanted all children in the world to experience the wonder of books, so do we want all children to have access to the digital spaces where they can enlarge their earthly dwelling place with the magic of stories,”  shares Mrs. Elinor Sisulu, Executive Director of Puku Children’s Literature Foundation.

By: BREAKING NEWS: South African Organisation, Puku, Wins 2021 UNESCO Award

Posted on: september 9, 2021.

Paris, France  &  Pretoria, South Africa.   9 September 2021.

At a virtual ceremony broadcast from Paris today, Puku Children’s Literature Foundation was awarded the 2021 UNESCO King Sejong International Literacy Prize for its work on “Using digital technologies to promote children’s literature in South Africa’s indigenous languages”. 

In awarding Puku and other 2021 recipients, UNESCO Director General Audrey Azoulay noted that all the winners have literally changed the lives of thousands of children, young people, women and marginalised adults. 

Puku is proud to be among six 2021 UNESCO Laureates recognised for their outstanding literacy programmes. Each will receive a medal, a diploma and a cash prize of US$20,000. 

In accepting the award, Puku’s Executive Director Elinor Sisulu thanked the South African Presidency for its support of arts organisations during the pandemic. She described Puku’s operational approach as influenced by the Creative Coalitions model of the international human rights organisation Crisis Action, stating; “This award is therefore not ours alone. So we must take this opportunity to acknowledge and thank our partners who played a crucial role in the implementation of the project.” These include various NGOs, state parastatals, universities, book publishers, a provincial government and an embassy. 

Puku Children’s Literature Foundation is a non-governmental organization established in 2009 with the objective of promoting reading and book development to help all children, especially those living in the most economically deprived areas, so that they may have access to books in all South African languages. Puku aims to ensure that all children have access to quality, culturally relevant literature in the languages they understand. 

Accolades have been pouring in for Puku. Speaking on behalf of the government, Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga said; “We are very proud and we’re very excited about the honour that you received. Your honour is ours.”

Read the full breaking news report here

By: Puku’s winning UNESCO project – Read all about it! ‘Using digital technologies to promote children’s literature in South Africa’s indigenous languages’

Posted on: september 7, 2021.

’ It is my wish that the voice of the storyteller will never die in Africa, that all children in the world may experience the wonder of books, and that they will never lose the capacity to enlarge their earthly dwelling place with the magic of stories’. – Nelson Mandela

‘Using digital technologies to promote children’s literature in South Africa’s indigenous languages ‘ of Puku Children’s Literature Foundation in South Africa is awarded this year’s UNESCO King Sejong Literacy Prize.

Puku Children’s Literature Foundation, a non-governmental organization established in 2009, has always been inspired by Nelson Mandela’s vision and has always believed in harnessing the digital space to build a reading culture rooted in indigenous storytelling traditions in all South African languages.

The programme aims for reading promotion and book development to help ensure that all children, especially those living in the most materially deprived areas, have access to books in all South African languages.

Moreover, Puku promotes and preserves indigenous languages through children’s literature by providing training to mainly parents, writers and educators on reviewing children’s books, and on writing children’s literature. With the pandemic’s physical distancing requirement, such trainings were shifted from face-to-face workshops to online learning sessions, producing what is the world’s first tutorials on the subject in an African language.

The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the need for South African children and young people to become independent readers and have access to reading resources in the languages they most needed. As the pandemic forced a shift to distance learning, the task of producing enduring and memorable content in all South African languages through digital platforms became urgent.

Through webinars, radio and social media, Puku conducted workshops and organized a campaign to promote indigenous languages, with a special focus on the promotion of reading in indigenous languages from early childhood. As a thought leader in the children’s literature space and acting as a strategic convenor, Puku was able to connect institutions and organizations, leading experts in the indigenous language communities with voices on the ground.

While COVID-19 forced increased uptake in virtual communication, making it easier and cheaper to organize meetings that reached a larger audience with less time and financial investment, it also brought the emotional burden of lacking physical interaction with other human beings, especially the direct contact with the children. Other significant challenges include the great digital divide whereby those who do not have access to infrastructure, devices, and data are excluded.

 Looking beyond the Literacy Prize, Puku hopes to continue its expansion in the Southern African region. The foundation aims to mobilize the resources needed to have a complete digital refresh and upscale their website into Pouteria, an online encyclopedia for children’s books in all Southern African languages.

In the spirit of  International Literacy Day , Puku Foundation acknowledges the vital role in which extraordinary storytellers, educators, writers and language practitioners have to cultivate literary traditions within linguistic communities. ‘We need to harness their talent and abilities to populate our digital platforms with the enduring and memorable content that our children desperately need.  Just as Nelson Mandela wanted all children in the world to experience the wonder of books, so do we want all children to have access to the digital spaces where they can enlarge their earthly dwelling place with the magic of stories’.  Shares Ms Elinor Sisulu, Executive Director of Puku Children’s Literature Foundation.

This year’s  UNESCO International Literacy Prizes  will be awarded to six outstanding literacy programmes from Côte d’Ivoire, Egypt, Guatemala, India, Mexico and South Africa on the occasion of International Literacy Day. UNESCO will host a two-day online  International Conference  on 8 and 9 September. A special session with the Laureates of this year’s Prizes 2021 will be held on 9 September highlighting ‘inclusive distance and digital learning’.

This article can be found on the UNESCO website here

By: South Africa’s Puku Children’s Literature Foundation Wins Prestigious 2021 UNESCO International Award

Posted on: september 6, 2021.

Tshwane, South Africa. 6 September 2021

UNESCO has selected six outstanding literacy programmes from South Africa, Côte d’Ivoire, Egypt, Guatemala, India, and Mexico as winners of its International Literacy Prizes to be awarded on 8 September as part of International Literacy Day. Of the six, three awards are part of the UNESCO King Sejong Literacy Prize for work contributing to mother language-based literacy development, sponsored by the Government of the Republic of Korea. Each of the three UNESCO King Sejong prize winners will receive a medal, a diploma and a cash prize of US$20.000. 

South Africa’s Puku Children’s Literature Foundation is being awarded the 2021 UNESCO King Sejong Literacy Prize for its work on “ Using digital technologies to promote children’s literature in South Africa’s indigenous languages ” . Puku is proud to be named a UNESCO Laureate. 

Puku Children’s Literature Foundation is a non-governmental organization established in 2009 with the objective of promoting reading and book development to help all children, especially those living in the most economically deprived areas, so that they may have access to books in all South African languages. Puku aims to ensure that all children have access to quality, culturally relevant literature in the languages they understand. Puku does this by working to create systemic change in the reading and book development ecosystem through digital platforms that provide a structured and organised system for selecting, reviewing and sharing accurate data on children’s books in all South African languages. Puku also hosts community events celebrating books and reading, advocates for the book publishing ecosystem, and conducts writing and reviewing workshops for storytellers, writers, teachers, librarians, language practitioners, cultural and literary activists and academics in indigenous language communities.

Nomvuyo Mzamane, Puku’s Education & Multimedia Edutainment Specialist notes; “The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the need for South African children and youth to become independent readers and have access to reading resources in the languages they most need. As the pandemic has forced a shift to distance learning, the task of producing enduring and memorable content in all South African languages through digital platforms becomes more urgent.” 

With support from the Presidential Employment Stimulus Programme (PESP) as administered by the Department of Sports, Arts and Culture’s National Arts Council, Puku ramped up its digital products and services. Puku spearheaded the publication of the first-ever book in the N/uu language,made progress towards the completion of the first in a series of catalogues of indigenous language books for early childhood and foundation phase, and used radio and social media to enhance its work in the promotion and preservation of all South Africa’s indigenous languages. Puku also designed and produced what is the world’s first video tutorial on the subject of reviewing children’s literature that affirms the African child in an African language, with the pilot being in isiXhosa. 

Through webinars, radio and social media, Puku organized a campaign to promote and preserve indigenous languages, with a special focus on the promotion of reading in indigenous languages from early childhood. As a thought leader in the children’s literature space and acting as a strategic convenor, Puku was able to connect institutions and organizations, leading experts in the indigenous language communities with voices on the ground. The nine Puku webinars, all available in their entirety on YouTube’s Puku Channel, are the first ever webinar series in indigenous languages within and between linguistic communities. 

Puku’s leadership in unique, multi-sectoral collaborations and advocacy for indigenous languages, including this award recognition, would not be possible without its partners. Puku is most grateful for ongoing and far-reaching collaborations with the University of South Africa (UNISA), the National Library of South Africa (NLSA) , the Pan South African Language Board (PanSALB), the Indigenous Language Initiative for Advancement (ILIFA), the book donation non-profit Biblionef, the International Board for Books for Young People (IBBY), and the University of the Western Cape (UWC). We are also thankful to Ouma Katrina Esau, her family and the Northern Cape Provincial government for our collaboration on the N/uu language children’s book. 

As COVID-19 continues to force increased uptake in virtual communication, making it easier and cheaper to organize meetings that reach a larger audience with less time and financial investment. However, Lorato Trok, Puku’s Specialist Multilingual Editor notes; “Virtual worlds have also brought the emotional burden of lacking physical interaction with other human beings, especially direct contact with our children.” Other significant challenges include the great digital divide whereby those who do not have access to infrastructure, devices, and data are excluded. 

Looking beyond the Literacy Prize, Puku aims to mobilize the resources needed to have a complete digital refresh and upscale their website into Pukupedia, an online encyclopedia for children’s books in all Southern African languages. Puku will seek funds to continue supporting the production of books in the endangered Nama, San and Khoi languages. Puku also looks forward to sourcing investments to expand its indigenous language e-learning opportunities, its African language book catalogues for children of all ages, and its think-tank work through webinars and other engagements. 

In the spirit of International Literacy Day, Puku acknowledges the vital role in which extraordinary storytellers, educators, writers and language practitioners have to cultivate literary traditions within linguistic communities. ‘We need to harness their talent and abilities to populate our digital platforms with the enduring and memorable content that our children desperately need. Just as Nelson Mandela wanted all children in the world to experience the wonder of books, so do we want all children to have access to the digital spaces where they can enlarge their earthly dwelling place with the magic of stories,” shares Mrs. Elinor Sisulu, Executive Director of Puku Children’s Literature Foundation. 

Read the full press release here:  

By: Ikhatalogu Yethu: The list of 100 books recommended by the isiXhosa editorial team

Posted on: august 25, 2021.

The value of great collaborations is the ability to leverage the strengths of partners. The book donation organisation, Biblionef, has curated extensive collections of children’s books in all South African languages. The collections reflect Biblionef’s commitment to culturally and linguistically appropriate books that foster a lifelong love of reading. Rather than reinvent the wheel and start building a collection from scratch, the Ikhatologu Yethu partners decided to select books from the Biblionef collection. Four members of the editorial team for isiXhosa books spent a day at the Biblionef offices in the Cape Town suburb of Pineland. From the Biblionef collection of over 240 isiXhosa books, they recommended 100 books for the catalogue. These books are currently being reviewed by Puku’s speciality reviewers and will be uploaded to the Puku website in the coming weeks. 

By: A Position Paper on Prescribed Literature (Setworks) of South Africa’s Major Curricular Bodies: CAPS, IEB, Cambridge and IB

As part of its Presidential Employment Stimulus Programme (PESP) funding under the banner of “The Role of Children’s Literature in Preserving and Promoting our Indigenous Languages”, Puku commissioned a fact-finding and opinion piece to interrogate the literature and language setwork choices of four main curricular bodies in South Africa in terms of their suitability and appropriateness in content and context, especially in consideration of the country’s unique history and complex contemporary realities. Specifically, the task of the study was to provide Puku with insights on potential engagements with each curricular body on children’s literature in indigenous languages, and to support Puku with its advocacy for the increased inclusion on setwork lists of books Puku recommends, has or will review, children’s literature that represents a far wider selection of African writers, and especially original works in African languages.   The paper has first focused on upper secondary school with attention leaning more to books in English as a start. The hope is that future funding will expand the study to include the literature in indigenous languages and to attend to all grades in schools.    The document is written by a team of seasoned international educators who have worked extensively with all four curriculum bodies, and have been a part of Puku. Lead writer Radha Pillay is the author of two widely used English textbooks. She is also an award-winning English language & literature educator, teacher trainer, former head of school, assessor, moderator, facilitator and consultant with 30 years of experience. She has taught in South Africa, Swaziland and Canada. Supporting the paper is Nomvuyo L. N. Mzamane, a school start-up expert and a multimedia edutainment specialist who is also an award-winning teacher and acclaimed lecturer with over three decades of service in diverse education spaces. Her passions include children’s literature, language and culture activism, social justice and children’s rights. Nomvuyo has lived in and travelled to over 20 countries around the world and is fluent in 8 languages. She volunteers for several child protection organisations. Other educators in various countries including South Africa, were also part of online debates as the paper was in development.   The study will start being published on the Puku website in coming weeks as a series of blogs, and its content lends itself well to future webinars.

By: A YouTube Course in isiXhosa on Reviewing Children’s Literature as a Template for Other Indigenous Languages

Posted on: august 23, 2021.

Puku is taking its education and training offerings digital! We are starting with our highly regarded 3-day face-to-face workshop on reviewing children’s literature. Held in English for years, with a preliminary pilot in Setswana, Puku was able, through its African Publishing Innovation award funded by the International Publishing Association and Dubai Cares in 2019, to pilot its review and writing workshops in first Nguni languages and then in Sotho languages. The successful results were upgraded yet distinct courses in reviewing children’s literature, and in writing literature for the African child. 

2021’s funding from the Presidential Employment Stimulus Programme (PESP) has allowed Puku to redesign the book review workshop into a 10-lesson course, then take that template to produce the tutorial on YouTube entirely in isiXhosa. This serves as a pilot course and Puku is actively seeking funding to produce the children’s review course in all indigenous languages and to create much more content in our languages on YouTube, a  platform reaches 95% of the internet’s population.While YouTubes top-performing countries reflect that global diversity, South Africa’s users are not yet even in the top 90 countries which are represented by over 80 languages. Indeed, while Africa is the second-most populous continent (16% of the world’s population), we rarely feature on the most viewed lists. Puku thinks all this is mainly a language barrier and that if we begin to communicate with people in their own languages, they will want to listen. Puku also sees the digital universe as a significant avenue to the preservation and promotion of indigenous languages. 

Our first children’s literature review course in isiXhosa is made up of ten lessons ranging from 4-12 minutes each. Lesson topics range from “Cultural Competency: Affirming the African Child” to “Understanding Book Levels”, and from “How to Write a Hook” to  “Crafting Praise & Critique”. All in isXhosa. As we continue to upload lessons, we invite you to visit the Puku YouTube Channel, to click the Subscribe and Like buttons, to comment, and to share our videos with your networks.

This project might even be a world first!

Find out more about the ten lessons covered in Puku’s YouTube book review course by watching this video (embdded below) from Puku’s YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCaAUGhelbiqrsppZbdL3Lig

By: The Role of Children’s Literature in Preserving and Promoting our Indigenous Languages

A synthesis of puku’s 2021 indigenous language webinars project.

Between April and June 2021, Puku held a series of nine webinars, each in South Africa’s indigenous languages. The theme was “The Role of Children’s Literature in Preserving and Promoting our Indigenous Languages”. The webinar series was funded by the Presidential Employment Stimulus Programme (PESP).  Panelists represented academia, broadcasting / media, the performing arts including actors and poets, business, linguists, storytellers and writers of several genres including children’s literature, educators, independent publishers, and people from the world of politics. Each webinar was conducted in the language under discussion, a first for many. The video recordings of all webinars, each about two hours in length, can be found on Puku’s YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCaAUGhelbiqrsppZbdL3Lig . T

he written reports of the webinars in each indigenous language are available on Puku’s website in the “Blogs, Features, Opinions & Editorials” section: https://www.puku.co.za/en/category/blogs/ . Highlights in English for each language will be uploaded in September. Whilst each webinar was unique in its own right, with noteworthy panelists and informed and informative discussions, recurring themes were identifiable. A working document is under review by various participants to further cull the webinars and all reports into a brief analytical reflection, listing the major issues arising and highlighting specific key suggestions for the future.

The major themes emerging from the webinars are: 

• Today’s young demand diverse genres and more complex topics in their children’s literature. 
• Schools and the educational system have a monumental responsibility to preserve and promote our indigenous languages.
• Existing strategic partnerships in the indigenous language ecosystem must be strengthened.

By: Highlights from the isiNdibele webinar / Tuthuko emntwaneni ngelimi lakhe lesiNdebele

Posted on: august 22, 2021.

Below you will find details and a report covering the highlights of the isiNdebele webinar ‘Ituthuko emntwaneni ngelimi lakhe lesiNdebele’ /A discussion on preserving our languages’. You will also find the recording of the webinar embedded from YouTube. We invite you to subscribe to our Puku Channel on YouTube at this link: https://bit.ly/Puku-YouTubeChannel.

Details of the Webinar 

Moderator: Mr. Mathews Mokena

Panelists: Mr William Wizoo Jiyana, Mr. Bhuti M Jiyana, Mr. January Zinyo Mthimunye, Mrs. Evelyn Mncedi Ntuli. 

Rapporteur:  Mr M.W. Jiyana

Puku Host & Vote of Thanks:  Elinor Sisulu

The highlights written in isiNdibele

We bring you the introduction with a link to the full report.

Ukuthwasiswa kwabotitjhere ekufundiseni isiNdebele eFundweni esiSekelo : (Okwenziwako, ihlaziyo nemithelela yemigomo). Training of educators to teach isiNdebele in the Foundation Phase (Practices, Policy implications and analysis) Isingeniso(introduction) 

• Iyindaba mlonyeni indaba yokusebenzisa Ilimi lokubelethwa ekufundiseni abotitjhere emaYunivesithi. ( Teaching of teachers in African languages is very controversial)
• Ngemva kweminyaka ema-27 sathola ikululeko , kusese nesitjhijilo esikhulu ngokufundiswa kwabotitjhere emaYunivesithi.( Using African languages for teacher training is one of the most difficult tasks facing post-apartheid South Africa) .
• Abotitjhere nabafundi abasathwasiselwa ukufundisa banemibono ehlukahlukeneko ngokusebenziswa kwelimi le-Afrika/lokubelethwa ukubathuthukisa njengabotitjhere

( Teachers and Student teachers have their own perceptions on the role of mother tongue and their own professional development and teaching practice) (Nomlomo, 2014:72).

Read the rest of this report on our website here: https://bit.ly/3y356iV

Webinar recording

The webinar recording can be found on YouTube at the following link:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9ogNupJeiw  

The webinar can also be watched below:

By: Highlights from the Tshivenda webinar ‘Tshivenda manwalo a vhana’

Below you will find details of the Tshivenda webinar ‘Tshivenda manwalo a vhana’/ ‘A discussion on preserving Indigenous languages’. You will also find the recording of the webinar embedded from YouTube. We invite you to subscribe to our Puku Channel on YouYube at this link: https://bit.ly/Puku-YouTubeChannel

Details of the webinar

Moderator : Dr Nthambeleni Netshisaulu

Panelists: Mr Joseph Netshipakoni, Professor A Khuba, Mr Tshifhiwa Given Mukwevho, Mr Muneyi Masibigiri, Ms Khalirendwe Nekhavhambe Mr Nat Ramabulana. Rapporteur – Mr Chester Makana Vote of thanks  – Professor Lesibana Rafapa

The webinar recording can be found on YouTube at the following link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9ogNupJeiw

By: Highlights of the Sepedi webinar: TlhatloŠo ya Sepedi ngwaneng | A discussion on preserving indigenous languages

Posted on: august 15, 2021.

Below you will find details and a report covering the highlights of the isiNdebele webinar ‘TlhatloŠo ya Sepedi ngwaneng | A discussion on preserving indigenous languages’ . You will also find the recording of the webinar embedded from YouTube. We invite you to subscribe to our Puku Channel on YouTube at this link:  https://bit.ly/Puku-YouTubeChannel

Moderator :  Prof. Mpho Ngoepe

Panelists :  Prof Leketi Makalela, Dr Napjadi Letsoalo, Dr Francinah Kanyane, Ms. Keitumetse Audrey Tlokane, Dr Tembane Seleka 

Rapporteur :  (acting) Dr. Napjadi Letsoalo

Puku Host & Vote of Thanks :  Prof Lesibana Rafapa 

The highlights written in Sepedi

Pego ya bobinare ya epedi / sesotho sa lebowa.

Bobinera ya Sepedi / Sesotho sa Lebowa e be e welana le letšatši la Afrika leo le ketekwago ngwaga ka ngwaga e le segopotšo sa go hlongwa ga mokgatlo wa ditšhabakopano tša Afrika. Letšatši le le re fa sebaka sa go akanya ka tšwelopele yeo Afrika e e dirilego, le go kopana go humana tharollo ditlhotlong tšeo re lebanego natšo. Ebile sewelo gore bobinare ya Sepedi / Sesotho sa Lebowa e swarwe ka letšatši leo. Sehlogo sa bobinare e be e le “Tlhatlošo ya Sepedi ngwaneng! Go bohlokwa kudu gore bana ba tsebe go ngwala le go bala leleme la gabobona gore ba kgone go atlega dithutong. Gore motho a kgone go kwešiša leleme la bobedi, go bohlokwa gore motheo wa leleme la pele o tie. Ka fao, ke tshwanelo gore maleme a setlogo a matlafatšwe ka ditlabakelo tša go a hlatloša. 

You can read the rest of the report on our website here: https://bit.ly/3kbJH2l

The webinar recording can be found on YouTube at the following link:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0LX211JVbw  

By: Highlights from the isiZulu webinar Iqhaza lezincwadi zezingane ekugcineni ulimi lwesizulu | A discussion on preserving isiZulu

Posted on: august 7, 2021.

Below you will find details of the isiZulu webinar ‘Iqhaza lezincwadi zezingane ekugcineni ulimi lwesizulu’ . You will also find the recording of the webinar embedded from YouTube. We invite you to subscribe to our Puku Channel on YouYube at this link: https://bit.ly/Puku-YouTubeChannel

Moderator – Dr Gcina Mhlophe

Panelists: Prof. Nomalanga Naledi Mkhize, Mr. Sandile Ngidi, Prof. Sihawukele Ngubane, Mr Siya Masuka, Mabutho “Kid” Emmanuel Sithole, Mr Mandla Mona, Mr Fred Khumalo, Dr C. Zwane,

Vote of thanks : Dr Nokuthula Msimang

The highlights written in isiZulu

Umbiko we webinar yesizulu.

Evula ingxoxo, umphathi wohlelo uDokotela Gcina wathi izilimi zaseAfrika zisemqoka ekudluliseni ulwazi. Udokotela Mhlophe wathi omama baneqhaza elikhulu ekubeni yisizinda sokufundisa izingane ulwimi – kungakho nje kukhulunywa ngolwimi lwebele. Ubonge uPuku ngokushicilela izincwadi zabantwana ezibhalwe ngolwimi lwebele kanjalo nokugquguzela ukufundwa kwalezizincwadi eMzansi Afrika. Ube esebonga ubuholi obuqotho buka Elinor Sisulu okunguye ohola Puku nemibhidlango yakhe enhlobonhlobo. 

• Amazwi Izikhulumi Ezavula Ngawo

Dr Celani Zwane

“Uthando lolwimi lwebele kumele lugqugquzelwe ingane isencane. Umuntu onesisekelo esiqinile solwimi lwebele, ubamba kalula kwezolwazi nokuba nezwi elizwakalayo. Akungabazeki, isisekelo solwazi, ulwimi lwebele.”

Fred Khumalo

The likes of Dr Gcina Mhlophe and initiatives like Puku, have shown the way, and continue to inspire more writers like us to see it is now possible to write and get published in our mother tongues. Let us use the Internet, films and other modern platforms to make sure that the effort to enhance our languages is multipronged.” 

“Kusemqoka ukuthi umbhali owuhloniphayo umsebsenzi wakhe abe nezimpande ezijulile olwimini lwakhe lwebele. Noma umbhali eseke wakhipha izincwadi ngesiNgisi, ukubhala ngolwimi lwakhe lwebele yindlela yokuliphilisa lelo lwimi. Amavulandela anjengoDokotela Mhlophe aseyikhombisile indlela benezinhlangano ezifana noPuku. Nayo i-Internet nezinye izindlela zobuchwephese besimanje, akusetshenziswe ekuphakamiseni izilwimi zebele.”

To continue reading this isiZulu report, please click on the following link for the full report:: https://bit.ly/3kejCQ7

The webinar recording can be found on YouTube at the following link: https://bit.ly/3gppK6S

By: Highlights from the Sesotho webinar ‘Monate wa ho Bala ka Puo ya Letswele: Na Dingolwa tsa Bana di Lekane?’

Posted on: august 1, 2021.

Below you will find details and a report covering the highlights of the Sesotho webinar ‘Monate wa ho Bala ka Puo ya Letswele: Na Dingolwa tsa Bana di Lekane?’ / ‘Sesotho Literature’.  You will also find the recording of the webinar embedded from YouTube. We invite you to subscribe to our Puku Channel on YouYube at this link: https://bit.ly/Puku-YouTubeChannel

Moderator: Ngaka / Dr. R Possa-Mogoera (shown in the image)

Panelists: Mr Mahase Ms M. Sehlabo Ms P Makhetha Dr M. Matsabisa Dr Nkhatho Mr Lesoetsa  Mr Casey Ruele 

Rapporteur – Ms Mohale

Vote of thanks: Ms Fazila Montsi

The highlights written in Sesotho

We bring you the introduction with a link to the full report

Monate wa ho Bala ka Puo ya Letswele: Na Dingolwa tsa Bana di Lekane?

Webinara ena e ne e hlophisitswe ke mokgatlo wa Puku Children’s Literature Foundation ka tshebedisanommoho le PanSALB. Moifo wa Naha wa Puo ya Sesotho (SNLB) o ile wa fuwa boikarabelo ba ho kgetha dibui tse fapaneng tse neng di tla bua ka dihlooho tse tsamaelanang le mookotaba wa projeke ena, e leng Seabo sa Dingolwa tsa Bana bakeng sa ho Boloka le ho Phahamisa Dipuo tsa rona ( The Role of Children’s Literature in preserving and promoting our Indigenous languages ). Sehlooho seo Moifo o ileng wa se kgetha bakeng sa webinara ena ebile sena; “Monate wa ho Bala ka Puo ya Letswele: Na Dingolwa tsa Bana di Lekane?” Dibui tse neng di kgethilwe di ne di tlameha ho etsa puo mabapi le dintlha tse fapaneng tse nyalanang le sehlooho sena se ka hodimo. Motsamaisi wa mosebetsi o ile a bula mosebetsi ka thapelo ya Basotho, mme a amohela dibui tsa letsatsi mmoho le bamamedi, ba neng ba mametse inthaneteng. Kamora moo o ile a kopa hore dibui di itsebise ka botsona.

To continue reading this Sesotho report, please click on the following link for the full report:  https://bit.ly/3xQLDCL

The webinar recording can be found on YouTube at the following link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjlpNfFccs4.  The webinar can also be watched below: 

By: Highlights from the Siswati webinar ‘Temibhalo yebantfwana kutfuftukisa Siswati’

Posted on: july 18, 2021.

Below you will find details and a report covering the highlights of the Siswati webinar entitled ‘Temibhalo yebantfwana kutfuftukisa Siswati’. You will also find the recording of the webinar embedded from YouTube. We invite you to subscribe to our Puku Channel on YouYube at this link: https://bit.ly/Puku-YouTubeChannel

Moderator – Dr Remah Lubambo (photo shown)

Panelists: Ms Manesi Kekana Professor Stanley Madonsela Professor Madonsela – panellist M. Kekane – panellist| T. Mongwe – panellist

Rapporteur – Ms Fatima Mkhomazi

Vote of thanks – Mr Perfect Hlongwane 

The highlights written in Siswati

Highlights from the siswati webinar ‘‘temibhalo yebantfwana kutfuftukisa siswati’.

Inkhulumiswano yahamba kahle kakhulu tonkhe tikhulumi betitimisele. Sikhatsi lebesibekiwe sagcinwa njengesimiso senkhulumiswano.

Dokotela Lubambo wemukela tonkhe tikhulumi wacela kutsi titatise kafishane. Wachaza injongo yalenkhulumiswano, kubukwa kugcinwa kwelulwimi nekutfutfuka kwetemibhalo  kwesukela ebuncaneni bemntfwana. Dokotela Lubambo wacela tikhulumi kutsi ticoce ngetihloko lebatikhetsile.

Solwati Madonsela wasetfulela sihloko sakhe lesitsi ‘Schools and language policy’

Wachaza ngekwakhekha kwemtsetfo wetemfundvo, imfundvosisekelo. Kuneluhlaka lolubekiwe kwehlukanisa tigaba temfundvo. Sikolo nesikolo sibambisana nebatali kwakha umtsetfosisekelo welulwimi lolutawusetjentiswa kuleso sikolo kepha uhambisane nemtsetfosisekelo newelive wetemfundvo.

Solwati wachaza ngekwehlukanisa emabanga ebantfwana etikolweni (Phases) nekutsi kubaluleke ngani loko kwenemfundvo. Wagcizelela kubaluleka kwemfundvo yemabanga laphasi. Imfundvo yemabanga laphasi ngekwemtsetfo wemfundvo ibaluleke ngekutsi ngulapho umntfwana acala khona kuvula emehlo ngako-ke kubalulekile kutsi umtsetfosisekelo wetemfundvo ulandzelwe ngibo bonkhe labatsintsekako.

To continue reading this Siswati report, please click on the following link for the full report:   https://bit.ly/3inFsQb  

The webinar recording can be found on YouTube at the following link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RgJ826cozQ4&list=PLpL3BIiY03uqkecysdn8vtcDwD79sz_vp&index=8 The webinar can also be watched below: 

By: Highlights from the Xitsonga webinar ‘Garingani wa Garingani’

Below you will find details and a report covering the highlights of the Xitsonga webinar ‘Garingani wa Garingani’ /The Importance of Xitsonga Books for Children.  You will also find the recording of the webinar embedded from YouTube. We invite you to subscribe to our Puku Channel on YouYube at this link: https://bit.ly/Puku-YouTubeChannel

Moderator : Professor Tinyiko Maluleke (photograph attached)

Panelists : Mr Mbhazima Shilowa Mr Vonani Bila Mr Edward Tsumele Mrs Cordelia Khoza Dr Nyeleti Nkuna Mr Lebogang Shirindzi

Rapporteur – Mr Edward Tsumele

Vote of thanks – Dr Nokuthula Msimang  

The highlights written in Xitsonga

Ku dumisa kuhlaya no tsala xitsonga wuhlohleteriwa hi putu webinar .

By Edward Tsumele and Ivy Rihlampfu.

Akurinanhlengeletano enkarhininyana lowuhundzeke hi siku ra ti 20 mudyaxihi 2021, lowuawululamisiwe hi Puku Children Literature Foundation, lowu awulangute eka  nhokomhakaleyinge: Xiavexavana eka kuhlayisana kuyisa emahlweni mbulavulo wandzavuko naririmi ra Xitsonga, leswiaswinyikiwevito ra Garingani Wagaringani. Nhlengeletano lowu a wufambisiwa hi Professor Tinyiko Maluleke, lava vanga pfuniwa hi Tatana Mbhazima Shilowa, Tatana Vonani Bila, Tatana  Edward Tsumele, Manana Cordelia Khoza, Dokotela  Nyeleti Nkuna  na Tatana  Lebogang Shirindzi varingeta hi matimba kuka vanga tirhisi marito ya xinghezi hiku lava kuxixima Xitsonga ka mi mbulavulo yavona.

Leswi swinan koka hikuva hingakahingavurisani hikuyisa emahlweni ririmi ra Xitsonga hi thlela hintirhisa ririr miri nwana eka mburisano ya hina.hambiswiritano swipfumelelekile kutirhisa Xitsonga xinwananixinwana lexivulavuriwaka etindhawini to hambana hambana laha vatirhisaka ririmi ra Xitsonga kuvulavula kufana nale Bushbuckridge.Giyani,Tzaneen , Pretoria Nale Soweto. Xitsonga  xale kunwani nakunwani laha xi vulavuriwaka kona xi lulamile, ku hlamusela Maluleke.

To continue reading this Xitsonga report, please click on the following link for the full report: https://bit.ly/384bM64

The webinar recording can be found on YouTube at the following link:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqSF67LQ91U The webinar can also be watched below:    

By: Highlights from the Setswana webinar ‘Ra reng ka Setswana mo ngwaneng’

Below you will find details and a report covering the highlights of the Setswana webinar ‘Ra reng ka Setswana mo ngwaneng’/ ‘A discussion on preserving Indigenous languages’. The report was written by the Rapporteur – Professor Shole Shole. You will also find the recording of the webinar embedded from YouTube. We invite you to subscribe to our Puku Channel on YouYube at this link: https://bit.ly/Puku-YouTubeChannel

Moderator: Professor Gilbert Motsaathebe (photograph attached)

Panelists: Mr Sabata Mokae Doctor Eileen Pooe Ms Dimakatso Motaung Mr Mokakale Mr Goitsemdimo Seleka Rapporteur – Professor Shole Shole Vote of thanks : Lorato Trok

The highlights written in Setswana

SETSWANA PUKU WEBINAR (SETSWABINARA) RA RENG KA SETSWANA MO NGWANENG LA MMEGELEDI: SHOLE SHOLE

• MAIKARABELO A MMEGELEDI (RAPPORTEUR)
• Go rerisana le moradisi (moderator) le baakgedi (panellists) ba webinara, go tlhomamisa gore maitlhomo le sebopego sa webinara di tsamaelana le thomo ya ba Puku Foundation mabapi le Ditlhangwa tsa Bana(DB). Mmegeledi o tsitsintse gore boemong jwa DIKWALO tsa Bana, go dirisiwe lereo DITLHANGWA TSA BANA, gonne ga di mo sebobegong sa dikwalo fela: di akaretsa DITLHAJWA (orature), le ditlhagiswa tsa DITSA-TSEBE/MAREEDIWA & DITSA-MATLHO/MABOGELWA (audio-visual material) jaaka DB tsa kgaso (radio le TV) le difilimi/dipopae. DB e akaretsa dipuisiwa tsa boithabiso le dipadiso tsa bana kwa dikolong (graded school readers) .
• Go garela webinara ka ditshwaelo le dikatlanegiso tse di tlaa neelwang ba Puku Foundation, tse di akaretsang se se ka dirwang go rotloetsa le go godisa DB.

To continue reading the Setsana report, please click on the following link for the full report: https://bit.ly/3is1L7A 

The webinar recording

The webinar recording can be found on the Puku Channel on YouTube at the following link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bm7UQPxh92g 

The webinar can also be watched below: 

By: A personal reflection about the launch of the first ever N/uu children’s book ‘!Qhoi n|a Tjhoi / Skilpad en Volstruis / Tortoise and Ostrich’

Posted on: june 24, 2021.

Written by Lorato Trok

I will never forget the day I met Ouma Katrina five years ago in the summer of 2016. I never thought it was possible. I was a Project Manager at African Storybook and my manager at the time showed me an article about the old lady who was fighting to preserve her endangered language. I have heard about her, but I was not following her work as much. After I read the article, I was so intrigued by her work and immediately researched ways I could get hold of her and/or her people. Two months later I was in Upington sitting with Ouma Katrina and members of the Khoisan Heritage Council. I won Ouma Katrina and her family’s trust on my first and subsequent visits. I diligently followed her work and became an advocate of her work. The crescendo of my literary relationship with Ouma Katrina came when I joined Puku in October 2017. Elinor Sisulu, Puku’s Executive Director, as a lifelong advocate for the promotion of African languages in early literacy, worked diligently to get funding for the publication of the NIuu children’s book. The rest is history.

Monday May 24 th 2021 will forever be etched in my memory. As someone who was born and raised in the Northern Cape, with a Namibian father whose home language was Oshivambo but assimilated as a Coloured person who spoke Afrikaans when he immigrated to South Africa, saying I was excited on this day will be an understatement. I was ecstatic. As I was watching people coming into the hall for the launch, I saw my community. Every greeting was in NIuu, with happy faces and wide smiles, I saw a community celebrating being seen after all these years. I have never seen Ouma Katrina that happy. When she got up the stage to speak, she cried tears of happiness and she said so. As an author, it does not matter how many times you have received complementary books from your publisher, it always seems like the first time. Imagine doing that for the first time at the age of 88! No less with a book that no one but you speaks the language the book was created in. Even though the book was trilingual, the focus was on the NIuu language and how the book was created. There was a feeling of hope in the community. Hope that eventually, their language will language has a chance of survival now that it has proven that it is a written language published in the mainstream. One community member told me that it was a good day to proudly display their cultural beliefs and traditions after hiding who they were for so long. That hit me hard as I knew exactly what that meant. Growing up as a daughter of an immigrant father who did not speak Setswana, the community always othered our family. This was the reason we did not learn our father’s language for fear of being othered. We wanted to wholly belong to the community and be seen as full Batswana. Although it did not take me as long as it took Ouma Katrina and her community to fully embrace my mixed ancestry, I know the feeling of not living as your true self. That is why I embraced this day as fully representative of me just as it was Ouma Katrina and her community’s day of celebration of more than a book launch.

By: Open invitation to our webinar in Sesotho – Friday 25th June

Posted on: june 23, 2021.

Please join us in our discussion.

Date: Friday June 25, 2021 Time: 10h00 – 12h30, Johannesburg (SAST) Topic:  Monate wa ho Bala ka Puo ya Letswele: Na Dingolwa tsa Bana di Lekane? Register for the Zoom webinar here:  https://us02web.zoom.us/…/reg…/WN_bLUvp-LQSiywkWKXa3v1nQ

The Puku Children’s Literature Foundation, in partnership with PanSALB, is pleased to invite you to WEBINARA YA DINGOLWA TSA SESOTHO / SESOTHO LITERATURE Webinar, Monate wa ho Bala ka Puo ya Letswele: Na Dingolwa tsa Bana di Lekane? Sebaka / Venue: ONLINE (Zoom & Facebook) Letsatsi / Date: 25 Phupjane 2021 Nako / Time: 10:00 – 12:30 This is the eighth instalment in a series of curated conversations amongst writers, academics, publishers, activists, and institutions in the indigenous language ecosystem on The Role of Children’s Literature in preserving and promoting our Indigenous languages. Through the webinars, we will deliberate the specific challenges and opportunities facing those working in the writing, publication, and promotion of African languages. Our panelists will explore themes such as the economics of indigenous languages, the challenges faced by African language practitioners, strategies to improve publishing as well as to increase access to reading materials. Motsamaisi wa lenaneo / Moderator: NGAKA / Dr. R. POSSA-MOGOERA. Our panelists: Ntate / Mr Mahase, Mme / Ms M. Sehlabo, Mme / Ms P Makhetha, Ngaka / Dr M. Matsabisa, Ngaka / Dr Nkhatho, Ntate / Mr Lesoetsa, Ntate / Mr Casey Ruele, Mme/ Ms Mohale

By: Highlights from the ‘Conversations about isiXhosa Children’s Books Catalogue’ webinar – a report back in isiXhosa and English

Posted on: june 22, 2021.

Below you will find details and a report on the ‘Conversations about isiXhosa Children’s Book Catalogue’ webinar. . You will also find the recording of the webinar embedded from YouTube. We invite you to subscribe to our Puku Channel on YouYube at this link: https://bit.ly/Puku-YouTubeChannel

Moderated by : Dr Xolisa Guzula Panelists: Prof Monwabisi Ralarala, Mr Madoda Ndlakuse, Dr Sebolelo Mokapela, Dr Philangani Sibiya, Ms Pumeza Ngobozana, Ms Babalwayashe Molate, Mr Cebo Solombela, Ms Elinor Sisulu.

Highlights of the webinar written in isiXhosa 

Iingxoxo malunge ngeKhatalogu yeencwadi zesiXhosa zabantwana

Ngomhla wama-22 kuTshazimpuzi 2021(22 April 2021), iPuku Children’s Literature Foundation ibambisene neUniversity of South Africa, National Library, Biblionef kunye neNational Arts Council ziye zabamba iingxoxo malunga ngekhathalogu yeencwadi zabantwana zesiXhosa ecetywa ukusungulwa.

Ezi ngxoxo bezibhexeshwa nguGqirhalwazi uXolisa Guzula ongumhlohli wootitshala kwizifundo zeliteresi kwiDyunivesithi yaseKapa (UCT).

Ezi ngxoxo beziphakathi kukaGqirhalwazi uSebolelo Mokapela ongumhlohli kwiDyunivesithi yaseNtshona Kapa(UWC), uNkosazana Phumeza Ngobozana ongumpapashi ozimeleyo kwinkampani eyiZabenguni Media kunye noMnuzana uPhilangani Sibiya, ongumhlohli kwiDyunivesithi yoMzantsi Afrika(UNISA).

Iingongoma abathe bagangatha phantsi kwazo zezi zilandelo:

• Kukucacisa iinjongo zeKhatalogu
• Ukugxininisa ngokubaluleka kwekhatalogu
• Nokucacisa banzi ngemisebenzi yekhathalogu

Iingongoma ezithe ngokwezi zithethi zezi zalandelayo:

UMnu.Sibiya uvele kwinkalo yethala leencwadi, egqamisa into yokuba le khatalogu singayithatha njengomqulu osisalathiso esisazakwenza abantwana bazifumane lula iincwadi, ibancedisa ekubeni bazazi apho zifumaneka khona.Kwaye babenakho ukwazi oko zikuqulathileyo, kwaneentlobo zeencwadi.

UNksz. Ngobozana uye wavelela kwinkalo yopapasho nababhali, ejonge imingeni abajongene nayo abapapashi kunye nababhali ezakuthi lekhathalogu ihlangabezane nayo ekuyisombululeni kwaneendla zokuphathisana nabanye abantu abasebenza ngoluncwadi lwabantwana. Uphinde wagqamisa umgangatho wale khathalogu, ebonisa indlela esiza kuthi siyithemba ukuba isemgangathweni. Uye wagxininisa ekubeni le khathalogu ayifani nezo kukhethwana ngokwazana, nangebala . Uyivezile into yokuba kuza kubakho indlela ecacileyo nebanzi ezakube ibonisa ukuba iincwadi kumele ziphumelele eyiphi imigangatho ukuze zibenako ukuthathwa nje ngeencwadi zodidi.

Kanti yena uGqir. Mokapela uvele ngecala labazali esithi “Abazali bajongene nezinto ezininzi, ingakumbi ukutyholwa ngokungathandi ukufunda, ukungathandi ukufundisa abantwana, ukungabinalo ixesha labantwana kunye nokungazithandi iilwimi zesiNtu.”

Uye wakhankanya neemeko zentlalo abathi abazali bazibhaqe sele bekuzo, umzekelo apho baye bazifumane beyokuhlala kwiindawo zabantu abathetha iilwimi ezininzi okanye kwiindawo ezinolwimi olwahlukileyo kwelo baluthethayo.Uyivezile into yokokuba ingumngeni into yokungazazi apho zifumaneka khona iincwadi, kwaye bengazazi ukuba baza kuqala ngaphi kuba kwiivenkile ezithengisa iincwadi abazifumani ezo zibhalwe ngeelwimi zesiNtu. Ngoko ke le Khathalogu iza kuba sisalathiso sokuba bengabazali bangazifumana phi ezi ncwadi.

Uphinde wagxininisa ukuba le Khathalogu ikwayindlela yokuba abantwana nabazali babenokho ukunxibelelana ngakumbi, kuba baza kuzikhetha kunye ezi ncwadi. Kwaye le Khathalogu ikwakhuthaza abantwana ekubeni bakwazi ukuzikhethela, kwaye bakwazi ukuzihlalutyela iincwadi ezikhoyo, kwanokukwazi ukufunda ushwankathelo khona ukuze bakhethe iincwadi ezibafaneleyo kwanezo banomdla kuzo. Le khathalogu izakuba nohlelo ngokweminyaka yabantwana nangee ndidi ezahlukeneyo zoluncwadi lwabantwana.

You can read the rest of the report here: https://bit.ly/3sDW772

The webinar recording can be found on the Puku Channel on YouTube at the following link: https://bit.ly/3wU0NqE

The webinar can also be watched below: 

By: Open invitation to our webinar in Tshivenda – 30 June 2021

Date : Thursday June 30, 2021 Time : 12h00 – 14h00, Johannesburg (SAST) Topic : TSHIVENDA MANWALO A VHANA Register for the Zoom webinar here:   https://us02web.zoom.us/…/reg…/WN_N-irCS3sRCGLpn1Zm1R_Cw The Tshivenda webinar will be facilitated by Dr Nthambeleni Netshisaulu and our panelists include: Mr Joseph Netshipakoni, Professor A Khuba, Mr Tshifhiwa Given Mukwevho, Mr Muneyi Masibigiri, Ms Khalirendwe Nekhavhambe and Mr Nat Ramabulana. Rapporteur – Mr Chester Makana Vote of thanks – Professor Lesibana Rafapa

The Puku Children’s Literature Foundation, in partnership with PanSALB, is pleased to invite you to a Tshivenda webinar titled TSHIVENDA MANWALO A VHANA to be held on Wednesday 30 June 2021, 12:00pm – 14:00pm. This is the ninth instalment in a series of curated conversations amongst writers, academics, publishers, activists, and institutions in the indigenous language ecosystem on The Role of Children’s Literature in preserving and promoting our Indigenous languages. Through the webinars, we will deliberate the specific challenges and opportunities facing those working in the writing, publication, and promotion of African languages. Our panelists will explore themes such as the economics of indigenous languages, the challenges faced by African language practitioners, strategies to improve publishing as well as to increase access to reading materials. The Tshivenda webinar will be facilitated by Dr Netshisaulu and our panelists include: Mr Joseph Netshipakoni, Professor A Khuba, Mr Tshifhiwa Given Mukhwevho, Mr Muneyi Masibigiri, Ms Khalirendwe Nekhavhambe and Mr Nat Ramabulana.

By: Open invitation to our webinar in Siswati – 24 June 2021

Posted on: june 21, 2021.

Date : Thursday June 24, 2021 Time : 12h00 – 14h00, Johannesburg (SAST) Topic : Temibhalo yebantfwana kutfuftukisa Siswati Register for the Zoom webinar here:  https://us02web.zoom.us/…/WN_N85JgYdTRByMTTn7XPqQpA…

The Puku Children’s Literature Foundation, in partnership with PanSALB, is pleased to invite you to an Siswati webinar titled Temibhalo yebantfwana kutfuftukisa Siswati to be held on Thursday 24 June 2021, 12:00 – 14:00. This is the seventh instalment in a series of curated conversations amongst writers, academics, publishers, activists, and institutions in the indigenous language ecosystem on The Role of Children’s Literature in preserving and promoting our Indigenous languages. Through the webinars, we will deliberate the specific challenges and opportunities facing those working in the writing, publication, and promotion of African languages. Our panelists will explore themes such as the economics of indigenous languages, the challenges faced by African language practitioners, strategies to improve publishing as well as to increase access to reading materials. The Siswati webinar will be facilitated by Moderator Dr Lubambo and our panelists include: Mr Timothy Mongwe, Ms Manesi Kekana, Ms Busi Dlamini, Profe Stanley Madonsela, Rapporteur Ms Fatima Mkhomazi.

By: Open invitation to our webinar in isiNdebele – Tuesday 22 June

Date : Tuesday June 22, 2021 Time : 12h00 – 14h00 ,  Johannesburg (SAST) Topic : Ituthuko emntwaneni ngelimi lakhe lesiNdebele Register for the Zoom webinar   here : 

The Puku Children’s Literature Foundation, in partnership with PanSALB, is pleased to invite you to an isiNdebele webinar titled ‘Ituthuko emntwaneni ngelimi lakhe lesiNdebele’ to be held on Tuesday 22 June 2021, 12:00pm – 14:00pm. This is the sixth instalment in a series of curated conversations amongst writers, academics, publishers, activists, and institutions in the indigenous language ecosystem on The Role of Children’s Literature in preserving and promoting our Indigenous languages. Through the webinars, we will deliberate the specific challenges and opportunities facing those working in the writing, publication, and promotion of African languages. Our panelists will explore themes such as the economics of indigenous languages, the challenges faced by African language practitioners, strategies to improve publishing as well as to increase access to reading materials. The isiNdebele webinar will be facilitated by Moderator Mr Matthews Mokoena and our panelists include: Mr William Jiyana, Mr Buti M Jiane, Ms Evelyn Mncedi Ntuli, and Mr January Mthimunye.

By: Launch of the first book ever to be written in N/uu takes place today – purchase the book here, on the puku.co.za website

Posted on: may 24, 2021.

Today, 24 th May 2021, is a big day for the Puku Foundation! The launch of Katrina Esau’s children’s book  ‘!Qhoi n|a Tjhoi / Skilpad en Volstruis/ Tortoise and Ostrich’,  will take place in Upington at 11h00. This is a historic occasion because it is the launch of the first book ever to be written in the N/uu language . ‘!Qhoi n|a Tjhoi / Skilpad en Volstruis/ Tortoise and Ostrich’ is written in N/uu with translations in Afrikaans and English .

Puku is delighted to announce that the book can be purchased via the puku.co.za website. Go to the link where the book is reviewed, https://bit.ly/346vCeG,  and click on ‘Add to cart’ at the bottom of the page. . This will take you to the correct place in Book Circle Capital for purchasing ‘!Qhoi n|a Tjhoi / Skilpad en Volstruis/ Tortoise and Ostrich’.

In their media release on the event, the Northern Cape Department of Sport, Arts and Culture, who is hosting the event, highlights the importance of this occasion. They point out that ‘!Qhoi n|a Tjhoi’ presents a significant advance in the struggle for the survival of the N/uu language and it resonates with the Northern Cape government’s commitment to the survival of all the endangered languages of the province. The launch of this book is therefore a significant occasion for the Northern Cape government, and has the support of Premier Zamani Saul and his entire cabinet.

The book, The Tortoise and Ostrich is a story told by Katrina Esau, who is one of the last mother-tongue speakers of the N/uu language. Ouma Katrina, as she is fondly known, has received many accolades for her efforts to preserve and promote her language.

In 2020, Ouma Katrina Esau was honoured as a South African Living Human Legend. This accolade is bestowed upon individuals who have a high degree of knowledge and skills to perform or recreate specific elements of the intangible cultural heritage.

The book, published by New Africa Books, is illustrated by acclaimed artist Stanley Grootboom. The Afrikaans editing and English translation was made by the internationally celebrated writer and poet, Diana Ferrus.

You can view the launch at 11h00 on the DSAC NCape Facebook page on the following link: https://www.facebook.com/DepartmentOfSportArtsAndCulture

By: Open invite to our Sepedi webinar – 25th May 2021

Posted on: may 20, 2021.

Please join us in discussion:

When: May 25, 2021 Time: 12:30 – 14:30 PM, Johannesburg Topic: Tlhatlošo ya Sepedi ngwaneng! Register for the webinar here:  https://us02web.zoom.us/…/reg…/WN_Ncvjdh1HRBmmFUbtmt7iRA

Go bohlokwa kudu gore bana ba tsebe go ngwala le go bala leleme la gabobona gore ba kgone go atlega dithutong. Gore motho a kgone go kwešiša leleme la bobedi, go bohlokwa gore motheo wa leleme la pele o tie. Ka fao, ke tshwanelo gore maleme a setlogo a matlafatšwe ka ditlabakelo tša go a hlatloša. Go phethagatša se, PUKU e beakantše bobinare (webinar) ya Sepedi ka la 25 Moranang 2021 nako e le metsotso ye masometharo go tšwa iring ya lesomepedi (12h30) mosegare wa sekgalela ge letšatši le tshela kgomo mokokotlo.

This is the fifth instalment in a series of curated conversations amongst writers, academics, publishers, activists, and institutions in the indigenous language ecosystem on The Role of Children’s Literature in preserving and promoting our Indigenous languages.

Through the webinars, we will deliberate the specific challenges and opportunities facing those working in the writing, publication, and promotion of African languages. Our panelists will explore themes such as the economics of indigenous languages, the challenges faced by African language practitioners, strategies to improve publishing as well as to increase access to reading materials.

This Sepedi webinar will be facilitated by Professor Mpho Ngoepe, and our panelists include:

• Prof Leketi Makalela – Hub for Multilingual Education and Literacies (HUMEL) University of the Witwatersrand
• Dr Napjadi Letsoalo – Department of Linguistics and Modern Languages, Unisa
• Dr Francinah Kanyane – Department of African Languages, Unisa
• Ms. Keitumetse Audrey Tlokane – Storyteller
• Dr SelekaTembane – Department of African Languages, Unisa

By: Open invitation to our webinar in Xitsonga – Thursday 20th May

Posted on: may 19, 2021.

Date : Thursday May 20, 2021 Time : 13h00 , Johannesburg (new time) Topic : Garingani wa Garingani ( Xitsonga ) Register for the Zoom webinar here : https://bit.ly/33ZoUY8

The Puku Children’s Literature Foundation, in partnership with PanSALB, is pleased to invite you to our Xitsonga webinar titled ‘Garingani wa Garingani’ to be held on Thursday 20 May 2021, from 13h00 – 15h00.

This is the fourth instalment in a series of curated conversations amongst writers, academics, publishers, activists, and institutions in the indigenous language ecosystem on The Role of Children’s Literature in preserving and promoting our Indigenous languages.

The Xitsonga webinar will be facilitated by Professor Tinyiko Maluleke and our panelists include:

Mr Mbhazima Shilowa Mr Vonani Bila Mr Edward Tsumele Mrs Cordelia Khoza Dr Nyeleti Nkuna Mr Lebogang Shirindzi

By: Open invitation to our webinar in Setswana – Tuesday 18th May

Posted on: may 17, 2021.

Puku Children’s Literature Foundation, in partnership with the Pan South African Language Board ( Pansalb ), is pleased to invite you to a webinar titled RA RENG KA SETSWANA MO NGWANENG?, to be held on Tuesday 18 May 2021, from 14h00 – 16h00.

This is the third instalment in a series of curated conversations amongst writers, academics, publishers, activists, and institutions in the indigenous language ecosystem on The Role of Children’s Literature in preserving and promoting our Indigenous languages.

Our Setswana webinar will be facilitated by Professor Gilbert Motsaathebe, and our esteemed panelists include: Mr Mogale Sedibe, Mr Sabata-mpho Mokae, Dr. Eileen Pooe, Ms. Dimakatso Motaung (SABC North West & Chair of the Literature and Broadcasting committee of the Setswana National Language Body), Mr Kaka Mokakale (Chair of the Setswana National Language Body), Mr. Goitsemodimo Seleka (Motsweding FM & Chair of the North West Provincial Language Committee), and Prof. Shole Shole (North-West University).

By: Open invitation to our first webinar in isiZulu

Posted on: may 13, 2021.

Please join us in discussion.

When: May 13, 2021

Time: 02:00 PM, Johannesburg

Topic: The Role of Children’s Literature in preserving and promoting our Indigenous languages (isiZulu)

Register in advance for this webinar: https://t.co/2FExKqTEfq?amp=1

By: The Puku Children’s Foundation Celebrates Katrina Esau On World Book Day, 23 April 2021

Posted on: april 23, 2021.

Today is World Book Day! It is an event that is organised annually by UNESCO (the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) to promote reading, publishing, and the understanding and use of copyright. It is officially called World Book And Copyright Day by UNESCO and is also known as the International Day Of The Book. The first World Book Day was celebrated on 23 April in 1995 and it continues to be recognised on this day every year with book-related celebrations all over the world.

The World Book Day website says: “Reading for pleasure is the single biggest indicator of a child’s future success – more than their family circumstances, their parents’ educational background or their income.”

The Puku Children’s Literature Foundation celebrates our South African writers who provide literature for our children to read for pleasure in their own language.

Today Puku would especially like to celebrate Katrina Esau, affectionately known as Ouma Katrina, who is the author of the delightful folk tale !Qhoi n|a Tjhoi ( Tortoise And Ostrich ). This trilingual picture book about Ostrich and Tortoise, which has been written in Nǀuu, with Afrikaans and English translations, is the very first children’s book to have been written in the Nǀuu language. Children will be inspired by the wily antics of the tortoise and the humorous illustrations by renowned artist Stanley Grootboom.

Who is Ouma Katrina? Katrina Esau was born on a farm near Olifantshoek in the Northern Cape in 1933. Now in her late 80s, she learnt the ancient, indigenous language of Nǀuu at her mother’s knee. Ouma Katrina and her brother Simon Sauls are the only mother tongue Nǀuu speakers in the world. Ouma Katrina is fighting to ensure her language survives into the next generation by teaching younger people the language. In 2014 Katrina Esau was awarded the Order Of The Baobab in Silver for her services to language by the president of South Africa at that time.

On this World Book Day Ouma Katrina is indeed our heritage hero. Puku is thrilled to announce that the Nǀuu-language book, written by Katrina, has been printed and is in the New Africa Books warehouse waiting to be distributed. Orders for this book can be placed via the Book Circle Capital’s Yoco shopping page.

Puku is looking forward to the book launch in the Northern Cape, in the second half of May 2021, which will be held at a library that was recently built near Ouma Katrina’s home. There will be facilities for live streaming for those who cannot attend in person. (Please watch our social media platforms for further details of this event, which will be announced closer to the time.) We also invite you to find out more about Katrina Esau by viewing our video footage of Ouma Katrina and her family entitled “ My Language, My Heritage ” on Puku’s YouTube channel.

By: Open invitation to our webinar in isiXhosa – 22 April

Posted on: april 19, 2021.

Date : April 22, 2021 Time : 14h00 – 16h00, , Johannesburg (SAST) Topic : Ikhathalogu yeeNcwadi zesiXhosa zooMuntuza (zaBantwana): (Making Children’s Books Accessible to All) Link : Email us at [email protected] for the ZOOM link

The fourth of Ranganathan’s Five Laws of Library Science is to save time for the reader. This means that libraries should offer and organize their collections in ways that enable readers to find what they want as easily and efficiently as possible.

However, existing information on children’s books in indigenous languages, especially at ECD and foundation phase levels is not easily accessible. There is no central, easily accessible source of data on South African children’s books, not only from publishers but also non-commercial content produced by non-profits.

Puku is embarking on a pilot project on collaborative development of catalogues in indigenous languages for ECD and Foundation phases.

Puku has identified an editorial team of isiXhosa language and literacy specialists who will be responsible for curating content from the central catalogue to the webinar on the production of the isiXhosa catalogue and its value to the linguistic community.

This pilot project speaks to a need for catalogues of children’s books in indigenous languages to enable consumers to identify and access the best books in their languages. Developing a central catalogue for each language will be a monumental task and experience has taught us that it is better to take a modular approach based on existing capacity and resources. We will therefore start with the isiXhosa catalogue and based on the lessons learned, we will be able to move on to the other languages.

By: National Book Week

Posted on: september 8, 2020.

National Book Week’s #nbw2020 was a trending topic on Twitter when it opened. Reading for leisure, is the first step towards knowledge. It builds character, widens horizons, aids intellectual development and is regarded as foundational to success. Over the past decade, NBW has been creating opportunities for the book publishing industry to raise the profile of books and leisure reading. In the provinces, NBW works on the premise that it takes a village to raise a reader. In collaboration with reading promotion partners and Provincial Departments of Library Services, NBW hopes to build a community of lifelong readers.

Like the first week in September each year, NBW 2020 in its new avatar, virtual, went live this morning. Challenged by the current public health crisis, our fundamental aim is to create an ‘online’ community to connect different reading and cultural activities. There will be two daily slots for live programming, 11:00am and 3:00pm while on demand content will be available for watching anytime.

The day’s programme included a mix of live and on demand content.

The day started with live storytelling by Lynn Joffe, who presented three stories, The Tale of Stingray Charles, The Boop Boop Song and the classic Goldilocks and the Three Bears.

At 3:00pm, we treated children to a puppet show by Spellbound Puppets. In the NBW world, Margaret Auerbach is a popular figure and has been presenting puppet shows on Books Beyond Words, another innovative way we found to keep children and parents safe and indoors since lockdown was enforced in March.

The on demand content included stories in IsiZulu and IsiNdebele by Bongani Godide and Nozi Ngomane Mosiea respectively. Both are well loved and prominent members of the Books Beyond Words fraternity. Bongani presented Ubongani othadana izitshalo (Bongani who likes flowers) and Impisi ne Ngulube (The Pig and the Hyena) while Nozi lend her voice to uNompompoloza (The Mosquito) and Ukumoyizela kuka Sponono (Sponono’s Smile).

For those who missed our CEO Elitha van der Sandt speaking on SABC’s Morning Live, here is the link https://youtu.be/PAwe42eLw84 NBW is hosted by the South African Book Development Council (SABDC) in partnership with the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture. NBW has been going since 2009 and boasts an impressive roster of events that cater to children and adults alike. It remains a marquee event in SA’s leisure reading scene.

By: Listen to a Book Circle Podcast with Siya Masuku

Listen to a podcast between Sewela Langeni of Book Circle Capital and Siya Masuku

on his love for children’s literature, the importance of representation and his latest illustration work on Mosidi, a book by Lorato Trok. Mosidi is a beautiful story of a mother daughter relationship in Setswana. “So often, black single mothers are portrayed as damsels in distress, I wanted a story of a happy household of a mother and daughter, doing ordinary things that make them happy”, said Lorato Trok. Follow the link to listen to the podcast -www. bookcapital.co.za/Videos/siya.m4a   

By: LITASA Conferene 2020: There is no frigate like a book: Literacy and children’s literature in contemporary Africa 19 Sep 2020

Join our platform where you can enjoy livestreaming, an interactive chat forum during the sessions and opportunities to network.

We will use a broadcast WhatsApp group to send you recordings of the presentations as they happen. A second WhatsApp group gives you the opportunity to chat during the sessions and ask the presenters questions.

Emily Dickinson’s poem reminds us that books and literature can open the world to readers, whatever their circumstances.

A rich experience of literature of varying sorts is a springboard for literacy which can lay a foundation for all learning across a person’s life. Stories, told and read, can be the fuel that children use to develop language – reading, writing and speaking – and more importantly, thinking, as they respond to what they read or have read to them. Literacy skills developed at an early age through exposure to literature forms the basis of a whole range of literacy skills needed in later life to succeed academically and professionally.

However, in the South African context, access to literature is limited for most people. Almost 60% of South African homes have no books in them. Public and school libraries are under-resourced. Access to affordable books, especially in indigenous languages, is a persistent problem in South Africa and our neighbouring countries.

At the conference, we aim to look at the complexities surrounding the development of literature, especially in indigenous languages, as well as access to reading materials within the African context, spanning from childhood to adulthood. We also aim to celebrate research, initiatives and programmes that promote literature and reading.

By: International Literacy Day

September 8 th is the day proclaimed as International Literacy Day by UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) in 1966. The main purpose of International Literacy Day is to raise awareness and concern for literacy problems at community, national and global level.

This year we mark International Literacy Day under the cloud of the Covid-19 pandemic. International Literacy Day (ILD) 2020 will therefore focus on  Literacy teaching and learning in the COVID-19 crisis and beyond  with a focus on the  role of educators and changing pedagogies . https://en.unesco.org/commemorations/literacyday hyperlink International Literacy Day

Puku commends UNESCO on this focus. The Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted more than ever before, the inequalities in South African society in general and the education system specifically. The lockdown in March led to a 100% shut down of the public education system in South Africa. 12.9 million public school students and their 410,000 educators in over 25,000 schools came to a standstill. There was no option of working from home or attending school remotely, whilst private schools which serve a mere 3% of the student population, switched to their largely already-existing online ecosystems.

 Middle class parents and teachers rapidly strengthened their capabilities to leverage online resources to support their children at home, while working class and rural parents in materially deprived communities were left floundering. This situation has only served to increase the inequality in our education system. In their passionate appeal for a stimulus plan for rural education , a group of prominent South African educators highlighted this inequality, arguing that that without a radical investment into upgrading rural teachers, children in rural schools will be left impossibly behind. They argue that we must use this period to ensure all teachers have appropriate technology, data, connectivity, and experiences using online resources for teaching and collaboration.

The challenge is clear. The children who have access to reading material, especially books and are digitally connected, will be far better placed to cope with school closures and disruptions than the children who do not.

We at Puku are committed to meeting the challenge of improving our own digital capacity to better serve parents, caregivers, teachers to provide better quality of books for our children in all South African languages. We must make sure that we have a better story to tell on International Literacy Day 2021.

Puku congratulates the Literacy Association of South Africa (LITASA) on meeting the challenge of holding their 2020 conference digitally. We will do whatever we can in our small way to support their efforts.

By: Puku Receives New ‘Dubai Cares’ Award

Posted on: november 12, 2019.

The Puku Children’s Literature Foundation is proud to announce that they have received one of seven African publishing funds selected for a share of the inaugural African Publishing Innovation Fund, set up as part of a partnership between the philanthropic organisation, Dubai Cares , and the International Publisher’s Association.

The winning bids were announced at the final session of the publishing conference at the Sharjah Book Fair .

Executive Director, Elinor Sisulu , spoke on behalf of the Puku Children’s Literature Foundation at the announcement of the awards, expressing appreciation of the recognition by Dubai Cares and the IPA to promote children’s literature in indigenous languages. She also highlighted that the award was a wonderful way for the Puku Children’s Literature Foundation to wrap up the UN’s declared International Year of Indigenous Languages 2019 . 

Images: Dubai Cares Event at Sharjah International Book Fair Publishers Conference, 2019

Mrs Sisulu explained that the grant of $20 000 would enable Puku to continue to work on developing a comprehensive network of children’s literature reviewers through multilingual writing and review workshops. The best reviews will be uploaded on Puku’s online encyclopedia of local children’s books, the Pukupedia, available on the website at www.puku.co.za.

Mrs Sisulu noted too, that beyond its monetary value, Puku is honoured at the prestige the award bestows and the collaboration provides valuable opportunities for networking between the successful projects.

Thank you, Dubai Cares.

By: It’s National Storytelling Day!

Posted on: october 23, 2019.

Happy Birthday, Dr. Gcina Mhlophe!

Join renowned storyteller, Gcina Mhlophe, on the 24 th of October to celebrate National Storytelling Day.

The  Gcinamasiko Arts and Heritage Trust  are proud to announce that this daytime event will take place at the Bluff showgrounds in Durban, under the storytelling tree, from 11:00am to 3:00pm

For those unable to get to Durban, celebrate your stories wherever you are on the day – at school, in the library, at home, or at work. Film your storytelling and post the video onto your pages with the following hashtags: #nationalstorytellingdayZA #UnderTheStorytellingTree #nsdza2019

South Africa, let’s make this a day to remember.

Read more here…

By: Puku and Hayley Joy Fundraising Partnership Launch.

Posted on: august 29, 2019.

August 2019

Puku combined children’s books with women and style this month, celebrating South African designer, Hayley Joy Weinberg.

Hayley Joy is a proudly South African fashion brand, offering generous sizes, and specialising in Plus sizes.

REAL shapes, for REAL women, in the REAL world.

The event was held at Skoobs Theatre of Books at Monte Casino in Johannesburg.

Photo: Hayley Joy Weinberg. Courtesy of Skoobs Theatre of Books, Monte Casino.

Photo: Courtesy of Skoobs Theatre of Books, Monte Casino.

Guests of honour, style icons Abigail Kubeka and Mara Louw, were dressed by Hayley Joy.

Photo: Marah Louw, Abigail Kubeka and Sheila Sisulu.

 – 

Photo: Marah Louw and Ayanda Sisulu with the fashion of the Hayley Joy Shop in the background. Courtesy of Skoobs Theatre of Books, Monte Casino

Present too was sports icon, athlete Rosina Sedibane Modiba, celebrated in a new Biography and children’s book, Against The Odds by Lorato Trok.

Photo: Rosina Sedibane Modiba.

Photo: Children’s books. Photo courtesy of Skoobs Theatre of Books, Monte Casino

Kind thanks to

By: Why We Should Be Reading Picture Books To Our Children

Posted on: august 13, 2019.

At Puku.co.za we love picture books and we’re noting the success and popularity of recent publications. Even more than that, we’re watching them being translated into our own languages so that everyone can enjoy them.

But why are picture books so important?

Check out this article from Psychology Today, explaining why picture books are important for the language skills of children, and babies, in Africa today.

The Importance of Picture Books

By: Vanessa LoBue Ph.D. – The Baby Scientist

It probably won’t come as news to you that reading to children carries with it a lot of benefits, such as promoting language comprehension and literacy. According to 2016 statistics from Scholastic , 62% of  parents  with kids aged 3 to 5 read to their children most days, and most kids say that they like or love this special time with their parents. While reading to preschool-aged kids has clear and perhaps obvious benefits, there is evidence that reading to infants is also important, even reading to newborns.

In fact, the American Academy of Pediatrics suggests that parents should begin reading to infants as soon as possible (High et al., 2014). This recommendation is based on classic research showing that children whose parents talk to them more have an advantage in school over children whose parents talk to them less (Hart & Risley, 1995).

The key difference seems to lie in… To read more see article here .

By: Reflections On An Afternoon In Coyaba

Posted on: august 7, 2019.

By: ELINOR SISULU

Puku celebrates stories that affirm the African child and the authors that highlight their world.

This year marks one hundred years since Peter Abrahams’s birth. Elinor Sisulu  reflects on her meeting with the author at his home in Jamaica .

When I came to Jamaica, when I found this place, I knew, my search was over. You see, until I came here, I was the ex-patriot. The migrant, and you know, they live with suitcase packed, ready to go home. But when I got involved in Jamaican life, in Jamaican politics, when I travelled this island … I became involved, and this was the first time in my life I didn’t have to be against anything, I could be for something. —Peter Abrahams, The View from Coyaba (documentary) I think I’ve had a hell of a lot. I’ve seen all of Africa free. I’ve seen South Africa free. I had no right to deserve that. So what should I bawl about? —Peter Abrahams, The View from Coyaba (documentary)

Read the article here …

By: The Guardian’s Children’s and Teens Roundup

Posted on: june 24, 2019.

A mysterious suitcase, secret dragons, a breathtaking acrobatic heist and more

Imogen Russell Williams June 2019

Look Up!  – (Puffin) by Nathan Bryon

T here’s a star-gazing theme to picture books this month.  Look Up! by Nathan Bryon and Dapo Adeola features science-crazed, irrepressible chatterbox Rocket, who is determined to get her whole town out watching a meteor shower – to the annoyance of her big brother, who would rather stay glued to his phone. Energetic and with a wry, sweet take on family dynamics, it will alert readers to the thrilling mysteries of the night skies.

Cover: Look Up! by Nathan Bryon and Dapo Adeola. Photograph: Puffin

Astro Girl  (Otter-Barry) by Ken Wilson-Max stars Astrid, another little girl intent on discovering the secrets of space, who enjoys acting out the challenges of zero gravity with Papa while Mama is away. When Astrid welcomes her back, the twist in the tale reveals that Mama might be an expert on space herself. A delightful combination of imaginative play and inspiring role model from a much-loved author-illustrator.

Cover: Astro Girl by Ken Wilson-Max (Otter-Barry)

Fifty years after the moon landing, young readers of five-plus can make their own lunar voyages with  The Usborne Book of the Moon  by Laura Cowan and illustrator Diana Toledano, a compendious, thoroughly readable volume that contains not only plenty of facts about the moon’s orbit and phases, but also the legends and stories told about it worldwide. Engagingly illustrated, with well judged, engaging text, this is the best and broadest kind of non-fiction.

Cover: “The Usborne Book of the Moon” at Usborne Children’s Books

Mouse  & Mole – Graffeg   By Joyce Dunbar

Back on Earth, Joyce Dunbar’s beloved duo  Mouse & Mole , richly illustrated by James Mayhew, have recently reappeared, reissued by Graffeg. This cosy pair enjoy the gentlest of Kenneth Grahame-style adventures, making plans for picnics, overindulging in roast chestnuts and toasted muffins, and trying and failing to get rid of excessive clutter; the perfect antidote to real-world worry.

Cover: Mouse & Mole by Joyce Dunbar & James Mayhew, Graffeg

The Suitcase Nosy Crow   by Chris Naylor-Ballesteros

Meanwhile, in  The Suitcase  (Nosy Crow) by Chris Naylor-Ballesteros, a strange animal appears, dragging a suitcase he says contains a teacup, a table and the cabin where he used to make tea. When he falls asleep, exhausted by his journey, the other animals break open the case – only to discover a broken teacup and an old photograph. As the stranger wakes to find the others have built him a new cabin, a sense of new joy and hope arises; the story has a feel of Shaun Tan’s  The Arrival , but for a preschool audience.

The Suitcase by Chris Naylor-Ballesteros. Photograph: Nosy Crow

The Dragon in the Library Nosy Crow By Louie Stowell

For seven-plus readers with a yen for more modern-feeling escapism, Louie Stowell’s  The Dragon in the Library  (Nosy Crow) stars the book-fearing Kit, dragged to the library by her friends only to discover that she is a wizard, with a vital role to play in protecting the great dragon who sleeps within. Cracking pace, comic one-liners and a gleefully evil villain, brought to life by Davide Ortu’s illustrations, add up to a debut with broad appeal.

Cover: The Secret Dragon by Ed Clarke (Puffin)

The Good Thieves – Bloomsbury By Katherine Rundell

Finally, from the superb Katherine Rundell comes The Good Thieves (Bloomsbury), a heist story set in 1920s New York. This is as compelling as an Enid Blyton circus caper – if Blyton had written with inclusive compassion and the sort of limpid, elegant prose it’s a pleasure to sink into. Indomitable Vita Marlowe, whom polio has left with a weakened leg, is determined to break into the home her grandfather lost to swindlers and steal back his treasure. But the heist will need the help of circus boys Arkady and Sam, with their acrobatic skill and gift for charming animals, not to mention Silk, the pickpocket – and Vita’s own redoubtable marksmanship. Purring mafiosi, breathtaking feats of nerve and a crackling sense of atmosphere throughout make this book a single-sitting treat, showcasing Rundell at the peak of her powers.

Cover: The Good Thieves by Katherine Rundell (Bloomsbury)

Owen and the Soldier – Barrington Stoke by Lisa Thompson

Back in the present day, Lisa Thompson’s  Owen and the Soldier  ( Barrington Stoke ) is brief, super-readable, and poignant. Owen’s dad isn’t around any more, and his mum is increasingly struggling to cope; he shares his feelings only with the crumbling stone soldier in the memorial garden, until the council announces plans to redevelop. Can Owen save the soldier? This slim, focused story packs considerable punch.

Cover: Owen And The Soldier by Lisa Thompson (Barrington Stoke)

Teenagers roundup:

Catching teller crow – penguin by ambelin and ezekiel kwaymullina.

In this Australian prizewinner focusing on two Indigenous teenagers, 15-year-old Beth Teller has died in a car crash, but her spirit remains visible to her grief-stricken police detective father. When Dad is called to investigate a murder, Beth meets Isobel Catching, a young witness, who can see her too. Catching’s strange story reveals the painful, long-buried secrets at the heart of the case, and shows Beth that she can’t stay stranded in the living world for ever trying to tend her father’s broken heart. Combining taut, intricate thriller with ancient Indigenous tales and the darker side of Australian history, this is a deeply poignant and original novel.

Cover: Catching Teller Crow by Kwaymullina, Ambelin and Ezekiel Kwaymullina. Image: Penguin Random House SA

Perfectly Preventable Deaths – Hot Key by Deirdre Sullivan

When twin sisters Madeline and Catlin move to their new stepfather’s castle in the fictional Irish hamlet of Ballyfrann, the remoteness appeals to them at first. Everyone is apparently related, their stepfather’s cousin seems to be a witch and, of course, there are the stories of the girls who have gone missing there, year after year. Madeline and Catlin think they will be safe, though; they look out for each other. Salty hilarity and an assured evocation of siblings’ prickly closeness give way to unnerving folk-horror menace and gore in Sullivan’s latest lush, weird and lyrical book.

Cover: Perfectly Preventable Deaths image from Book Depository

‘I Will Not Be Erased’ – Our Stories About Growing Up As People of Colour – Walker Books By gal-dem

From gal-dem, an award-winning magazine created by women and non-binary people of colour, come essays and stories in which contributors write to their teenage selves as kindly, validating mentors. From Niellah Arboine’s “‘You Speak Well for a Black Girl’: Black Is Who You Are” to Sara Jafari’s emphasis on choice and autonomy when dating as a British Muslim, the pieces are warm, personal and sometimes traumatic. The authors assert their right to their own history, feelings and experience, and their refusal to be ignored.

“I Will Not Be Erased”: Our stories about growing up as people of colour. By gal-dem

By: Puku presents Moshe by Mogale Sedibe

Posted on: june 14, 2019, illustrated by simphiwe mangole, a puku story in setswana..

14 June 2019

By: View: Comments on Trevor Noah’s book for children

Posted on: june 10, 2019.

Calls for a children’s version of Trevor Noah’s popular Born A Crime have finally been answered.

@Trevornoah Please tell me that there will also be a narrated young reader’s version of #bornacrime . It’s a must for our youth! Just finished listening to the original – such beautiful storytelling! ❤️ I hope that my 5th graders can listen someday soon! ❤️😻🤞🏽 — Ana Garcia (@ateresag) May 4, 2019

The book is described as “a moving memoir filled with proudly South African stories that will entertain and inspire. Born a Crime is the perfect book for thought-provoking debates and insightful discussions about South African history, facing challenges, being a teenager and living in a culturally diverse society.”

Everyone should read/listen to @Trevornoah 's amazing book #BornaCrime – and recommend it for the kids. My 10 year old loves it. — Chris Nee 🏳️‍🌈 (@chrisdocnee) September 23, 2017

Started listening to #BornaCrime today and, man, it is AWESOME. Great audiobook and, so far, amazing literary non-fic. Thank you, @Trevornoah for telling your story and encouraging our kids to do the same. @ProjectLITComm — talleyisanerd (@talleyisanerd) August 22, 2018

My kid has been listening to it for a year. Every night I hear her crawl into bed and say, "Alexa, play BORN A CRIME." It's a great book. It really is. — Jean Mobilia (@jeanmobilia) April 10, 2019

Get your copy here.

By: South African Book Fair Have New Venue.

Posted on: june 5, 2019.

BREAKING NEWS! We have a new home…

After two years in the dynamic Newtown Precinct, SABF are thrilled to announce that they now have a new home in the Women’s Jail at Constitution Hill!

Once a place for the imprisonment of anti-apartheid activists, the building is now a peaceful refuge in the heart of the Joburg-based precinct. This interactive heritage facility celebrates the concept of lekgotla – to ponder and question.

This spirit of lekgotla will form the backdrop to our diverse literary and activations programme, our dynamic marketplace and our lively family zone, which will be housed here from 6 – 8 September 2019.

This new venue will bring  #OURSTORIES  to life and inspire a reading revolution for all South Africans.

Know The History

• Constitution Hill is a living museum that tells the story of South Africa’s journey to democracy. The site is a former prison and military fort that bears testament to South Africa’s turbulent past and, today, is home to the country’s Constitutional Court, which endorses the rights of all citizens.
• There is perhaps no other site in South Africa that has held within it’s walls the sheer number of world-renowned men and women as those that were once incarcerated within the Old Fort, the Women’s Jail and the Number Four. Though the precinct confined tens of thousands of ordinary people during it’s 100-year history, some notable names include: Nelson Mandela, Mahatma Gandhi, Joe Slovo, Albertina Sisulu, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela and Fatima Meer.
• On Human Rights Day, 21 March 2004, the Constitutional Court was inaugurated, during which 27 children born in 1994 – South Africa’s first year of democracy – recited the Bill of Rights in the country’s 11 official languages. The following day Constitution Hill was opened to the public, as a place relevant for current and future generations.
• Honouring heritage and the men and women of all races, creeds, ages and political agendas; the indigenous and the immigrant; the everyman and the elite, the site is dedicated to honouring  #OURSTORIES through educating the public with a multitude of exhibition spaces and visitor experiences ensuring that the history of every South African lives here.

The  Constitution Hill  precinct is located at  11 Kotze Street in Johannesburg,  near the western end of the suburb of Hillbrow and the  #SABF2019  will take place here from 6 – 8 September 2019.

Find out more about SA Book Fair 2019.

#OurStories. SA storyteller and children’s author, Sindiwe Magona, speaks to school children.

Image: Exhibits at SABF 2018

Hear what the SA Book Fair offered visitors last year with Puku’s, Melvin Kaabwe.

By: Black Stories Matter

Posted on: june 4, 2019.

By: Andrea Adomako

Black stories matter: On the whiteness of children’s books

Image: Mike Brown, former head coach of the Cleveland Cavaliers, reads to children at the Cavaliers All-Star Library at the Kenneth Clement Boys Leadership Academy, 12 February 2008. Photo by David Liam Kyle/Getty

The dominance of US and British reading culture in the Western world also has lessons for South Africa.

In September 1965, an  article  titled ‘The All-White World of Children’s Books’ appeared in the influential American magazine  The Saturday Review of Literature . Its author, the editor and educator Nancy Larrick , noted that African-American children were learning about the world ‘in books which either omit them entirely or scarcely mention them’. In one award-winning volume from 1945, black children were portrayed with bunion-covered feet and popping eyes, living in dilapidated shacks with gun-wielding adults. Meanwhile, white children were ‘nothing less than cherubic, with dainty little bare feet or well-made shoes’, Larrick wrote. After years of complaints, she said, the publisher finally solved the problem by simply removing all black faces from the book.

More than 50 years later, the problem persists. Imaginary black children remain almost as marginalised as real ones, at least in mainstream publishing. In literature, as in life, the belief that children are valuable, vulnerable and in need of protection has mostly been denied to black children in the United States. Black children learn fast that their childhoods have very strict boundaries, in which any small slip or mistake can put their lives in danger, often from police or other agents of the state.

In this context, what children read is more than just frivolous entertainment. It’s an imaginative, safe space in which they can experiment with different modes of selfhood and citizenship. So what does the history of the representations of black children in the US reveal about the cultural tools they’ve been handed, and with which they’ll need to fashion their own lives and futures?

Depictions of black characters in the late 19th and early 20th century tended to promote negative stereotypes. Childhood favourites such as  The Story of Little Black Sambo  (1899),  Tarzan  (1912), and  The Story of Babar: The Little Elephant  (1931) are transparently propagandistic portrayals of Western and white superiority over Africa. In  Tarzan of the Apes , Tarzan writes in a note that Jane reads: ‘This is the house of Tarzan, the killer of beasts and many black men.’ For the black child who seeks to identify with the hero, but is categorised as the villain, these depictions produce a mental and conscious disconnect.

It wasn’t until the early 20th century that a more positive strand of black children’s literature developed. In 1920, the African-American scholar and activist W E B Du Bois created The Brownies’ Book  – the first black children’s magazine, he said, that would help ‘black children to recognise themselves as normal, to learn about black history, and to recognise their own potential’.  The Brownies’ Book  was one of the first attempts to try to normalise and dignify black childhood.

In the 1960s, children’s books became a powerful ideological tool during times of protest and civil unrest. In  The   Wretched of the Earth  (1961), the French-Algerian writer Frantz Fanon talked about the importance of literary representation as a site of political influence. Fanon believed that black children learned self-hatred and alienation through early contact with the white world, partly because of the storybooks, comics and cartoon images to which they had access. Finding alternative representations was therefore an urgent necessity.

In the civil rights era in the US, black children and teenagers played a crucial role, both symbolically and on the ground. They were participants in marches and meetings, and often subject to violence and imprisonment. But black children’s lives also became politicised in other ways, as activists used literature and culture to galvanise the youth and foster a sense of purpose and pride in their identity. Factions such as the Black Arts Movement tried to create counter-narratives that pushed back against the brutality that white children’s literature inflicted on young black psyches. For example, Virginia Hamilton’s young adult novel  Zeely  (1967) centres on the realistic, everyday aspects of black childhood. Its 11-year-old black protagonist, Elizabeth, is a smart and strong-willed girl, who becomes intrigued by a tall black woman who lives on a nearby farm. Books such as  Zeely  represented a watershed moment in culture. They served to counteract previous distortions of black youth, allowing children to develop a sense of imaginative possibility about their own lives, and empowering them as agents of social change.

In the 21st century, black authors have continued the tradition of using literature to rally young people. Often, writers depict black children who are active participants in the struggle for liberation. One example is the picture book  Daddy, There’s a Noise Outside  (2015) ,  by the community activist Kenneth Braswell. Inspired by the death of Freddie Gray when he was under arrest in Baltimore, Braswell uses children’s literature to discuss protest in black communities. The story begins as a brother and sister wake up in the middle of the night after hearing chanting outside their window, and their parents try to explain the nature and value of protest for black communities. The young characters in the story are learning about the many forms of activism that are accessible to children, which include creating signs, writing letters, participating in protests and organising.

These narratives pay homage to earlier black liberation efforts and give children the tools necessary to understand themselves as actors in the political process. Children’s literature becomes a means of education, offering a safe space for experimentation and a supplement to the organisation of formal movements.

In an opinion piece for  The Guardian  in 2015, the American young-adult author Daniel José Older wrote: ‘Literature’s job is not to protect young people from the ugly world; it is to arm them with a language to describe difficult truths they already know.’ He added that it’s vital for literature’s creators and publishers not to sit on the sidelines of movements such as Black Lives Matter, where most of the actors are young people.

Children are not just the passive recipients of what they read. They should be seen as active subjects, creating and recreating themselves in relation to the representations that surround them. In this way, literature is an arena in which children can safely play with and develop an understanding of the state, and their role and relationship to it. Children’s literature not only shows how important children have been to black social movements. It also highlights the power of books to rescue childhood from a culture that has dehumanised black children, and denied them healthy and expansive models for growing up.

Andrea Adomako  is a PhD student at Northwestern University in Chicago.

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By: the guardian’s picture book round-up…, posted on: june 3, 2019.

Imogen Carter

Children’s picture book reviews round-up – to the moon and back

P ublishers this summer seem determined to produce the next generation of space explorers. July marks the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landings, and picture book authors have responded to the event with gusto across space-themed fiction and factual titles.

The second adventure for Schwarz’s best-friend duo Anna and Crocodile finds Anna longing to visit the white glimmering ball she can see out of her window.

“But that’s out in space,” says Crocodile… “It will be almost impossible.”

Together they decide that if they take their special skills – maths, patience – along with sandwiches and travel games, they can make it happen.

With her inky, splotchy illustrations and can-do characters, Schwarz beautifully depicts the boundless energy and enthusiasm of small children and the chit-chat style of their speech. Near the end, as the duo admire Earth from space, the book echoes Crocodile’s opening line as he says, rapturously: “It’s almost impossibly beautiful.”

South Africa: buy the book here.

Neal Layton’s forthcoming nonfiction book also focuses on planet Earth, but the hot topic he’s interested in is waste.

  A Planet Full of Plastic  (27 June, Wren and Rook), has a brilliantly light touch for such a big issue.

Probably best known for illustrating the picture book  That Rabbit Belongs to Emily Brown , here Layton employs his trademark collage style and a fun, informative tone to explain to kids why plastic is a problem.

The book opens with a narrator asking a wide-eyed boy about what things are made of and attempts to explain vocabulary such as “biodegrade” via interjections from the child. A masterclass in how to introduce eco themes to the young without inducing panic, Layton’s book focuses on practical ways to make a difference and incorporates photos within his illustrations to gently reinforce that this is a real-world issue.

South Africa: b uy the book here.

The standard picture-book role of the pea as mealtime reject is cleverly flipped by author Kjartan Poskitt and illustrator Alex Willmore in  The Runaway Pea  (11 July, Simon and Schuster).

Here he becomes a hero in search of a better life:

“‘Just watch!’ said the pea, ‘I’ve hardly begun, I might only be small but I want to have fun!’”

Reminiscent of Clare Foges’s and Al Murphy’s vibrant and much-loved  Kitchen Disco , kids will enjoy Willmore’s primary-coloured veggies with highly expressive faces and Poskitt’s lively rhyming verse as the pea plops, splashes, bangs and twangs his way across the kitchen.

Get book here.

Also looking to make little ones laugh this summer, the world-renowned  Flat Stanley , the tale of a boy who wakes up one morning half-an-inch thick after being squashed by a pinboard, has been adapted for the picture book format.

I was initially sceptical about the need to bring Jeff Brown’s 1960s classic to younger kids. Why not have them wait and enjoy the original chapter book? But, with the talented Rob Biddulph providing illustrations alongside text reworked from Brown’s original, it flies. Both authors share the same spirit of madcap adventure.

South Africa: buy this book here.

One of the favourite characters of last year makes a welcome return in Billy and the Dragon  (8 August, Jonathan Cape), Nadia Shireen’s follow-up to  Billy and the Beast .

This time her big-haired heroine Billy, decked out as a knight for a fancy-dress party, battles to save her sidekick Fatcat from the clutches of a dragon. With deliciously fresh and witty words and pictures (watch out for the tiny mice dressed as a hotdog, a bee and an astronaut on a bouncy castle), Shireen’s latest book confirms her as one of the brightest and best picture book creators working in Britain today.

The only pity is that you’ll have to wait until August for it to come out. Sensational.

Alternatively for more news on children’s books in the UK, visit www.theguardian.com .

By: Mosidi by Lorato Trok

A setswana story from the puku children’s literature foundation.

Mosidi by Lorato Trok Illustrations by Siya Masuku

My name is Mosidi.

Meet my mother.

I smile when I’m happy.

Mama cries when she is happy.

I enjoy planting vegetables in our garden.

Mama enjoys swimming with her friends in summer.

When it rains, I take a nap.

Mama relaxes when it rains.

I have a lot of fun playing outside with my friends in summer.

Mama enjoys mowing the lawn.

There is something special that mama and I enjoy together.

We love spending time together.

By: Trevor Noah’s ‘Born a Crime’ book now out for children

Posted on: may 29, 2019.

The curse words may be gone, but the young readers’ edition of his memoir, “Born a Crime,” doesn’t soften his story of growing up under apartheid.

By Maria Russo

Trevor Noah Thinks Kids Can Handle the Truth

It’s easy to see how  “Born a Crime,”  Trevor Noah’s funny and devastating memoir of growing up mixed race in South Africa, became a best seller. Less predictable was the success of the book’s young readers’ edition, published this month and aimed at children 8 and up. I asked the comedian and talk show host to talk about adapting his story for a much younger audience. These are excerpts from our conversation.

How did you arrive at the idea of a young readers’ edition of “Born a Crime,” given that your show is on way past this audience’s bedtime?

It was a combination of factors, one of the most prevalent being that a lot of parents were saying their kids loved the book. People would say, I read the book to my 8-year-old, or my 10-year-old, but I wish they had a version they could read for themselves.

What changes did you make?

We slightly changed the framing of the book to gear it to a younger reader who doesn’t know about the history of South Africa. And then the main difference is obviously we’ve changed the language a bit. It’s not like the first book is graphic, but we made sure it’s completely suitable for kids of all ages.

There’s that scene when you’re 5 years old and you don’t want to use the outhouse, so you put a piece of newspaper on the kitchen floor — somehow it seems even funnier in the version for kids.

Changing the word to “poop” — that small thing makes it more accessible. But everything else in the scene is basically the same. I didn’t want the parents who’d liked the book to not get the same book for their kids.

I think the great stories connect with you regardless of your age. That’s what Pixar and Disney do today — they tell a story, and someone older can take away something different than a younger person does, but the heart of the story remains intact. The stories I loved as a kid are still the stories I love now.

Many people find it hard to figure out a way to talk to kids that’s not condescending.

I found it to be a natural mind-set, maybe because I thought about telling these stories to my younger brother, who is 17. I speak to him like an adult. I was lucky to grow up in a household where my mother gave me respect and treated me like an adult. That’s important to do with younger readers — they may not have the experience, but they are still functioning human beings and they can grasp the concepts. When I was growing up, Roald Dahl had the biggest impact on me. The way he told a story was so simple, yet so complicated at the same time.

This edition also has to explain South Africa to American children, who generally don’t know about apartheid. How did you approach that?

Unfortunately that’s true, that American children don’t learn about apartheid. But also, unfortunately, I could use a lot of American examples as reference points.

You mean like this one: “In America you had the forced removal of the native peoples onto reservations coupled with slavery followed by segregation. Imagine all three of those things happening to the same group of people at the same time. That was apartheid.”

That passage is the same in both editions.

Did you worry that young readers wouldn’t get some of the nuances in either the politics or your own story?

Continue reading here…

Maria Russo is the children’s books editor at the Book Review.

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And listen to us on the  Book Review podcast .

By: Puku – Using Children’s Books To Save Languages

Delegates to the ‘Rising Africa’ IPA seminar in Nairobi will hear about the work of Puku, a foundation rushing to generate children’s literature in some of the dying languages of the continent.

Publishing Perspectives

By Porter Anderson, Editor-in-Chief |  @Porter_Anderson

Endangered Languages and the ‘Hegemony of English’

There are only four people left alive who speak the N/uu language in South Africa, and they’re members of one family. The matriarch is Ouma Katrina, 86 years old. Her daughter is Lena du Plessis. Her granddaughter is Claudia Snyman. And little N/aungkusi Snyman is Ouma Katrina’s great-granddaughter.

You meet them in a 10-minute video.  ( Watch video here .)

Sisulu will speak at the   International Publishers Association ‘s (IPA)   “Africa Rising” seminar  in Nairobi, hosted by the   Kenya Publishers Association .

There’s a panel on the second day of the June 14 and 15 conference titled “Lost Tongues: The Struggle to Preserve Indigenous African Languages.”

Moderated by  Jalada Africa  managing editor Wanjeri Gakuru, this may arrive as one of the most intriguing and compelling moments in the programming of the seminar, which has been led by IPA vice-president Bodour Al Qasimi, herself a publisher of children’s books at the United Arab Emirates’ Kalimat Group.

What Sisulu and her associates at the foundation are doing is creating children’s literature that captures some of the dying languages of Africa.

“The endangered languages,” Sisulu tells us, “are those spoken by the bushmen. And the government of one of South Africa’s provinces, the Northern Cape, where most of the endangered-language speakers are, is concerned and working with us in developing a strategy to produce children’s books in those languages to ensure their survival.”

This type of work is reflected in many parts of the world today, of course. In 2014, the composer  Paola Prestini’s  Oceanic Verses  used vanishing Mediterranean tongues such as Griko, an Italiote dialect spoken in southeastern Italy, in Donna Di Novelli’s libretto. And in the United States, the  Gullah Geechee Corridor Commission  is mandated to capture and preserve as much as possible of the creole language and artistic expressions of the federally designated coastal corridor that encompasses the sea islands from Pender County in North Carolina south to St. Johns County in Florida.

By: My Language, My Heritage

Posted on: may 23, 2019.

The Puku Children’s Literature Foundation in conjunction with the National Heritage Council , the Swiss Embassy and Queen Katrina Esau facilitated a creative writing workshop in April 2019 to produce the first South African children’s books in N/uu, Khoe and Nama.

Puku invited Queen Katrina Esau who runs a storytelling and language after-school initiative in Upington, for children ranging from ages 3 to 17 years. Ouma Katrina strives to pass on her language by telling the children indigenous stories and teaching them about their history. Queen Katrina and her three siblings are the only four fluent N/uu speakers in South Africa. She has taught the language to her daughter, grand daughter and great grand daughter.  Queen Katrina collaborated with her grand daughter, Claudia Snyman, to write a children’s book in N/uu. In the Northern Cape, where Afrikaans and Setswana are the dominant languages with an isiXhosa-speaking minority, N/uu, Nama and Khoe are not reflected in print. The few children’s stories in Nama that can be sourced, originate from Namibia, proving that there is virtually no South African-originated content in this language. Through the workshop with the Puku Children’s Literature Foundation, N/uu will be available to many children through the published books. The books’ titles are being finalised. 

Queen Katrina works too with a group of academics from the University of Cape Town’s Centre of African Language Diversity (CALDi), to develop the orthography which is now being taught to the children at her after-school and where her granddaughter, Claudia has learned the orthography and wishes to continue it.

Watch the video here to find out more.

In the same workshop, books in Setswana were also produced and the Puku Children’s Literature Foundation proudly introduces this latest Setswana picture book addition to their Pukupedia, just in time to celebrate Africa Day, 25 May 2019.

Find below Lorato Trok’s Mosidi, illustrated by Siya Masuku . Aimed at children from 4-8 years, we’re excited to hear what young readers think!

Leave your comments on Facebook or Twitter or send comprehensive reviews to [email protected] with the book name as your title to win one of two Puku T-shirts!

Let’s get children reading their stories this Africa Day. 

Mosidi Written by Lorato Trok Illustrated by Siya Masuku

By: Shortlists announced for 2019 Media24 book prizes

Posted on: may 16, 2019.

Annual awards recognise best work by Media24 book publishers, including NB Publishers and Jonathan Ball

Media24 Books is proud to announce the shortlists for the 2019 Media24 book prizes. This year, prizes to the value of R210,000 in total will be awarded in six categories.

These annual awards serve to recognise the best work published during the previous year by Media24 book publishers, including NB Publishers (through imprints such as Human & Rousseau, Tafelberg, Kwela Books and Queillerie), as well as Jonathan Ball Publishers.

Independent judging panels compiled the shortlists from 80 submissions in total. The shortlists consist of three titles each – apart from the Elisabeth Eybers Poetry Prize, where two titles qualified.

The shortlists for Youth Novels and Illustrated Children’s Books are:

MER Prize for Youth Novels

• The Reject by Edyth Bulbring (Tafelberg)
• Kraak by Rouxnette Meiring (Tafelberg)
• Mine by Sally Partridge (Human & Rousseau)

MER Prize for Illustrated Children’s Books

• Stories vir Pikkies en Peuters by Gertie Smit, illustrated by Samantha van Riet, Tumi K. Steyn, Tasia Rosser and Melany Pietersen (Tafelberg)
• Bennie Boekwurm se Mooiste Sprokies by Louise Smit, illustrated by Johann Strauss (Human & Rousseau)
• Die Legendariese Lua Verwey by Dihanna Taute, illustrated by Theodore Key (Human & Rousseau)

The winner in each category receives R35,000. The MER Prize for Illustrated Children’s Books is shared by the author and illustrator(s) of the winning title.

The awards function will be held in Cape Town on Thursday June 13.

See the other categories here .

Article provided by NB Publishers .

By: Picture Books to Enrapture Young Readers

Posted on: may 14, 2019, new york times book review.

By  Maria Russo

Maria Russo is the children’s books editor for the Book Review.

LITTLE DOCTOR AND THE FEARLESS BEAST   Written and illustrated by Sophie Gilmore.

Little Doctor is a specialist in crocodiles, as we can see from the enormous green patients who flock to her examination room (which, shhhh, may just be a backyard office). She ministers to them with deep concentration, applying long bandages and tender, expert care — and cures them all except a toughie called Big Mean, who refuses to unclasp her jaws. There’s a scary trip inside the beast’s mouth, and a happy ending involving the adorable hatchlings Big Mean was of course carrying in there. With its softly detailed, virtuoso art and a perfectly wrought story full of heart and respect for the imaginative rules of children’s play, this debut shines. 32 pp. Owlkids. (Ages 4 to 8.)

Buy book here .

THINKER: MY PUPPY POET AND ME   By Eloise Greenfield. Illustrated by Ehsan Abdollahi.

Image: “Thinker: My Puppy Poet and Me”

In this charming book of linked poems — the story of a pup who speaks, but only in verse — the distinguished children’s poet Greenfield glides gracefully between rhyme, free verse, haiku and rap. A boy named Jace becomes the dog’s owner. He names him Thinker (“I’m deep and I’m a poet,” the dog warns. “A cute name’s not O.K.”) and the two have back-and-forth chats about life. On every page, Abdollahi’s collaged illustrations bring the characters to life with a soulful flair. 32 pp. Jabberwocky/Sourcebooks. (Ages 4 to 8.)

Buy book here.

MY PAPI HAS A MOTORCYCLE By Isabel Quintero. Illustrated by Zeke Peña.

Southern California is home to almost 24 million, yet few picture books show us life there, or tell stories about its vibrant immigrant communities. This delightful book bursts into the gap: A girl named Daisy takes a spin on the back of her carpenter papi’s motorcycle, greeting friends and relatives, noting historical murals and stopping at his work site. “Even in all that noise, my papi’s voice touches everything,” she says. There’s no earthshaking story, just the sweet rumble of family love, neighborhood pride, the dignity of work and the joy of a fast ride. Yet Quintero’s warm, economical text and the desert-sunset tones of Peña’s comics-inflected art feel like a revelation. 32 pp. Kokila/Penguin Random House. (Ages 4 to 8.)

SOCK STORY   By CK Smouha. Illustrated by Eleonora Marton.

Two socks, a pair, tumble around in the washing machine, doing tricks like “double axel triple flip” and annoying the larger items. It’s all fun and games until the spin cycle, when they’re separated — and one takes refuge in the pocket of a non-color-fast red shirt. Eek! Can an unmatching duo still be partners? Those raising a style-conscious child will know the answer these days is a resounding yes. Still, Smouha and Marton wring genuine suspense and edgy humor out of this clever, colorful tale. 32 pp. Cicada. (Ages 4 to 8.)

THE HIDEOUT

By Susanna Mattiangeli. Illustrated by Felicita Sala.

Nothing beats a secret place, and even better if, as in this enthralling story, it’s hidden in a public space. Someone’s calling Hannah, but she’s decided to go live inside a bush in the park, wearing a feather cape, making a fire and befriending an Odd Furry Creature. Or did she just draw the whole thing? The homage here to “Where the Wild Things Are” may be subtle, but it brings a smile. 32 pp. Abrams. (Ages 4 to 8.)

POWER UP By Seth Fishman. Illustrated by Isabel Greenberg.

Your pinkie, this innovative book explains, “has enough energy to light up one of the biggest cities in the world” for a day. Fishman and Greenberg (“A Hundred Billion Trillion Stars”) turn something kids instinctively understand — the energy in our bodies — into a lesson in biology and physics, and the real importance of food and sleep. 40 pp. Greenwillow/HarperCollins. (Ages 4 to 8.)

CAMP TIGER By Susan Choi. Illustrated by John Rocco.

Summer’s almost over, and the narrator of this sweetly mysterious first children’s book by the literary novelist Choi is dreading the start of first grade. A family camping trip brings him face to face with a tiger — one that talks. With the tiger’s help, the boy catches a fish and even, in a stunning wordless sequence, ventures into the woods at night to leap across rocks and howl at the moon. Rocco’s (“Blackout”) art gives an emotionally astute story even more depth. 40 pp. Putnam. (Ages 5 to 8.)

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By: Turning Kids into Bookworms – children’s laureates share their tips

Posted on: may 13, 2019.

How do you turn kids into bookworms? All 10 children’s laureates share their tips

Michael Morpurgo, Quentin Blake, Julia Donaldson and more reveal the books that inspired them and how to keep children interested in a world of digital distractions

11 May 2019

I t began in front of a log fire after a convivial dinner with friends and neighbours, Ted and Carol Hughes . I was grumbling about the lack of attention and credit generally given in the adult world to children’s books. Hughes, poet laureate at the time, said something like:

“A fine children’s book is as important and worthwhile as any kind of literature, and maybe more so. Read and love a great story or poem when you’re young and the chances are that you’ll become a reader for life, and maybe a writer or an artist. Something should be done.”

“You’re the poet laureate,” I ventured, “maybe we should have a children’s laureate?”

It was a throwaway line. Then he said: “Why not? Let’s do it.” So the laureate story began, and took shape.

Quentin Blake was crowned our first children’s laureate on 10 May 1999. He set the standard, and in his two years brought the art of illustration of children’s books to the public eye in a way never done before. The first chapter was a stunning beginning and each of the nine since has taken the children’s laureate story in a different direction, always exciting, surprising, and enlightening. Each of the laureates has given fresh inspiration to so many thousands of readers, raising ever greater awareness of the importance of children’s literature in our culture and in our society. And like all the best stories, no one knows where the next chapter might lead us, and like the best books, we never want them to end. 

Michael Morpurgo

Quentin Blake

(Children’s laureate from 1999 – 2001)

I remember the book that almost stopped me reading was  Oliver Twist,  which I was given to read when I was too young. Fortunately I came back to Dickens later, when I thought it was absolutely amazing. I have since read all the books, some of them twice. A simpler story is a book that I illustrated, by my friend John Yeoman , called  Featherbrains .  It tells the story of two chickens who escape from a battery farm and are introduced to the wide world through the wisdom of a friendly jackdaw.

(2001 – 2003)

Like almost everyone else my age, I was turned into a reader by Enid Blyton . I also adored Anthony Buckeridge ’s books about Jennings and his prep school. But Richmal Crompton’s William was my favourite character. I had almost all of the 39 books, and he became my imaginary brother and the perfect companion: lippy, irrepressible, and inventive to an almost pathological degree.

Children have never been famed for taking sensible advice, but are superb at following a poor example. So if a parent spends most of their own time peering at screens, they can scarcely expect anything different from their offspring. Add to this the fact that all studies show that children who are read to every night do better in school – even in maths…

Read more here. 

By: South African writers nominated for the 2019 Nommo Awards.

Posted on: may 7, 2019.

Among the nominated are the Nigerian superstar, Nnedi Okorafor, the Ghanaian-Canadian novelist, Esi Edugyan, Liberian novelists, Hawa Jande Golakai and Wayetu Moore, Nigerian novelist Tomi Adeyemi, South African writer, Mohale Mashigo, and Nigerian writers, Wole Talabi and Mazi Nwonwu.

The Nommo Awards, founded in 2016 by the African Speculative Fiction Society (ASFS), recognise the finest fantasy or science fiction works by Africans published in the preceding year.

The ASFS is a body of African writers, editors, publishers and graphic artists who nominate shortlisted works and vote for the winners. The awards are given in four categories: the US$1000 Best Novel named after the awards benefactor Tom Ilube, the US$500 Best Novella, the US$500 Best Short Story, and the US$1000 Best Comic or Graphic Novel.

The longlisted writers “will be asked to confirm their eligibility and eligibility of their works in writing,” as well as “be asked to make complete texts or excerpts available to ASFS Members only for purposes of informed voting.” Over the next three months, ASFS members will vote for the winners in each category from the shortlists.

See the longlist here …

By: Puku welcomes Dr. Nokuthula Mazibuko Msimang

Posted on: may 6, 2019.

Puku is delighted to welcome Dr. Nokuthula Mazibuko Msimang as Director of Special Projects and Fundraising. 

Mazibuko Msimang championed 100 percent indigenous languages ECD content when she was the Head of SABC Children (2013-2019) – under her leadership, the unit won five SAFTAs, two Promax Awards and two Prix Jeneus quality certificates.

She speaks 7 South African languages fluently, and is excited that she joins Puku during the UN’s celebration of mother tongue.

In another life, she produced news for the BBC and travelled across Africa. 

Mazibuko Msimang has written five novellas for young people: In the Fast Lane , A Mozambican Summer , Freedom Song , Spring Offensive and Love Songs for Nheti . She is the recipient of the 2003 Bessie Head Fellowship. Her stories are about life’s comic slices, music, healing and family.

By: African Classics

Posted on: may 5, 2019, the day gogo went to vote by elinor sisulu.

“The Day Gogo Went To Vote” by Elinor Sisulu is a well loved classic children’s book.

As South African head to the polls in May, this children’s book provides a wonderful opportunity for parents to teach young readers about democracy. The timeless tale of Thembi and her 100 year old great grand Gogo is as enchanting today as it was 20 years ago when it was first published. A true African gem!

This beautiful picture book gives a child’s-eye view of a milestone in South African history.  When Thembi’s parents announce that black South Africans will be allowed to vote for the first time on 27 April 1994, Thembi’s 100-year-old Gogo, who hasn’t left the house for years, says she will go out and cast her vote – and she insists on taking Thembi along!  Also available in:  English  ( The day Gogo went to vote ),  Afrikaans  ( Die dag toe Gogo gaan stem het ),  Setswana  ( Letsatsi le Nkoko a ileng ditlhophong ),  Sesotho  ( Mohla Gogo a neng a ilo vouta ),  isiXhosa  ( Mhla uGogo waya kuvota ) and  isiZulu  ( Mhla ugogo eya kovota ).

About the Author

By: Finalists announced for the Sanlam Prize for Youth Literature 2019

Posted on: may 4, 2019, from entries in english and afrikaans to isizulu and sesotho, here are the 20 finalists for the sanlam prize for youth literature 2019.

The biennial Sanlam Prize for Youth Literature award has been a source of local young adult publications since its inception in 1980. Over the years some changes were made to the competition to ensure relevance to readers and the South African literary and social landscape. The most significant change was to open entries to all 11 official languages of SA, thus ensuring that more writers and readers benefit from the competition.

Michelle Cooper, publisher and head of children’s and youth literature at Tafelberg, says: “I cherish each Sanlam award-winning book we’ve published. They represent the best of local writing for young adults. Our latest batch of winners covers themes that are right on trend with international YA (young adult) and I know readers will be enthralled.”

Debut authors compete on level ground against established writers in this anonymously judged competition and some have gone on to succeed as published authors in other genres as a result of winning. With a few exceptions, a Sanlam winner is prescribed in schools regularly and some have been turned into films. Sanlam award-winners have also gone on to win other local literary prizes, like the Media24 Books Literary Awards and the Percy FitzPatrick Prize.

“Sanlam believes that learning provides the foundation for building a world of Wealthsmiths. Our investment in this competition for almost 40 years has resulted in thousands of young people getting access to books ‒ laying the foundation for living their best lives, now and for the next generation,” says Elena Meyer, senior manager of sponsorships at Sanlam.

See the finalists here…

Puku congratulates the authors and celebrates their stories.  

By: Thoko Vuka! Thoko Muka! Zimbabwean children’s book now out.

Posted on: april 16, 2019, the children’s book helping zimbabweans preserve their native languages.

By: RUFARO SAMANGA

April, 2019

Written in both Shona and Ndebele, the colorful children’s book is based on a popular Ndebele nursery rhyme.

When her nephews and nieces were born,   Nomusa Ndebele  was eager to purchase them books that would teach them their native tongue and culture. It’s a language that she shares a name with—Ndebele. But she struggled to find any Ndebele children’s books and the ones she could find were Eurocentric books whose images, characters and languages did not reflect the realities of her nieces and nephews. It was that experience that led her to establishing the publishing site  saanrize  with her friend,  Carol Dzingai  who also shared her frustrations.

Ndebele recently penned   Thoko Vuka! Thoko Muka!  which was published via saanrize. The book tells the story of a little Zimbabwean girl named Thoko is living in the diaspora with her trusted sidekick “Zou-Zou”, a stuffed elephant that represents her family’s totem. Thoko goes on a myriad of adventures with her stuffed elephant and both learn about Zimbabwean heritage and culture in a fun-filled way.

Read more here ….

By: BOLOGNA PRIZE FOR THE BEST CHILDREN’S PUBLISHERS OF THE YEAR

Posted on: april 8, 2019.

Bologna , April 2019

THE 2019 WINNERS

The best of international publishing at BolognaFiere:

awards for creativity, courage and quality choices

Established by the Bologna Children’s Book Fair in collaboration with the Association of Italian Publishers (AIE) and the International Publishers Association (IPA), the  BOP – Bologna Prize for the Best Children’s Publishers of the Year  acknowledges publishers in each of the six areas of the world that have stood out in terms of their creativity, courage and the quality of the editorial choices over the last year. The award ceremony of the seventh edition of the prize was held yesterday evening on 1 April at Palazzo d’Accursio in Bologna on the first day of the Fair as is customary. Here follows the list of the winners, all selected by a jury made up of publishers:

For Africa the winner is  Sub-Saharan Publishers,  Ghana, founded in 1992 and specialized in children’s books that deal with environmental themes

https://www.subsaharanpublishers.com/

For Asia the prize went to the  Locus Publishing Company , Taiwan, founded in 1996, its publications aim to capture the spirit of “future, adventure culture”.

http://www.locuspublishing.com/About_eng.aspx

For Europe the winner is the Portuguese  Orfeu negro . Founded in 2007, this publisher focuses on the arts and first ventured into the world of children’s publishing in 2008, in particular with illustrated books.

https://www.orfeunegro.org/

NORD AMERICA

For North America the top podium place is for  Comme des géants ,   Canada, a young independent publisher specialised in books for infants that stood out for the quality of its narratives, literature and graphics.

http://www.commedesgeants.com/

CENTRAL – SOUTH AMERICA

For Central and South America the prize was awarded to Argentina’s  Limonero,  a publisher that after many years of publishing educational material, in 2014 branched out successfully into illustrated books.

http://www.limonero.com.ar/

Finally, for Oceania the prize went to the Australian  Scribble Kids’ Books,  an eclectic publisher of children’s books

http://scribblekidsbooks.com/

By: Calling all illustrators!

Posted on: february 22, 2019.

Do you have the perfect idea for a children’s picture book? Are you an inspiring, unique picture book artists? If so, send in three unique illustrations that together tell a story.

Walker Books is looking for outstanding up-and-coming illustrators.

The story might already exist or be one of your own.

Include the text that goes with each illustration and give a short synopsis (not more than 250 words of the whole story). Send it as a Word document.

The illustrations should not have been published before. Any technique or medium could be used.

You may enter only if you have not published an entire picture book with a trade publisher before.

You are, however, allowed to enter if you have published educational books or other forms and genres before (e.g. in a poetry anthology, adult fiction, book covers, etcetera).

Illustrators from countries other than the United Kingdom, France, South Africa, Germany and the Netherlands and Belgium are also allowed to enter for the competition by uploading to any of the organising countries.

For the sake of easy communication for all jury members, your text has to be in English.

Upload your entry, with accompanying text, before May 15th 2019. If you pass the first (digital) selection, you will be asked to send us hard copies of your work.

A professional jury will select the three best entries in the Netherlands, Belgium, France, South Africa, Germany and the United Kingdom. The results will be announced on this website in June 2019. Winners will be informed by email.

The works of the fifteen winning artists will be part of a travelling exhibition, which will be shown in the participating countries. The final selection will be published in an international catalogue and presented to several leading picture book publishing houses at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair 2020, thus giving the artists an excellent opportunity to find commissions.

By: Africa’s Cause Must Triumph: The Collected Writings of AP Mda Robert Edgar and Luyanda ka Msumza

Posted on: february 21, 2019.

Puku is proud to present an excerpt from  Africa’s Cause Must Triumph: The Collected Writings of AP Mda .

About the book Best Red, 2018

The Class of ’44, the founders of the African National Congress Youth League (CYL) in 1944, includes a remarkable list of names: Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu, Oliver Tambo, Anton Lembede and Ashby Peter (AP) Mda.

While much has been written on the others, relatively little attention has been paid to Mda, the Youth League president from 1947 to 1949 whom his peers regarded as the foremost political intellectual and strategist of their generation. He was known for his passionate advocacy of African nationalism, guiding the ANC into militant forms of protest, and pressing activists to consider turning to armed struggle in the early nineteen-fifties.

In his late teens Mda began leaving a rich written record—through letters and essays in newspapers, political tracts and speeches, and letters to colleagues—that allows us to chart the evolution of his views throughout his life not only on politics but also on culture, language, literature, music, religion, and education.

Read an excerpt:

What African Nationalism Is

Printed in Inkundla ya Bantu, 25 September 1948¹

In the ‘Inkundla’ of 21st August, Mr. R.S. Canca, a senior student of Cape Town, launched a bitter attack upon me.² In spite of Mr. Canca’s school boyish arrogance, I believe, however, that his attack was honest. For his benefit and for the benefit of other sincere men and women of all political camps, I shall state our position as briefly and as clearly as possible.

HISTORICAL BASIS OF AFRICAN NATIONALISM

About 200 years ago our forefathers were called upon to defend their father-land against the European Settlers and expansionists. In spite of bravery and unparalleled heroism, they had to surrender to the Europeans. Two main factors contributed to their defeat. Firstly the superior weapons of the white man, and secondly, the fact that the Africans fought as isolated tribes, instead of attacking as a co-ordinated force. The division of the tribes facilitated the northward and east-ward advance of European Imperialism. A critical situation arose for the tribes, in fact some were faced with the prospect of annihilation. It thus became imperative to continue the old resistance, only with new weapons of struggle and novel modes of organisation.

AFRICAN NATIONAL CONGRESS COMES INTO BEING

Thus the year 1912, saw the birth of the African National Congress. The event marked the end of the old era of isolated tribal resistance, and ushered in a new era of struggle on a national rather than on a tribal plane. On the surface of it, the Colour Bar Act of 1909 and the Land Act of 1913 were factors which brought about the establishment of the National Congress. Yet on the other hand, the creation of a National Congress was a concrete expression of inner forces which operated towards a tribal synthesis on the economic, political and organisational plane. However imperfectly it did it the ANC was in fact an outward expression of the people’s deep-seated desire for a militant National Liberation Movement, capable of directing the resistance to white oppression, and ultimately winning the African’s national freedom.

In spite of this, however, the ANC suffered from serious defects. The founders had no clear grasp of the situation, and they were obsessed with imperialist forms of organisation. As a result the ANC suffered from defects both of form and of matter, and as long as these remained the ANC could not (i) create an effective machinery for waging a national liberatory struggle (ii) have a central creed of African Nationalism which could be a rallying point for the teeming millions of Africans, and be a cementing in consolidating the African Nation in the course of the liberatory struggle.

In spite of these defects, however, the founders of the ANC, (great patriots they were) had provided a concrete basis for inter-tribal solidarity, and for a nationally organised struggle against white domination. It remained for rising generations to give the National Congress such form and content as would suit the organisations to its historic mission.

THE EMERGENCE OF THE ALL-AFRICAN CONVENTION

Meanwhile the All-African Convention had come into existence during a period of grave weakness in the African National Congress. Yet although high hopes were placed in the AAC when it was first called in 1935 and 1936, it soon became apparent that the AAC was doomed to disintegration. In spite of their avoidance in convincing the form of the new organisation, the founders fell into the elemen-tary error of 1912. They failed to grasp the material forces which had given birth to the situation, and they therefore not only failed to give the organisation clear content and substance, but they totally failed to grasp the significance of African Nationalism in the struggle not only against this or that segregation or discrimi-natory measure, but against white domination as a whole. It is only within very recent years, that some young Africans have made serious efforts to give what remains of the original Convention a set of principles which constitute the stock-in-trade of their political philosophy. Presently, these young men are making a bid to stage a come-back for the All-African Convention. And whether one agrees with them or not, one must admit that the young men are engaged in a serious study of the political situation in this country. But that is not to say that their stand or position is necessarily correct. That is not to say that they should make wild and sweeping claims for themselves.

EMERGENCE OF NEW FORCES WITHIN THE ANC

Within recent times, and especially during the regime of Dr. A.B. Xuma, important changes have taken place in the organisational form of the African National Congress. Xuma’s centralisation policy has corrected some of the mistakes of 1912, and provided a base for a unified National Congress knitting all tribes into one whole for the purpose of the National Liberation struggle. There is of course room for still more drastic and sweeping changes. At the same time, there has emerged the Congress Youth League which from the very onset set itself the task of imparting matter and substance to the organisational form of the ANC. This takes the form of the creed of African Nationalism, whose first clear exponent was the late Anton Muziwakhe Lembede.

THE BASIC POSITION OF AFRICAN NATIONALISM

The starting point of African Nationalism is the historical or even the prehistoric position. Africa was, has been and still is, a black man’s continent. The Euro-peans who now occupy large tracts of Africa dispossessed the rightful owners by force of arms, and they began to exploit the labour power of the Africans and the natural resources of the country, for their own benefit, and for the benefit of their countrymen across the seas. Although the Africans were defeated and subjugated, they did not give up their claim to Africa, and the fact that their land was taken away and their human rights whittled down, did not take away their right to Africa. The European’s claim to the land is in fact based on force and power, and the Africans themselves will tolerate European domination as long as they have not got the material force to overthrow it. The only basis of a compromise would be an equitable re-division of land [and] the granting of full democratic rights to the Africans. On that basis the Africans would be prepared to admit the right of the Europeans to a share of Africa, seeing that thousands of them know no other home to-day except our Black Continent, Africa; and seeing that also their contri-bution to African development is sorely needed just now. African Nationalism is therefore the militant outlook of a dispossessed people; a people oppressed in their own country, on the grounds of their being the rightful owners of the land, on the grounds of their belonging to a group with a particular colour. In short, a group that is nationally oppressed. If is a dynamic, nation-building outlook.

TWO STREAMS OF AFRICAN NATIONALISM

Now it has to be noted that there are two brands of African Nationalism. The first brand is extremist and ultra-revolutionary. Extreme African Nationalists demand that Europeans must ‘quit Africa’ and that all the white men are to be thrown into the sea.

The other brand of African Nationalism is comparatively moderate. It is totally opposed to white domination and to foreign leadership of Africa; but it takes account of the concrete situation, and recognises that the different racial groups have come to stay in South Africa. It insists that a condition for inter-racial cooperation is the abandonment of white domination, the complete national freedom of the African people, and such changes in the basic structure of South African Society that those relations which breed exploitation and misery shall disappear. Therefore the ‘goal’ of moderate African Nationalism is the winning of National freedom for the African people, and the inauguration of a people’s free society where racial persecution and oppression will be abolished. The C.Y. League at present professes moderate African Nationalism.

FORCES IN THE CREATION OF A NEW SOUTH AFRICA

Space does not allow me to make a comprehensive size-up of the relative posi-tions of peoples in South Africa. This cursory summary will sufficiently indicate our position.

(a) Europeans:- The vast majority of them share the spoils of white domination. They have a vested interest in the exploitative caste society of South Africa. A few of them have the courage to condemn racial oppression; but their voice is negligible, and in the last analysis they count for little or nothing. In the fight for national freedom the Africans will be wasting their time and deflecting their focus if they look up to Europeans either for assistance or for inspiration. This is not anti-whiteism; it is simple and pure realism.

(b) Indians:- They are a distinct group with a different situation, historical and cultural background, from the Africans and Europeans. However, they did not come to Africa as exploiters and conquerors; they came as the exploited. They have their own motherland, India; but thousands of them have made South Africa their home. They are being denied democratic rights, and they as a group suffer national oppression. In spite of the parasitic activities of a few of them, we should not regard them as enemies. On the contrary, on points where our suffering is common, we should establish some basis of co-operation.

(c) Coloureds:- Their position is more or less like that of the Indians’ their oppres-sion differing in degree. There is the further difference that the Coloureds have no mother country to look up to. They would be nearer the Africans, if there was not such a divergence in the cultural and historical background of the two groups. The Coloureds as a group also suffer national oppression, although perhaps not to so intense a degree as the Africans do. On matters of common interest a basis of co-operation may be established as between the Coloureds and Indians on the one hand and the Africans on the other.

(d) Africans:- they are the greatest single group and they are a key to the move-ment for democracy in South Africa. That is not so merely because Africa is the Continent of the teeming black millions, but also because by bringing the full force of their organised numerical strength, they could alter the basic position of the struggle for democracy in South Africa. All the different tribes although differing in languages and dialect, have a common historical and cultural back-ground. With the advance of the outlook of African nation-alism, they will come to think more and more in terms of their national interest than in those of their sectional and tribal interest. It is clear of course that the Africans suffer a particular oppression on account of their colour. They are nationally oppressed.

SOUTH AFRICA: A COUNTRY OF NATIONALITIES

The above summary shows that South Africa is a land of four chief nationalities, three of which (the Europeans, Indians and Coloureds) are minorities, and three of which (the Africans, Indians and Coloureds) suffer national oppression. One of the four groups, the European group, maintains a position of supremacy; and furthers its interests chiefly at the expense of the Africans, when we talk of the ‘national Question’ in South Africa, we refer to the problem of adjusting rela-tions between different nationalities. But a sine qua non to a permanent solution of the problem is the ending of white domination and the guaranteeing of secu-rity to every national group, large or small.

WINNING NATIONAL FREEDOM

The different oppressed nationalities referred to above, can win their respective national freedom by following this course:-

(a) Africans:- They should create a powerful national freedom movement led by the Africans themselves and imbued with an African Nationalistic Spirit; which should act as its cementing and driving force.

(b) Indians and Coloureds:- They should each create their own united national front to fight for their national freedom. It is not for me however to concern myself with how they form it. That is their business. As an African Nation-alist, I am concerned with the Africans, first and foremost.

(c) Non-European Co-operation:- African Nationalists are not opposed to Non-European Co-operation on common issues. What they are opposed to is the creation of mush-room Non-European organisations, where Non-European leaders with no mass backing pretend to co-operate or unite. African Nationalists insist that the National Organisations of the Non- Europeans should co-operate on some clear basis and some specific points. But the emphasis should be on the respective masses who supported their national organisations and not on the bare form of co-operation. In the case of the African people, for instance, the urgent task should be the rallying of the masses under the banner of African Nationalism, and not the canvassing of help among Indians and Coloureds. Dr. Dadoo’s Non-European United Front collapsed because it was not based on the above principles, and other Non-European Fronts will also collapse and disintegrate unless their leaders fall back to Nationalism as a basis for Non-European Co-operation.

(d) Europeans:- As the struggle develops and takes serious form the true friends of the oppressed will emerge. African nationalists do not propose to turn down genuine allies in the struggle for freedom. Europeans may come forward of their own accord, but African Nationalists should not pin their faith on Europeans, and look up to them for freedom. The freedom of the African people lies in their own hands. The presence or absence of allies is of secondary importance. That is why African Nationalists emphasise the need for the national solidarity of Africans as Africans. Without being anti-White, anti-Indian or anti-Coloured, the African Nationalists are openly pro-African. For them African National freedom is the all-absorbing concern.

DISTORTIONS OF AFRICAN NATIONALISM

Here are some distortions of African Nationalism.(a) People accuse us of being racialists and sectionalists. We are not against other racial groups. We are only concerned with our freedom.

(b) There is a pseudo-African Nationalism which is mouthed by people who want to defend their vested interests, and who only mouth Nation-alistic slogans in order to mask or buttress reactionism. Hence the neces-sity for again and again re-stating the stand-point of pure unadulterated Nationalism.

(c) There are still more dangerous reactionary elements which employ National-istic slogans to screen openly Fascist tendencies. These elements are a mortal danger to the cause of freedom, because of the possibility of their alliance with the pseudo-Nationalism of the Nazis and Fascists in South Africa. Hence the need for their ruthless exposure.

(d) There are also the vendors of ‘foreign ideologies’ who want to impose cut-and-dried formulas which are not related to the South African scene, but imported whole-sale from Europe. Europe is our teacher in many things. We have no objection to any group learning from Europe as so many other peoples of the earth are doing. But the wholesale and indiscriminate import-ation of methods and tactics which are unrelated to the local situation, may harm the cause of our people’s struggle. African Nationalists have to be perpetually on the lookout.

(e) Some people pretend to see in our position a tribalist reaction. They fail to see that African Nationalism is a higher development of a process which was already in progress when the white-man arrived. But Nationalism can only reach its highest development on the ruins of centrifugal tribalism. Therefore sectional and reactionary tribalism is the mortal foe of genuine African Nationalism.

CONCLUSION THAT CAN NOW BE DRAWN

The outlook and position of African nationalism have been clearly indicated. It is now possible to draw general conclusions from this survey.

Firstly, it has become clear that the historic mission of African nationalism is the building of a self-confident and strong African Nation in South Africa. Therefore African Nationalism transcends the narrow limits imposed by any one organization. It is all embracing in the sense that its field is the whole body of African people in this country. The germ of its growth is within the bosom of the ANC, and it found its crystallization in the Congress Youth League. It should now find concrete expression in the creation of a single African National Front. The strength and permanence of such a front will of course depend not on mere chance or accident. It will depend on the correctness of our stand and on the political orientation of our National Front. Granting that this would be anchored on pure African Nationalism, we should build the most powerful front in our history.

Secondly, it will be clearly seen that with such an outlook on Africa, African Nationalists cannot admit the claims of the whites to perpetual domination. Regarding the whole of South Africa as their land, African Nationalists cannot agree for instance that only the Reserves are their fatherland. They cannot admit that there is any part of South Africa where Africans can be said to have no rights merely because they are Africans. They reject the idea of white domination and demand full democracy. But they know that the dominant white group will not surrender its position of superiority voluntarily. It has never happened anywhere. Therefore the African Nationalists call for the formation of a powerful National Front, and the setting up of the stage for a prolonged ‘many sided struggle’ which should gain momentum and increase in intensity as the masses swing in to action, and as the implications of African nationalism are being increasingly grasped by the broad masses of the people. With such a clear-cut outlook, the formulation of a common programme and the adumbration of methods and tactics becomes a comparatively easy task. The Congress Youth League has now such a clear-cut programme.

What is the relation between this exposition and the various suggestions which have been made by different people in the ‘Inkundla’? To answer that question it would be necessary for me to clarify some aspects of my suggestions for instance; and even to refute some statements made by both ‘Kanyisa’ and Mr. R.S. Canca. But here I have been concerned with stating our position and general outlook. Having done so, it will be easy to develop our argument and relate it properly to the National Emergency facing us.

Buy the book here

1. This document was obtained from the National Library of South Africa, Pretoria.

2. Richard Canca (1924–2009) received a MA from the University of Cape Town. He was a leading figure in the AAC and Non-European Unity Movement and was an AAC delegate to the unity talks with ANC in 1949. He taught in the Transkei during the 1950s, but because the government was dismissing teachers who engaged in political activities, he decided to serve his articles with Wycliffe Tsotsi. In 1963, the government arrested him during the state of emergency and then placed him under a banning order the same year.

Did You Know?

The idea to celebrate International Mother Language Day was the  initiative of Bangladesh . It was approved at the  1999 UNESCO General Conference  and has been observed throughout the world since 2000.

UNESCO believes in the importance of cultural and linguistic diversity for sustainable societies. It is within its mandate for peace that it works to preserve the differences in cultures and languages that foster tolerance and respect for others.  

Linguistic diversity (link is external)  is increasingly threatened as more and more languages disappear. Globally 40 per cent of the population does not have access to an education in a language they speak or understand. Nevertheless, progress is being made in mother tongue-based multilingual education with growing understanding of its importance, particularly in early schooling, and more commitment to its development in public life.

Multilingual and multicultural societies exist through their languages which transmit and preserve traditional knowledge and cultures in a sustainable way.

By: New Young Adult SFF Books Coming Out!

Posted on: january 21, 2019.

All the New Young Adult SFF Books Coming Out in January!

Tor.com December, 2018  

Books for Young Adult SFF fans: get your clones, your fae, your slayers, your rules, and your spacefarers here, in the first batch of magical young adult books for 2019!

The Similars —Rebecca Hanover  (Sourcebooks Fire)

Junior year just got a lot more cutthroat. This fall, six new students are joining the junior class at the elite Darkwood Academy. But they aren’t your regular over-achieving teens. They’re clones. And they’re joining the class alongside their originals.

The Similars are all anyone can talk about: Who are these clones? What are the odds that all of them would be Darkwood students? And who is the madman who broke the law against cloning to create them?

Emmaline Chance couldn’t care less. Her best friend, Oliver, died over the summer and it’s all she can do to get through each day without him. Then she comes face-to-heartbreaking-face with Levi—Oliver’s exact DNA copy and one of the Similars.

Emma wants nothing to do with the Similars, except she keeps getting pulled deeper into their clique. She can’t escape the dark truths about the clones or her prestigious school. No one can be trusted…not even the boy she is falling for with Oliver’s face.

Buy the book here.

White Stag —Kara Barbieri  (St Martin’s Press)

Series: Permafrost

As the last child in a family of daughters, seventeen-year-old Janneke was raised to be the male heir. While her sisters were becoming wives and mothers, she was taught to hunt, track, and fight.

On the day her village was burned to the ground, Janneke—as the only survivor—was taken captive by the malicious Lydian and eventually sent to work for his nephew Soren. Janneke’s survival in the court of merciless monsters has come at the cost of her connection to the human world. And when the Goblin King’s death ignites an ancient hunt for the next king, Soren senses an opportunity for her to finally fully accept the ways of the brutal Permafrost. But every action he takes to bring her deeper into his world only shows him that a little humanity isn’t bad—especially when it comes to those you care about.

Through every battle they survive, Janneke’s loyalty to Soren deepens. After dangerous truths are revealed, Janneke must choose between holding on or letting go of her last connections to a world she no longer belongs to. She must make the right choice to save the only thing keeping both worlds from crumbling.

The Wicked King  (Folk of the Air #2)—Holly Black  (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers)

To be released 8 March 2019

After the jaw-dropping revelation that Oak is the heir to Faerie, Jude must keep her younger brother safe. To do so, she has bound the wicked king, Cardan, to her, and made herself the power behind the throne.

Navigating the constantly shifting political alliances of Faerie would be difficult enough if Cardan were easy to control. But he does everything in his power to humiliate and undermine her even as his fascination with her remains undiminished. When it becomes all too clear that someone close to Jude means to betray her, threatening her own life and the lives of everyone she loves, Jude must uncover the traitor and fight her own complicated feelings for Cardan to maintain control as a mortal in a Faerie world.

Pre-order this product and buy the book here.

Analiese Rising —Brenda Drake  (Entangled Teen)

When a stranger gives Analiese Jordan a list of names before he dies, the last thing she expects to see is her own on it. Not. Cool. Her search for answers leads to the man’s grandson, Marek, who has dangerous secrets of his own. Both are determined to unlock the mystery of the list. But the truth is deadly.

Analiese is a descendant of the God of Death, known as a Riser, with the power to raise the dead and control them. Finding out she has hidden powers? Cool. Finding out she turns corpses into killers? No, thank you. Now the trail plants her and Marek in the middle of a war between gods who apparently want to raise an army of the Risen, and Analiese must figure out how to save the world—from herself.

Slayer —Kiersten White  (Simon Pulse)

Nina and her twin sister, Artemis, are far from normal. It’s hard to be when you grow up at the Watcher’s Academy, which is a bit different from your average boarding school.

Here teens are trained as guides for Slayers—girls gifted with supernatural strength to fight the forces of darkness. But while Nina’s mother is a prominent member of the Watcher’s Council, Nina has never embraced the violent Watcher lifestyle. Instead she follows her instincts to heal, carving out a place for herself as the school medic.

Until the day Nina’s life changes forever. Thanks to Buffy, the famous (and infamous) Slayer that Nina’s father died protecting, Nina is not only the newest Chosen One—she’s the last Slayer, ever. Period. As Nina hones her skills with her Watcher-in-training, Leo, there’s plenty to keep her occupied: a monster fighting ring, a demon who eats happiness, a shadowy figure that keeps popping up in Nina’s dreams… But it’s not until bodies start turning up that Nina’s new powers will truly be tested—because someone she loves might be next. One thing is clear: Being Chosen is easy. Making choices is hard.

The Girl King —Mimi Yu  (Bloomsbury)

Sisters Lu and Min have always known their places as the princesses of the Empire of the First Flame: assertive Lu will be named her father’s heir and become the dynasty’s first female ruler, while timid Min will lead a quiet life in Lu’s shadow. Until their father names their male cousin Set his heir instead, sending ripples through the realm and throwing both girls’ lives into utter chaos.

Determined to reclaim her birthright, Lu has no choice but to go on the run, leaving Min to face the volatile court alone. Lu soon crosses paths with Nokhai, the lone, unlikely survivor of the Ashina, a clan of nomadic wolf shapeshifters.

Nok never learned to shift–or to trust the empire that killed his family–but working with the princess might be the only way to unlock his true power. As Lu and Nok form a shaky alliance, Min’s own hidden power awakens, a forbidden, deadly magic that could secure Set’s reign… or allow her to claim the throne herself.

But there can only be one emperor, and the sisters’ greatest enemy could very well turn out to be each other.

The Gilded Wolves —Roshani Chokshi  (St Martin’s Press)

It’s 1889. The city is on the cusp of industry and power, and the Exposition Universelle has breathed new life into the streets and dredged up ancient secrets. Here, no one keeps tabs on dark truths better than treasure-hunter and wealthy hotelier Séverin Montagnet-Alarie.

When the elite, ever-powerful Order of Babel seizes his help on a mission, Séverin is offered a treasure that he never imagined: his true inheritance. To hunt down the ancient artifact the Order seeks, Séverin calls upon a band of unlikely experts: An engineer with a debt to pay. A historian banished from his home. A dancer with a sinister past. And a brother in arms if not blood. Together, they will join Séverin as he explores the dark, glittering heart of Paris.

What they find might change the course of history–but only if they can stay alive.

See more books here …

By: Indigenous languages – are they fading from African households?

Posted on: january 20, 2019.

In 2016, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution proclaiming 2019 as the International Year of Indigenous Languages, based on a recommendation by the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues.

At the time, the Forum said that 40 per cent of the estimated 6,700 languages spoken around the world were in danger of disappearing.    The fact that most of these are indigenous languages puts the cultures and knowledge systems to which they belong, at risk. 

In addition, indigenous peoples are often isolated both politically and socially in the countries they live in, by the geographical location of their communities, their separate histories, cultures, languages and traditions.  And yet, they are not only leaders in protecting the environment, but their languages represent complex systems of knowledge and communication and should be recognized as a strategic national resource for development, peace building and reconciliation.  They also foster and promote unique local cultures, customs and values which have endured for thousands of years. Indigenous languages add to the rich tapestry of global cultural diversity. Without them, the world would be a poorer place.

As the Year Of Indigenous Languages 2019 begins, how has the previous lack of indigenous story books in South Africa improved? Are our languages growing or is the following still relevant? 

The fading use of indigenous languages in African households

By  Socrates Mbamalu May, 2018

The use of indigenous languages in African households is slowly fading with parents embracing foreign languages. Speaking at the 7th Annual International Igbo Conference Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie revealed that she only speaks to her daughter in Igbo, a practice that shocks many parents. However, embracing foreign languages at the expense of local languages is a result of “colonialism [which has] made us look down on everything that is African. This includes our languages, cultures and religions”.

Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie was one of the speakers at the 7th Annual International Igbo Conference this year. The one day conference discussed Igbo heritage studies. Adichie’s presentation was titled “Igbo bu Igbo.”

During her presentation, Adichie revealed that the only language she speaks to her daughter is Igbo. And the only language her 2 year old daughter can speak is Igbo. It was a deliberate decision that was consciously taken.

Many homes on the continent still deliberately don’t speak their local languages. Indigenous languages are not used as a form of communication in many homes. It is even surprising that parents who both come from the same ethnic group do not speak their indigenous language to their children. As Adichie pointed out in her presentation, some of these parents argue that they don’t want to confuse the child with learning two languages but paradoxically enrol the child in French and German lessons simultaneously.

Read: How can African languages be protected?

The promotion of African languages lacks backing from governments and citizens themselves. In 2018, we are still discussing how African languages can become a medium of instruction in institutions of higher learning.  Institutions of Higher Education across the continent are increasingly opting for education through the medium of English only despite the fact that English and in some cases French is the second or third language of most of the learners who attend these institutions.

An estimated  2000 languages  are spoken across the African continent, but in educational institutions English, French, German and Portuguese are the major languages used.

Read: Ngugi wa Thiong’o calls for preservation and inclusion of African languages in learning institutions

Linguistic research has proven that a child can learn up to five languages when growing up. The excuse that a child will get confused if more than one language is spoken to the child is a fallacy. Countries such as South Africa, through their constitution have empowered the use of African languages, but these languages are still peripheral in academia. A greater task also lies in the homes where some parents adamantly refuse to speak their indigenous languages to their children.

In a paper interrogating the usage (or lack thereof) of indigenous languages in educational institutions, Russell H. Kaschula Professor of African Language Studies, questions the reasons behind this prevalent phenomena.

“It is striking that African languages do not have pride of place at the continent’s institutions. Why are they sidelined in some many lecture halls and discussion groups? The answer lies in our collective history: colonialism made us look down on everything that is African. This includes our languages, cultures and religions,” Prof Kaschula  writes .

The answer and argument given by Prof Kaschula why African languages are sidelined in institutions of higher learning also applies to why Africans have no pride in their languages even in home settings. To borrow Prof Kaschul’s words, “our collective history: colonialism [has] made us look down on everything that is African. This includes our languages, cultures and religions”.

For parents and partners in inter-ethnic marriages, that should be a blessing to the child where the child learns both the father’s and mother’s language. Language is a strong currency, that when lost, is hard to retrieve. Hopefully, a home at a time, without the help of government, the focus will be on speaking indigenous languages and not English.

By: New Cookbook Offers an Opportunity to Engage Young Readers

Posted on: december 21, 2018.

By K. Astre December 2018

For many parents, it may seem like an impossible task to try and convince a child who is not interested in reading, to sit down and pick up a book for so many reasons. It can be difficult to find material that interests children, keeping them stimulated, and then there is the uphill battle to get them to be consistent so that they can continue to grow as readers.

Luckily, there are ways to get them engaged, ways that will keep them active and stimulated as they learn and that won’t bore them if they aren’t interested in a traditional approach to improving their reading.

Lesego Semenya’s cookbook Dijo , published by Jacana, offers parents a way to engage their young readers in an environment that may have been overlooked as a potential classroom — the kitchen. The acclaimed chef and former judge of Top Chef South Africa spoke at the third annual Abantu Book Festival held in Soweto 6 Dec – 9 Dec where he expressed his vision for sharing South African cuisine with the world. His mission is to balance the tension between the often rigidity of tradition and innovation to create traditional dishes that also include non-traditional ingredients.

The book is full of well-loved South African recipes with a global twist. For Semenya, it’s always been important for him to take the “snobbery”, as he says, out of cooking and make it accessible without compromising on sophistication often associated with professional chefs. With each of his dishes, he shares a short personal story that adds depth to the recipes he offers and provides readers with a chance to get in quick and useful reading time.

This skillful sharing of both the recipes and their history is a fertile opportunity to bring together parents/caregivers and their children. Numerous studies have shown that sharing stories with your child doesn’t mean you have to read. Just by looking at books with your child, you can be a great storyteller and a good model for using language and books. Cookbooks are a perfect vehicle as they often mirror the classic “picture book” with the volume and vibrancy of photos of yummy bites.

Children can be involved every step of the way while parents incorporate reading into the activity throughout the process. This becomes a great medium for teaching basic cooking skills and vocabulary while cooking up cultural staples. Giving kids some agency in the kitchen to choose the recipes they’d like to prepare can help them feel more engaged in the activity. They might enjoy trying foods that are familiar to them such as scones, chakalaka or malva pudding or could be inspired to explore different foods they haven’t made at home yet like gnocchi, panna cotta or pea and corn chowder.

When parents take a hands-on approach to getting their children involved in reading, it can make a big difference in building a foundation that can last for a lifetime. Parents can engage their kids at the grocery store where they can look for ingredients and later in the kitchen they can read the recipes aloud while helping out. They can also ask questions throughout the process to help children improve their comprehension skills.

This cookbook gives parents the ability to turn time in the kitchen into an opportunity for their kids to learn and grow as a reader. It’s complete with gorgeous images of food and life in South Africa that will keep them flipping through the pages and hold their interest as they learn that reading is more than just sitting down quietly with a book. Reading can also lead to fun activities that are useful and help to learn new skills. And that’s something every child can benefit from.

Book Description:

“Wow, you don’t look like a chef!” This statement is something Chef Lesego Semenya has heard many a time over the years. His response is always: “So, what does a chef look like?”

With his bulging tattooed upper arms, soft-spoken nature and obvious passion for South African cuisine and giving it his unique twist, Lesego probably doesn’t fit the generic look of a self-made top chef.

It is his unconventional personality and approach to food that has kept South Africans coming back for more over the years. Having cooked for billionaires such as Richard Brandson, Bill Gates and Warren Buffet, starring on the judging panel of foodie programme Top Chef South Africa, being the resident chef for various newspapers and radio shows, and then building his successful culinary brand LesDaChef, he finally brings his foodie fans his first cookbook, Dijo – My Food, My Journey .

Every dish that will be featured in Dijo has a story that speaks of passion and nostalgia. Sharing both the recipes and their history will give foodies a way of getting to know Lesego’s food background while growing up in Soweto, as well as the fine-dining techniques he learned at chef school and a few hot chef secrets, too.

Divided into three sections that span his food journey, Dijo is an affirmation of South African cuisine, its heritage and its unique flavours. Readers will go on a journey through the simplest yet most-loved of township dishes, to the more complex fine-dining molecular gastronomy creations he has become known for. It truly is a reflection of his life lived through food.

Lesego is also very active on social media and has used this platform to not only build his brand, LesDaChef , but also to educate, inform and, sometimes, challenge his followers to learn and understand exactly what they’re consuming – whether it be food or beverages.

Buy the book here…

By: Books for pure reading pleasure…

Posted on: december 19, 2018.

Right about now you are likely in the thick of holiday busy-ness…

…and here I am raining down a torrent of splendid book suggestions.

Maybe one will jump out at you for that just-right gift!  On the other hand, perhaps you have no bandwidth to fetch them from the library just now.  That’s okay.  But do bookmark them for later…

…because this slug of titles includes some absolute gems you won’t want to miss. Each one landed on me with unusual wonder, beauty, power, delight.

The Patchwork Bike , written by Maxine Beneba Clarke , illustrated by Van Thanh Rudd first published in Australia and New Zealand in 2016; first U.S. edition 2018 by Candlewick Press

Wow. I love this book so much!

It’s the account — at once unadorned and lyrical — of one mighty girl, her two wild brothers, and their fed-up mom who live on the edge of a desert in less-than-luxurious circumstances.

This girl loves her home and family, that much is clear. But the best thing of all is the rad bike they’ve assembled from cast off this-and-that, the perfect ride for careening over sand hills and even streaming right through their mud-walled house. Yessssssss!

Stunning illustration work captures the grit and coarseness of materials, the dignity of this Muslim mother, and the vigorous speed of that bike.

Do not miss the notes from both author and artist, particularly Ms. Clarke’s comments about poverty and the way imagination helps children find true joy in difficult conditions. It’s critical for advantaged children to engage the needs of the world, yet also see the strength, dignity, resourcefulness, and happiness of those whose material status does not match theirs. 

Brilliant picture-book making and highly recommended for ages 4 and up.

Imagine , written by Juan Felipe Herrera, illustrated by Lauren Castillo published in 2018 by Candlewick Press

This gorgeous, inspirational book is crammed with warmth and hope, encouragement to see beyond present obstacles to a possibility-laden future.  It is just the beacon of resilience that many need just now.

In free verse, Herrera details some of the many hurdles he faced as a child of migrant farmworkers, a Spanish-speaker in an English world, on his road to becoming U.S. Poet Laureate.  Imagine, he says, if this was what  my  life looked like, what  you  could do.

Castillo floods every page with her trademark tenderness, using a palette of warm, Southwest colors. Each moment is garbed in in beauty, affection, and the soft glow of promise. An artistic, quiet stunner for ages 6 through adult.

Door , by JiHyeon Lee originally published in Korea in 2017; U.S. edition in 2018 by Chronicle Books

I so thoroughly loved JiHyeon’s first book,  Pool , that I could not wait to get a hold of this second title of hers. And it is as lovely as her first, yet with quite a different vision.

By: ‘Mpumi’s Magic Beads’ at Abantu Book Festival

Posted on: december 18, 2018, author profile: lebohang masango, by kelesitse mokgatlhe december 2018.

There looms an unfortunate societal narrative – a constructed façade if you will – that people of colour do not have a culture of reading , albeit we could argue the size and nature of systematic constructs that have historically contributed to a deliberate retention of resources from black communities, and the damaging effects of said structures, but that is a story for another day.

In this moment,  we are unpacking children’s literature writer Lebohang Masango’s endearing storytelling sessions at the Abantu Book Festival – blowing all untrue reading culture narratives right out of the hellish abyss from whence it came.

Her self-published Mpumi’s Magic Beads (Thank You Books, 2017) is a thoughtfully written children’s book about friendship, self-esteem, discovery and beautiful hair.

A children’s book author, poet and social commentator Lebohang Masango has not only an impressive academic repertoire of work that is rooted in her love for jazz, passion for social anthropology and the city of Johannesburg, but her interests have also allowed her to bridge the gap between popular culture, new digital media and social commentary.

Whilst at the festival, I walked past a rather large tent area, and in it were those little plastic chairs that you find at kiddies’ parties – lots of them. Okay, so kiddies’ corner, but then what?

Even with her catalogue of scholastic feats, what stood out the most at this year’s Abantu Book Festival was Masango’s ability to share an energetic and wholehearted storytelling of her children’s book, Mpumi’s Magic Beads , to an audience of enthralled and engaged kiddies.

Reminiscent of Mam’Gcina Mhlope’s storytelling method, I, too, followed Masango to the Kid’s Zone with some delighted little boys and girls, as we embarked on a magic bead adventure. Beautifully animated and enthusiastically told, we saw the world through Mpumi, Asante and Tshiamo’s eyes – outside of the classroom.  

Well on the way to showing children not only to love themselves through reading, Mpumi, Asante & Tshiamo lift each other up through the wondrous possibilities of friendship in the beautifully city of Johannesburg.

Children of colour do read, because of the commitment and passion of children’s literature authors such as Masango, who bring storytelling to life.

Re a leboha (Thank you)!

By: ‘Chasing Shadows’ by Palesa Manaleng

Posted on: december 17, 2018.

Puku Review by K. Astre December 2018

In “ Chasing Shadows ,” author, Palesa Manaleng, tells an emotional story through the eyes of Muvuseni Themba Dumakude, a thoughtful eighteen-year-old who nostalgically reflects on his family’s difficult past as he moves towards his future. Born and raised in KwaZulu-Natal, Muvuseni journeys to Soweto in hopes of discovering parts of himself and a relationship with a father that has left him with nothing, but questions and feelings of abandonment. What he finds fuels his path forward and leaves the reader with an understanding that his life will forever be changed.  

Manaleng’s writing is straightforward, methodical and sets the tone for a somber tale of a family whose patriarch allows his ego and desire to convince him to leave them. She lets her main character seamlessly take the reader between the past and the present as she paints the picture of a teen-aged young man in pain who had learned to deal with deep disappointment by letting go and moving on.

It’s an easy, quick read that still manages to offer depth while examining the complex ways that a family comes together and falls apart. Readers will appreciate Manaleng’s ability to be brief while still breathing life into the characters and moving narrative.

Suitable for young adult readers, aged 15 to 18.

‘Chasing Shadows’

A short story by palesa manaleng.

The JRB presents the short fiction debut of  Palesa ‘Deejay’ Manaleng .

It’s raining, the roads are slippery, the driver sways the taxi left and right to avoid hitting potholes as big as ponds along the road, the sound of mbaqanga hits my ears hard. The music of my people, the songs of heartbreak, love and death. On any other day I would be dancing away with the other passengers as we head to Johannesburg, leaving our homes and families behind. But not on this day. Instead I look out the window of the red and blue kombi and watch as the rain washes away all of yesterday’s hurt and pain, and makes way for a new beginning.

The plastic bag covering the window a seat ahead of me has an opening that lets little splashes of water in, which hit me violently across the face as the vehicle moves faster and more recklessly. Talk of where we are headed fills the taxi as the women in front laugh about what they had left happening in the great city of lights. The man next to me smells of yesterday’s beer and cigarettes, and he recollects last night’s coming of age ceremony for his younger brother. He takes a swig of the brandy burrowed deep in his oversized grey and black jacket. I look at his long nails, grimed with years of dirt, as I decline his offer of a sip.

The smell of home cooked chicken combines with stale beer, cigarettes and the screams of little babies every time we swerve, and slowly rocks me to another world. I adjust my bag on my lap so I can try to stretch out my cramping legs, while the driver yells out that we will stop in a bit for a toilet break and some food. He instructs us not to take forever, as there are people in Johannesburg waiting for him to take them back to KwaZulu-Natal.

My name is Muvuseni Themba Dumakude, the eldest son to Zinhle Dumakude and Zolani Bhekokwakhe Dumakude. I crawled out of my mother’s womb in the early hours of the morning eighteen years ago, screaming to be set free. My naked body was wrapped in sheepskin as my mother lay on the rondavel floor. The village women ululated, thanking the gods, as the men passed around umqombothi. They poured some onto the ground, letting my ancestors drink. Immediately the mountains rumbled and the sky growled, a sign that my forefathers were appeased.

My parents had seven daughters before my arrival and my father was seen as a poor man because of this. He resented my mother for not being able to bear him a son to carry his name further. He had worried that the family name would die with him and he called my mother useless—until I emerged into the world; the warrior he had been craving for all those years.

When my parents met, in the sixties in Durban, my mother had been working in the kitchens in the suburbs of Durban North, cooking for white people and staying in a back room as big as a toilet. But the madam loved her, she gave her all the old clothes to wear, let her eat the scraps that the family did not want, and at times she would even let her pick first any old furniture she liked before it was thrown out.

My father worked on the railway, it was heavy work for anyone. He and the men he worked with built the railway line with their bare hands, working till they could not physically move, for two shillings a week. He stayed in the hostel with the other men, where they shared what little food they could afford to buy after sending money back home to their families and relatives.

Both Zinhle and Zolani, my parents, were originally from KwaZulu-Natal, and they both went home as often as possible. My mother had been taking the madam’s baby for a stroll when my father saw her, he was coming from the commissioner’s office where he had been fixing problems with his dompas. It is said, when he laid eyes on her, he knew she was to be his wife and bear him children.

Continue reading here.

By: Puku Welcomes New Online Seller of Children’s Books

Posted on: december 5, 2018.

By Charmain Naidoo December 2018

It is said that it takes a village to raise a child. A year ago, five young mothers, who saw a desperate need in the market for mother-tongue literature, formed just such a community.  In November 2017, chartered accountants, Precious Molete , Kgala Nazo and Tina Akuoko , engineer, Mpho Maje , and marketer and sales guru, Khumo Tapfumaneyi , founded Ethnikids , a book-selling site that specialises in local children’s literature with an emphasis on books written in African languages.  

“We wanted to read to our small children in our mother tongue and found it difficult to easily access books in the African languages,” Tapfumaneyi shared.  “Also, we found that there were few protagonists in the storybooks that looked like us, that our children could identify with.”

The women, all self-starting go-getters, began to research the children’s book field. They sourced books and invited like-minded parents to subscribe to their burgeoning enterprise. Subscribers received a carefully curated box of age appropriate books for just R500. As the subscriber list grew, it became obvious that an online commercial presence was necessary.

“There is an erroneous belief that children’s books do not make for profitable business,” Tapfumaneyi said. “On the contrary, we have found that as the dynamic of our country changes, as we witness a significant growth in the black middle class, this is a huge growth market with untapped potential.”

“More and more black parents want to ensure that their children do not lose the ability to speak their mother tongue,” she continued. “That’s where we come in: we saw a gap in the market, and Ethnikids is filling it.”

Ethnikids has also taken on the role of being a support to young authors. Promotion of local books, especially of independent publishers of children’s literature, is top of their agenda. Independent authors form between 30% and 40% of their business. These (mainly young, mainly women) authors have little access to the markets and struggle to get their books carried in traditional book outlets.

“We need to encourage, support, market and recognise these young authors,” Tapfumaneyi said. “At least 90% of the books Ethnikids stock are local – and almost all of those books are representative of the demographic of our country.”

The five women, all of whom have full time jobs, fulfill the sentiment of their brand logo, ‘Made For Me’. Their box of books must “feel like a gift for kids” said Tapfumaneyi, adding that they pack and ship the books themselves. While Ethnikids is primarily a commercial online bookstore, the women who run it are also committed to improving literacy.

“Social media has made it possible for us to grow our business – we pride ourselves in being the fastest delivery company in the country,” Tapfumaneyi shared. “We do not have bookstores, but we partner with children’s hair salons as an outlet for our books.”

Ethnikids organises book readings and monthly events around literature and literacy. Tapfumaneyi describes Ethnikids as being “a small, but enthusiastic player in the South African children’s books market.” The mothers believe that their unique selling point is that they have personally read the books before adding them to the online sales list.

Elinor Sisulu , Executive Director of Children’s Literature Foundation, Puku , welcomed Ethnikids into the book selling space.

She continued, “Next year, 2019, has been declared the Unesco Year of Indigenous Languages . We want to start a conversation with Ethnikids, as well as a number of other sector participants, to leverage this year as we concentrate on issues like family literacy and indigenous language literature.”  

By: African languages are at a disadvantage with Voice Recognition Technology

By  Abdi Latif Dahir

African languages are being left behind when it comes to voice recognition innovation

When internet connectivity is discussed in Africa, the conversation usually revolves around those who have access and those who don’t, namely  the digital divide . But there’s also a language divide, a gap that’s been widening especially when it comes to voice recognition technology, a new study says.

As voice-based interfaces like Amazon’s Alexa, Apple’s Siri, and Google’s Home assistant  become ubiquitous , more people are  using smart speakers to shop , set reminders, and get answers to simple but essential questions like the weather. Research shows half of all searches  will be voice-based  by 2020, and this massive pivot towards voice commands is set to  create an entire ecosystem  of applications and interactions.

Yet research by the early-stage accelerator Digital Financial Services Lab and research consultancy Caribou Digital shows  developers are focusing much of their efforts on improving English language capabilities and less on languages from developing nations in Africa and Asia. African languages are  already disadvantaged online  with huge platforms  including Twitter  and  Google AdSense  not supporting any African languages.

And even though companies have made enormous advances in Natural Language Processing (NLP), or the ability of computers to comprehend the human voice and language, there’s an emerging divide that relegates low-income populations and less widely-spoken languages to the background. As a result, this disparity will not only create a gap between those who can use this form of artificial intelligence for communications and those who can’t but also hinder users’ abilities to exploit these applications for development interventions like healthcare and finance.

One factor influencing this skewed attention is profit, with NLP providers concerned with languages that could help them make money. By multiplying the number of speakers of a language by the gross domestic product per capita, the authors found the top 100 languages cover approximately 96% of global GDP. Yet these 100 languages comprised less than 60% of all populations, highlighting “a fundamental tension between the commercial and social value of languages.”

African languages also lack enough data to train machine learning systems, disincentivizing researchers to….

By: The Roots of Early Literacy Lie In Rock Art

Posted on: november 27, 2018.

by Charmain Naidoo November 2018

NOW RUNNING UNTIL 20th JANUARY, 2019!

Since the dawn of civilisation, humans have told stories through pictures. Human ancestors used rock faces as the pages of their picture books and mixed ochre powder  with animal fat, charcoal, and a host of other natural ingredients as ink. Rock art, experts say, was born in Southern Africa more than 100 000 years ago. However, while this region might be the cradle of this ancient storytelling art form, the phenomenon occurs all over the world.

It is surprising to see the global similarities in how all the world’s pioneering forebears depicted their lives and the environment they lived in. This common resemblance is visually evident in the exhibition that is on at the Sci-Bono Discovery Centre in downtown Johannesburg.

The Wonders of Rock Art: Lascaux Cave and Africa explores paintings found in French caves in that town, paintings that go back 17 000 years. The caves were discovered by accident in 1940. Paintings depict the wild animals that roamed the plains of France, and a few humans, grotesquely distorted.

Camille Bourdier , a prehistorian, associate professor and researcher in Toulouse, France writes that the Lascaux paintings “tell us about the spiritual world of prehistoric European hunter-gatherer populations.” She says that in European Palaeolithic rock art, the motifs are not randomly chosen.

“They focus on a few animal species, particularly large herbivores,” she explains. “Landscapes, the sky and stars, and the mineral and botanical worlds are missing. Humans and their material world (their objects and habitats) are also barely present.”

The few humans that are represented in the art are drawn simplistically or with exaggerated, ugly features.

Dr Bourdier continued, sharing that “the Lascaux rock art is an exquisite expression of the symbolic and spiritual world of these past populations of hunter-gatherers, and how they perceived the human world through animals.”

The Wonders of Rock Art: Lascaux Cave and Africa exhibition, Sci-Bono

The travelling French exhibition is accompanied by a Southern African companion exhibit called “The Dawn of Art” that includes the San’s spiritually-inspired cave paintings. This prehistoric exhibition, with its depictions of how the early humans lived, how they sharpened stone for cutting tools or turned ivory into buttons and horns into needles, is a wonderful way to introduce children to their early forebears – through pictures.

Picture books, the experts tell us, help children develop a sense of self. Children respond to images long before they can read and it helps them make sense of their place in the world, and their relationship to other people. We understand the thinking of our forebearers through the stories they told about themselves and the spiritual representation of things they believed in.

It is also an important way of helping us connect to our origins and learning about how we segued into civilisation – and how we recorded our relationship with the real world, and the spiritual world.

Visit the Sci-Bono website for more information

Date of exhibition:

The exhibition opened in May 2018 and was supposed to run until 1 October 2018, but due to popular demand, the exhibition has been extended until 20 January 2019 .

Add this to your list of holiday outings. It does not disappoint.

By: SA’s Youngest Authors Get Audiences Excited to Read

Posted on: november 23, 2018.

By Natalia Molebatsi November 2018

At the first School Library and Reading Summit held in Braamfischerville, Johannesburg on 20 October, learners engaged with teachers, officials, parents and other stakeholders regarding how central reading for pleasure should be in their lives. Two girls, Michelle Nkamankeng and Buhle Mthethwa , enthralled the audience with their descriptions of their personal journeys with literature.

Nkamankeng wrote her first book at the age of six. This bubbly girl described her relationship with books as having begun at a very early age with her mother reading stories to her. This stimulated her imagination, leading to the composition of her first story, making her the youngest published author in Africa and the tenth youngest in the world.

Nkamankeng’s first book, Waiting for the Waves was inspired by a family trip to Sun City and is about how to face one’s fears. Her second book, The Little Girl Who Believes In Herself has already been published, her third one is currently in production and the young author is now working on her fourth book. Nkamankeng is also a motivational speaker who is passionate about inspiring other children to read, write, find various ways to give their life meaning and to achieve success.

She and her mother spend a lot of time getting corporates to buy copies of her book, The Big Fat Naughty Cat , so that they can distribute them among school children. The story is about Lira and her ungrateful cat whose behaviour wreaks havoc in the family. It places the importance of gratitude at its core. Mthethwa’s work garnered attention in influential spaces and in January 2018 she became the recipient of the Cell C Acts of Kindness Campaign where the mobile telephone company purchased 1000 copies of her book, which were then distributed at a school in Johannesburg.

Both girls indicated that their early success was also due to parental support. It was their parents who also believed in their dreams and took time out of their busy schedules to invest their time and money into ensuring that their children were able to achieve their publishing goals. Ask any writer; finishing a book is a gargantuan task and the scores of rejection letters from publishers can be incredibly demoralising, especially for African writers. The parents of Michelle Nkamankeng and Buhle Mthethwa were able to go around this major hurdle and published the books themselves.

While there are questions around book quality and editing when it comes to self-publishing along with the criticism that this can also seen as vanity publishing, it is a valid and independent way of getting books by local writers into the public domain. An example of a very successful self published book is Imagine This by Sade Adeniran which went on to be shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best First Book: Africa region.

While one acknowledges that not all parents are able to provide the financial support that is required to publish a book, this does not mean that children will be excluded from cultural production. Parents can still read to their children, tell them stories and encourage them to make up their own. This also serves as a lesson in leadership because it is through this kind of support that South Africa is now fortunate to have young leaders in these two remarkable girls.

By: Black Friday Promotions with Supernova Magazine!

By: score with ethnikids this black friday, by: the african book trust is giving away books, support libraries • grow readers • preserve our stories, by: coming soon elevation 3: the fiery spiral, posted on: november 21, 2018.

The third book in the Elevation series by Helen Brain is due out soon!

By: Book Launch Celebrates Albertina Sisulu

Posted on: november 19, 2018, by charmain naidoo.

The recent event at The Market Theatre honoured Albertina Sisulu, the struggle doyenne, who would have celebrated her 100 th birthday this year. It was here that the abridged version of the memoir titled “ Albertina Sisulu ” — a labour of love executed by  the writer, political analyst and human rights activist Elinor Sisulu (who was also the beloved daughter-in-law) and award-winning author Sindiwe Magona — was revealed.

The book tells an important story about an important woman whose strength, commitment and resolve is now the stuff of legends. As described by biographer Magona, Sisulu “had a steadfastness of character, was without blemish; was courageous and loving”. What emerges from this book is that she straddled many worlds – comfortably. She was a political activist fighting for justice for all; she was a nurse devoted to caring for the sick and frail; she was a loving mother who raised a family of well adjusted children; she was a caring “aunt” who took in children in need; she was a hostess whose hospitality was renowned and she was a wife who deeply loved her husband.

The book launch was a moving event that began with the screening of Joyce Sikhakane-Rankin’s film “A South African Love Story: Walter & Albertina Sisulu.” For the executive producer, the making of the film was deeply personal to her as she had close links with the Sisulu family. In one of the following panel discussions, Ayanda Sisulu — grand-daughter of Walter and Albertina — compiled a photographic archive of this loved and highly-regarded political family. She stressed the importance of photographs as “an important record of history” and said that, sadly, many of the Sisulu family photographs had been lost.

“There was so much disruption in the life of this family that it has been very important to use visual aids to create a timeline, and to use pictures to remember events that occurred,” Ayanda shared.

Despite being banned, jailed, tormented, persecuted, tortured and kept apart for most of their married life, this couple’s unbridled love for each other still shines through like a ray of hope in a sea of despair during a time of strife under the apartheid regime. Walter Sisulu believed in complete equality between men and women and the couple are remembered by those who knew them as being coequal. There is an enduring memory of Walter and Albertina sitting together discussing things – politics, family, current events.

The need for an abridged version of the biography — described by the authors  as “a big fat intimidating tome” — comes at a time when reading culture is shifting. Many people may wonder why there’s a need for another version now.

“People are not reading fat books,” author Elinor Sisulu commented. “I also wanted this book to be accessible to younger children so it was necessary to make it more reader-friendly.”

The abridged version of this book is of great importance for young South African men and women desperately in need of role models. The book will also now be translated into Xhosa, a fitting tribute since Albertina Nontsikelelo Thetiwe was born on the 21 st of October in the Tsomo district of Transkei.

By: Save up to 60% on Supernova!

Posted on: november 14, 2018, by: why political books for kids are becoming more popular., posted on: november 13, 2018.

Children’s literature with a political message was once frowned upon, but now it’s everywhere, with authors writing about everything from eco-socialism to redistribution

A ll children’s books are political, because everything is: to walk the under-fives through a gallery of girls in pink who are waiting for a prince is easily as strident as any of the more delicate messages about human intercourse you might find in a Michael Rosen book. Yet children’s literature with a progressive political bent was traditionally frowned upon – often held to be “politicising”, and thereby exploiting the malleable young mind. That has been turned on its head. It’s not so much that authors don’t recognise the politics in their own work; rather that they have decided, en masse, that the miniatures are ready for it.

This is discernible both in newly bold, explicit messages – from eco-socialism to trade unionism to racial diversity – and in the cast of characters, fore and background: a recent US study found that, in 2017, a quarter of kids’ protagonists were not white, up from 14% the year before. It’s not new, of course – Dr Seuss was speaking for the trees before anyone even believed in climate change (The Lorax, anyone?) – but it is everywhere.

I’m Australian Too, by Mem Fox, illustrations by Ronojoy Ghosh

A cheerful and stylised paean to multiculturalism, difference and openness, this is huge in Australia, arriving last year as the political mood around migration turned dark. Its message is pretty universal, though: celebrate difference because every human being is uniquely precious.

Celebrating equality

Eco-socialism

Reversal of gender expectation

By: Authors And Artists Gather to Celebrate Gcina Mhlophe’s 60th Birthday.

Posted on: november 9, 2018.

Media Statement

On Friday 26th of October 2018, Valhalla Arts in partnership with the Puku Children’s Literature Foundation and the Gcinamasiko Arts & Heritage Trust, together with the eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality , coordinated the legendary Dr. Gcina Mhlophe’s 60th Birthday celebrations.

Dr. Mhlophe is a world icon and her contribution to the arts has been recognized throughout her illustrious career as a storyteller who has also worked on film, television and theatre. She is one of South Africa’s most cherished exports and has represented her country and its culture with distinction.

Authors, storytellers, poets, praise singers, municipality library services, booksellers and distributors were invited to this occasion which began with an Author’s Exhibition Day at the Durban Music School, starting from 08:30am and running until 17:00pm, where artists discussed and debated issues around the theme of “Being African.” Sixty authors launched their books simultaneously to mark, pay tribute to and celebrate Dr. Mhlophe’s life legacy (see attached brochure for full profile) until the day culminated in a cocktail evening at KwaMuhle Art Museum at 22:30pm.

Gcina Mhlophe sings with her daughter at the birthday celebrations.

It was an honour to have all of the media participate in this ‘once in a lifetime’ moment to wish one of South Africa’s literature greats a happy birthday. Dr. Mhlophe expressed one wish for her night: “To get up on that stage and sing for my audience. I want to do just that — and dance the night away!”

Full catering requirements were arranged and invitees were expected to bring only their promotional materials for their exhibition stands.

Valhalla Arts was proud to spend this magical day in the amazing presence of the mighty Gcina Mhlophe.  Happy Birthday.

See the  Gcina Mhlophe Celebratory catalogue here.

By: Jeppe Girls High School Honours Ruth First With Their Stories

Posted on: november 8, 2018.

by Charmain Naidoo 08 November 2018

Ruth First , journalist, academic and political activist, graduated Jeppe High School going to be one of the most notable women in South Africa’s anti-apartheid historical movement. Tragically, she was killed by a parcel bomb addressed specifically to her in Mozambique, where she worked in exile from South Africa. In 2010, the Ruth First Jeppe Memorial Trust was established to keep her memory alive at her alma mata emphasizing reading, education, and activism.

The Trust celebrated it’s ninth birthday with an event at the school in which author, activist and educator Elinor Sisulu , was the keynote speaker. The evening began with the audience treated to a rare recording of Ruth speaking at a birthday held for Walter Sisulu (in absentia, since he was a political prisoner on Robben Island) in 1982. In it, she speaks of a man committed and decisive, yet not authoritarian; a man of the liberation who was also a liberated man, a man without malice. The speech, trust manager Kevin Tait told the audience, was made just three months before Ruth’s assassination.

First’s commitment to freedom lives on in the young women who are educated through the Trust set up in her name. A total of 14 girls, all in Grade 7 and from a host of feeder schools in and around Gauteng, were inducted into the very special and rarified “Ruth First Club”. On hand to welcome The Ruthies, as they are affectionately known at Jeppe Girls, was Grade 11 Ruthie, Marlene Angwafor.

Each of the young beneficiaries of the Memorial Trust, who will join other Ruthies at Jeppe Girls in 2019 to complete their schooling, was given a subject to which they spoke for a minute each:

• Praise poems for Ruth First, Nelson Mandela and Albertina Sisulu were read by Katlego Mokgatla (Crown Reef Primary), Evelyne Mabussi (Kensington Ridge Primary) and Taybah Petersen (Edenglen Primary).
• The Value of Good Relationships was a topic tackled by Snenhlanhla Kunene (Galway Primary), Nenna Ihenacho (Sir Edmund Hillary Primary) and Margaret Petersen (Parktown Public Primary).
• Nomagugu Khumalo talked about Ruth’s book 117 Days ; Bokamos Mokete (Alston Primary) discussed her research on “that underrated feminist” Olive Shreiner, Noelle van der Merwe (Jeppe Prep) talked of Ruth First’s The Barrel of a Gun and Hukho Njeje (Rembrant Park Primary) talked about the book detailing the SA Mining Industry, Black Gold .
• Basiame Legoae (Berea Primary) and Thato Kewagile (Eldo Crest Primary) and Minentle Nxasana (Jeppe Prep) all talked about what they would like South Africa to look like in 100 years time.

Jeppe Girls High School, Johannesburg.

Elinor Sisulu, Puku’s Executive Director, also spoke at the event and expressed her joy at the opportunities the trust has given young girls.

“I have been worried about the lack of knowledge that comes from the lack of reading, resulting in criticism without knowing why,” she shared. “I am happy that this is not the case at this school, Jeppe Girls High, home to the beneficiaries of the Ruth First Memorial Trust. The next woman president is likely to come from this group of young women.” She stresses that there remains an urgent need to “honour women who have brought us to where we are now (such as) Charlote Maxeke, religious leader, social worker and political activist;  Olive Shreiner and Ruth First. We need to tell their stories and remember them.”

Elinor joined an august company of speakers who have included Gillian Slovo (Ruth’s middle daughter who launched the Trust) and Justice Albie Sachs, former Constitutional Court Judge who is a patron of the Trust. Graca Machel, Ahmed Kathrada, Gill Marcus (former Reserve Bank Governor) and Constitutional Court Judge Edwin Cameron have also all spoken at this prestigious event.

“Reading brings thought and reflection. Without reading we are in a dangerous place where we are vulnerable to outside influences,” Elinor Sisulu.

At the end of the function, to thank Elinor for giving of her time, a Grade 10 Ruthie, Vanessa Ndiangang, read out her thoughtful review of the abridged version of Elinor’s book “ Albertina Sisulu .”

Elinor Sisulu and Vanessa Ndiangang of Jeppe Girls High School.

“I am inspired by the everyday feminists of the 21 st century, like Priyanka Chopra,” Ndiangang shared. “They continue to empower me and remind me that the future is not one in which there is fear, oppression and discrimination but rather one of hope, opportunity and collaboration between all people.”

Learn more about the Ruth First Jeppe Memorial Trust .

By: School Library and Reading Summit a Memorable Event.

Posted on: november 6, 2018.

by Karabo Kgoleng 01 November 2018

On the eve of Mme Albertina Sisulu’s 100 th birthday, the Gauteng Department of Education’s Johannesburg District together with the Puku Children’s Literature Foundation, held the first of four summits on school libraries. It was an event that highlighted the chronic dearth of libraries in schools. Government officials, teachers, learners, parents and members of the public who are invested in the future of South Africa were present. A collective of people who can influence the future gathering with the intent to make a declaration that benefits the children is certainly something that Albertina Sisulu and Nelson Mandela would have approved of. The summit’s theme was “Transforming Libraries into Reading Hubs”.

The School Library and Reading Summit took place on 20 October 2018 at Nkone-Maruping Primary School in Braamfischerville. The school grounds are impressive, with buildings of red face brick, and children’s artwork decorated the walls of the hall inside which the event was held. The impressive duo of poet, writer and cultural worker, Natalia Molebatsi and storyteller, puppeteer and facilitator, Bongani Godide directed the programme. Molebatsi brought grace to the stage. She pieced together each item in the programme in her signature poetic style. She reminded each participant on stage and in the audience of the importance of their respective roles in the summit in a very encouraging and inspiring manner. Godide earned himself the name “Banana” during the course of the event and his playfulness balanced also with reminders about the significance of the summit in a manner that was complementary with Natalia’s. These facilitators did a sterling job in managing time, while keeping the audience’s attention on the items on the programme.

The impressive duo of poet, Natalia Molebatsi, and storyteller, Bongani Godide.

A choir made up of learners opened the summit with the national anthem followed by the African Union anthem, after which Deputy Director General: Curriculum Management at the Gauteng Department of Education, Advocate Alison Bengtson took to the stage. She expressed her passion for libraries and regaled the audience with trivia about the biggest library in the world, the US Congress library with 167 million books, and the oldest library in on Earth in Morroco. Adv Bengtson explained how this series of summits follow the “Drop All and Read” and the “1000 School Libraries Campaign” with the aim of addressing the critical shortage of libraries in schools. Speaking especially to learners and parents, she noted how all leaders across the spectrum are prolific readers, also making the point that reading fiction is important. She asked how we could have discussions regarding how to use school libraries as reading hubs and indicated that even schools with fully functioning libraries don’t use them optimally. Adv Bengtson wrapped up her address by saying that reading is the key to everything that is good, including how, by incorporating coding and technological advances, this will help to discipline learners for the intellectual demands of the future. Hers was a direct, engaging talk, speaking to all the issues without using bureaucratic jargon.

The DDG’s talk was followed by the Executive Director of Puku, Ms Elinor Sisulu’s keynote address in which she announced the recent publication of the abridged memoir of Albertina Sisulu that she co-authored with Dr Sindiwe Magona. She pointed out how it is vital that we repeat the stories of historical figures so that they are not forgotten, ensuring that they are passed down to future generations. Ms Sisulu also expressed her appreciation for the summit taking place on the eve of her late mother-in-law’s centenary and also informed the audience that the following week would bring the occasion of Gcina Mhlophe’s 60th birthday. This internationally acclaimed children’s storyteller has been plying her craft for 35 years. Ms Sisulu then asked the audience to sing happy birthday to these two remarkable South African women whose life’s work exemplifies dedication to the development of children. The audience enthusiastically obliged. She concluded by expressing her hope that by the fourth summit, 2000 schools in Gauteng would have functioning libraries.

Thereafter, author and medical doctor,   D r Gomolemo Mokae entertained the audience with a dedication to women followed by a story about a man who believed he was the mightiest on earth. His interlocutor disagreed, providing Tarzan as an example of one mightier, as well as the lion. Dr Mokae then told the audience that the lion may be the mightiest, but as long as human beings can write stories, they will emerge on top.

It was then the learners’ turn; after all, the summit was about addressing their needs in order to equip them for the future. There was a touching short drama titled Dialogue on Bullying , in which a bully, her victim and another learner had an exchange in which they established that it is important to try to see the good in others and that there are consequences for one’s actions. This was followed by a literacy quiz, in which learners from six schools were tested on their knowledge of two books on Nelson Mandela and one on Albertina Sisulu. The quizmaster, Nicolene Thomas from Nali’bali, advised that teachers could use this quiz as a template to employ similar quizzes in their classrooms.

Young authors in conversation with Zanele Ndlovu at the Gauteng Department of Education Reading Summit, 20 October 2018.

After that, the audience was treated to a presentation of the good practices of various schools that are maximizing the use of their libraries, then two learners who are published authors, nine-year-old Michelle Nkamankeng and ten-year-old Buhle Mthethwa provided inspiration with the stories about their success. Their respective journeys as young authors highlighted the importance of parental support in nurturing children’s talents.

Later on in the programme, Reading Ambassador Dr Sindiwe Magona, gave a motivational speech, telling the audience that life is a free gift, whose price it is to mind one’s life and be conscious in one’s choices. She spoke about how her life was ‘in the toilet’ at the age of 23 and that it was through reading that she was able to turn it around and make the achievements that have brought her incredible acclaim. She gave a very short breathing exercise and said that by breathing, one is taking in oxygen and that reading is the oxygen that makes life meaningful. She instructed adults to give books as gifts and left the audience with an acronym, ABAB – Always Bring A Book.

“By breathing, one is taking in oxygen and reading is the oxygen that makes life meaningful…” Sindiwe Magona

Photo courtesy of the Gauteng Department of Education

Poetry received the spotlight when learners performed poems in various South African languages. In these poems, they paid tribute to Nelson Mandela, Albertina Sisulu and Winnie Madikizela-Mandela for their contributions to the country.

In a charming recitation in Sesotho, one learner described a painting that had been placed on the stage.It was the image of a woman carrying a water pot on her head, a bowl for grain in her arms and a baby on her back. She used the image to exhort women to work hard and stand up for themselves.

“Basadi, ikemeleng!” she cried.

The expression of these young people was fluent and infused with a kind of pride that could be felt and appreciated by everyone in the room.

Terence Ball , publisher at SA Heritage Publishers then made an announcement in which he notified everyone present of that organisation’s mandate to produce dictionaries and materials to advance the status of African languages. Early Learning Phase dictionaries are now available in all official languages. He also read an excerpt from a book detailing an aspect of Zulu history. This presentation brought the programme to the main aim of the summit: to make and commit to a declaration to address the shortage of libraries in schools. During the event, participants were given forms to complete regarding the challenges that schools need to overcome in order to have fully functional libraries that serve as reading hubs in order to advance the intellectual development of South African children and establish a culture of reading for enjoyment. Puku collated the information that the respondents provided and incorporated it into the declaration. Natalia Molebatsi requested the audience to stand as she read out the declaration. The act of standing, she said, was a signature and show of commitment to and acceptance of the declaration.

Photos courtesy of the Gauteng Department of Education

The School Library and Reading Summit ended with a vote of thanks delivered by Chief Education Specialist,  Mr Dumisani Tshabalala . A finger lunch and an opportunity for the participants to connect with each other followed the event. It was well organised, thoroughly enjoyable with plenty of food for thought and it ended on time. The Gauteng Department of Education and Puku have shown, through this summit, that by collaborating and acting on their commitments, all stakeholders can do what it takes to realise the dream of inculcating a culture of reading among our children, and to build on the legacy of a democratic South Africa’s founding fathers and mothers.

Read more on the Reading Summit:

Puku Partners with Gauteng Department of Education to host Reading Summit

Photos from the summit.

By: Children’s book, Frog and the birdsong, now available in five local languages

Posted on: october 26, 2018.

By Protea Boekhuis on October 15th, 2018  

Max Velthuijs’ exceptional children’s book,  Frog and the birdsong , is now available in five local languages

Frog and the Birdsong Max Velthuijs Series: Frog ISBN: 978-1-78344-146-4 Publisher: Andersen Press Ltd

One autumn day Frog discovers a blackbird lying motionless in the grass. Worried, he asks his friends what can be the matter. Very gently and simply the animals begin to understand the meaning of death and the beauty of life.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Max Velthuijs (1923–2005) was a Dutch painter, illustrator and writer, one of the most famous children’s illustrators in the Netherlands. In 2004 he received the Hans Christian Andersen Medal for his “lasting contribution to children’s literature”. Velthuijs is known best for the  Frog  picture books (Dutch Wikipedia lists 21 titles). The first was  Frog in Love , published by Andersen Press in 1989, which gained global recognition.

In his acceptance speech Velthuijs observed: “Drawing a frog is not so difficult. But how do you draw a frog in love? Or a frightened frog? And when I hear from parents and children how much they love Frog and his friends, I am overcome with joy and a feeling of accomplishment. And when you ask me how I did it, I have to answer that question with a simple ‘I do not know’.”

Jury president Jeffrey Garrett credited him with fables of human nobility, rather than Aesop’s “foolishness, vanity, and meanness”.

Get more details here…

By: Book Dash mobilises for more books this October!

Posted on: october 25, 2018.

Oct 18, 2018

The annual Book Dash will see 50 volunteers – some of SA’s top authors and illustrators – produce nine books for children in 12 hours.

The aim of the Book Dash is to encourage book ownership and reading from an early age.

The Dash has, in the last 4 years, printed and distributed over 400,000 books countrywide.

The 12th Book Dash  will take place on 27 October at the  Streetlight School in Jeppestown , Johannesburg.

The event, currently in its fourth year, connects 50 top local writers and illustrators. They work in teams for a total of 12 hours to produces nine brand new original African storybooks for children. 

Award-winning novelist  Lauren Beukes  has been one of the participants in the past and this year  Mail & Guardian  illustrator  Carlos Amato  will also work on the books.

Book Dash, a non-profit organisation, has so far distributed 400,000 brand new books to children across the country. All books are available for free…

Read more here.

By: Children’s Book Shares Experience of Immigration.

Posted on: october 24, 2018.

Children’s book author Yuyi Morales tells her immigrant story in ‘Dreamers’

For 15 years, Yuyi Morales has been writing and illustrating magical, award-winning picture books about clever tricksters, monster-fighting  niños  and heroic historical figures such as Frida Kahlo. In all that time, it never occurred to her to tell her personal story. 

Now in the wake of attacks against immigrants, she’s decided to share her perspective on her trek from Mexico to America with her then two-month-old son, Kelly, when she was 25. In  Dreamers , she uses spare, lyrical language to describe the love between a mother and a son:

“I dreamed of you, then you appeared. Together we became Amor-Love-Amor. Resplendent life, you and I.”

By: Gcina Mhlophe Gifts Her Special Day To Storytelling.

Posted on: october 22, 2018, by charmain naidoo october, 2018.

Storyteller supreme, Gcina Mhlophe , wants to leave behind a very special legacy as she turns 60: She wants her birthday, October 24, to become National Storytelling Day.

With the support of storytellers — both local and international — who have pledged to tell stories on that day, Mhlophe hopes that her birthday will be the storytelling catalyst across the land from schools and villages to rural and urban areas. But, she’s not looking to government to cement this day into the general public’s holiday calendar. She wants the germ of her idea to grow, organically, until it has caught root across the land, and reading and storytelling have become as much a part of the public landscape as breathing.

Mhlophe calls storytelling a vocation — a very special calling — and certainly not just a job.  When she tells her stories, she becomes her characters in a deep voice that rumbles as it rolls around the words. She says that she did not always love her voice — its deep vibrating tone worried her because she thought she sounded like a man. But she has embraced her natural gift, and honed her craft by paying particular attention to the way she tells her stories: building the narrative through tension, changing the tone, watching her audience reaction, timing.

Not surprisingly, it has been said that storytelling is one of the most important, and the most enduring, of human traditions. This is so mostly because stories teach us as much about ourselves as they do about the world around us, and how we need to be, and behave, in it. Stories enlighten; they teach us about justice, love and forgiveness. Through stories, we learn how to become better versions of ourselves.

We all have stories, the poet and master storyteller says, that need to be told in order to confirm our existence, flesh out our identity and help us find our own very special place in the world. That is her unique gift to everyone who hears her tales and has allowed her to become South Africa’s favourite storyteller, a cloak she wears with the humility of her characters.

“One of the questions most frequently asked of me is why do you tell stories. I tell stories in order to wake up stories in other people,” she explains. “I tell them so that people know they can share their own stories, ones that lie deep inside them.”

We at Puku are particularly proud to be able to host her books on our platform. Since much of Mhlophe’s work is directed at children, her books help to encourage the recreational reading of books to and by children, in their mother tongue. As the performer, director, playwright and storyteller celebrates more than half a century of existence, we look back on a well-lived life that has made a difference to the lives of many through the telling of stories. For the Durban-based writer, poet, storyteller, activist, performer and actress, it’s been a journey forged in throat-aching passion and sweat.

Storyteller, Gcina Mhlophe, impresses school children at the Puku Story Festival in Grahamstown.

Her love of the art began as a small child growing up at her grandmother’s knee.

“Let your imagination run wild, Gcina, my grandma used to tell me. Wild… let it run wild. So I did, and I started writing and telling stories,” Mhlophe says.

In one of her first short stories, “ My Dear Madam ,”  she wrote about how she started out life as a domestic worker, employed by an Irish family. She lasted 37 days in the job. Without so much as a glace backwards, she began to perform and write. She has become known as much for her adult audience poetry, short stories and plays as she is for her children’s books.

It’s been a long and often difficult road to take this ancient art form, one that preceded science and written history, to the place it is now. When she first decided to give up everything to concentrate solely on storytelling she says her loved ones were alarmed.

“People got worried about me. They thought something was going wrong,” she explains. “But I wanted to listen to that inner storytelling voice, to answer that calling. And I’ve never been happier. I’m very grateful that I listened to that voice.”

She insists that her literacy-focused work has been most important to her. For her, it’s crucial that children are told stories and read to in their mother tongue because she believes storytellers share our stories through language which provides a sense of identity. Children therefore need to speak their mother tongue to get a sense of self.

“Through reading or telling stories in their own language, you are giving them the gift of communication; the ability to unlock and share the stories that are in their own heads,” she explains.

Her dedication to encouraging kids inspired her to create a CD for children produced and performed with Ladysmith Black Mambazo in 1993 as well the music and stories for the SABC TV series, Gcina & Friends . In 2000, her award-winning storytelling CD entitled Fudukazi’s Magic , (for German audiences,) was released. A year later, as part of a countrywide travelling reading show, “Nozincwadi Mother of Books” was produced.

This year, celebrating its 10 th anniversary, the Nozincwadi Storytelling and Book Festival theme was “From the Bones of Memory”. The festival started on the poet’s birthday in 2008 as a literacy campaign and now incorporates both books and storytelling to honour both the written word and the oral tradition.

In the last three decades, Mhlophe has taken her stories, our stories, around the world. Though she tells stories in four languages, isiXhosa, isiZulu and English, her writings have been translated into German, French, Italian, Swahili and Japanese.  

Asked why she’s so successful, Mhlophe says: “You can’t be a good storyteller unless you love what you do – to feel good and passionate about the story no matter how scary or exciting or totally unbelievable it is. The moment it leaves your lips, it’s gospel truth.”

By: Puku Partners with Gauteng Department of Education to host Reading Summit

Posted on: october 20, 2018.

by K. Astre

On Saturday, the 20th October 2018, the Gauteng Department of Education (GDE) will be hosting a School Library and Reading Summit under the “Read to Lead Campaign.” The summit’s theme is Transforming Libraries into Reading Hubs .

The theme was prompted by a recent audit of the library systems in Gauteng performed by the Department of Basic Education (DBE). The audit revealed that out of 2043 schools in Gauteng, only 240 have a functioning library leaving approximately 88% of learners without access to resources that are critical for their intellectual development. In response to this disparity, the DBE launched the 1000 School Libraries Campaign in 2015 to stimulate the creation of functional libraries in Gauteng schools. The summit comes on the heel and call of these efforts.

Education officials, teachers, learners, school governing body members, parents, publishers, authors and organisations that promote children’s literacy are invited to attend and to deliberate on the role of school libraries in the 21st century including the importance of reading for enjoyment in developing literacy skills.

Puku Children’s Literature Foundation has partnered with the GDE to continue to emphasize the importance of developing children’s writing skills and encouraging kids to read for pleasure. We believe that giving them easy access to books in their mother tongue is possible with the continued development of library services and resources.

The program is poised to enlighten, inform, and entertain. Included will be a keynote address by Executive Director for Puku, Elinor Sisulu, the reading of the Ambassador’s address by Sindiwe Magona, presentation of the summit declaration by all learners, and ending with vote of thanks by Mr Mish Tshabalala, District Director: Johannesburg West.

The event promises to embody and promote the collective vision of South Africa to increase literacy levels and equip its provinces with the tools and resources needed to do so.

See the programme here:  School Library And Reading Summit Programme(Booklet.final)

By: Join Puku In Celebrating Gcina Mhlophe’s Birthday!

Posted on: october 19, 2018.

On the 24th of October, it’s SA storyteller, Gcina Mhlophe’s 60th birthday and YOU can be a part of the celebration.

Simply tell us what #GcinaMhlophe has meant to your childhood on any of our social media platforms. 

There’s no better way to inspire our children to read.

By: The Nozincwadi Festival – an authentic African experience

Posted on: october 8, 2018.

By Elinor Sisulu 5 October 2018

“Thank you for including me in this auspicious event. You unknowingly helped me to park my burdens at the door and get lost amongst beautiful talented selfless individuals”   Odette Claudine Ward’s Facebook comment on the Nozincwadi Festival pretty much sums up my feelings about the event. I was truly inspired by the overflowing of love and creativity swirling around me during the sessions of the Nozincwadi Festival that I attended at the Durban Music School (from Thursday 27 to Saturday 29, September) .

The Gcinamasiko Arts and Heritage Trust must be congratulated for this very special 10 th edition of the Nozincwadi Book and Storytelling Festival .   Gcina Mhlophe , the Executive Director of Gcinamasiko is an acclaimed storyteller, author, poet, playwright, director and actress whose talent has been taken around the world to far flung places that few of us would imagine visiting. She has performed at the world’s major storytelling festivals and in the process she has interacted with and formed friendships with extraordinary storytellers, musicians and performers. Gcina Mhlophe is not only a collector of stories, she is also a collector of friends. In this the year in which she celebrates her sixtieth birthday, she drew on her extensive networks to bring together a remarkable collection of artists and performers.

The international storytellers included Valerie Tutson , a founder member of the Rhode Island Black Storytellers who also specializes in historical stories with an emphasis on black traditions. Also at the festival were the UK-based South African percussionist, poet, composer and animator Eugene Skeef and the Zimbabwean storyteller Bevin Magama – who plies his art in Wales and says his mission in life is to spread unconditional love. Academic Philippa Namutabi Kabali Kagwa from Uganda and storyteller Mshai Mwangola from Kenya were on the list of acclaimed artist/performers, as well as actor, author, musician and curator from Lesotho, Mpho Molikeng .

The South African contingent included Mpumy Ndlovu , Mala Gounden , Zanele Ndlovu , Nomsa Mdlalose , Sanelisiwe Ntuli , Gomolemo Moagi , Nompucuko Zakaza , Nokuthula Mgomani , Bongiswa Kotta Ramushwana and the three-woman drumming ensemble, Women Unite .  And before anyone complains about female domination, the male contingent included Madoda Ndlakuse from Nal’ibali and our own Akhona ‘Bhodl’ingqaka’ Mfani and Bongani Godide .

Photo: Storyteller, author and festival founder, Gcina Mhlophe, with author and children’s literacy activist, Elinor Sisulu at the Nozincwadi Book and Storytelling Festival.

I was honoured that part of Friday evening’s programme was dedicated to honouring MaSisulu and that I was able to talk about the abridged biography, Albertina Sisulu . My only regret was that my co-author Sindiwe Magona was not present to hear the appreciation of the work she put into abridging the huge book Walter and Albertina Sisulu: In Our Lifetime to make it accessible to young audiences.

Among her many talents, Gcina is an accomplished curator who has the ability to put together a seamless programme that flows like a river of creativity. With the combination of talent that she brought together, extraordinary things happened. Storytellers performed individually then combined and improvised to create a dynamic, energetic, interactive experience of the highest quality. Women Unite were sensational. Their drumming pulled all the elements together, making the audience part of the performance. Even the photographer had to throw aside his camera to focus on his highly energetic dance!

I particularly enjoyed Valerie Tutson’s story about the abolitionist John Brown and Mary Ellen Pleasant, the black woman who funded his ill-fated military expedition to fight against slavery. I remembered marching in the field of my primary school singing at the top of our voices “John Brown’s body lies a moldering in his grave, John Brown’s body lies a moldering in his grave, but his soul goes marching on.”

What would it have meant for us if our teachers had known and told us why and how John Brown died and about Mary Ellen Pleasant, the black woman who was a real estate magnate who spent a considerable fortune on the struggle for the abolition of slavery. Now the John Brown words have been supplanted by Valerie Tutson singing “Mary Ellen Pleasant, I will tell you what they did. Your truth goes marching on.” This is what is called decolonising education.

Photo: Storyteller, Valerie Tutson,  founder member of the Rhode Island Black Storytellers.

The Saturday morning programme continued in the same vein.

The Durban Music School band delivered a beautiful performance ably assisted by Eugene Skeef whose energy seems to be boundless.

A special guest was Mrs Bavikile Ngema popularly known as Gogo MaBhengu who, Gcina explained, manufactures and plays indigenous musical instruments like umakhweyana and umbeleza as well as the guitar and mouth organ.  People travel far and wide to her rural home to learn from her. It was therefore a huge privilege to listen to her playing the umakhweyana .

Gcina Mhlophe has often stated that she is an artist of the spoken word and of the written word, which is why Nozincwadi is a festival that combines both.

The festival featured a display of Gcina’s own collection of most-loved books and the sale of books by Adams Books, a Durban institution. Book sales were managed by veteran bookseller, Cedric Sissing , now retired but still driven by the love of books to continue serving events like Nozincwadi. He deserves an accolade for his unswerving support to the reading public.

The Nozincwadi Festival left me uplifted and inspired but at the same time somewhat saddened that this profoundly meaningful and authentic creative serving was seen by so few. The Gcinamasiko Arts and Heritage Trust is a small organisation that punches far above its weight and does not have the marketing budget to draw large audiences. The sponsors of Nozincwadi must be commended for their support but I believe that it is a pity that there is not more support from the Durban business community, especially the tourism sector of eThekwini.

There are hundreds of annual storytelling festivals, especially in the US and Europe that started small and grew into internationally-renowned destination festivals, drawing iconic storytellers and spoken word artists from around the world. Children’s literary festivals are also becoming a big literary tourism drawcard. The Bologna Book Fair in Spain and the Montreuil Book Fair in France are two examples of just how big children’s literary festivals are. Surely it is time the business community realised that there is more than an educational, cultural or heritage imperative for investing in a festival such as Nozincwadi. There is also an economic imperative. Literary tourism is big in the world today and Durban is a UNESCO City of Literature . There is no reason why, with the right support and investment, Nozincwadi cannot join the ranks of one of the world’s major children’s festivals, a truly African experience.

Photo: Puku’s Elinor Sisulu with Bevin Magama and Akhona Mfani celebrating their work.

Photo: Storyteller Gomolemo Moagi and artist/writer/motivational speaker Musa Zulu – bound with their wheelchairs but with boundless imagination and ambition to do great things.

By: Enter the Roald Dahl Imaginormous Challenge!

Posted on: october 3, 2018, competition.

Willy Wonka is embarking on a nationwide search for three brilliant story ideas from children around South Africa. 

A 100-word story idea could win three entrants the ultimate Roald Dahl fan experience!  

• 1st Prize:  One winner and his / her class will enjoy the ultimate fan experience with Roald Dahl’s Matilda the Musical. The winner will also receive an Exclusive Books voucher to the value of R1,500, and a personalised copy of  My Golden Ticket   by Wonderbly.
• 2nd Prize:  The first runner-up will receive 4 tickets to Roald Dahl’s Matilda the Musical, as well as an illustration of their 100-word story idea done by local writer and illustrator, Kerryn Ponter, which will appear in Minimag magazine in January 2019, plus an Exclusive Books voucher to the value of R1,000 and a personalised copy of  My Golden Ticket   by Wonderbly.

To stand a chance of winning ,  simply complete the online competition form . 

The cut-off date for entries is 31 October 2018.  

Terms and Conditions apply . 

By: Picture Books Get Adults Hooked On Reading

Posted on: october 2, 2018.

Picture books are not just for children; they are keeping adults hooked too

By Divya Shekhar Economic Times Bureau, India September 2018

BENGALURU: A recent wave of picture books hitting the US market narrate stories of migrants, refugees and same-sex relationships. They are apparently appealing to people across age groups. Publishers and readers back home point out that picture books in India too are breaking the mould of catering only to children. 

“Illustrations are art, which means they are being interpreted differently by people across age groups,” said Kavita Gupta Sabharwal , co-founder of Neev Literature Festival . The three-day event started on September 27 with panel discussions and an award dedicated to picture books. The idea behind this, she explained, was to create awareness about Indian picture books on relevant social issues that get drowned in the noise created by international titles. 

‘ I Will Save My Land ‘ by Rinacina, for instance, talks about land-grabbing that leads to villages being gobbled up in the name of ‘development’. Bijal Vachharajani’s ‘ So You Want To Know About The Environment ’ addresses climate change, food and water security. Neha Singh’s ‘ I Need to Pee ’ makes a case for safe and hygienic public toilets while ‘ Pink and Blue ‘ by Ritu Vaishnav breaks down gender stereotypes. 

“Picture books often occupied a minuscule part of our list of titles. The print run was smaller and more expensive. Now, we have changed our strategy to annually publish three-four titles that get people talking about contemporary issues,” said Sohini Mitra , an associate publisher at Penguin Random House. “The best kind of picture books are the ones that both children and adults access and derive a value addition out of. For that, one needs to pay attention to the packaging and illustration quality.”

Artist Bakula Nayak often buys picture books for her sons (aged 8 and 13) in order to get them into the reading habit. She, however, ends up reading them, herself. “In an age where we are inundated with information and have short attention spans, I find picture books engaging and informative without needing to concentrate or analyse.” 

Priya Krishnan , editor at Tulika Publishers, said that the narrative must be balanced… 

By: 2019 Sanlam Prize for Youth Literature deadline looms!

LAST CHANCE!

Since its inception in 1980, the prestigious Sanlam Prize for Youth Literature has consistently rewarded work of outstanding quality, becoming a trusted brand among both the general book-buying public and the educational sector.

With entries strong across all three language categories, 55 submissions were in English, 46 in Indigenous languages and 33 in Afrikaans.

“There can be few more worthwhile endeavors than enabling young people to read books reflecting their own realities in their own language,” said Eloise Wessels , managing director of Media24 Books, of which NB Publishers and Tafelberg form part. Wessels added that mother tongue stories “play a key role in promoting literacy and a love for books, bringing lifelong rewards.”

Do you have the winning story?

If you’ve still not got your manuscript in, get your entry form today at  www.nb.co.za/Sanlam . Time is running out.

The closing date: 5 October 2018.

Read more about the 2017 winners announced earlier this year:

Tafelberg & Sanlam announce the Youth Literature Award winners for 2017!

By: Why African Storytelling Needs To Be Preserved.

Posted on: september 28, 2018, telling tales leads to literacy.

By: Kwanele Sosibo   27 September 2018

The theme of this year’s Nozincwadi Storytelling and Book Festival is “From the Bones of Memory”. It is an evocative theme for the 10th edition of the festival. When one considers the festival’s international reach, something that founder Gcina Mhlophe says evolved organically since she hosted the event on her birthday in 2008, it is easy to consider how uniquely the theme can be interpreted by storytellers because of their varied diasporic experiences.

Speaking to storytellers working with the oral forms, one quickly realises that the Western education system imposes a hierarchy of importance of one storytelling form over another.

For Mhlophe, the festival, which started as a literacy campaign and has morphed into a combination of the literary and oral forms, emphasis is placed on both, because “I live and breathe the written word and oral tradition”.

For someone like Philippa Kabali-Kagwa , the oral and the written forms are equally important, because they bring different skills to the table and using both of them is important.

“A lot of parents say they don’t know how to tell stories or they have forgotten how to do that,” says Kabali-Kagwa. “But I think school, a lot of times, silences that. There’s a great focus on Western stories and there’s a great focus on reading.

Photo: Ugandan storyteller, Philippa Kabali-Kagwa. Modjaji Books.

“But what they don’t realise is that the oral tradition of storytelling is very helpful towards reading because of what it does. It’s my imagination as a storyteller connecting with your imagination as a reader. If in the story I say ‘There was once a very, very tall tree and under the tree was a hut’, that tall tree you imagine might not be the same tree that I imagine, but you imagine a tall tree and you imagine a hut and you imagine what the people do and you hear what the people do.

“If I say he had big, black hair and a voice like thunder, you imagine that. What happens then is that you begin to create these pictures, and when you read a story you read it with expression because you have heard language.”

Although the oral forms have to live side by side with technology, Kabali-Kagwa believes they are not under threat as such, because storytelling is an integral part of what makes us human.

“A lot of people don’t use the form nowadays,” she says. “I don’t think a cellphone beats being in the presence of someone who is telling you a story. But there is space for all types of storytelling. One of the things we have done in Cape Town is set up Story Club Cape Town every last Wednesday of the month. We have an open mic for the first hour. For the second hour we have a storyteller performing. You are not allowed to read, so you have to perform the oral tradition. We have been going for four years and people come every month. We often get new people, young people and old people.”

As part of this year’s Franschhoek Literary Festival, Kabali-Kagwa says she was part of a team of about 10 storytellers who went out to primary and high schools in the area. The outreach was a roaring success.

“I don’t think the art [of oral storytelling] is dead. As human beings we are story beings; we make sense of our worlds through stories.”

By: Passing On The Baton of Storytelling.

The 10th Nozincwadi Storytelling and Book Festival kicked off on 27 September 2018 at the Durban School of Music in KZN.

With the theme of “From the Bones of Memory”, the Festival started on a high note.

Festival founder, Gcina Mhlophe , introduced the line up of local and international storytellers who will be educating and entertaining the crowds anticipated to flock the conference for the next two days. The introduction also centered on nurturing the talent on young storytellers to ensure that this skill is passed on from generation to generation.

Featuring artists from across the world including Kenya, Uganda, USA, Australia, and the UK, as well as local storytellers and performers, the festival will host book launches, drumming performances, author panels and will culminate on Saturday 29 September with a street parade and book carnival.  Don’t miss this vibrant display of live music, outdoor dance and interactive storytelling performances.  Perfect for the children too.

The Festival runs from 27 – 29 September 2018.

Meet the Puku team there and share pictures and photos with us on Twitter and Facebook .

Here are some of their pictures:

Aspiring storyteller receives a CD on stage with Gcina Mhlophe, at the Nozincwadi Storytelling and Book Festival, 2018. Photo By B. Godide of the Puku Children’s Literature Foundation.

Gcina Mhlophe addresses school children at the Nozincwadi Storytelling and Book Festival, 2018. Photo By B. Godide of the Puku Children’s Literature Foundation.

Storyteller, Mpho Molikeng, keeps audiences enthralled. Nozincwadi Storytelling and Book Festival, 2018. Photo By B. Godide of the Puku Children’s Literature Foundation.

Even the youngest storytellers were recognised, with this six-year-old reading her favourite story aloud to the audience. Nozincwadi Storytelling and Book Festival, 2018. Photo By B. Godide of the Puku Children’s Literature Foundation.

By: YA Novels Explore the Truths On Internet Friendships

Posted on: september 27, 2018.

Content warning: attempted suicide

I was sixteen when an internet friend first told me she wanted to die. She and I had met in person once, and for at least two years prior, we’d traded messages about Janelle Monáe and  Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind . She’d been diagnosed with depression, and that night, when she thought she was going to end it, I was the first person she told.

I didn’t know what to do. She lived over a hundred miles away, and I didn’t have a phone number for her mom. So I just started messaging her — frantically at first, an onslaught of emojis and reminders of happy moments, until, in staccato sentences, she started responding. I told her I loved her. She told me thank you. When her mom came home half an hour later, she was safe.

Weeks later, I admitted to her that I didn’t really like the person I was. I didn’t feel like anyone at my high school understood me, and I was afraid coming out as queer would only make it worse. I can’t remember what she told me next, but I know it made me realize, maybe for the first time, that I wasn’t alone.

This type of friendship, built on secrets traded from a distance, is one I’ve rarely seen reflected in pop culture. Even though 57 percent of teens have made friends online and the vast majority have never met those friends in real life, according to a  2015 Pew Research Center survey , portrayals of internet friends in mainstream culture still verge on ridiculous. Hollywood has used internet friendships as fodder for slick dramas, like the documentary-turned-MTV-reality-show  Catfish , or as the scaffolding of social satires like the Aubrey Plaza-led  Ingrid Goes West , where a Pennsylvania woman moves to Los Angeles to befriend an Instagram influencer who replied to her comment one time. (The central joke is that no one acts in real life quite as they do on social media.) In music, up-and-coming groups like  Superorganism , whose members were internet friends before they were band mates, have made meeting online an essential piece of their origin story, though few artists explore those relationships in their actual songs. But in literature, especially YA literature, there has been a quiet explosion of books that portray internet friendships as most people experience them: lifelines in a world where they don’t always fit.

Even though 57 percent of teens have made friends online and the vast majority have never met those friends in real life, portrayals of internet friends in mainstream culture still verge on ridiculous.

Novels are uniquely positioned to capture the depth of an online friendship because fiction operates on the same frequency as online friendships. In each, the vehicle to understanding is written confession. It is the laying bare of your most intimate thoughts for a distant reader to piece into a narrative that, until then, no one else has quite understood.

Readers entering the mind of a fictional narrator are privy to the kinds of intimacies reserved for close friends. You can imagine a fictional first-person narrator typing up all of their hopes and dreams late into night the way I did for my internet friends.

When that novel centers internet friends, readers are primed to understand how two people who have never met could be so drawn together — and how the messages they send could hold so much power.

Mary H.K. Choi’s YA novel  Emergency Contact  begins with a panic attack. Penny Lee, an incoming college freshman struggling to disentangle herself from her “MILF for a mom,” finds Sam Becker, a 22-year-old barista, passed out on the street. The two had met once before because Sam is related to Penny’s college roommate, so when she drives him home and exchanges phone numbers with him, Sam quips that she’s now his “emergency contact.”

Though Penny and Sam hardly speak in real life, they launch a friendship through texts with a simple premise: they will tell each other all of the things they’re afraid to say in their real lives. For Sam, that means confessing his declining mental health; for Penny, it involves dealing with the aftermath of a sexual assault and her disjointed relationship with her mom.

Sam and Penny aren’t internet-first friends; they met once before they started texting. But for them, as for the closest internet friendships, virtual space has helped them form a two-person support group. Neither is versed in the art of personal sharing, and texting offers them both the time to work through their thoughts and the distance to share them on their own terms.

That’s not to say that they all they do is swap secrets. Most conversations are less about lifelong struggles and more about whatever thoughts cross their minds — the tyranny of supermoons, for instance, or why the American healthcare system is such a mess.

Choi gives them space to wrestle through their own insecurities at their own pace. Their texts run on for pages and pages: it’s a YA contemporary novel that clocks in at nearly   400 pages. In interviews, Choi has  joked  that  Emergency Contact  is a book where “high-key nothing happens,” maybe because countless conversations don’t have immediate relevance to the overall plot. But these moments are far from inessential. They immerse you in Penny and Sam’s world.

As a reader — if you’re listening — you begin to see how their trust forms. You feel them opening up. Maybe you even feel part of their friendship.

In  Gena/Finn   by Hannah Moskowitz and Kat Helgeson , another YA book, confession takes another literary form: fan fiction. Though Gena and Finn…

By: I-National Book Fair Blog

Posted on: september 17, 2018.

Ngu: Bongani Godide September 2018

Unyaka ngamunye iNingizimu Afrika ibamba imicimbi yezincwadi eziningana njengengxenye noma ukukhuthaza imisebenzi yokufunda ezweni. Lezi zindaba ezibalulekile ngokuphathelene nemicimbi yokufunda kuleli zwe kodwa ngizogxila ezindabeni ezimbili eziqakathekileko, eyodwa ibe yiyo indawo futhi okwesibili kuzoba khona ukuhlanganyela nokubamba iqhaza kwezingane ekucabangeni amazinga aphansi okufunda nokubhala kuleli zwe.

Incwadi kaZwelonke yeNcwadi ibuye yathuthuka kakhulu kusukela ekuqaleni kwayo eminyakeni eminingi eyedlule, ngiyakhumbula izinsuku ebezigcinwe eMuseum Afrika , lapho yonke into yayingaphansi kophahla olulodwa futhi abahlanganyeli bebehamba besuka kwelinye igumbi ukuya kwelinye. Imyuziyamu ye-Afrika iyindawo enkulu kodwa isilinganiso sencwadi kazwelonke yezenzo kusukela emisebenzini kuya ezinhlelweni ozoyibona ukuthi yenza kanjani indawo leyo ibonakale encane. Phakathi neminyaka abahleli balesi senzakalo bashintshe indawo kusuka endaweni eyodwa kuya komunye engicabanga ukuthi kuwumqondo omuhle ngoba uhlonipha indawo engenziwanga kuyo yonke indawo kodwa kubantu baseNingizimu Afrika.

Kulo nyaka i-Fair yafika emakethe ye-Market yaseshashalazini. Isikhala sasimangalisa ngokukhethekile kakhulu ukuthi imisebenzi yabelwe kanjani izindawo ezithile ezivela ekuzijabuliseni kwezingane ukuya ezingxoxweni ezibucayi. Empeleni indawo leyo ifanelana nomcimbi walo nyaka futhi empeleni yahambisana nendlela evezwe ngayo. Ngiphakamisa ukukhetha lolu hlobo lwendawo kulo nyaka.

Umcimbi uqale ngoLwesihlanu kuze kube ngeSonto ntambama. Ngangijabule ngohlelo lwezingane nokuthi ngabe imisebenzi yabelwe kanjani. Le ndawo yayiyizindawo ezimbili zemisebenzi yabantwana, owokuqala kwakuyi-Main Theaters lapho yonke indawo yesikhombiso senziwa khona kanti le ndawo yayiyindawo engaphandle kwendawo eseduze ne- Newtown Mall , okuyi-walk of five minutes from theater main. Ngaphandle, kwakukhona amavolontiya atholakala kalula ngamatekisi abo abamnyama enikeza usizo kunoma ubani owadinga ukusiza.

I-Newtown Mall inikeze isikhala esihle ngemisebenzi yezingane ngoba yayigcinwe kahle futhi amakamelo amathathu ayenamavolontiya abo azimisele ukusiza nganoma isiphi isikhathi. AmaCotland, abathengisi bezindaba kanye nezinye izinhlangano babesesigaba sabantwana. Kumelwe ngitshele ukuthi abazali bangashiya izingane zabo ngenkathi beya eminye imisebenzi ngenxa yokuthi ithimba lalingenelelana kanjani.

Ukuhamba kwezingane kwakungcono kakhulu kuneminyaka eyedlule, kuzo zonke izinto kwakukhona izingane ngaso sonke isikhathi. Kwakufana nabazali abaningi abazange bafike enkulumweni yezincwadi ezaza ukuletha izingane futhi ngenxa yemisebenzi izingane zazigcinwe umatasa kulo lonke ilungelo. Omunye umqondo kungenzeka ukuthi enye yemindeni yayiza emakethe futhi yabona imisebenzi eminingi yezingane ezenzekayo. Ngiyavuma njalo ukuthi imisebenzi enjalo yenzeke ezindaweni ezivamile lapho izakhamuzi ezijwayelekile zihlala khona nsukuzonke.

The National Book Fair

Each year South Africa hosts a number of book events as part of promoting literacy activities in the country. With many important issues in regards to literacy, two strategic issues come to light with literacy events – the venue and children’s attendance and participation, taking into consideration the low literacy levels in the country.

The National Book Fair  has improved very much since its inception many years ago. I remember the days when it was held at Museum Africa; everything was under one roof and participants would be moving from one room to the other. Museum Africa is a huge venue and with the scale of the National Book Fair, from activities to programmes, it made the venue look small. Over the years, the organisers of this event changed the venue to other areas, a good idea to decentralise the event, ensuring it didn’t belong to any one space, but rather to the people of South Africa.

This year, the fair came to the Market Theatre precinct. The space was incredible, especially as the activities were allocated to specific locations, from children’s entertainment to serious discussions. In essence the venue matched the event for this year and complemented how it unfolded. A thumbs up to the selectors!

The event started on Friday and ran until Sunday afternoon. I was especially excited with the children’s programme and how activities were allocated. Two venues for children’s activities were marked – the Main Theatre where plays and shows were taking place – and an erected outdoor area next to Newtown Mall, a five minute walk from the main theatre. Outside, volunteers who could easily be identified with their black t-shirts offered directions and assistance to anyone who needed help.

The Newtown Mall offered a beautiful space for the children’s activities. Securely barricaded, each of the three rooms had their own volunteers who were willing to assist at any time. Cotlands, storytellers and other organisations such as Mandwele and Ethnikids, were present too. Parents could leave their children while they attended other events.

The attendance by children was much better than in previous years, in each of the activities there were children all the time. It seemed as if most parents did not come specifically to the Book Fair, but instead it was an outing for the children, a place filled with activities to keep children busy. Families that came to the mall also got to see the many children’s activities taking place. The National Book Fair also saw a multiracial audience visiting the children’s section this time.

I always advocate for activities that take place in public spaces where ordinary citizens can frequent them on a daily basis. One of the challenges with such a venue, however, is coordinating activities on the understanding of such events. As participants we had to arrange with parents and children to move from one room to another in order to accommodate everyone. At some point we ended up helping to fix the programme so that it met our needs.

Schools, ECD’s and children’s organisations were all at the event, and that enhanced the audience because the children’s theatre shows were full at all times. Many of those children wouldn’t have had the opportunity to come to such an event, but through the schools, they came.

Towards the end of the programme on Sunday, we were given books to give away and the venue was so full that most of the children did not receive books. The important thing to note is that they were exposed to puppetry, storytelling and books. The legacy can live longer in children’s minds as they remember where we get stories from, and as the parents take the process forward, buying books at home and taking children to libraries and local reading clubs.

In closing, this year the National Book Fair was a success, especially in the children’s section.

I, for one however, would like to see more book exhibitions in the children’s section and allowing the children’s side of the fair to own its own activity and freedom of movement. After all, children can easily be guided by volunteers to move in groups from one stand to the other.

By: Celebrating National Book Week in the Heart of the Kalahari!

Posted on: september 16, 2018.

By: Lorato Trok 14 September 2018

Under the auspices of the South African Book Development Council , all provinces in the country, through the provincial Sport, Art and Culture departments, celebrate National Book Week in various places across the country. The 2018 National Book Week in the Northern Cape was held in Kathu , a small mining town more than 200 kilometres from Kimberley, the Northern Cape capital on Tuesday 4 September.

The event was held at Siyathemba Community Centre , a new residential development on the outskirts of town. The event included oral story-telling, open mic poetry sessions, book review workshops and many more literary events.

Ikageng Book Club has more than sixty members, with members ranging from fifty years and up, the oldest being a seventy-five- year old grandfather. The book club use Mapoteng Public Library as their meeting space and the librarians train them on how to run their book club effectively. The group choose a Setswana book every week to read and discuss together. Their library does not have a lot of books in Setswana, but to make up for this, they share Setswana oral folklore and riddles. In the next quarter they will be reading Setswana stories to children who visit the library after school.

To start off the Book Review workshop, a young learner from Mapoteng Primary School read The Day Gogo Went to Vote by Elinor Sisulu  in Setswana. Coincidentally, this book was a good choice as there were many gogos in the workshop who voted for the first time in 1994! After reading the book, there was a robust discussion on the text, the language and the illustrations of the book.

The Puku Review workshop was welcomed by all, especially by the elderly members of the Ikageng Book Club. During the discussions to evaluate the workshop, the club members indicated that their reading sessions and book discussions were richer with what they had learned from the workshop.

The more than twenty young learners from Mapoteng Primary School and Olifantshoek High School who attended the workshop said that they would pass on their newly acquired skills on book reviewing to their peers who were unable to attend the workshop. The Northern Cape Department of Sport, Arts and Culture’s, Mr Phenyo Modise , commended Puku for its wonderful work in documenting children’s literature in South Africa, a much needed resource in the country.

Ikageng Book Club. Puku Review Workshops, September 2018

By: Review your face children’s book and win!

Posted on: september 7, 2018.

Submit a fun book review of your favorite children’s book and stand a change to win!

Your book review can open the door to a non-reader to start reading!

This literacy month the Puku Foundation is giving you a chance to share your views!

By: Invitation to a Literacy Day Discussion in Cape Town.

Posted on: august 29, 2018.

By: Open Book Festival, 5-9 September 2018, Cape Town.

Posted on: august 28, 2018.

Be engaged, entertained and inspired – bookings now open for eighth Open Book Festival

Via Open Book

Be prepared to be engaged, inspired and entertained – the programme has been announced and ticket bookings are now open for the eighth  Open Book Festival . The Festival takes place from 5 to 9 September and bookings can be made at  www.webtickets.co.za .

Brought to you by the  Book Lounge  and the  Fugard Theatre , Open Book Festival offers a world-class selection of book launches, panel discussions, workshops, masterclasses, readings, performances, and more.

The festival also hosts the popular Comics Fest,  #cocreatePoetica  and various children’s and outreach programmes.

Venues for the event include the Fugard Theatre, District Six Homecoming Centre, the A4 Arts Foundation, and The Book Lounge in Cape Town, and are all within walking distance of one another. Selected events will also take place outside the city centre, such as at Elsies River Library and Molo Mhlaba School.

“We have put together a programme that we hope will appeal to book lovers of all interests and ages,” says Festival Director Mervyn Sloman . “The stimulating conversations that arise from the panel discussions, both during and after the event, are what make the Festival unique. We are always grateful to the authors who are so generous with their time and to the audience members for their willingness to openly engage in debate.

“Thanks to the support of our partners such as the Canada Council of the Arts, the French Institute of South Africa, the Swedish Embassy, the University of Stellenbosch and the Embassy of Argentina, we are able to bring you leading international authors such as Guy Delisle ( Hostage ),graphic artist duo Icinori, Jonas Bonnier ( The Helicopter Heist ), Nicole Dennis Benn ( Here Comes the Sun ) and Mariana Enriquez ( Things We Lost in the Fire ). Other international guests will include authors such as Aminatta Forna, Lesley Arimah, graphic novelist Mariko Tamaki and Adam Smyer, whose debut novel  Knucklehead  is a refreshingly honest, fierce and intelligent read. All this, in addition to the more than 100 incredible South African authors that are joining our programme.”

In association with #cocreateSA and the Dutch Consulate General, #cocreatePOETICA hosts a varied programme of readings, performances, discussions and workshops showcasing poetry and the spoken word. Experience the work of Dutch writer, performer and theatre director Babs Gons and musician and songwriter Ivan Words, alongside the cream of South African talent and celebrated spoken word organisations such as InZync, Lingua Franca, Grounding Sessions and Rioters in Session.

Open Book Festival once again teams up with the African Centre for Cities to present a number of events exploring urban issues. Inspired by the collection  Feminism Is: South Africans Speak Their Truth , a series of  Feminism Is  talks will interrogate ideas of feminism, gender, patriarchy, sexual health and ownership of the body.

Younger visitors will feel welcomed at the Festival with a range of exciting activities including storytime at Central Library, Origami Demo Sessions and a workshop for teens to Create Your Own Character.

The Festival has become known for its focus on political and societal topics, and events will include discussions around the 2019 elections, a look at if our laws hinder or help us and the future of the media.

There’s also a strong recurring theme in the programme around loss, memory and personal transitions. Various events will give us a window into the authors’ worlds of writing and creating characters dealing with death and capturing the author’s own personal changes in their lives.

The fun-filled Writersports is a firm fixture on the Festival calendar and this year challenges writers with their Cringe Factor: Behind every success are 100 embarrassing failures!

The popular Comics Fest takes place on 8 and 9 September with the return of the Monster Battle Draw off, live drawings workshops, discussions and demonstrations, as well as a host of exciting exhibitors in the Comics Fest Marketplace. Don’t miss Dusanka Stojakovic of New Africa Books talking about what she is looking for in order to publish a comic book.

The 2018 programme is now available at  www.openbookfestival.co.za .

By: The South African Book Fair, 2018, Johannesburg.

The SA Book Fair returns with a stellar programme showcasing 120 authors

Released on behalf of the South African Book Fair by OnPoint PR (Johannesburg)  

The 2018 South African Book Fair, which will run from 7 to 9 September at Johannesburg’s Newtown Cultural Precinct, will present a diverse programme of topics and activities for visitors from all walks of life.

The three-day programme of events, just released, is brimming with things to do and see for everyone from pre-schoolers to the most dedicated book lovers, including a vault of books with industry experts showcasing books that entertain, educate, empower, inform and advance. No-one is left out, as the South African Library for the Blind showcase tactile books, promoting a positive reading experience for the blind and visually impaired.

Celebrating #OURSTORIES on the page, mic and stage, the 2018 Book Fair also promises a feast for lovers of the spoken word as a giant of the South African literary world will be honoured. The late Professor Keorapetse Kgositsile , affectionately known as Bra Willie, will be celebrated through intergenerational voices in indigenous languages, a commissioned tribute poem and more.

The inaugural Keorapetse Kgositsile Poetry Café at the SABF will feature some of the most recognised names in the realm of spoken word.

The literary programme runs from Saturday to Sunday with….

About the South African Book Fair The South African Book Fair (SABF) is held under the auspices of the South African Book Development Council (SABDC) and is the culminating event of the annual National Book Week. Comprising of a dedicated children’s day, a book exhibition and a literary festival, it provides a unique opportunity for engagement with writers, publishers and thought leaders, as well as an excellent platform for trade and promotion.

By: Attend The Book Launch: ‘Songbird and Other Stories’

Posted on: august 22, 2018.

Love short stories?

Join writers Bealetsi Tsatsi and Morena Maoka , two of the contributors to  Songbird and other stories . The collection has been compiled by the FunDza Literacy Trust . The stories have already been given the thumbs up by thousands of writers on the FunDza mobi site:

“ Wow! This story is too true coz that’s what I am experiencing in my life ryt now! ”  “ Lovely and shocking at the same time … Love Love! ” “ Great short story with a valuable message ” –  Miss Khay “ Great story y’all. Thanks FunDza. Keep em coming … ” –  Zondee “ So lovely! ” –  Josie

Event Details

• Date : Thursday, 06 September 2018
• Time : 6:00 PM for 6:30 PM
• Venue :  Bridge Books Maboneng , 274 Fox Street Maboneng, Johannesburg
• Refreshments : or add your own
• RSVP :  [email protected] , 079 708 4461 www.cover2cover.co.za

FunDza is delighted to bring you this anthology containing a range of stories by Southern African writers.  All stories have already been given a ‘thumbs up’ by thousands of readers on FunDza’s mobi site.

Book Categories :  Anthologies ,  Cover2Cover Book Type :  Novel ,  Short story anthology Book Size :  195mm x 125mm Language :  English Number of Pages :  176 pages Year of Publication :  2018 RRP :  R80 ISBN :  978-1-928346-75-3 E-ISBN :  978-1-928346-76-0 Contributors :  Baeletsi Tsatsi ,  Epiphanie Mukasano ,  Jenny Robson ,  Michelle Faure ,  Morena Lincoln Maoka ,  Sello Mahapeletsa

Purchase from Retailer here …

By: Promoting Literacy At Home With Nal’ibali.

What do you use reading and writing for? Do you use it mostly at work, to study or perhaps to organise and run your home life? You might even be lucky enough to find some time to relax and read too.

Literacy is a right that should be enjoyed by all of us, but there are still 780 million adults in the world – and many of whom are in Africa – who haven’t learnt to read or write.

International Literacy Day is celebrated each year on 8 September and reminds us that literacy should not just be a privilege enjoyed by some people. At Nal’ibali , their commitment to literacy involves helping children and teenagers experience reading and writing in joyful and satisfying ways in their lives. On 8 September, we will spend some time doing what we do most often on Saturdays: volunteering at reading clubs, reading to and with our children at home…and finding some time to read for enjoyment ourselves!

What will you be doing?

• Spend more time reading with your children than usual. Let them choose a number of their favourite stories and read them together!  Or, read chapters of a novel together, if your children are older.
• Tell your children about the stories and books you loved when you were a child. Talk about their favourite books too and the write and tell us what they are – include a photo of yourselves if possible! Send your letters to:  [email protected]
• Think and talk with your children about the things you couldn’t do if there was no reading or writing in your lives. Make a list and send it to us at [email protected]
• Visit a bookshop or library together and spend time browsing through the books.
• Get together with friends and  read more here…

By: The Mr. Men are celebrating Chinese New Year!

Posted on: august 20, 2018.

2018 was the Year of the Dog  and the Mr Men characters were there to celebrate with kids in the northern hemisphere.  But your kids can celebrate too with Chinese New Year 2019, the Year of the Pig. With only a few months to go, make sure you get your copy before the year is up.

Mr Men and Little Miss Celebrations introduce children to all the exciting occasions that people celebrate including birthdays, Christmas, Halloween, Easter and now Chinese New Year.

These colourful adventures will delight children of two years and upwards. Bold illustrations and funny stories make Mr Men and Little Miss the perfect story time experience.

Have you collected all the Mr Men and Little Miss Celebrations?

Reader’s Warehouse

Review on Toppsta.com

I read it to  frey  aged 3.

Bought this book for my 3 year old who is learning about Chinese New Year at her nursery and she loves it. The story follows Little Miss Neat as she prepares for Chinese New Year with help / hindrance from her fellow Mr Men and Little Miss. Lots of facts about the celebration (even I learnt a few things) told in nice simple sentences, accompanied by colourful pictures and typical Hargreaves story line. Great- think it will be read every Chinese New Year in our house.

By: Art Workshop With Award-Winning Illustrator, Joan Rankin.

Posted on: august 17, 2018.

Join the internationally acclaimed South African Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI)   for a workshop aimed at stimulating creativity and imagination for writers and illustrators.

This workshop will be divided into three parts:

1)     An illuminated letter 2)     Brainstorming 3)     A collage using imaginative forms and words.

Create A Picture With Words

Venue:  Houghton

Date:  21   August 2018

Time:  10:30 – 15:00

Cost:   R300 non-members, R150 SCBWI members

RSVP:  To Jenny at  [email protected]

• Joan Rankin has been creating art since childhood, but her first books were published in the eighties.One of South Africa’s foremost illustrators, her awards include:the HAUM Daan Retief Publishers Competition for Children’s Book Illustration in 1986, the Katrien Harries Award for Children’s Book Illustration in 1991 and 2009, the Oppenheimer Toy Portfolio Gold Award in 2003, as well as the MER Award in 2011 and the Tienie Holloway Gold Medal for Children’s Literature 2102.

This event is for illustrators and writers.

Children’s book related events/courses to be held in Gauteng

The Storyteller Pod:

 presents various script-writing courses.

For more information:

contact  Natasje:  [email protected]

In conjunction with Open Workspaces, Hayley Chewins presents:

Finding Your Voice:   A Writing Workshop .

Open Sandton, Johannesburg. 

Saturday, 18 August 2018. 10:00 – 12:00. R800 pp.

Contact Hayley:  www.hayleychewins.com/contact

Children’s book related events

17-19 August 2018              Life Righting course with Dawn Garisch. Enquire  [email protected]

30 Aug to 2 Sept 2018         Jozi Book Fair with the theme “Literature and Working People, See  jozibookfair.org.za

3-9 September 2018           National Book Week

14-16 September 2018       Comic Con Africa Exhibition. See  https://www.comicconafrica.co.za/en.html

5-7 Oct 2018                          LITASA Conference with the theme “Literacy and Justice” to be held in the Eastern Cape. See  litasa.org.za

Reviews of children’s books

For reviews of children’s books, see  www.puku.co.za

Also see  www.thebooktree.co.za

To download free books, visit  www.bookdash.org

Please visit  www.SCBWIGauteng.blogspot.com  for news, reports of events and links to other children’s book related sites.

Also see  www.scbwi.za.org   for national news and   www.scbwi.org  for international news, competitions and events around the world. 

By: Madiba Magic children’s book celebrates Nelson Mandela’s centenary

Posted on: july 18, 2018.

The Jakes Gerwel Foundation and Tafelberg Publishers commemorate Nelson Mandela’s 100th birthday on 18 July 2018 by relaunching the classic  Madiba Magic , an anthology of folk tales selected by Madiba, at fifteen primary schools across the country. 

Experienced storytellers will visit schools in the Western Cape, Eastern Cape, and Gauteng to bring these stories to life – through dancing, storytelling and music. Learners will benefit further from a donation to their school library by NB Publishers.

Primary schools included are: Kwa-Faku (Phillipi), Molo Mhlaba and Intshayelelo (Khayelitsha), Blue Mountains (Altydgedacht outside Durbanville), Westcott (Diep River), Mountain Road (Woodstock), Hillcrest (Mowbray), Wallacedene, Groenheuwel (Paarl), Tshatshu (King Willliam’s Town), James Ntungwana (Kwa Nobuhle outside Uitenhage), Kei Road Combined, Gilbert Xuza (Somerset East), Melpark (Melville) and Norwood Primary School (Johannesburg).

The popular Madiba Magic , a special reissue for the Mandela centenary celebrations, is a feast for the eyes, and includes stories from Southern Africa and the rest of Africa –  Lesotho, Swaziland, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Uganda, Zambia, Tanzania, Malawi, Kenya, Nigeria and Morocco. This kaleidoscope of a book refracts Africa in its myriad facets and hues: the dizzying glare of the hot African sun, the blue haze of the mountains on the horizon, the wiles of the creatures, both animal and human. Here are to be found tales as old as Africa itself, told around the evening fires since time immemorial.

Madiba Magic has sold more than 100,000 English copies in South Africa and is available in translation in countries like Sweden, The Netherlands, Germany, the USA, France, Italy, Mexico and Portugal. 

“Madiba’s great heart for children struck a chord with many people and this book reflects something of those ideals. These are the stories Madiba would have told,” says Michelle Cooper, publisher at Tafelberg.

With Jakes Gerwel as director-general in the presidency of Nelson Mandela’s first democratic government, as well as his role in the selection of stories for Madiba Magic , the Jakes Gerwel Foundation is proud to be a part of this project in partnership with NB Publishers.

“The Jakes Gerwel Foundation is committed to promote reading and to expose learners to the wonder of books, and therefore we are honoured to partner with Tafelberg in this project,” says Theo Kemp, executive director of the Jakes Gerwel Foundation.  

For media enquiries contact Hevette le Grange on (021) 406 3414 or [email protected]

By: Changing Lives Through Books – Interview with Biblionef’s, Jean Williams!

Posted on: june 28, 2018.

“Books really can change your life” – a Q&A with Jean Williams, executive director of book donation NGO, Biblionef

Published in the Sunday World (03/06/2018), Daily Dispatch (04/-6/2018), Herald (07/06/2018)

By Carla Lever

Biblionef are the only national organisation that make books available to children in all eleven of our national languages. That’s no mean feat! How do you manage to source quality, exciting content across such a wide range of languages?

We actually get our books from a variety of sources, including purchasing or accepting donations.

Early in 1999, when we discovered how scarce storybooks in all African languages were, the Founder of  Biblionef , Max Vegelin Van Claerbergen , suggested we commission publishers to print some of the most popular titles we had in South Africa into indigenous languages.

Thanks to generous funding, we’ve been able to print 93 titles in indigenous languages!

We really believe in making high quality books with lots of colourful illustrations and we’re proud of the fact that the majority of our books are locally written, illustrated and produced – in fact, our latest book was  Kgalagadi Tales  in all 11 languages, funded by the Lotto.

Why do you believe so passionately that access to books is the key to a child’s future?

Books really can change your life.

They open your mind and that changes your attitude towards life and the world around you. Once you taste the joy books bring you, you’ll become a life-long reader and readers are normally good citizens who can act wisely.

What are some of the impacts and success stories that have made you the proudest over Biblionef’s years of operation?

We get a lot of amazing responses from people at schools, some of whom have never had books donated before. A principal heard about how we have more than 300 isiXhosa books and he actually drove here after school just to look at and touch them. He had tears in his eyes because he’d never seen so many books that weren’t textbooks in his mother tongue language. What a moment!

Studies have shown that boys often have significantly lower reading skills than girls at school. How can we change that, together?

We need to offer them books that cover topics that they are interested in!

Boys – like girls – have a wide range of interests, but let’s make sure we have great stories about football, boxing, local heroes and so on.

At Biblionef, we have six books that cover a soccer story, we have books about Nelson Mandela growing up as a herd boy as well as a children’s version of  Long Walk to Freedom .

Can any public organisation apply to receive books from Biblionef?

Any children’s organisation that has a need for books in mother tongue but not the means to get them can apply….

By: Media24 Books 2018 Prize Winners Announced!

Posted on: june 18, 2018.

Investigative journalist  Jacques Pauw  and Cape Town writer and poet  Ken Barris  were among the recipients of the 2018  Media24  Books prizes awarded in Cape Town on Thursday, 14 June 2018.

The Media24 Books prizes are awarded annually for books published by the Media24 Books division and  Jonathan Ball Publishers , also part of Media24, in the preceding year. This year, prizes to a combined value of more than R200 000 were awarded in six categories.

Jacques Pauw won the Recht Malan prize for nonfiction for The President’s Keepers , published by NB Publishers under the Tafelberg imprint. According to the judges, The President’s Keepers will be remembered, along with  # GuptaLeaks , for the change it brought about in South African society and the ANC.

“The power of The President’s Keepers lies partly in the explosive revelations it makes, but mostly in that for the first time a broad-based narrative connected the dots between the private and public interests propping up Zuma at all costs. South Africans live in a better country today than a mere eight months ago, partly thanks to Pauw.”

The other titles on the nonfiction shortlist were How to Steal a City by Crispian Olver and Khwezi: The Story of Fezekile Kuzwayo by Redi Tlhabi.

The Herman Charles Bosman prize for English fiction went to  Ken Barris  for The Life of Worm and Other Misconceptions , a short story collection published by Kwela. The judges called it an extraordinary collection that combines the mundane with the surreal in illuminating but often deeply unsettling ways. It is a collection that keeps the reader “constantly intrigued, amused, repelled and acutely aware of South African realities”.

Also on the fiction shortlist were I am Pandarus by  Michiel Heyns  and Being Kari by  Qarnita Loxton .

Novelist  Eben Venter  won the WA Hofmeyr prize for Afrikaans fiction for the fifth time with Groen soos die hemel daarbo , published by Tafelberg. The novel, which explores modern sexuality, intimacy and identity, was lauded by the judges for its finely honed style of writing. The other books on the shortlist were Die wêreld van Charlie Oeng by  Etienne Van Heerden  and As in die mond by Nicole Jaekel Strauss.

Marlene van Niekerk received the Elisabeth Eybers prize for Afrikaans and English poetry for In die stille agterkamer, ekphrastic verses about the paintings of Dutch painter Jan Mankes (1889–1920). The collection, published by Human & Rousseau, was described by the judges as “a gripping yet meditative reading experience”.

Image: A page from The All Africa Wildlife Express by Rosamund Haden and Tony Pinchuck

Also shortlisted were Nou, hier by Corné Coetzee, Radbraak by  Jolyn Phillips  and Alles het niet kom wôd by  Nathan Trantraal .

The MER prize for youth novels was awarded to  Carin Krahtz  for Blou is nie ’n kleur nie (Tafelberg), while the MER prize for illustrated children’s books went to written  Rosamund Haden  and illustrator  Tony Pinchuck  for The All Africa Wildlife Express .

The judges were:

For the Recht Malan prize:  Jean Meiring , Elsa van Huyssteen and  Pauli Van Wyk ; for the Herman Charles Bosman prize: Johan Jacobs,  Molly Brown  and Ann Donald; for the WA Hofmeyr prize:  Francois Smith ,  Sonja Loots  and  Kerneels Breytenbach ; for the Elisabeth Eybers prize: Henning Pieterse, Bibi Slippers and  Charl-Pierre Naudé ; for the MER prize for youth novels:  Nanette van Rooyen ,  Henriëtte Linde-Loubser  and Betsie van der Westhuizen; and for the MER prize for illustrated children’s books: Piet Grobler,  Marjorie Van Heerden  and  Magdel Vorster .

See more at  NB-Uitgewers/Publishers

By: Cover2Cover Books release latest teen title & announce new-look website.

Posted on: june 8, 2018, cover2cover books are excited to finally show off the new cover of  heart of stone – the latest book in the harmony high series..

Perhaps fans will notice something different? The series have been rebranded and now have a new look.

FunDza Literacy Trust and Cover2Cover Books conceptualized the Harmony High series, set in a fictional township, to get reluctant teens reading.

Authors who were identified and mentored by the FunDza’s Literacy Trust wrote three of the most recent in this page-turning series.

“Having stories written for young black South Africans by young black South African writers is what we wanted to achieve.

“ Young writers know what their audience will relate to in terms of character, plot and language. They bring a colloquial, authentic voice to readers who see these writers as role-models. This kind of initiative boosts our young writers’ confidence and in turn gives other potential writers the confidence to try,” says Ros Haden from FunDza.

“FunDza’s Developing Young Writers programme offers young aspiring writers, FunDza Fanz, an online platform to publish their writing. FunDza also runs writing workshops and this is where we have found some gems!

“We mentored many young writers and commissioned two of these writers to write Harmony High novels, including Sicelo Kula (Taking Chances) and Zimkhitha Mlanzeli (Blood Ties).”

( Continue article here… )

And now the latest Harmony High title has arrived!

HEART OF STONE

Author:  Anathi Nyadu ISBN:  978-1-928346-77-7

Khanyisile is devastated when his mother dies unexpectedly. When his father takes him from their Eastern Cape village to Cape Town, his life is turned upside down even more. At his new school, Harmony High, Khanyisile meets Given, who invites him to join the amaVura gang. But how far is he prepared to go to be part of them? And how does Given know Matchstix, the mysterious stranger his father takes him to meet in prison? When Khanyisile finds out the truth, it is almost too late for him to turn back from the dangerous path he has chosen …

Find out more here.

Cover2Cover Books have just launched their new website so go check it out:

>> https://www.cover2cover.co.za/, by: 15 sci-fi books to read for the fun of it….

15 Sci-Fi Books To Read If You Need A Break From Dystopian Novels

Dystopia novels seem to be more popular than ever these days. Between  The Handmaid’s Tale   and  The Hunger Games  and  the disturbing resurgence of  1984, the dystopia is dominating science fiction on both page and screen (and IRL, kinda.) Dystopian YA novels are widely read enough to inspire  parody Twitter accounts. 

And let me be clear: I get it.

Dystopias help us sort out our values and our fears. They allow us to express anxieties about where the world is headed right now, and inspire each other to keep on fighting back against forces of oppression.  Dystopias are important.  That’s why we all need a break from them.

I mean, look, if you want to read devastating literature about fascist futures 24/7, I’m not going to stop you. But sometimes, it’s OK to read just for fun. It’s OK to read science fiction that  doesn’t  depict the future as a horrific wasteland full of human rights violations. You might even find that quite a lot of non-dystopian sci-fi can still be politically relevant. Sci-fi can run the gamut from dark and brooding to  actually  positive and funny. So if you’re looking for aliens and space adventures and science fictional worlds that are not set on Earth in the dismal future, here are a few books to get you started:

‘The Stars Are Legion’ by Kameron Hurley

Far out, on the rim of the universe itself, lies a fleet of decaying world-ships called the Legion. And the Legion is on the move.

Enter Zan, the would-be savior of the stars. She just might have the ability to enter one of the Legion’s dangerous world-ships and save whole galaxies from genocide—the only trouble is that Zan can’t recall who is exactly she is, or which side of this war she’s supposed to be on.

Click here to buy.

‘Binti’ by Nnedi Okorafor

“Prepare to fall in love with Binti.” — Neil Gaiman

Binti has been offered a place at Oomza University, the greatest learning institution in the galaxy.

But she is also the first of her people ever to attend, and accepting this once in a lifetime offer will mean traveling far from home, away from her family, to live among strangers who may not understand her culture.

That tension, along with constant the threat of alien invasion, is sure to make this an interesting school year.

‘The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet’ by Becky Chambers

Rosemary Harper generally likes to keep to herself.

But when she joins the crew of the patched-up ship Wayfarer, she soon finds herself thrown in with a chaotic bunch of misfits, including a lizard pilot, two chatty engineers, and one very noble captain.

Together, this ragtag band will explore the galaxy and bumble into danger in this funny, feel-good space adventure.

‘The Ship Who Sang’ by Anne McCaffrey

OK, so maybe there’s a touch of the dystopia to this one: as a baby, young Helva is deemed “abnormal,” and destined to live as an effective brain in a jar. That’s… not  not  dystopian.

But  The Ship Who Sang  is less about the horrors of this future, and more about one plucky little brain in a jar who’s going to make the best of her lot in life by exploring space, having grand adventures, and falling madly in love, body or no.

‘How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe’ by Charles Yu

Fans of meta-fiction, time travel, and computers with low self-esteem will love  How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe. 

This oddball novel takes place in Minor Universe 31, where paradoxes abound and failed sci-fi protagonists slum it with lonely sexbots.

Through all of this, Charles Yu, a time travel technician, is determined to find his missing father somewhere in the vast continuum of time and space.

See complete booklist here…

By: Young writer from Kempton Park publishes book on bullying.

Posted on: june 4, 2018.

Eight-year-old publishes first book on bullying

After being bullied in Grade R, the eight-year-old from Kempton Park decided to turn his experience into a book to help others.

While many eight-year-olds spend their days playing with friends until the sun goes down or watching cartoons until mom says it’s enough, Lelo Mofokeng writes books.  After being bullied in Grade R, the eight-year-old decided to pour his heart out on paper and write a book, reports  Kempton Express .  The young author from Esther Park recently launched his first published book, titled  How I Survived Bullying .

One day in 2016, Mofokeng wrote his name and age in a book, followed by: ‘Let me tell you about my bullying story.’ This is how his writing journey began.

This is not his first book; Mofokeng has been writing since Grade One. He is currently in Grade Three, but his earlier bullying experience inspired him to put pen to paper and express his feelings.

“ One boy in my grade but not in my class used to bully me. He used to punch me in the stomach and push me around, he even threw my lunch out, ” explained Mofokeng.

During this traumatic time, he tried to avoid his oppressor, who he calls Ken* in his book ‘so that nobody gets hurt’, as he puts it. Describing Ken in his book he writes: “ Ken had a mean face and every time I saw him, my heart would hurt and my tummy would run .”

Although he reported the intimidation incidents to his teacher, it seemed the harassment would never end.

“ A week after I got punched I told my mom and she wanted to give him a piece of her mind ,” explained Mofokeng.

He convinced his mom, Lerato Rakgaba, not to confront Ken as his teachers were dealing with it. After the holidays Mofokeng was terrified to go back to school.

“ I was scared. I thought if I bumped into Ken he would hit me. So I would hide under the table during break time and cried every time I saw him. My teacher kept telling me to stop crying and that he would not hurt me, but my brain was telling me he would .

“ My teacher called my mother but that didn’t change anything. I was terrified of Ken .”

“ I didn’t want to be at that school anymore. I know my mom was hurt by this, because sometimes she would cry with me. I hated my life .”

In his book, he writes: ‘ I hated school. I hated being at school. I hated being sad all the time ’.

This was the final straw for Mofokeng’s mom. She decided to take matters into her own hands at a classmate’s birthday party she had dragged her son to.

“ My mom told the bully to stop and he apologised and it stopped and I’m good ,” Mofokeng said.

“ So the book should actually be titled ‘How my mom and I survived bullying’, since my mom saved me by confronting the guy ,” he joked.

The eight-year-old is currently working on four different books. To order his book, you may contact his mom, Lerato, on 082 830 0121 or email: [email protected]

For more news, follow  The Citizen  

By: Great reads for Young Adult book lovers.

Monday’s not coming, by: tiffany d. jackson.

Publisher: HarperCollins/Tegen, ISBN: 978-0-06-242267-5

Natalie Lakosil, Bradford Literary Agency. (June)

By: Eoin Colfer and Andrew Donkin

Susannah Palfrey, Hachette Children’s Group. (Aug.)

How I Resist: Activism and Hope for a New Generation

Edited by Maureen Johnson Publisher: Wednesday Books ISBN 978-1-250-16836-8

Kate Testerman, KT Literary. (May)

By: Kids Etc. – How to write for children.

Posted on: june 2, 2018, a workshop from writers write.

1. Do you want to be the next J. K. Rowling, Veronica Roth or Suzanne Collins? 2. Do you want to write books that publishers will consider for publication? 3. Do you want to write books that children want to read? 4. Do you read children’s books? 5. Do you like children?

If you have answered yes to all five questions, the Writers Write team can show you how to plot a story, write it and prepare it for submission. This workshop will help any author of fiction and non-fiction picture or chapter books.

What does the workshop cover?

1. What’s in? What’s out? 2. Plot ideas 3. Cool enough characters 4. Pages For Ages – story lengths, genres and language levels 5. The ‘Once upon a time story of a story’ to work out your plot 6. Being there – moods, descriptions, lessons, and laughter 7. Mix it up – dialogue for children 8. Begin. Pause. Play. Pause. End. 9. Rewrite. Edit. Publish.

When? 9 June 2018, 16 September 2018, 21 November 2018

Where? 10 Bompas Road, Dunkeld North, Johannesburg

How much? R2 875, 00

How long? 09:00 – 16:00

How to register?

1. Please complete the registration form. 2. Please pay the R2 850, 00 into: Writers Write Academy & Projects (Pty) Ltd, Nedbank, Hyde Park, Account: 1017213895, Code: 197205 3. Please fax the registration form and proof of payment to 011 252-8890 or mail to [email protected] 4. We will confirm your place on receipt of both the registration form and the proof of payment.

All About Writers Write

Our motto at Writers Write is ‘ Write to communicate ’. We believe in the power of words.

Other Courses

We offer practical, inspiring courses in blogging, business, and creative writing.

• How to write a book – R7 900, 00
• The Complete Blogging & Social Media Course , How to write for the web – R8 500, 00
• The Plain Language Programme , How to write for business – R8 500, 00
• Short Cuts , How to write a short story – R2 875, 00
• Kids Etc. How to write for children – R2 875, 00

Business Writing

Our courses comply with the Consumer Protection Act.

We teach people to write for business on The Plain Language Programme. We have trained many companies including Penguin Random House SA, the Department of Science and Technology, the PSA, Tiger Brands, Discovery Health, PPS, Bombela, CHIETA, Ogilvy, Metropolitan, Momentum, CSIR, SARGF, and Standard Bank.

Our other business services include editing, copywriting, plain language consultancy, and writing business stories for companies.

Creative Writing

With more than 120 Writers Write graduates from our creative writing course published, we feel confident that Writers Write – how to write a book is the perfect course for aspiring novelists, memoirists, ghost-writers, and writers of non-fiction.

We also offer manuscript appraisal services and ghost-writing referrals.

Socially Speaking

We also teach people to write for social media.

We have a social media following of more than 500 000. The Complete Blogging and Social Media Course is a two-day course that shows you how we do it.

Contact Details

Email: [email protected] Web: www.writerswrite.co.za Fax: 011 282 8890

By: Interview With ‘Literacies’ Activist, Theresa Giorza.

Posted on: june 1, 2018.

“Reading is a powerful force in society and connects us to the thoughts and ideas of people across space and time” – a Q&A with Theresa Giorza, literacies activist and PhD researcher

by Mila May 24th, 2018

Published in the Sunday World: 20 May 2018; Daily Dispatch 21 May 2018; Herald 24 May 2018

Can you tell us a little about your research?

I’m really interested in the ways that children create stories but also connect with everyday objects, situations and spaces. My research has been about finding out how children make meaning by engaging with their surroundings.

I’ve recently experimented with the question of whether a street can be a classroom and uncovered a whole lot of new ways of thinking about public spaces and children’s learning.

Why is children’s literacy such a passion for you?

Actually I like to talk about ‘literacies’ rather than ‘literacy’ because I see children expressing themselves through so many different means, many of them not needing words at all. Drawing is probably the most well supported story-making children’s language that is acknowledged by adults, but there are so many more!

Your work must have taken you to some interesting places and situations! Can you tell us some of the most memorable moments with children and storytelling?

The most remarkable things have happened when I have been able to return to a group of children I have worked with. The way that the slow, thoughtful processing of ideas works over time and re-emerges in different expressions is always surprising. Children develop their own favorite themes that can be seen as the beginning of their ‘literacy’ practice – even if there are no words involved!

What are the biggest everyday things all of us can do to make a difference with literacy acquisition and a love for books in our families and communities?

The two most important things are so simple: to have really good conversations and to be interested in the world! The key to having good conversations is to be interested in how people, including the very smallest people, see things and in what they think about the world.

What are some of the most creative South African teaching solutions you’ve encountered in response to lack of resources or challenging conditions?

The use of an ‘enquiry-based’ approach to learning is really creative. It’s a form of learning where children are encouraged to ask questions and explore ideas themselves as a way into a topic, rather than just being told facts. Philosophy with Children, for example, is an enquiry-based approach that uses picture books to explore ideas in a space in which the ideas and questions of children lead the session instead of the teacher.

Why is reading together with children – and by oneself around children – so important?

Reading is a powerful force in society and connects us to the thoughts and ideas of people across space and time! Reading is at the centre of the way we learn and communicate, so it’s important that we invite children in as new readers as early as possible and establish reading as an enjoyable and inclusive activity.

What positive changes do you think we can realistically expect to see in the next five years in South African literacies or education?

One positive change I anticipate is for parents and families to really come on board in promoting children’s literacies. We need to educate parents about the importance of all the ‘literacies’ their children can explore before being introduced to school instruction – creative expression in storytelling, music, drawing and pattern making. Even more positive changes will come when ‘formal’ literacy learning embraces the abilities that children have for creating meaning, inventing narratives and engaging with the world together.

Read more here….

By: 2018 Writing Competition Against Racism launched.

Kathrada Foundation launches 2018 youth essay competition against racism

Young people from across the country are encouraged to participate in the Ahmed Kathrada Foundation’s 2018 youth essay writing competition against racism.

This year, the competition allows prospective entrants from between the ages of 15 and 21 to write essays that focus on one of three topics:

• A future free of racism
• Tolerating racism is racism
• Root out racism

The competition can be entered into by sending your essay to the Ahmed Kathrada Foundation via email, post or by having it delivered to the Foundation’s offices. Essays should be between 1000 and 1400 words and can be in any of South Africa’s official languages. Only one essay will be allowed per entrant and essays should not contain any plagiarised content.

The competition will close on Youth Day, commemorated on June 16.

Winners of the competition will be awarded laptops at the Ahmed Kathrada Foundation’s Annual Lecture, which is held in October.

“With this competition we hope to get an understanding of young people’s thinking around how racism should be rooted out of society, the implications of tolerating racism and what they think a future free of racism would actually entail.” —  Dawood Raphalalane , competition coordinator

“This competition is certainly one of a few, if not the only one in South Africa, that aims to understand the views of young people from across the country on racism.” —  Dawood Raphalalane , competition coordinator

Last year the competition saw 745 entrants from across the country express their views on racism through their essays.

The competition produced three winners, Nia Louw (16) from Durban, Nokwanda Dlamini (21) from Mpumalanga and Faeza Samsodien (20) from the Western Cape. Essays from last year’s competition can be found on the Ahmed Kathrada Foundation’s website, www.kathradafoundation.org.

Submit your essay to:

Email : [email protected]

Fax: 011 852 8786

Post: P.O. BOX 3240 Lenasia 1820

Drop off: Ahmed Kathrada Foundation, 19 Guinea-Fowl Street, Lenasia, Signet Terrace Office Park, Block B, Suite 2

Please ensure that you include your name, contact details (phone number and email address), physical address and a word count. All entrants must be contactable in the event that your essay has been selected.

For more information, call the Ahmed Kathrada Foundation on 011 854 0082.

For more from Lead SA, click here….

By: Afrikaans – whose language is it?

Posted on: may 31, 2018.

#AfrikaansIsGroot: Whose language is it anyway?

OPINION MAY 2018 By DANNY TITUS

The Afrikaans language has gained traction in South Africa as the language of exclusion where black students and pupils are denied access to education. It is more known as the language of the oppressor which during the hard-core apartheid years of 1976 led to the uprisings in Soweto.

More recently, in the 2018 court case involving the Overvaal High School governing body and the Gauteng Department of Education (Hoërskool Overvaal v Panyaza Lesufi), the district director in the department refers to the Afrikaans language as, “a tool of segregation and discrimination during apartheid which 90% of South Africans bemoan, a language whose legacy is sorrow and tears to the majority of whom it was not their mother tongue”.

And yet, when we observe the national statistics, we find Afrikaans as the third-largest mother-tongue language in South Africa with Zulu being the largest and Xhosa in second place.

Afrikaans, the third-largest mother-tongue language in South Africa

English finds itself in the sixth place of the 11 official South African languages.

When we look at the census statistics of 2011 we see that the Afrikaans language speakers comprise of 50% coloured speakers, 40% white, 9% African and 1% Indian speakers.

That means that in 2011, 602 000 African South Africans named Afrikaans as their mother tongue. As to Afrikaans as the language of the oppressor, it is certainly true that Afrikaans has been forced down the throats of the majority of South Africans.

This was part of the apartheid ideology of dominance, which also related to the dominance of their language. However, said Constitutional Court Judge Johan Froneman in his minority judgment in the University of the Free State case: “ White Afrikaans speakers are becoming a minority of Afrikaans language users and there is now greater awareness of those Afrikaans speakers whose role in the origin and history of the language has been shamefully marginalised. ”

This relates to the influence on Afrikaans by the Khoi people, the slaves, the broader South African society and not only white Afrikaner influences.

Although, in the overbearing dominance of the apartheid state this is the space appropriated by the state and its institutions.

No, said Judge Froneman, “ it is vital that their (the marginalised Afrikaans speakers) voices be heard about the future of Afrikaans and how that future will affect them ”.

Here lies the challenge of Afrikaans,

Dr Danny Titus is the executive head: corporate relations at the ATKV. He is also a part-time commissioner at the SA Human Rights Commission.

Cape Argus.

By: June Events: children’s book launch, Cape Town.

Posted on: may 30, 2018.

Join Imagnary House as they launch  The Straw Giant and the Crow , a truly heartfelt and off-the-wall story of unlikely friendships and what love really means.

Author and artist Jess Bosworth Smith will be doing a live reading of the book, with some fun straw activities to be had at the same time.

There is a faraway field that holds an incredible secret… a giant lives there who is made of straw.

One winter, grumpy and miserable with his cold surroundings, the Straw Giant chases away all the other animals in his field. That is, until the Crow arrives and begins to leave him little gifts each morning. A sweet and subtle friendship emerges — but will the Crow be able to last the Winter Solstice? Will their friendship defy the cold clutches of winter and last out?

Discover more children’s books from Imagnary House here .

By: Help Older Kids Develop a Sense of Imagination with these 8 tips

Posted on: may 28, 2018.

8 Ways to Help Older Kids Develop a Sense of Imagination

Celebrated American author  Ursula K. Le Guin  — dubbed by the Library of Congress  in 2000 as a “living legend” for her contributions to science fiction, who died in January at the age of 88 — had strong feelings about the imagination.

“In America the imagination is generally looked on as something that might be useful when the TV is out of order,” she  wrote  in  Words Are My Matter . But the ability to imagine is what drives all creativity, enables clear thinking and inspires a sense of humanity.

“I think the imagination is the single most useful tool mankind possesses,” she wrote.

Imaginative play comes naturally to children, but it’s a habit of mind that needs to be taught and reinforced throughout life: “Young human beings need exercises in imagination as they need exercise in all the basic skills of life, bodily and mental: for growth, for health, for competence, for joy,” Le Guin wrote. “This need continues as long as the mind is alive.”

Imagination might be vital to a clear mind, but it’s not something that’s widely taught or understood, especially among older students. In a 2007 study of prospective teachers, 68 percent  said  they believed students needed to focus on memorizing the right answer rather than thinking imaginatively. In his improbably popular TED talk on creativity and schools, Sir Ken Robinson  said  that humans are born with creativity and “we get educated out of it.” Jenny Smith, who graduated from Millburn High School in 2013, said that her secondary school focused singularly on academic benchmarks. “No one really cared about trying to develop our imaginations,” she said. “There was a curriculum, and they stuck to it.”

Researcher  Wendy Ostroff , author of  Cultivating Curiosity in K-12 Classrooms , is a student of imagination and curiosity. Like Robinson, Ostroff believes many schools are set up in such a way as to wring out kids’ natural imaginativeness. “School is very oriented towards concepts,” she said, with walls between the creative classes like art and drama and “real” subjects where students have to perform. Lacking flexibility and time, teachers are required to hit “learning outcomes” and hew closely to lesson plans. Students respond by trying to please the teacher and get A’s, often losing any intrinsic interest in the subject along the way. “This is the opposite of imagination and creativity,” she said.

Because imaginative thinking hones creativity and improves students’ social and emotional skills, it’s something that teachers and schools should fold into their planning. Ostroff identified several strategies teachers can adopt to encourage older students to activate their dormant imaginations.

Give students more control .

Loosening the classroom structure and allowing students more power over their work can activate their curiosity. Ostroff encourages teachers to “flip the system,” so that students understand that the learning is for them, and not the teachers. As a practical matter, this might mean assigning essays and allowing the students to determine their length, or telling kids to turn the papers in when they’re done rather than on a particular day, or simply offering a free-write period, where students write what they please for their eyes only. Teachers also can invite students to decide for themselves how a paper or assignment is assessed, and to encourage kids to reflect on and evaluate their own work. “They start to crack open when they feel like they’re in charge,” Ostroff said.

Have students track their Google searches.

Internet search engines can seem to provide all the answers, blocking students from thinking expansively. For Ostroff, “Google is the beginning of the learning, not the end.” She recommends the following assignment: Ask students to Google something that they find intensely interesting. Then, suggest that they click the hyperlink that’s most appealing, and then the one after that. They should keep track of what interested them in each link, so they develop an awareness of their own process. A student might start by searching “Mayans,” then move to “jewelry they wore,” then “precious metals,” then to “mining.” The point is to understand that learning is not simply finding an answer; it’s going deeper to figure out the next question. The first Google search should be the start of a larger inquiry. “Learning is about letting yourself get carried away,” Ostroff said.

Tell collaborative stories .

Reading and telling stories is an effective way to learn. To spark imagination, the teacher might start by writing the first few lines of a story or poem on a piece of paper. She then passes the paper to a student, who adds more to the story. Every student receives the paper in turn, but reads only the written contribution of the student before her. (The paper should be folded to conceal all but the most recent addition.) This kind of impromptu storytelling, with its unpredictable outcome, keeps students engaged and thinking creatively.

Try improv .

Once the domain of jazz musicians and comedians, improvisation has found its way into businesses and  schools . Improv is the practice of telling stories, or playing music, without scripts. One person begins the story with a few lines, and turns to the person next to her to continue it, and so on, until everyone in the group has contributed. The inviolate rule of improv is “yes, and”—meaning every contribution is accepted, regardless of its randomness, and woven into the story. Improv sparks creativity and spontaneity, and its nonjudgmental tone frees up the introverted or fearful. Because improv tends toward playfulness, it also allows some lightness into the classroom, and to learning.

Introduce real-life experiences whenever possible.

What might seem bloodless or irrelevant in the classroom can come alive if students see the subject play out before them. To bring energy to science and math, for example, a teacher might take her class to a Maker Faire, where kids (and sometimes adults) use their imaginations and minds to create new things. Ostroff suggests something as simple as taking a walk in pursuit of objects that can be used to build sculptures; or, if a manufacturer is nearby, asking for their remnants to build machines. Another interesting project for teenagers is building a “ box city ,” in which students construct their own buildings and work to combine them into a model city. Done right, the box city will take into account economics, geography, history and culture, and give children hands-on experience with design and urban planning.

Encourage doodling .

Drawing pictures or coloring while listening is both common and useful: it enables the  doodler  to stay focused and heightens intellectual arousal. Teachers can capitalize on that benefit by including doodling in class work. For example, students can be given notebooks to doodle in when listening, and asked to do a “doodle content analysis” of their scribbles. As well, teachers might ask students to select one or more drawings to modify for an art project, or to combine several doodles into a mural. The point is to be mindful of the value of doodling—how it enhances imagination and improves focus—and to invite students to continue the practice.

By: Why You Should be Reading Books Every Day.

Why you should be reading books every day, according to science.

By Christina DesMarais

Reading is a habit that’s beneficial on several levels.

According to the  Pew Research Center , more than a quarter–26 percent–of  American adults  have not read  even part of a book  within the past year. It’s a shame considering that researchers have found reading is  beneficial  in many ways.

1. Reading increases your vocabulary.

A  University of London longitudinal study  tested vocabulary skills of the same people at ages 16 and 42 and found at the younger age the average test score was 55 percent. Later in life scores averaged 63 percent on the same test, indicating that humans continue to learn language skills even as adults. And the study participants who frequently read for pleasure made the highest gains on the test.

2. Reading literary fiction improves your ability to understand the mental states of others.

Researchers at the  New School for Social Research  in New York have determined that reading  literary fiction –books that have literary merit and don’t fit into a genre–enhances what scientists call “Theory of Mind” (ToM), or an ability to understand the mental states of others. This skill “ enables the complex social relationships that characterize human societies ,” the authors write.

3. Reading can lower your stress level.

A  study  conducted at the University of Sussex in England found that only six minutes of reading was enough of a distraction to reduce participants’ stress levels by 68 percent. The relaxation effect achieved by reading was stronger than listening to music, drinking a cup of tea or coffee or taking a walk.

4. Reading can make you self-confident.

That’s according to Susan Cain , author of  Quiet: The Power of Introverts , who said identifying with introverted yet admirable central characters made her feel as if she was in the mainstream as a child.

“ Books, especially children’s books, are one of the few media to portray introverts as intellectually and emotionally aflame, as opposed to aloof, flawed, or dull ,” she  writes .

“ This is especially important for children, who seem to read only for plot, but are actually forming their view of the world — and of their places in it .”

5. Reading changes the circuitry of the brain.

Researchers at Emory University in Atlanta conducted functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans of 21 undergraduate students all tasked with reading the novel Pompeii by Robert Harris. Days after reading sections of the book,  results  showed heightened connectivity in the areas of the brain involved in receptivity for language as well as physical sensation and movement.

6. Reading is a habit practiced by successful people.

It’s because high achievers believe in self-improvement. In fact, countless successful executives have shared with me the books they say have helped them get ahead in business and life.  Perennial favorites  include:  Shoe Dog  by Phil Knight;  Finding my Virginity  by Richard Branson; and  The Hard Thing About Hard Things  by Ben Horowitz.

By: Syafunda Digital Library Transforms Education

Posted on: may 23, 2018.

Digital library a ‘treasure chest’ for pupils

BY TANYA FARBER May 2018

It’s a small black box that doesn’t open‚ but for tens of thousands of children it’s a life-changing treasure chest: a digital library containing support material for high school maths and science.

Anyone within a kilometre can download the material to their phone – and they don’t even have to be online. The black box is essentially its own server so learners can use WiFi without having to use the internet provided by the main service providers. It is thus free and doesn’t require them to be online. On that server they can access digital copies of text books‚ and sound and video recordings of science lessons by hand-picked teachers who know how to make content accessible.

Thanks to the Syafunda box‚ matric science marks have gone up by almost 30% in some schools‚ and another 15‚000 pupils are about to join the 31‚000 already benefiting‚ thanks to corporate sponsorship. The aim is to reach 100‚000 children by the end of the year.

“ It’s a concept whose time has come ‚” said Mary Metcalfe ‚ former MEC for education in Gauteng.

The Syafunda digital library is the brainchild of Zakheni Ngubo ‚ 31‚ whose struggles with education inspired his dream to change the lives of others.

Ngubo was living in a relative’s small house in Umlazi‚ KwaZulu-Natal‚ with his poverty-stricken parents and four siblings when a trip to Cape Town changed his life at the age of 14.

“ Some wealthier neighbours invited me on holiday. It was the first time I had travelled. Exposed to a different life‚ I knew I wanted to come back one day to study at the University of Cape Town‚ though I had no idea how ‚” he said.

Driven by his new dream‚ within weeks he went from 47th to 1st in his Grade 10 class of 60. Then he decided to transfer to a notoriously strict school down the road which had a close relationship with UCT.

“ You had to be there at 6am‚ and they still used corporal punishment. Many in our area shied away from it ‚” he said.

The school only accepted new students in Grade 8‚ but he sat outside the administration office for four days until the school relented and admitted him.

“ It was so disciplined‚ it scared the living daylights out of me ‚” said Ngubo‚ but within weeks he was in the top three in his grade.

A new blow fell when the maths teacher left and went unreplaced for two years. Despite his four matric distinctions‚ UCT rejected Ngubo because of his poor maths result.

“ This happened to a few of us‚ and it was sad to see many classmates taking jobs as security guards when we had worked so hard to get to university ‚” he said.

Still determined‚ he spent another year redoing matric maths‚ then took a R1‚200-a-month teaching job at a rural school. He taught by day and studied at night‚ and was eventually offered a bursary at UCT.

After graduating with a BCom‚ he began working at Virgin Mobile in Joburg where he “really got to understand the impact mobile technology could make”.

Drawing on his own experiences and research‚ he pinpointed three key shortcomings in the school system: language barriers‚ patchy academic support and teachers lacking in confidence.

continue reading here.

By: Schools belong to the community, let parents take over.

Education system stunts kids’ development: IRR

Parents, not politicians should run schools, as the institute’s research shows that ‘when communities control schools, results improve’.

The South African Institute of Race Relations (IRR) said today a report of theirs exposed the extent to which the State-run school system was stunting the development of South Africa’s children, especially black pupils.

The IRR said the report, titled “Parents, not politicians, must run South Africa’s schools” was the first edition of FreeFACTS that they complied.

“The report argues that the bulk of our state schools ‘are not in the main inferior because of a shortage of money. Many emerging markets spend less on education than South Africa, but produce much better results,” the IRR said.

“In South Africa’s case, however, ‘corruption, destructive trade unions, ideological dogma, and incompetent bureaucrats and politicians are responsible for the fact that only a small majority of children will be well educated’.”

The institute said their research showed that ‘when communities control schools, results improve’, they said the report marked the case for a constructive alternative, suggesting that ‘a short cut to much better education is to get bureaucrats out and let parents take over’.

“The data in this report shows, among other things, that only 33 percent of matric candidates ‘passed’ maths with a grade of 40 percent or higher, that just 29.2 percent of schools have a library, that only 18.3 percent of government schools have a science laboratory, and that only 13 percent of the 2006 grade-1 class managed a university entry qualification when they wrote matric in 2017,” author of the report, IRR campaign manager Marius Roodt said.

“This may be the future of your child if you don’t find an alternative outside of the government school system – but few people can afford private schools.”

The report noted, however, that alternative approaches capable of achieving the “short cut” to better education outcomes were feasible.

The IRR said schools should be sold to community groups, churches, non-profit organisations, and private education providers for a nominal fee and let them run such schools within agreed guidelines.

“By giving parents the choice and buying power to decide…”  continue reading here .

By: Diverse books matched with classic stories, perfect for today’s readers.

Posted on: may 18, 2018.

IF YOU LIKE THIS CLASSIC CHILDREN’S BOOK YOU’LL LOVE THIS DIVERSE BOOK

Blog by ERICA April 2018

Sadly, there is not a huge treasure trove of  classic children’s books  with diverse characters. But fortunately, with the We Need Diverse Books movement, the number of quality chapter books featuring diverse protagonists from all walks of life is increasing.

While there is still much progress to be made, it is becoming easier to find wonderful children’s books featuring people of color and children with diverse abilities.

With this list Erica’s tried to match a contemporary book with a classic book.

If you liked  Are You There God, It’s Me Margaret  by Judy Blume…

I adored this book, just as I adored Blume’s book in my youth. In 1970s California a young Iranian immigrant figures out how to be American without rejecting her heritage. While this funny and moving novel may not include pleas to God on the part of the protagonist, I knew immediately that fans of Judy Blume will connect to Zomorod Yousefzadeh’s ( who now wants to be called “Cindy” ) attempts to fit in with her peers.

If you liked  Anne of Green Gables  by L.M. Montgomery…

The Mighty Miss Malone  is the funny and poignant story of Deza Malone and her family as they struggle during the Great Depression. Deza is a likable, smart protagonist who observes the ironies, joys and hardships around her. Her scamp of a brother, Jimmie has a gorgeous singing voice and could become a star if he could just stay out of trouble. Her father survives a boating accident, not fully intact, and when he moves away to find employment the rest of the family must go in search of him. Curtis paints a vivid portrait of the 1930s filled with interesting characters.

If you liked  The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe  by C.S. Lewis…

Breadcrumbs  is a beautiful retelling of  “The Snow Queen”. There are a lot of literary references in the book and it is exquisitely written. Hazel and Jack are friends, but one day when Jack gets a piece of glass in his eye he is whisked away by a strange, evil woman to a land of snow. Hazel sets out on a journey to find her friend and return home.

If you liked  The Saturdays  by Elizabeth Enright…

This is the sequel to  Black Radishes , in which Gustave and his family leave France after the Nazi invasion, but it reads as a stand-alone novel. Now with his family in New York, Gustave must adjust to American culture. While this book addresses much more serious themes than  The Saturdays , such as anti-semitism and racism, I chose it because it is about children experiencing their independence in New York City.

If you liked  Charlotte’s Web  by E.B. White…

Unusual Chickens for the Exceptional Poultry Farmer  is a wonderful contemporary mix of magic and realism. When Sophie Brown’s father loses his job, the family move from Los Angeles to her great-uncle’s farm. This is an epistolary novel; Sophie writes letters to her Abuelita about her new life. While Sophie is adjusting to living on a farm, being one of the only “brown people” in the community and the frugality of her parents, she discovers a few chickens that have unusual characteristics. Her new mission becomes learning how to care and protect her new supernatural flock.

If you liked  Mr. Popper’s Penguins …

This book was a much loved read aloud in our home .  Tua is a Thai girl who forms a bond with an elephant. When she sees the elephant being mistreated by its owners, she rescues it and takes it home to her aunt’s house. Pursued by the two bumbling mahouts (t he term for elephant owners and trainers ) Tua and her new charge make their way to an elephant sanctuary where they both find a new life. My sons enjoyed this book and I liked how it gave them a peek into a completely different world.

Note: I often recommend Mr. Popper’s Penguins as a first read aloud chapter book for kids ages 4 and up. If you are looking for a recommendation for a similar age group, I suggest  Lulu and the Ducks in the Park .

If you liked  Harriet the Spy  by Louise Fitzhugh…

A British import. In a 1930s British boarding school, the extrovert English rose Daisy Wells and the introvert  Hazel Wong, who has recently transferred from Hong Kong, are on the hunt for a mystery to solve. When they come across the body of their science teacher, they are determined to smoke out the murderer. The relationship between the two girl detectives is delightful and real. This book has a classic murder mystery feel to it, with plenty of surprises for both the characters and the reader. Jolly good fun.

If you liked  The Wonderful Wizard of Oz  by L. Frank Baum…

This is possibly my favorite contemporary chapter book ever and I consider it a modern classic. Minli’s family lives in poverty and Minli sets out on a quest to find the Old Man of the Moon and change her family’s destiny. Along the way she is accompanied by the Jade Dragon and her journey is filled with twist and turns of fate. Lin deftly weaves together Minli’s quest, her father’s stories and wonderful illustrations to create a memorable tale. Don’t forget the two companion books,  Starry River of the Sky   and  When the Sea Turns to Silver .

If you liked  Little House on the Prairie  by Laura Ingalls Wilder…

This series about a family in the Ojibwa tribe is a a good choice if, like me, you find the racism in Little House a bit hard to take. This first book takes place on an island in Lake Superior in 1847 where 7-year-old Omakayas, “Little Frog” and her Ojibwa family live.  Little Frog is the sole survivor of a smallpox epidemic and is adopted into a new community. Erdrich describes the daily life and experiences of the Ojibwa as well as the sorrows they endure as a result of the White Man.  Excellent, and a must read for kids.

If you liked  Treasure Island  by Robert Louis Stevenson…

I started reading this book but it was snatched from my hands by my son who gives it a big thumbs up. It is an adventure story, inspired by historical events. In 1841, 14 year old Manjiro and 3 other men are stranded on an island off Japan during a fishing trip. Eventually they are rescued by an American whaling vessel but instead of returning to Japan, Manjiro travels with the Captain, attends school in America – dealing with the prejudice that comes with being an outsider – and heads to California during the gold rush. At the time, Japan was cut off from the world, and no one was allowed back into the country after leaving, but Manjiro risks his life to return.

See full list of books here

“WHAT DO WE DO ALL DAY?”

This blog is written by Erica, a Generation X mom who decided her stay at home parenting style wasn’t working. Following her children’s lead, they learned about math and science, about having a passion for games and reading and being silly.

In a bid to help others figure out, “WHAT DO WE DO ALL DAY?”

Erica’s done the leg work for parents to share, so find more than 200 EASY activities that will keep kids learning and playing at home or at school.

Visit the Website:  “WHAT DO WE DO ALL DAY?”

By: The importance of languages in decolonising education.

Decolonising education: Lessons from the Afrikaans language

Seeing the Afrikaans language as a decolonised language, speakers at the Breaking Down Borders – Africa Youth Summit conference shared how central language is in decolonising education.

Dr Edith Phaswane , a senior lecturer at the University of South Africa (Unisa), said a model of decolonisation can be learnt from how Afrikaans developed.

“ It’s because this language evolved in the twentieth century. Before 1914 there was no Afrikaans, but today we speak of Afrikaans as scientific language that is taught at university level, that has produced its own literature as well ,” said Phaswane.

“ Our languages – isiXhosa, seSotho and all of them – are older than Afrikaans, are more matured than Afrikaans and if Afrikaans can reach this level … it means there’s a possibility that we can form our own creole from the many Nguni and Sotho languages that we have in this country in order to form a formal scientific language at university level ,” she added.

In a panel discussion about decolonising education that Phaswane moderated, researchers at the Thabo Mbeki African Leadership Institute and Unisa discussed existing African knowledge systems and how African languages can be formalised to be integrated in new knowledge production.

“ If we really want to decolonise languages the lesson that can be learnt is from Afrikaans … In our road and our insistence of decolonisation the evolution of the Afrikaans language should be a perfect model and example ,” said Phaswane.

Moorosi Leshoele , a researcher at the leadership institute, suggested that Africans consider a Pan-African language to be used in education, trade and other formal spaces.

“ What we advocate for is not necessarily a creation of a homogenous language throughout the continent but it’s just so that we can do business easy, we can make interacting, migrating and living with other Africans easier ,” he said.

“ What we argue for is a predominant language that we know [and] that we must fall back into, the same way we do with English ,” he added.

Phaswane said: “ In my view, languages are diverse and in their diversity there shouldn’t be a point where just because we want to upgrade our language we do away with our languages .”

By: South African illustrator wins Children’s Africana Book Awards

Posted on: may 10, 2018.

SA illustrator wins international literary award

Toby Newsome , a renowned Cape Town based artist, has won the internationally coveted  Children’s Africana Book Award  (CABA) for his illustrations in the children’s book,  Grandma’s List .

The book was written by Ghanaian author, Portia Dery , who jointly won the CABA with Toby Newsome.

The Children’s Africana Book Award is an annual prize presented to authors and illustrators of the best children’s and young adult books on Africa published or republished in the U.S.A.

The awards were created by Africa Access and the Outreach Council of the African Studies Association (ASA) and its sponsors includes the African Studies departments of universities Harvard, Howard and Yale among others. Past winning illustrators of CABA include South Africa’s Niki Daly.

Grandma’s List  is a brilliant and colorful story about an 8-year old girl, Fatima, who wants to save the day by helping her grandmother complete her list of errands. The problem is, Fatima loses the list and she has to recall from memory what was written on it. The rest of the story then takes the reader on a funny and heartwarming adventure with Fatima and her family.

By: Why mother tongue has to be embraced now – Q&A with Puku’s Lorato Trok.

“It really should be a no brainer that people should have access to books in their languages.” A Q&A with African language translator and literary activist, Lorato Trok

By Mila April, 2018  

Published in the Sunday World, Daily Dispatch and Herald

You have worked for nearly every literacy promotion organisation in South Africa! How did you become a translator?

When I was a student at North West University I majored in Setswana and our class was the only one that barely had access to good reading material. I was determined to do something to change that. When I saw the kind of translated material that children were reading, I was deeply disappointed. The quality was so bad, but no one seemed to care as long as it was in an African language. That’s where my activism started.

Nal’ibali are expanding the number of languages their newspaper supplements are now available in. Can you tell us a little about that?

Nal’ibali has now added Setswana and Xitsonga to their supplements. This is so, so exciting: it means that more children will be accessing good reading material in their home languages.

Did you have access to books and stories in your mother tongue when you were young?

If in 2018 we still talk about there not being enough books in African languages, can you imagine the 80s and 90s? There was absolutely no reading material, except for schoolbooks of course. Luckily, my mom and my aunt were master storytellers and we sat around the fire in our household to hear great African folktales, all in Setswana. My aunt was also an actress in local small town showbiz, so we used to enjoy those shows! The story-telling and township dramatic arts saved the day for us. So even though I had no access to reading material, my experiences in literature were rich and rewarding.

Why is it important for people to have access to books and reading material in all of our South African languages?

It really should be a no brainer that people should have access to books in their languages. It affirms the importance of their identity: for most people here, language is their identity.

Have you ever had anyone tell you what it meant to them to be able to read a story you have translated into their mother tongue?

I get that all the time and it gives me so much pleasure. Whenever I travel back to the Northern Cape I meet teachers I translated and wrote stories for many years ago and they are still grateful. I meet young people who thank me for writing in Setswana and translating stories in their home language. It’s my greatest joy.

Officially, South Africa has eleven national languages, but in reality people’s everyday experience of any form of written language is often only in English and Afrikaans. Why does that need to change?

Official forms are still only available in English and Afrikaans and it gets worse as you travel further from cities to small towns. I was in a shop in a small town called Kuruman and all the shop signs about the listeriosis crisis were in Afrikaans. It’s like the Setswana speaking people – who are the majority in that town – did not exist. We are still bringing up generations of divided children in this country. We can’t just talk about it: the government needs to open their eyes and realise that this is negatively affecting the country’s future development.

By: TED Talks for lifelong readers

Whether you’re a budding bibliophile or already in the throes of whirlwind romance with your favorite writers, these talks are for you.

What happens when a dream you’ve held since childhood … doesn’t come true? As Lisa Bu adjusted to a new life in the United States, she turned to books to expand her mind and create a new path for herself. She shares her unique approach to reading in this lovely, personal talk about the magic of books.

According to the US Department of Education, more than 85 percent of black fourth-grade boys aren’t proficient in reading. What kind of reading experiences should we be creating to ensure that all children read well? In a talk that will make you rethink how we teach, educator and author Alvin Irby explains the reading challenges that many black children face — and tells us what culturally competent educators do to help all children identify as readers.

Michael Bierut

When Michael Bierut was tapped to design a logo for public school libraries, he had no idea that he was embarking on a years-long passion project. In this often hilarious talk, he recalls his obsessive quest to bring energy, learning, art and graphics into these magical spaces where school librarians can inspire new generations of readers and thinkers.

This talk was presented at an official TED conference, and is featured by editors on the home page.

Elif Shafak

Elif Shafak explicitly defies definition — her writing blends East and West, feminism and tradition, the local and the global, Sufism and rationalism, creating one of today’s most unique voices in literature.

Listening to stories widens the imagination; telling them lets us leap over cultural walls, embrace different experiences, feel what others feel. Elif Shafak builds on this simple idea to argue that fiction can overcome identity politics.

Joshua Prager

As different as we humans are from one another, we all age along the same great sequence, and the shared patterns of our lives pass into the pages of the books we love. In this moving talk, journalist Joshua Prager explores the stages of life through quotations from Norman Mailer, Joyce Carol Oates, William Trevor and other great writers, set to visualizations by graphic designer Milton Glaser. “Books tell us who we’ve been, who we are, who we will be, too,” Prager says.

This talk was presented at an official TED conference, and was featured by our editors on the home page.

Ann Morgan considered herself well read — until she discovered the “massive blindspot” on her bookshelf. Amid a multitude of English and American authors, there were very few books from beyond the English-speaking world. So she set an ambitious goal: to read one book from every country in the world over the course of a year. Now she’s urging other Anglophiles to read translated works so that publishers will work harder to bring foreign literary gems back to their shores. Explore interactive maps of her reading journey here: go.ted.com/readtheworld

Mac Barnett

Childhood is surreal. Why shouldn’t children’s books be? In this whimsical talk, award-winning author Mac Barnett speaks about writing that escapes the page, art as a doorway to wonder — and what real kids say to a fictional whale.

This talk was presented to a local audience at TEDxSonomaCounty, an independent event. TED’s editors chose to feature it.

Find more talks here

By: Professor encourages students to ‘Work hard, think big and make mistakes’

‘Work hard, think big and make mistakes’ – Jansen’s advice to the youth

This was the advice Professor Jonathan Jansen had for young people facing the gruelling challenges of education and employment in South Africa.

Speaking to financial business leaders in Johannesburg on Tuesday, Jansen tackled the topic: The moral underground – how ordinary citizens change our futures.

He followed this talk with suggestions he said could make an “incredible difference”.

“My feeling is that we underestimate the impact of this moral underground on what they call social cohesion,” he said.

Jansen encouraged middle class employers to take charge of the future of the country through actively participating in the educational development of those with less resources.

“You might be a mother in a home with your domestic worker and her child. Why not in addition to you paying your domestic worker, you put that kid in the same school as your child?” he said.

“Start with where you are and make that impact according to your capacity.”

Having worked in a number of universities in South Africa and visited others abroad, Jansen shared his concerns about the direction the country’s education system continues to take.

“So much of our education here is focused on correcting the past – I call that corrective knowledge. Very little of what we do is perspective knowledge. How do you prepare kids for a future in which the kind of technologies we now have are going to be obsolete?” he said.

On free education, Jansen said: “If by free higher education you mean gigantic welfare systems that not only pay for your fees but pay for your accommodation, pay for your books, pay for your experiments, pay for your transport to university, pay for your food and your stipend, we are going to go down that road it’s not feasible. It’s not sustainable even if it’s only for a percentage of students.”

But he said if “it is genuinely free fees and even some accommodation with the understanding that you work for the other parts, even if it means five hours a week in the library or it means tutoring first year students, then I think you achieve two things. One is you make it more affordable, but secondly you also develop a sense that higher education is not just there to give you stuff, it’s also there for you to work for stuff.”

Free education, together with models of transformation, remain contentious issues in the country.

“For me transformation is drawing on the best available talents of all our people in the shortest time possible. This is possible. Every industry has to work it out for itself,” said Jansen.

He said while students he came across were smart, often they did not have “cultural capital” to get an internship, and he said corporate companies can play a big role here.

“Give them internship experiences … I think being able to get talent in that way as opposed to simply [seeing] who shows up in the interview is a wonderful way in getting to these transformation codes,” said Jansen.

By: Illustrations that continue to remind us of freedom…

How do we teach children about freedom?  These illustrations may help.

“For to be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.”

–  Long Walk to Freedom

“I am no bird; and no net ensnares me: I am a free human being with an independent will.”

— Charlotte Bronte  from  Jane Eyre

Illustration: Freedom and Captivity, Fine Line

“You only are free when you realize you belong no place — you belong every place — no place at all.”

―  Maya Angelou ,  Conversations with Maya Angelou

“Everything that is really great and  inspiring  is created by the individual who can labor in freedom.”

— Albert Einstein

“Better to die fighting for freedom then be a prisoner all the days of your life.”

– Bob Marley

Illustration: Matticchio’s ‘Like A Bird’

“Is freedom anything else than the right to live as we wish? Nothing else.”

“just living is not enough,” said the butterfly, “one must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower.”, —  hans christian andersen ,  hans christian andersen’s complete fairy tales (leather-bound classics).

Illustration: Butterflies In The Jar

“The moment you doubt whether you can fly, you cease forever to be able to do it.”

—  j.m. barrie ,  peter pan.

“Education is the key to unlock the golden door to freedom.”

– George Washington Carver

“Freedom is being you without anyone’s permission.”

– Anonymous

Illustration: Reach by Riftress

“The secret of happiness is freedom, the secret of freedom is courage.”

– Carrie Jones

Illustration: Freedom by Jana Shakthi

By: Now Out: New Book To Empower Young Female Readers.

Posted on: may 7, 2018.

New book empowers young girls to follow their dreams

Article by:  LESEGO MAKGATHO

A concern with the dearth of positive stories affirming the power of women impelled three South Africans to write a book.

Her Story: Daughters of Modjadji/Umlando Wakhe : Amadodakazi endlovukazi uModjadji was launched at Soweto’s Maponya Mall on Friday evening.

An ambience of lively storytelling pervaded the venue as parents and children were treated to readings. Among those who read passages from the book was the great-granddaughter of Albertina Sisulu, Nontsikelelo Sisulu-Singapi , as her great-grandmother is one of the women featured.

Authors Natasha Allie and Baba-Tamana Gqubule said they wrote the book to fill a gap around women issues in the market. The third author, Thandiwe Matthews , is currently pursuing her studies overseas.

“ We were tired of stories of black women not being written and if they are, they’re are not being written by black women ,” said Allie. Gqubule said they shared a common goal.

“ We felt there weren’t enough stories told about women. We decided to tell stories reflecting women’s journeys that are not linear. We wanted to tell stories that are positive and affirming ,” she said.

“ We had doubled the number of women we have now. But we cut it down because we organised the book in affirming themes such as ‘I Love Myself’ and ‘We Have Fighting Power’, and we then decided to select women who we have a connection with and we organised the women according to those affirming themes .”

Gqubule added that this was the first in the series. “ We’ll be including women from different regions, the next one will be on women in Ethiopia. And, of course, we decided we are not going to be the lead in that one because we are not from that part of the world.

“ The whole concept of the book was to be inclusive. We’ve got pictures done by young girls in schools. The front cover was chosen by kids in schools. So in the same way, we decided a woman from Ethiopia would be the lead in the next one. ”

Speaking about the importance of self-identity at a young age, Allie said in early childhood development one needs a positive attitude to life and to know how to assert oneself.

“ The book is aimed at seven- to 12-year-olds. That’s when you start toying with concepts like self-identity, confidence and being comfortable in your own skin .

“ It is the first time you start thinking of what you want to be when you grow up. Even if you don’t become that, that’s when you start grappling with the idea of a career. ” She adds that the book is targeted at children with a view to expose them to gender issues and enable them to realise that there are many women who can be scientists, athletes, accountants or judges. A diversity of careers and backgrounds went into the book to show little girls and boys endless possibilities.

The book features stories of 30 South African women. The authors wrote the book to present role models for younger girls and boys.

About the Authors

Natasha Allie  is the Projects Manager for the Oliver and Adelaide Tambo Foundation. The projects on which she works centre around the advancement of women and youth – two aspects of society about which she is very passionate. Before the Foundation, Natasha worked on a rhino conservation project, as well as for the Gender Research Alliance. She studied marketing and management at the University of the Witwatersrand, and is a trained LifeLine counsellor. Natasha is a proud born-and-bred Joburg girl.

Baba-Tamana Gqubule  is an Economist at TIPS (Trade and Industrial Policy Strategies), a non-profit economic research institution that aims to provide economic policy research in response to public policy needs. She has a Masters in Development Studies from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London and a Bachelor of Economics Honours degree from Rhodes University. She is interested in contributing towards the development of policy interventions targeted towards dismantling processes that yield to structural inequality in South Africa. She is also the founder of a group informally known as “Rhodents with purpose”, a network of Rhodes Alumni that aim to provide financial and peer-group support to disadvantaged students at Rhodes University.

Thandiwe Matthews  is an attorney who believes that everyone has the right to be treated fairly and with dignity. She is a Senior Researcher: Civil and Political Rights at the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC), where she was also a Senior Legal Officer, focusing on the advancement of human rights by both State and non-State actors. Before joining the SAHRC, Thandiwe worked as an attorney in the corporate and NGO sector. In 2015, she was selected as a 2015-2016 Fulbright/ Hubert H. Humphrey Fellow by the US State Department, based at the University of Minnesota Law School (United States).

About Khaloza Books:

Khaloza Books is a South African publishing company established in April 2017. We are a Pan-African publishing house for books, fiction and non-fiction, about Africa for children and young adults. Our aim is to encourage the continent to Read.Write.African.

By: Lending books to friends – what are the rules?

Posted on: may 3, 2018.

What Are the Rules for Lending Your Books to Friends?

After a couple of glasses of wine, I inevitably begin handing out my books like party favors. I always think I will get them back. But then I never get them back. And if I do, the pages are ripped, the cover clinging by one stitch, or there’s a hard, crusty peak of some unidentifiable food item (I hope) trapped on page 47.

I want to feel blithe about these borrowing faux pas. Books are just things, after all. But instead I start to sweat and fidget when someone walks into the room who has one of my books held hostage. And to come clean: I’ve also got some books that are not my own taking up loads of guilty space on the shelves. Should I flagellate myself for my oversights? Should I cut ties with friends who leave chocolate thumbprints on my dust jackets? What, in short, are the RULES here?

I decided to reach out to some librarians, the experts on book borrowing, to find out what their personal policies are on sharing their own treasured property. In honor of  National Library Week , here are the words of wisdom from six librarians on the do’s and don’ts of swapping books.

Do librarians lend from their personal collections?

“In general, I rarely lend my personal books out anymore, for a few reasons:

• I tend to forget who has what.
• I don’t give people deadlines, and the conversation is always the same (“Hey, did you read  Stiff  yet?” ‘No! It’s on my list!’), month after month. If I do give a deadline — usually a month or two — the borrower tends to give it back immediately and say ‘I can’t promise anything, so you keep it.’”
• People lose things.
• That last one accounts for 97% of my book-stinginess now; the last few books I lent out did not return to me, and pleas to their borrowers were always met with a blank stare and a refrain of ‘Preeeeetty sure I gave that back to you.’ And I’m always torn about it, because there are books that I just NEED people to read, but I also don’t want to lose my entire library.”

— Erica Smith, cataloger in Maryland

“I  do  love lending books! It is one of my favorite things. I love it. There are very few books I won’t lend out, and I tend to buy extras of my favorites when I see them at Goodwill or a used bookstore, specifically so that I always have them on hand to lend. My partner, who is an academic, finds my habit of lending books willy-nilly incredibly annoying, since it sometimes spills over into me enthusiastically lending hers as well. There is honestly almost no greater joy in my life than when somebody tells me that they loved a book I recommended, or that I lent or recommended the right book at the right time. I have no idea how many of my personal books have vanished from my lending habits, but it’s like a little hug (even right now thinking about it) to remember when various people came back to me to talk about a book I recommended them, especially if they loved it or if it opened a door for them.” —Claire Scott, children’s librarian in Seattle, Washington

There is honestly almost no greater joy in my life than when somebody tells me that they loved a book I recommended, or that I lent or recommended the right book at the right time.

“Since I became a librarian, most of my friends are now also librarians. As a result, I cannot even remember the last time I lent out a book of mine. If I want a book, I usually check it out from the library or get it through interlibrary loan. I rarely buy books anymore, and, as a result, few people ask me to borrow books from me.” —Brian Flota, humanities librarian at James Madison University

“I’ll lend anything out to anyone I like or trust to return it to me. I’ll also give away books on a store-to-own plan when I need space but am not ready to give something up. I guess I won’t lend something if I’m actively using it for my current project or if I BOTH don’t like the person and don’t trust them. Also if it’s really inconvenient.” —James Ascher, former Assistant Professor in U.C. Boulder Libraries, current doctoral student at University of Virginia

“Lending a book creates an obligation between friends and is fraught with potential arguments, from timing to condition of return. So much of my job is spent dealing with late and damaged books that I have no interest in making that a part of my off-the-clock life as well. That doesn’t mean that I don’t hand books to friends. I do. I just don’t expect to get them back.” —Tyler Wolfe, librarian from Baltimore County, Maryland

“My policy is fairly simple, in most cases — if I lend a book to you, I probably don’t expect to see it again. (There’s a very small group of people to whom I will lend books that I want back.) I don’t have a lot of regard for the book as physical object, and 90% of the books that I read get lent out, given away, donated, or returned to the library. I also live in an apartment in Brooklyn and don’t have the space for every book that passes through my life. I’d rather keep an extensive collection of books that I haven’t read yet and a small collection of books that I may want to revisit someday, and that takes up all the space I have. ‘Lending’ books out helps me keep my book situation under control.” —Jessica Harwick, YA librarian in Brooklyn, New York

Rules and regulations

“My own ‘rules’ about damage are similar to library rules: if you damage a book to the point where it’s no longer readable by another human being, you should replace it, if doing so isn’t a financial hardship. If you spill something on it, at least  try  to clean it off. And for Pete’s sake, come to me about it! If you damage my book, I’ll probably be annoyed, but I’ll get over it; I know you didn’t do it on purpose.” — Erica Smith

“If the book is special to me, I give them a very earnest speech about how special it is and why, and tell them that I definitely want it back eventually. I guess this implies that normally my joy in them reading the book is greater than my joy in getting it back? Whatever, it works out fine.” — Claire Scott

“As somebody who successfully completed a Ph.D. in English earlier in my life, many of my books are extensively marked up. Some of them even have taped spines. (I know, my library friends will shudder at the heresy of my actions.) As a result, if any of those books get lent out, I don’t really mind if more marginalia fills their pages. If the book is brand spanking new, I will ask for a little restraint from whomever I lend it out to so that it stays relatively pristine. If it is one of those old paperback editions of a classic printed on very acidic paper and the spine is starting to break, I will ask who I lend it out to to similarly be very careful about it. The due date seems pretty consistent: about four to six months if I really want it back. Most of my friends lead busy lives, especially those with children, and expecting it back within a public library’s due date policy just seems cruel.” — Brian Flota

“If I think a book is too delicate for the person who wants to borrow it, I’ll probably show them how I’d handle it before they borrow it. If I don’t think that they’d be capable of not destroying the book — maybe they’re going on a sea voyage or live in a tent in the woods — then I’d have to like them enough to accept that I might never get the item back. Mostly, I want people who borrow my books to try to fix them if they break them — signs of readership are interesting to me.

I usually specify a vague timeframe for the book, but I’m grateful for distributed storage, so don’t force anyone to return something if I still know how to get in touch with them.

I write on the front free endpaper ‘James P. Ascher, his book, lent to BLAH BLAH April 2018’ to which I add ‘returned May 2018’ and might have a second, or third, lending there. I really only lend out books to people who would — at worst — forget to return them so writing on them is enough.” — James Ascher

“Even if I only have one copy, I’d usually rather give it away than loan it. There are so many books in the world and I’m confident that I’ll be able to get another copy when the urge to reread it strikes me. And if I never want to reread it, then what’s the use of having it on my shelf anyway? I know the books that I love, the books that I am most likely to recommend, so when I see a copy for a bargain price, at a used book store or a flea market or something, I’ll buy it. At any given time, I have 2–3 worn-out paperback copies of my favorite books on hand and ready to give away. A lot of this is a luxury, obviously. Thanks to my job, I’m surrounded by books and often can find them for cheap. I can afford to buy them and give them away. But even when I’m not comfortable giving a book away (I do have a few that hold particular sentimental or monetary value), I’d rather send someone to the library! Our whole business model is lending books at no cost.” — Tyler Wolfe

“Annotate away! Drink wine and be merry! Take it to the beach! Keep it until I forgot that I lent it to you! My only rule is don’t judge me for my own wine spills or annotations or sand/salt from the beach. If you can live with the evidence that I read and loved a book, I can live with yours.” — Jessica Harwick

On what being a librarian has taught them about the way people treat borrowed books

“Most library customers love books, respect books, and want other people to have access to books. Some, though, just don’t give a tinker’s damn. Here is a combination of pet peeves, nightmare stories, and my observation of/opinions on the way people treat borrowed books:

I’ve gotten books back with mold or — on three memorable occasions — live roaches in them. Or that are smeared with candy and Kool-Aid. Or that smell so strongly of gasoline that we can’t keep them in the building and have to exile them to the parking lot. Or that have clearly been kept in the wrong part of a diaper bag. Nonfiction books come with paragraphs highlighted and notes in the margins (in pen). Photography books have pictures cut out. History books are scrawled with racial slurs.

In my first year working in the Circulation department, a customer returned a huge pile of books and stood there waiting for me to check them in. I saw that their pages were all warped and the writing was smeared. I picked one up and immediately put it down again.

‘Sir,’ I said, ‘these are wet.’

‘They were like that when I checked them out,’ he responded.

A brief glance at my computer screen. ‘These were checked out three weeks ago.’

‘Yep,’ he said.

‘All of these books were wet —  soaking  wet — three weeks ago? All of them? From different sections of the library?’

By this point, a colleague had drifted over. ‘We have to charge you for these.’

The man smirked at me. ‘They were like that when I checked them out.’

I was a little desperate at this point. ‘But we wouldn’t have checked them out like this.’

The smirk became even more punchable. ‘You did. Someone did. Anyway, you can just dry them out and put them on the shelf again.’

I’ve had that exact conversation — about wet books, about defaced books, about books that have clearly been half-eaten by a dog — more times than I can count.” — Erica Smith

“Most of the patron book condition issues that I encounter are really more about access and circumstances, not willful damage. Often kids’ books will come back super beat up (especially books that have been hanging out in backpacks) but, you know, the kids are seven or ten, it’s amazing books come back at all. I mean, look at how many jackets end up in random corners of the playground after recess! A lot of book damage of adult books is things like damp or dirty pages, or cigarette odor — and those things are often due to the fact that lots of avid readers of print books are insecurely housed and it’s ridiculously hard to keep everything clean and dry and in perfect condition when you’re living out.Considering the sheer volume of library books read by my library patrons experiencing homelessness, it’s honestly incredible how little damage the books get under those circumstances and what good care patrons take of them. Cigarette smoke is a bummer, because there’s nothing you can do but discard that book… but again, nobody wants everything they own to smell like cigarette smoke. It’s not  that  common anymore, and mostly those books are coming back from folks who are homebound or isolated seniors in small living spaces.” — Claire Scott

“Most people treat books with care. But when you see so many books being checked out and returned, there are definitely some instances where something has gone horribly wrong. Water damage, dog and cat bites, pest bites, food stains, and incredibly destructive (and highly uninformative) marginalia are some of the worst things I’ve seen. But those instances are few and far between.” — Brian Flota

“People seem to have more respect for books that they borrow from people they know than they do for library books. Something about the communal experience of borrowing makes people feel as if they don’t have to be careful with the books. While I don’t care how long people keep my books, I am surprised at how long people will keep books without reading them. If I borrow a book from someone, I usually read it right away. If someone has gone to the trouble of recommending a book to me (or if I’ve sought it out), then I want to read it sooner rather than later.” — Jessica Harwick

The Golden Rule

“Non-librarians are often  more  worried about a book’s condition than librarians are! We know that things get beat up and that there are plenty more out there.

Know your lender. Be just a smidge more careful than they are.

If you don’t want to read it, just say eh, I don’t think that sounds like what I want right now. We won’t mind! Don’t take the book and then let it gather dust and have the looming anxiety of not having read it build while your eager librarian friend checks in over and over to see what you thought! Because one day, years later, she’ll come to your house and find it hidden in your bookshelf and ask — with a tentative, heartbreaking hopefulness — if you’ve had a chance to try it yet. And you’ll have to mumble no, things got busy, but you’re going to read it soon. And her heart will sink and she’ll know that she did not, in fact, match the right reader with the right book at the right time, and worst of all, you didn’t tell her so she can’t make a better recommendation next time. Honesty is the backbone of every relationship, readers, including your relationship with your book-pushing friends.” — Claire Scott

Read more from Electric Literature here .

This article from Electric Literature really made us smile.  The question is, though, what do African librarians think?  What are their experiences? If you’d like to share your stories, contact us at  @pukucoza or email: [email protected].

By: Find more books written by Gcina Mhlophe.

Posted on: may 2, 2018.

Nokugcina Elsie Mhlophe (born 1958) is a well-known South African freedom fighter, activist, actor, storyteller, poet, playwright, director and author.

Storytelling is a deeply traditional activity in Africa and Mhlophe is one of the few woman storytellers in a country dominated by males. She does her most important work through charismatic performances, working to preserve storytelling as a means of keeping history alive and encouraging South African children to read, doing so in four of South Africa’s languages: English, Afrikaans, Zulu and Xhosa.

If you’re looking to get hold of her books, here’s a list to help you search.

Publications and Writing:

1979 Poetry in the  Staffrider Magazine,  Ravan Press

1980 Story and Poetry in  Reconstruction , Ravan Press

1981 Story and Poetry in the  LIP – Anthology , Ravan Press

1987 Story and Poetry in  Sometimes When It Rains , Pandora Press, UK – Translations into German and Japanese

1987 Stories in  Somehow Tenderness Survives , Harper and Row, USA

‘Have you seen Zandile?’ by Gcina Mhlophe

Have You Seen Zandile?

1988  Have You Seen Zandile?  Play script, Skotaville Publishers, SA Prescribed set work at the University Natal, University of Western Cape and UNISA, Republished 1991 for world release by Heinemann publishers, New York.

Have You Seen Zandile? is a tale of eight-year-old Zandile and her Gogo in Durban and of how she is spirited away to the rural area of Transkei by her mother, to be raised in the traditional rubric: she cannot be educated, must marry young, must work her body hard in the field. It’s a tale of deep love stamped on by financial dearth, political complexity and heart break. And it’s about broken dreams and ultimately broken hearts.

Reviews “This is a small gem of dramatic achievement filled with a lyrical honesty.” – Baltimore Evening Sun

“It’s great to have an inter-cultural quick-read that shares so much about how humans become who they are.” – Miss, GoodReads

“Have You Seen Zandile? is a beautiful play that is still as fresh and relevant today as it was when it was first performed.” – ArtsLink

Read more: Chicago Reader Review

1989  Snake With Seven Heads , children’s book, Skotaville Publishers, SA – Translations into five African languages. Accepted in school libraries.

1990  Queen Of The Tortoises , children’s book, Skotaville Publishers, SA

1991  Molo! Zoleka , children’s book, published and translated into four different South African languages by David Philip, SA

1992  The Singing Dog,  children’s book, Skotaville Publishers, SA

1995  Ma Zanendaba – A Mother’s Search For Stories , children’s book, published in English and Afrikaans by Knowledge Unlimited, SA

“Storytelling is not a job, it’s a calling” – Gcina Mhlophe

1995 Story in  The River That Went To The Sky , Kingfisher Anthology of African folklore, England

1996  Love Child , Biographical Work, Peter Hammer Verlag, Germany

1997  Kwesukesukela – Stories from Africa  in five languages pubished by Bona Magazine

1997 Awarded writers’ fellowship at the Civitella Ranieri Center in Umbria, Italy – work on the children’s musical  Mata Mata

1999  Fudukazi’s Magic , Cambridge Univ. Press, this comes with CD and Video made in 2001 – Karl Becker of GM Storyworks.

Stories Of Africa

1999 Recorded and released  Kwesuke-sukela  a storytelling audio tape that went with a book containing twelve stories,  Stories From Africa  or  Zimnandi Ngokuphindwa  in Zulu and Xhosa, sponsored by Joko Storytelling project.

This folklore story collection offers a feast of enjoyment for young South African readers. Ten enchanting tales, steeped in the imaginative richness of African storytelling: Where did the first stories in the world come from? How did little Tortoise win the respect of all the other animals? Who was Nanana Bo Sele Sele and what happened when she built her house in the middle of the animals’ road? Why was young Crocodile so determined to get hold of Monkey’s heart? Told with inimitable aplomb by South Africa’s most popular performance storyteller and illustrated by a lively selection of KwaZulu-Natal artistic talent, Stories of Africa is a classic to delight new readers across the multicultural spectrum.

The English versions of these collections of folktales are still available, but the great news is that – thanks to Biblionef – they are now also available in our African languages. Each large-paged, hardcover book (with brightly coloured pictures) contains ten tales retold by our Queen of Storytellers. Read them aloud and they bounce around in mid-air, full of impact, rhythm and enthusiasm.

No girl in this land shall play imbira. ‘No, no, no! I said no girl in this land shall play imbira!’ ‘Yes, you heard me right. No girl must play imbira.’

So begins “ Khethiwe, Queen of Imbira ” and Gcina’s version of the girl who did play that sacred instrument – and it was the best end of harvest celebration in living memory. Full of genuine Africa and essential on every bookshelf of folklore. – Jay Heale, Bookchat

1999 Published children’s book  NALOHIMA – The Deaf Tortoise  by Gemsbok publishers NALOHIMA also won the Namibian Children’s Book Forum Award only a month after its release.

2001  Nozincwadi – Mother of Books , Maskew Miller Longman, with CD and Video by Karl Becker as part of the Nozincwadi Road Show to promote reading in S. African schools

2002 English edition of  Love Child  has come out – Univ. of Natal Press

2002  An African Mother Christmas , Maskew Miller Longman

2003  Stories of Africa , University of KwaZulu Natal Press Nominated for Exclusive Books Publisher’s Choice

2003 Conception and writing of the multi-lingual books for  First Words in Print  – Centre For The Book, Maskew Miller Longman

2004 Five early learning books in indigenous languages for  Siyakhula Series , Oxford University Press (due for release in 2005)

2004  The Story of Mazanendaba  published in Italian by Corraini Publishers, Mantova, Italy

2006  Nozincwadi, Mother of Books  was published to great acclaim in South America in Portuguese.

Our Story Magic

2008  Our Story Magic  published by University of KwaZulu Natal

Our Story Magic is a collection of enchanting and compelling African folklore tales written for children, with illustrations by artists from KwaZulu-Natal (South Africa).

Read and share these stories with the love that went into the writing of them. Some of the magical titles in this collection include: Sun and the Moon, Queen of the Tortoises, Moonlight Magic, Dad Is Eating Ashes, The Singing Dog, Jojela’s Wooden Spoon, and Sunset Colors.

African Tales

Written by internationally acclaimed Xhosa storyteller, Gcina Mhlophe , and illustrated with hand-sewn artwork, each of these eight tales comes with an introduction to the country’s customs and culture. The stories are from Ethiopia, Ghana, Lesotho, Malawi, Namibia, Senegal, Sudan and Swaziland.

“Seven folk tales illustrating how different cultures on various parts of the planet’s diverse surface try to live in harmony with the natural world” – Nick Crane, The Guardian

By: SCBWI Workshop: Writing for second-language readers

Posted on: april 24, 2018.

Venue:   Houghton (Johannesburg)

Date:  17 May 2018

Time:  10:00 – 15:00

Cost:   R300 non-members, R150 SCBWI members

RSVP:  To Jenny at  [email protected]

About the event:

Writing for second-language speakers of English is a challenge. How do you change your use of language without “talking down”? How do you bring the same level of excitement to the story? Ruth Pressler has been doing just this for a number of years. She will work with participants on specific writing skills.

About the facilitator:

Since leaving teaching, Ruth worked as a trainer of adult facilitators for an Adult Education training company. She writes material for educators and learners, at levels across the board, for a number of Educational Publishers, among them Pearson, MacMillan, Ochre Media and others. Ruth has gained much experience in writing for English FAL (First Additional Language) learners in the Foundation, Intermediate, Senior and FET phases. For the Intermediate Phase, Ruth has written a number of titles for MacMillan’s ‘Readers are Leaders’ series; ‘ Man of the House ’ – aimed at adult English Second Language (ESL) learners at ABET Level 2 (equivalent to Grade 5) for New Readers Publishers and ‘Siege of Mafeking’ for Heritage Publishers. More recently she has written a wrap-around study guide on how to teach English as a First Additional Language (FAL) for students on a Bachelor of Education (Intermediate Phase) course for Educor.

Marketing your books using social media

Venue:  Sandton Public Library

Date:  23 June 2018

Time: 0 9:30 – 13:00

• Social Media 101 – Is Facebook still relevant
• Building your own website and updating it.
• Paid vs Organic media – Which works, what are you driving and targeting?
• Self-publishing. How to set business objectives and measure success on digital.
• Sampling – Using samples to create virility.

Hamish Pillay is a Marketing and Digital Consultant. He hails from East London, now known as Buffalo City. He published his first book ten years ago, winning the Citizen Book Prize and was a finalist in the Mnet Literary Awards. He’s been on the Corporate merry-go-round for the last eight years specialising in digital marketing. You can follow Hamish Pillay on Twitter: Hamish_Hoosen or check out  www.hamishhoosenpillay.wordpress.com

All welcome – members and non-members. This event is for illustrators and writers.

Gauteng courses

The Storyteller Pod  presents various script-writing courses.

For more information, contact  Natasje:  [email protected]

12 May 2018                 Kingsmead Book Fair , See  http://kingsmead.co.za/bookfair/

18-20 May 2018          Franschoek Literary Festival – Schools’ Festival is held week prior to main festival.

4-8 Junie 2018             Die ATKV-SKRYFSKOOL VAN DIE NOORDWES-UNIVERSITEIT Winterskool vir opkomende fiksieskrywers aan . Skryfskool vir meer inligting:  [email protected]

7-10 June 2018             SA  Children’s Book Fair with the theme, “Teach me to Read” will be held in the Blue Wing Conference and Events Venue, Ticketpro Dome in Northgate. See  www.sachildrenbookfair.co.za

30 Aug-2 Sept 2018     Jozi Book Fair with the theme “Literature and Working People, See  www.jozibookfair.org.za

14-16 Sept 2018       Comic Con Africa Exhibition . See  https://www.comicconafrica.co.za/en.html

5-7 Oct 2018             LITASA Conference with the theme “Literacy and Justice” to be held in the Eastern Cape. See  www.litasa.org.za

Competitions / awards

For reviews of children’s books, see  www.puku.co.za

To download free books, visit  www.bookdash.org

http://kingsmead.co.za/bookfair/

Thought for the day

“Be ruthless about protecting writing days, i.e., do not cave in to endless requests to have “essential” and “long overdue” meetings on those days. The funny thing is that, although writing has been my actual job for several years now, I still seem to have to fight for time in which to do it. Some people do not seem to grasp that I still have to sit down in peace and write the books, apparently believing that they pop up like mushrooms without my connivance. I must therefore guard the time allotted to writing as a Hungarian Horntail guards its firstborn egg.”

J.K. Rowling

Please visit  www.SCBWIGauteng.blogspot.com  for news, reports of events and links to other children’s book related sites.

Also see  www.scbwi.za.org   for national news and   www.scbwi.org  for international news, competitions and events around the world.

SCBWI in no way endorses any non-SCBWI event and encourages members to investigate any advertiser’s references.

By: Baby Riav and the Power of Reading, Part 2.

Posted on: april 23, 2018.

Today South Africa celebrates World Book Day 2018 , recognising that books are vitally important for young children and valuable for their development. Yet, while we are entrenched in the importance of literacy, education and languages, it is important to remember that reading is, in itself, a joy and delight that feeds children’s hearts and souls, as well as their minds.

Last year we introduced you to Baby Riav (see article here) , a tiny South African baby who’d been in the Neonatal, Intensive Care Unit for 28 days, and who was soothed by books and the sound of his parents as they read to him. How pleased we were to hear back from Riav’s Mum with the latest news of his progress and to hear that he still loves reading! And just in time for World Book Day 2018.

Lest we forget the incredible power of reading, let us not forget too, that stories are powerful tools for healing and growth.

“Riav is 15 months old. Can you believe it! I have attached a few pictures of his reading adventures which I hope will make you smile.”

(And smile we did!)

“It’s been a wonderful 15-month journey of curiosity, mischief and reading for Riav, ” she continues.

“When he learned how to reach for items, we had to rearrange our bookshelf as he wanted to pull out his books on his own. We now have his books on the lowest shelf to allow him to take what he ones. Often he sits with several books at once.”

“His birthday in December gave his library a boost as friends and families, who follow us on social media and recognised his love for books, gifted him with at least 20 books.

“The best part about Riav’s love for books is that it has given birth to a new reader in our home.

“While I am a bookworm, my husband is not. He admits that the last book he really read was his set work at school more than two decades ago.

“But every evening, Riav climbs onto his lap with a book for him to read to him.

“Together they have travelled across seas via Riav’s book on boats, searched for pumpkins, and even joined Peter Rabbit on his adventures.”

Thank you for allowing us to be a part of this exciting journey and for sharing your love or reading, Nivashni and Riav.

Are you a reading parent with a story to tell?

Contact us at: Puku.co.za

or via email: [email protected]

We’d love to hear your stories.

By: UMSITHO WAMABALI EPUKU 2018

Posted on: april 19, 2018.

Umsitho wamabali wephuku uvuleleke kuye wonke umntu- Wonke umntu wamkelekile

Ukuba unqwenela ukubayinxalenye yoqeqesho, nceda wazise uSisanda ku083 425 5277 okanye [email protected]

By: Is classroom storytelling a dying art?

Posted on: april 16, 2018.

The dying art of storytelling in the classroom

April, 2018

As Grahamstown prepares for the Puku Story Festival, storytelling is the highlight of most conversations, but is storytelling an every day priority in South African schools?  Are we doing  enough to instill a love for literacy in African children?

Storytelling may be as old as the hills but it remains one of the most effective tools for teaching and learning. A good story can make a child (or adult) prick up their ears and settle back into their seat to listen and learn.

But despite the power a great story can have,  storytelling has an endangered status  in the classroom – partly due to a huge emphasis on “ active learning ” in education. This is the idea that pupils learn best when they are doing something – or often, “seen to be doing” something.

Any lesson in which a teacher talks for 15 or more uninterrupted minutes would be regarded today as placing pupils in too passive a role. Indeed, even in English lessons teachers now very rarely read a whole poem or book chapter to pupils,  something which now worries even OFSTED .

Bringing history to life

By contrast, teaching, particularly in the humanities, before the 1960s was heavily dependent on storytelling by teachers. A teacher would give a class, say, an account of the English Civil War, based on her own knowledge, reading and imagination.

Clearly, this approach has many limitations. There was often very little scope for critical discussion and pupils were over-reliant on their teachers’ view of events. But we mustn’t lose sight of the value of what was happening in that history classroom.

Pupils had the chance to become deeply absorbed in a context that was utterly alien to them – and their life experience was extended. Their imaginations were able to stitch this exotic secondhand experience to their library of personal experiences. In their retellings, they were never “just” copying, but making sense and interpreting.

Layered learning

Influential educational thinkers such as  Jerome Bruner  have recognised the deep, contextually embedded, multi-layered learning that a story enables as a form of knowledge in its own right. My colleague Matthew Reason and I have called this “ storyknowing ”.

And in this way, the storytelling of teachers and the storytelling of pupils can nourish each other – as I found in my long-term collaboration with secondary humanities teacher Sally Durham.

A story from me about my German mother-in-law’s World War Two experiences would…

Continue reading here …

By: Grahamstown, 19-21 April, 2018.

Posted on: april 15, 2018.

The 2018 Puku Story Festival in isi-Xhosa, honours South African children’s author, storyteller and icon,  Nokugcina Mhlophe  and as part of the celebration Puku will be publishing a mini-catalogue of Gcina’s works.

Find the 2018 Festival programme here and get ready! However, if you want to be a part of the action, but can’t get to Grahamstown, follow the Puku Story Festival Facebook page and join the conversations!

We’ll see you soon!

By: 2018 PROGRAMME

Posted on: april 12, 2018.

The Puku Story Festival is open to all – everybody is welcome.   Should you wish to attend a workshop, please confirm your attendance with Sisanda on 083 425 5277 or [email protected]

By: Nal’ibali adds Setswana and Xitsonga stories to their list.

Posted on: april 11, 2018.

Nal’ibali adds two more South African languages to their literacy newspaper supplements

Setswana and Xitsonga readers can now enjoy the Nal’ibali supplements in their mother languages from mid-April 2018. This latest addition brings the total number of languages to eight, for Nal’ibali’s bilingual supplements. It is a significant milestone for Nal’ibali, who fully promotes reading and writing in mother languages.

The supplements are made possible through a media partnership with Tiso Blackstar (formerly Times Media Group), who produce the bilingual newspaper supplements every two weeks, during term time. The print rich material includes stories, literacy activities, reading and reading club tips and support, to inspire and guide parents, caregivers, teachers, librarians and reading clubs, to make reading and storytelling meaningful, enjoyable and accessible.

“ The importance of mother language preservation and promotion is critical and should be addressed as such ,” explains Nal’ibali Xitsonga language editor, Mr Gezani Chabalala , who believes language, culture and identity are inseparable and complement each other. Language assists in shaping one’s culture. It is important to preserve and promote mother tongue for the language’s continued existence, and as a minority language in SA, Xitsonga speakers will benefit from this milestone.

People learn and understand better when lessons are conducted in a language they know and understand well, concludes Chabalala.

Nal’ibali places value on the power of language and cultural relevance in literacy development. To cultivate a reading culture and a nation that prides itself on high-level literacy, all children and adults need to understand what they are listening to and reading. Real understanding makes it meaningful and enjoyable which is significant for raising readers.

By: Transform Reluctant Readers Into Avid Bookworms…

Posted on: april 1, 2018.

How to transform your teenager from a reluctant reader to avid bookworm in five steps

By  Inga Stünzner

What do you do when your child has reached adolescence and suddenly shudders at the thought of reading for pleasure?

Is there anything a parent can do?

There is plenty, according to Margaret Merga from Curtin University, but it is important to understand why children turn away from reading for fun in the first place.

It is a phenomenon Dr Merga called “expired expectation”.

“When I spoke to teenagers they often spoke about a point where they acquired the skill to read independently and there was a withdrawal of expectation that they would continue to do that for pleasure or for fun beyond that,” she said.

It was something both parents and teachers did.

“If we really want out teenagers to continue to read, we really need to be careful not to transmit the idea to them that once they know how to read it’s not something they need to do anymore,” she said.

According to Dr Merga, there are five steps parents can take to encourage their teenagers to read:

PHOTO: Dr Merga says making time and space for kids to read for pleasure is important. (Flickr: Enokson)

Step 1: Keep reading aloud to your kids

At the same time that parents and teachers withdrew their expectation, parents tended to stop reading aloud,  Dr Merga discovered in recent research .

“Interestingly, in talking to a lot of children and teenagers, reading aloud at home with mum and dad often ended a lot sooner than they wanted it to and it was something that they missed,” she said.

“They missed it from that social perspective — that shared, one-on-one time — that enjoying of a book together.

“And they also missed it on a skill level perspective.”

So keep reading to your child until they tell you to stop.

Step 2: Choose books they like

Find ways to connect their reading to what they do in other leisure pursuits.

“You can get an idea of what genres might appeal to your young people by looking at what they value in their lives,” Dr Merga said.

PHOTO: Meg Cabot has appealed to many teen readers. (ABC Capricornia: Inga Stünzner)

For example, if a young person is into playing fantasy games on their electronic device, then suggest they read the Deltora Quest which follows a fantasy story line.

Like adults, however, children’s tastes would change as they get older, she said.

“A lot of us have attitudes to reading that change over time, so it’s a matter of keeping abreast of what our young people like to read,” she said.

Step 3: Limit access to electronics

In research published late last year, Dr Merga looked at whether or not electronic devices that young people had influenced their reading frequency.

“We actually found the more devices young people had in their possession and had regular access to, the less likely they were to be reading books for pleasure.”

Even e-books.

While there are some people who preferred to read an e-book because they could get quicker and easier access to books, most young people preferred print books when reading for pleasure because they liked the tactile variations, Dr Merga said.

And there are fewer distractions.

“Some of the children we interviewed talked about the distraction, saying how easy it was going from reading an e-book on an iPad, you’re still getting notifications while you’re reading, so having your Pavlovian responses to those,” she said.

“A lot of adults can relate to that as well.”

Step 4: Make time and space to read

If you want your teenager to read, give them time and space to do so.

PHOTO: Think about what interests your teenager and help steer them towards books that reflect this. (ABC News)

We often under-estimated their commitments — school work, extra-curricular activities, work and a social life — and they did not always have time to read for pleasure, Dr Merga said.

“I think as parents, it’s important that we encourage them to apportion some time to reading, that we make them aware that the literacy benefits are really strong and will give them an advantage,” she said.

“Give them access to the books they like and ensure they’re in the home.

“Give them space to read.”

Step 5: Be a role model

Make sure your children see you reading.

Often we waited until the kids had gone to bed and then we read for pleasure, Dr Merga said, but make sure you read when they can see you.

“One child I spoke to in upper primary said their dad expected them to read but they never saw him do it,” she said.

“I think we need to avoid seeming hypocritical if we want our children to read into adulthood.”

So where can you start with some great reads to tickle your teens interest?

Ann-Maree Dyer is a librarian who specialises in children’s literature.

See her top five books to get your teen started back on the path to reading-for-fun:

By: What will it take to improve global literacy?

5 ways to improve global literacy

By  Sophie Edwards March 2018

OXFORD, United Kingdom — Literacy experts and advocates gathered in Oxford this week to discuss the latest thinking around how to promote global literacy.

Despite recent improvements, it remains a major challenge but is massively underfunded and subject to a number of misconceptions, experts said.

The Sustainable Development Goals call for “all youth and a substantial proportion of adults, both men and women, to achieve literacy and numeracy” by 2030. While youth literacy rates have jumped in the past 50 years, progress is not fast enough, experts warned.

Approximately  750 million people over the age of 15  still lack basic reading and writing skills. Two-thirds of these are women, according to the  United Nations , with female literacy improving by just 1 percent since 2000. Sub-Saharan Africa and Southern Asia have the lowest literacy rates, and the poorest and most marginalized are least likely to be able to read and do basic sums.

HRH Princess Laurentien of the Netherlands gave an opening address at this year’s  World Literacy Summit  which kicked off on Monday, calling on literacy to be framed as a “win-win” for everyone, and not simply as an education goal.

“ We need to be framing literacy not as an educational issue but [as something] of importance to the ministry of finance because by helping literacy you help crime, poverty, health issues, employment issues ,” she told Devex.

Here are five key takeaways for development from the two-day conference.

1 .  Remember adult learning

Historically, donor funding for literacy has focused on young school children and has tended to miss adolescent or adult literacy, according to Katy Newell-Jones of the  British Association for Literacy in Development , or BALID. In the past, literacy programs assumed a “trickle up feeling that if we can educate the next generation of children then literacy problems will be solved,” she said, but this has been “proved to be so wrong.”

Instead, a holistic approach to literacy is needed, Newell-Jones told Devex, which supports adults, especially women, to become literate and which also emphasizes the role of learning within the family, including intergenerational learning and creating a “learning environment in the home.” The theme of adult learning was picked up throughout the conference’s sessions.

2.  Teach in the mother tongue

In many developing countries, lessons are taught in English or another nonlocal language, such as French, from a young age.

In Pakistan, for example, this is has resulted in children learning to read English but with very little comprehension, according to Nadia Naviwala , an adviser to  the Citizens Foundation  in Pakistan.

“ Kids in Pakistan do learn to read English; they just have no comprehension of it ,” she said. “ Is literacy impeded because it’s being done in a language that’s not their own? ”

Teachers are also often not proficient in the language they are instructing in, according to Ian Cheffy from BALID.

Instead, children and adults should be learning to read and write in their local languages, he said.

Nal’ibali Trust , a charity that aims to promote a culture of reading in South Africa, has made….

continue reading here

By: Dr Seuss illustrations are a great way to get kids talking about books

Posted on: march 29, 2018.

22 Dr. Seuss Illustrations You’ve Probably Never Seen

“Why fit in when you were born to stand out?”

Dr. Seuss , born Theodor Seuss Geisel, has been a staple in literature and illustration for decades. His love for surrealism brought us brightly colored scenes of strange creatures in curious environments. Ask anyone and they can probably name at least one, if not five, of his best-selling children’s books. But ask about the start of his career and you’ll more than likely receive a shrug as an answer.

According to  DrSeussArt.com , “Ted” got his start as an illustrator at age 23. He traveled to New York City looking for work. After three months, he made his first professional sale—a cartoon purchased by  The Saturday Evening Post  on July 16, 1927 for just $25. Now his original art sells for thousands.

Shortly after settling down permanently in NYC, it was a job with  Judge  launched Ted’s career. Specifically, a cartoon “in which Ted used Flit bug spray in the punch line that led to a seventeen-year Flit advertising campaign with Standard Oil of New Jersey. Ted’s catchphrase ‘Quick, Henry, the Flit!’ soon entered the American vernacular and Flit sales increased wildly. By the time Ted returned to Dartmouth in the spring of 1928 for a reunion, his celebrity was duly noted by friends and professors.”

Six months after working for  Judge , Ted signed his first artwork as “Dr. Seuss.”

[related:  Chwast’s Quote: The Illustrated Words of Dr. Seuss ;  Dr. Seuss Takes An Arousing Zamboni Ride While Playing The Trombone? ]

After his death in late September 1990, Dr. Seuss’s “Midnight Paintings” started circulating.

“ Illustrator by day, surrealist by night, Dr. Seuss created a body of irrepressible work that redefines this American icon as an iconographic American artist ,” explains the Dr. Seuss Art website . “ Dating back to the 1995 book …TheSecret Art of Dr. Seuss often shows a side of the artist that most readers, familiar with him through his classic children’s books, have never seen. These ‘Midnight Paintings,’ along with significant drawings and sculpture, were often created by Dr. Seuss at night for his own personal enjoyment and were rarely, if ever, exhibited during his lifetime. ”

Here we go: 22 Dr. Seuss Illustrations You’ve Probably Never Seen

All images are trademarks of Dr. Seuss Enterprises, L.P.  and can be found at  http://www.drseussart.com

Dr Seuss – Every Girl Should Have A Unicorn

Dr Seuss – Golden Girl

Dr Seuss – Green Cat With Lights

Dr Seuss – I Dreamed I Was a Doorman at the Hotel del Coronado

Dr Seuss – Incidental Music for a New Year’s Eve Party

To see more, click here…

By: Picture Books, the springboard to visual literacy

Posted on: march 27, 2018.

Isol on Experimental Picture Books, Visual Literacy + More

By:  Jude Stewart

From where does visual literacy first spring?

Heard aloud, the spare text of a picture book hangs over the scene, casting it in amber. Later, when the child can read the words herself, those words sound noiselessly in her head, a miraculous internalization.

The lacunae between image and text—what the words assert versus what the pictures say—both fascinates and instructs.

Interior from Daytime Visions: An Alphabet by Isol. Photo from: 20th Century Typographers

With picture books, repetition is the norm, raising the stakes immeasurably. Experimentation in the genre is expected, even required to reinvent classic themes like the ABCs, counting and colors.

A design that tells its story well once must instead accomplish the trick an infinite number of times. Each time the child’s focus will shift: to a hidden visual pun; to the vibrating border between color blocks; to conflicting emotions on display. The depth of parsing is almost frightening in intensity.

Nowhere else in modern life is attention so clearly trained on a design object. And unlike most graphic designs in our highly digital world, picture books are resolutely physical objects, with all the wear-and-tear that children bring.

As a design writer and author of two  experimental books  for adults, probing the creative tension between word and image is my business. It’s taken me years as a parent—my son is now four—to recognize in picture books the shimmering deep end, the ultimate distillation, the temporal source code of the work I’ve long pursued for adults.

Picture books, particularly experimental ones, can teach graphic designers a lot about the building blocks of visual acuity and storytelling.

Argentinian author-illustrator Isol is a case in point.

Twice a finalist for the Hans Christian Andersen Award and the 2013 winner of the Astrid Lindgren Award , two crowning achievements in kids-lit, Isol has written and illustrated some of the cleverest, most inventive children’s books I’ve encountered from a living author.

I first encountered her work in  It’s Useful to Have a Duck , an accordion-style book (or “leporello”) that tells the story of a kid meeting a toy duck from both characters’ perspectives. The reader starts with the narrative from the kid’s POV. At the end you can flip the book over and follow the duck’s idiosyncratic take on those same interactions.

Identical pictures, vastly different thought-worlds. (AIGA recognized the book for both concept and design in its 2008 50 Books/50 Covers selection.)

It’s Useful to Have a Duck by Isol. In this German edition, the duck imagines itself as a gargoyle, sticking his bill in the child’s ear, then swimming comfortably in a bathtub. In the child’s POV, the duck is a fake nose, a convenient way to clean your ears, and a handy tub-stopper. Photo from: 20th Century Typographers

More recent Isol titles include  Petit the Monster  (2010 in its English edition), which confronts a basic moral question: Am I good, or am I bad?  Beautiful Griselda   (2011 in its English edition) tells of a princess whose shattering good looks caused suitors to lose their heads—literally. Amassing her lost-head collection, Griselda finds her beauty an obstacle to finding love but maneuvers around this difficulty to produce a baby of her own. One day, however, enthralled by the baby’s cuteness, Griselda loses her own head—plop! The book ends with a parlor-full of children tackling a puzzle, Griselda’s smiling head presided in a wall-mount like a benevolent moose.

Isol continues this train of thought in   The Menino: A Story Based on Real Events  (2015 in its English edition), which examines the arrival of a new baby like an alien invasion, a  terra incognita  for both parents and baby…

By: Education Expert Calls For More Help In Foundation Phase

BY PENWELL DLAMINI

South Africa urgently needs to fix the basic literacy and numeracy education in primary schools in order to prevent the fallout that occurs on high school level‚ says education expert Mary Metcalfe .

She says the country should have a consultative process to deal with poor levels of reading and writing in the foundation phase of the education system.

On February 23‚ the Department of Basic Education gazetted for public comments its intentions to lower the minimum mark required to progress in the senior phase – Grades 7‚ 8 and 9.

Currently these learners do not move to the next grade if they get below 50% for their home language.

The department now wants this home-language threshold reduced to 40%. It proposes that pupils should pass if they get 40% in their mother tongue and three other subjects. And‚ for the first time‚ achieving 30% in three subjects in the grades would see learners moving to the next grade.

But Metcalfe says the public should be discussing the real issues of the foundation phase in the education system and not just the pass percentage.

“The right conversation is how do we address the big issues within the education. This is the massive leaving of young people out of the [education] system after Grade 9 and 10. Secondly‚ [we need to discuss] why that happens – which is because we don’t get reading‚ writing and comprehension right in primary schools. That is where the national consultation needs to happen.

We have to correct the learning issues in primary schools

“We shouldn’t be worried about the pass mark‚ whether it is 42 or 58. We need to address the issues at primary schools so that we stop the loss of half of our children out of the education to a very bleak future.

“Learners are coming into Grade 8 and 9 with insufficient levels of literacy and numeracy from primary [school]. This means they haven’t learned what they should have in the previous grades. They then struggle to cope in Grade 8 and 9‚” she said. “We have to correct the learning issues in primary schools.”

Metcalfe added… continue reading …

By: Executive Mayor Highlights Library in KwaNobuhle Uitenhage

Posted on: march 20, 2018.

Library week launched as Trollip advocates reading

“ Readers are leaders, leaders are readers ” were the wise words bestowed by Executive Mayor Athol Trollip at the official launch of Library Week at the Elukhanyisweni Library in KwaNobuhle Uitenhage on 12 March 2018.

Libraries play an important role in communities throughout South Africa because they provide access to information on everything that exists.

Libraries provide an opportunity to fight unemployment illiteracy; they allow people to expand they creativity; they provide internet access and help with homework; they host story-time sessions and language programmes; they provide free accessible space for reading and studying; they stock information resources and offer services to everyone.

The Elukhanyisweni Library is a state-of-the-art library; one of three libraries throughout the city that has facilities that cater for visually impaired people.

Photo: ‘Public libraries must be properly equipped’ – HeraldLIVE 2014

NMBM (Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality) Library Services will be leading the 2018 Library Week programme, which will be celebrated at all 25 public libraries, with special events for library users such as Mini Lib Launch at the Chatty Library (22 March 2018), facilitated by South African Library for the Blind, as well as city wide membership drives (22 and 23 March 2018).

Other notable programmes for the Week include the Library Awareness Campaign being rolled out at the Korsten Library (20 March 2018). The full programme for the Week will be available at all libraries and on the NMBM website.

NMBM Libraries will be participating in Library Week by running programmes with schools, clinics, old age homes and crèches for storytelling and the promotion of reading, books and library services.

Executive Mayor Trollip urged parents to encourage their children to make use of the Municipal libraries across the city.

South African Library Week is celebrated annually under the guidance of Library and Information Association of South Africa (LIASA), the Library and Information Association of South Africa and will this year take place from 16-23 March 2018.

Library Week 2018 celebrates the founding principles of libraries, that they are repositories of knowledge for future generations while at the same time making that knowledge accessible to all who need it.

The Week highlights the role that libraries play in a democratic society, advancing literacy and making the basic human right of freedom of access to information a reality. During this period, LIASA aims to make all South Africans aware that libraries contribute to nation-building and improving the quality of life of all who use them.

Libraries contribute to nation-building and improving the quality of life of all who use them

Aviwe Mthimkulu (12) a learner from Phakamisa Primary School, said that being at the library has enabled him to learn a lot about the world and has improved his ability to read and write.

Read more here

Older news on this library:

KWANOBUHLE LIBRARY CATERS FOR VISUALLY DISABLED COMMUNITY

In a major step to boost the support to the visually disabled community the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality launched a free audio and Braille book service at the Elukhanyisweni Public Library in KwaNobuhle on Thursday, 28 June, 2012.

The project is a joint initiative between the Eastern Cape Provincial Department of Sports, Recreation, Arts and Culture and the South African Library for the Blind and has been rolled out to 11 public libraries throughout the Eastern Cape. The Elukhanyisweni Public Library is the only one in Nelson Mandela Bay currently offering this service.

According to project coordinator, Pumla Mahanjana , all of the 11 public libraries have been provided with furniture and equipment to aid the visually impaired individuals, which includes audio readers, document readers, computer software, Braille books and other services.

“ Not only does this open up opportunities for the visually impaired, it also assists those who are illiterate to benefit from the service ,” said Mahanjana.

Staff at each library are trained to assist users of the equipment, and to identify individuals who could benefit from the equipment. Public library workshops are also held for members of the local community in order to train them on the equipment, as well as to raise awareness of the facilities available.

In his speech delivered as the Acting Executive Mayor at the time, Cllr Andile Mfunda , hailed the project as “groundbreaking”.

“ This initiative will go down in history as one of the crucial interventions in raising awareness of the needs of our visually impaired citizens of the city .”

By: South African Library Week 2018

Posted on: march 13, 2018.

Theme: Libraries – Heart of the Community

South African Library Week 2018 Dates: 19 – 25 March  2018

The Library and Information Association of South Africa (LIASA) is celebrating  South African Library Week  from  16-23 March 2018  with the theme  Libraries: heart of the Community.

The launch event will be held on Monday, 19 March 2018 at the National Library of South Africa, Cape Town campus.

The theme “ Libraries: heart of the Community”  re-emphasizes the idea that libraries belong to the community and are central to it. All libraries, whether it is a School, Public, Academic or Special library, are at the heart of their communities, to offer vital resources to address community needs, and are places where the community gathers. They are open to their own communities, and provide essential services to help people and neighborhoods thrive. From internet access and help with homework, to story-times and language programs, libraries provide free accessible space, information resources and services for everyone.

In keeping with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, the LIASA Presidential theme, which is about inclusion and working together to achieve a common vision, libraries play a significant role by increasing access to information in support of the development agenda.

LIASA remains aligned with the South Africa’s National Development Plan (NDP) 2030 that will shape communities through among others, skill development in a focused attempt to reduce unemployment especially amongst the youth.

Although not recognized as such, a library nourishes and sustains its community, hence this theme encourages and motivates members of society to reflect on the role and value of libraries in their lives.

Libraries have positioned themselves in this space between aspiration and delivery, providing support for education and are the heart of every community… libraries are so much more than books:

• Libraries mirror, reflect and serve communities according to their needs.
• Libraries provide a place to find the resources to learn new skills.
• Libraries provide an opportunity to fight unemployment, illiteracy, digital illiteracy and loneliness.
• Libraries connect people, up-skill them, enable creative learning and build communities.
• Libraries are bridging the disparities within communities.

Just like 2017’s theme, the 2018 theme  “Libraries: heart of the Community”  is a reminder to all library users that the library is a communal space that caters to specific needs whether these are educational, social, recreational or informative.

In 2017, the Library Association celebrated its 20 th  anniversary and given its mission encompassing the development of South Africa through access to information, it is imperative that the South African public is invited to partner with LIASA to make  “Libraries: the heart of the Community”.

In addition to this,   in 2018   public libraries in South Africa will   be   commemorating 200 years of existence, as the first National Library in South Africa (South African Library) was found in Cape Town in 1818. This was the forerunner of the current National Library of South Africa, Cape Town campus, and is thus making it an ideal venue for the launch of South African Library Week 2018.

ABOUT LIASA

LIASA is the national professional association that represents libraries and information institutions; all library and information workers; and millions of users and potential users of libraries in South Africa.  LIASA aims to unite, develop and empower all people in the library and information field.  It represents the interests of and promotes the development and image of library and information services in South Africa. More information about the  historic relevance  of SA Library Week, can be found at:   http://www.liasa.org.za/south-african-library-week/

For further information, please contact:

Ms Senovia Welman LIASA National PRO: 078 132 5965  [email protected]

Mr Mandla Ntombela LIASA President: 083 478 4626  [email protected]

MAIG SALW Competition

By: National Library Week comes to Mossel Bay

NATIONAL LIBRARY WEEK CELEBRATIONS

MOSSEL BAY NEWS – The Annual South African Library Week will be celebrated from 19 – 23 March 2018 at various libraries in Mossel Bay with the theme  Libraries: heart of the community .

The theme “LIBRARIES: HEART OF THE COMMUNITY” re-emphasizes the idea that libraries belong to the community and are central to it.

That libraries are open to their own communities, and provide essential services to help people and neighbourhoods thrive.

From internet access and help with homework, to story-times and language programmes, libraries provide free accessible space, information resources and services to everyone.

Libraries across the country use this annual event as an opportunity to market their services to users, the broader community, civil societies and decision makers.

See article here…

By: The most anticipated YA novel for 2018

They killed my mother. They took our magic. They tried to bury us.

Now we rise.

“A phenomenon.”  ― Entertainment Weekly

“The epic I’ve been waiting for.”  ― New York Times -bestselling author Marie Lu

“You will be changed. You will be ready to rise up and reclaim your own magic!”  ― New York Times -bestselling author Dhonielle Clayton

“The next big thing in literature  and  film.”  ― Ebony

“One of the biggest young adult fiction debut book deals of the year.”  ― Teen Vogue

By: Puku Celebrates Phenomenal Woman Rosina Sedibane Modiba.

Posted on: march 8, 2018, international women’s day 2018.

Lorato Trok March 2018

In 1976, when the country was gripped by political unrest following the Soweto student uprisings, a 16 year old girl from Atteridgeville was re-writing the history books. Rosina Sedibane Modiba became the first black South African woman athlete to compete in the multi-racial championships.

Four years ago, I was working in schools in the Pretoria townships of Atteridgeville and Saulsville as a South Africa coordinator for the African Storybook initiative. One of the schools was Bathokwa Primary school in Saulsville, where Rosina Sedibane is an HOD and sports coordinator. I learned about her extraordinary story during one of my visits when the school librarian, Ms Tebogo Moses asked me if I knew about Rosina’s athletic history. Of course I did not, and so does the millions of people in this country. I was intrigued by her story and I kept telling her that I will write her story one day. In August 2017, I applied for a writing grant with ANFASA and I jumped for joy when I learned one December evening that I was one of the 2017 grant recipients.

In 1975 Rosina made history as the first woman from the South African Amateur Athletics Federation (Bantu) to compete in the all-race South African Multinational Cross-Country Championship. She did not win this race, coming in at 22, but she knew that she was ready to compete against the best in the country. She had renewed confidence and continued with her training schedule with Coach Mokoka.

Sedibane Modiba’s athletics career took off in 1974 under the tutelage of renowned coach James Mokoka. The inter-high schools championships were a display of athletic prowess among the cream of the crop in black high schools across the country. Young Rosina Sedibane won the 800m at just 14 years in the junior section of the championships.

She made history again when she became the first black South African woman athlete to win a gold medal in 1500 metres during the multi-racial provincial championships at Pilditch Stadium in Pretoria in March 1977. Rosina astonished everyone when she beat the current record holder and favorite in the white federation, Sonja Laxton.

In the same year, 1977, she competed in four other meets, repeating her winning streak at the 1977 annual Paarl Boxing Day games when she won the 1500m meet and placed second in the 400 and 800 metre meets. Rosina and her sister Margaret competed against each other at the Rand Afrikaans University, now the University of Johannesburg in the multi-racial championships. Rosina came third in the 800 m meets and second in the 3000 cross-country, with her sister Margaret behind her in third position in the 800 metre race.

Rosina was a dominant force in athletics in the country, dominating in both the black federation and in multiracial meets.

During the Black Championships held at Western Holdings mine in Welkom, she ran two different meets two days in succession, winning the 1500 m meet on 19 March and the 800 metre meet the next day on 20 march 1977.

Rosina and Sonja Laxton met again at the Ford invitation in Port Elizabeth in February 1978. Sonja Laxton denied Rosina 1 st position while Rosina came third. Rosina remembers the first time she went to compete in Namibia (then South West Africa) in March 1978. They had been invited to compete in Namibia. The South African apartheid laws were extended to Namibia and prevented black Namibians from having any political rights during their fight for independence against South Africa. Apartheid laws prevented Rosina and her team to board a commercial flight to Namibia, instead they cramped into a military plane like cargo to compete with their Namibian counterparts. Nonetheless, under these circumstances Rosina beat all the other girls for first position in 800 and was placed 2 nd in the 400 meter meet.

The stadiums where Rosina competed in multi-racial races were in designated white areas. The pass laws were still enacted and blacks needed permission to get to the stadiums. That prevented a majority of black people who wanted to see Rosina run from going. Margaret and Zachariah were allowed in by virtue of being Rosina’s family. Zachariah remembers the rapturous applause from the minimally filled black section of the stadium and the packed, stunned faces of the white section of the stadium when Rosina stormed into the history books, claiming her first gold medal by beating the South Africa record holder and setting a new South African record of 2 minutes 9, 8 seconds in the 800 metre race. For black South Africans, Rosina’s victories were more than running the races, they were also about dignifying black lives amid the brutality of apartheid.

The apartheid laws denied Rosina a green jacket, or the Springbok colours as it is popularly known. Obtaining Springbok colours is the highest honour in the careers of sportswomen and men in South Africa. Even though Rosina excelled in her field, her substantial feat in athletics were never recognized formally in South Africa. In 2014, a year after her husband of more than 30 years wrote a letter to Athletics South Africa appealing for Rosina to be recognized, Rosina was awarded a green jacket, more than two decades after her history making races. Her husband passed away before he could see his wife in her long deserved green jacket.

The Gauteng Department of Education recognized Rosina’s indelible mark in sports by re-naming a top school development academy in Laudium, west of Pretoria after her. Rosina Sedibane Modiba Sport Academy is one of the City of Tshwane’s top sports schools.

My interest in writing Rosina’s story was prompted by the fact that there was a school named after her, but there was no history behind the story. Rosina’s story is one of the many stories of the erasure of black women’s stories and achievements in history the world over. Black women have attained history making feats since the beginning of time, but overlooked and underrepresented in the history books and in the political narrative.

We say to Rosina halala Rosina halala! We salute you and all the women before and after you who smashed doors open against all odds.

By: New ‘Little Miss’ book launched for International Woman’s Day, 2018

Mr Men and Little Miss is looking to take a “more modern” brand outlook with new characters that can help society.

The Mr Men and Little Miss series is getting a new addition as its owner, Sanrio , introduces Little Miss Inventor to coincide with International Woman’s Day.

The new character is the 36th Little Miss to join the iconic children’s franchise and the new book, which launches tomorrow (8 March), is aimed at encouraging young girls to pursue science. Simon Gresswell , Sanrio’s chief operating officer, says the latest addition to the series is part of attempts to give the series a more modern outlook and a realisation that its characters can be used in a positive way, in this case by encouraging girls to consider a career in science, technology, engineering or maths (STEM).

“ Little Miss Inventor is a way to communicate what young girls can be, especially in the STEM area ,” he tells Marketing Week.

“ We’re always striving to find new areas to reach out to kids on and the whole area of STEM in education is very important so we created the concept of Little Miss inventor.

“ To think about both sexes, to think about gender neutrality, [to think about] how the characters can be used in a positive way rather than purely commercial way has become really important. ”

The new book is just one way Sanrio is looking to reach children in new and different ways. It has also run a month-long competition (in the UK) asking children to design a new tool to protect Mr Bump.

It received approximately 850 entries, Gresswell says, and Sanrio will be announcing the winner at the Manchester Museum of Science and Industry on 24 March. The child who wins will have their invention immortalised in a book drawn by Adam Hargraves, son of the original writer and illustrator Roger Hargreaves.

Sanrio is also looking at ways to expand the Mr Men and Little Miss universe. Gresswell says it is exploring digital options for the brand, while a film is also under consideration.

“ Mr Men historically has had an animation series but they were quite a while ago so we’re now considering a new TV animation series and had some discussions about a movie ,” Gresswell says, although he adds that it will take a number of years before either project is green-lighted.

And what does the latest character, Little Miss Inventor, say about the brand as a whole?

“ It says endless possibilities ,” Gresswell says.

Schools Improvement.net

By: ‘Story Powered Schools’ project provides vital literacy support

Posted on: march 7, 2018.

February 2018

By Michael Cekiso, Story Powered Schools Project Manager Reading revolution reaches deep rural schools

What’s the best way to improve a child’s school results across the board?

What if there could be one magical intervention that could skyrocket a child’s progress in every area of their lives?

What a dream it would be for funders. What a game changer it would be for learners! As it turns out, there is a game changer: books.

Policy experts, educational specialists, and statisticians all agree: a child who reads and is read aloud to, is a child who learns. In fact, reading proficiency is the number one indicator of future academic success greater even than a child’s economic background or school choice. But what does this mean for South African children?

The short answer is: a challenge.

Books are expensive and disposable income is tight. What’s published depends on what makes publishers the most profit and how many children’s stories have you seen in isiZulu or isiXhosa recently?

These are predominantly the mother tongues of children living in the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal who are now well into the swing of 2018 and have either just started or are back at school. What that looks like for millions of children across SA is peak hour traffic jams, homework, and lost lunch boxes. But for children living in the rural areas of these provinces – it looks radically different.

In the Eastern Cape, for example, the lack of basic facilities is heart-breaking. Only 26% of schools in the province have a library, and only 10% of learners may borrow books. It will be no surprise then to discover that school results are just as poor and compounded by poor economic circumstances. Many children are attending school on an empty tummy, do not live with their parents, and live in homes without toilets. South African children simply aren’t getting the basic tools they need to make the leap out of poverty.

If access to books makes the difference between a child who can and can’t read, in one generation it makes the difference between a country that is economically thriving and one which is caught in a poverty trap. But rather than feeling overwhelmed, it’s important to remember that small actions can have big results, if they are sustained.

“Small actions can have big results, if they are sustained…”

2017 was the first year of our pilot project, Story Powered Schools, which introduced the Nal’ibali reading-for-enjoyment campaign’s proven approach to literacy development to 240 rural schools in the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal. These are schools that have been given a powerful injection to move progress forward, schools that have been given books and literacy support.

Based in areas that would otherwise receive almost no developmental opportunities, these schools were identified by the Department of Basic Education who brought District Education officials on board to help with a roll-out that included principals, teachers, and community members. We employed 48 ‘Story Sparkers’ and eight Literacy Mentors from local communities to keep fanning the flames of our big idea.

How did it work?

Every school that participated received five hanging libraries, one suited for each grade from R to 4. These mobile units each housed 150 exciting storybooks for children in their mother tongue as well as English. And, every fortnight, schools received copies of the Nal’ibali reading-for-enjoyment supplement packed with bilingual stories and activities to keep any reading club motivated.

Although supplements are available in newspapers across the provinces, they often don’t reach deep rural areas…

Story Powered Schools is a Nal’ibali initiative endorsed by the Department of Basic Education and made possible by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). For more information about the campaign or the power of reading and storytelling, visit:  www.storypoweredschools.org  and  www.storypoweredschools.mobi .

By: South African Sign Language (SASL) recognised as a mother tongue language & matric subject

Article by:   Bongekile Macupe , Mail & Guardian

It was nine years ago that a deaf teenager from Durban took the national and provincial health departments to court, asking for an order that would allow him to take South African Sign Language (SASL) as a matric subject.

Kyle Springate , a pupil at Westville Boys’ High School, had to abandon part of his case: it would have been legally impossible for the department to comply as he was due to write his final exams in two months’ time.

But the second part of Springate’s application, which he persisted with, was for the court to force the department to declare SASL an official school subject.

Even though Springate did not write SASL as a matric subject all those years ago, this year, for the first time, deaf matric pupils will be able to write SASL as a subject. This was announced by President Cyril Ramaphosa during his maiden State of the Nation address last Friday.

SASL was introduced as a subject for deaf pupils in 2015, also as a result of the court case, the national director of DeafSA, Bruno Druchen , said this week.

The organisation supported Springate in the court case, brought by the Legal Resources Centre on his behalf in the Pietermaritzburg high court.

Druchen said Ramaphosa’s announcement was a huge triumph for deaf schoolchildren and showed that the government was taking SASL seriously.

“ You, and every other hearing person, have Afrikaans, English or any other language as their first language and now deaf children will have SASL, their mother tongue, as their first language ,” he said.

“ So this will mean that, for the first time, by understanding the linguistic features in their language, they will understand the rules of the language and use it fluently. It does not [necessarily] mean that if you use sign language you understand the structure of the language ,” said Druchen.

A huge triumph for deaf schoolchildren

Druchen, who is deaf, spoke to the Mail & Guardian through an SASL interpreter.

Druchen said that deaf pupils have often found it difficult to obtain matric passes that would enable them to study towards a bachelor’s degree.

He said the biggest challenge, especially in matric, had been that deaf students only wrote one language. The ability to write SASL as a first language and chose another language as a second language would give them a better chance to obtain a pass that would enable them to register for a bachelor’s degree.

To obtain such a pass, matric pupils must pass their home language with at least 40%, pass four high-credit subjects (such as a language, accounting, dramatic arts or maths) with at least 50% and pass two other subjects with at least 30%.

Because Springate was unable to write SASL as a subject in his matric year, he ended up taking dramatic arts to obtain a bachelor’s pass.

The University of the Witwatersrand student, who was the first deaf student to graduate with a master’s degree in SASL in 2016, said she was pleased that sign language had been given the “right status” as a mother tongue.

When Nkwinika matriculated…

Continue reading here

By: All South Africans Responsible For Country’s Reading Crisis

Posted on: march 2, 2018, south africa’s reading crisis is a cognitive catastrophe.

Author:  John Aitchison

Professor Emeritus of Adult Education, University of KwaZulu-Natal February 26, 2018

When the late Black Consciousness leader Steve Biko published his seminal book, “I write what I like”, in 1978 it wasn’t about individual self-expression or even self-indulgence. It was a political statement with its origins in  the work  of Brazilian adult literacy activist  Paulo Freire .

Freire identified the profound connection between reading, understanding the world and so being able to change it. Half a century after Biko was  murdered  by South Africa’s apartheid state, his country is no nearer being able to do this.

Instead, many of the country’s children are struggling to read at all.

That’s according to the results of the international  PIRLS 2016 literacy tests  on nearly 13 000 South African school children. These showed that 78% of grade 4 children cannot read for meaning in any language. South Africa scored last of the 50 countries tested.  Also worrying was that  there were no signs of improvement over the last five years. In fact, in the case of the boys who were tested, the situation may have worsened.

A few weeks before these results were released, another study  had found that 27% of children under five in the country suffer from stunting and that their brains are not developing as they should. Damage like this is largely irreversible. It leads to low school achievement and work productivity – and so to ongoing poverty.

These truly disadvantaged children are those of the poor; the 25% of South Africa’s population who live in extreme poverty. Given their dreadful circumstances, it might be understandable that 25% of children might not succeed in learning to read. But 78%? There has to be another explanation for that.

There are indeed reasons.

They range from the absence of a reading culture among adult South Africans, to the dearth of school libraries allied to the high cost of books, and lastly to the low quality of training for teachers of reading.

No reading culture and bad teaching

Part of South Africa’s reading catastrophe is cultural. Most parents don’t read to their children many because  they themselves are not literate  and because there are very few cheap children’s books in African languages (and it must be remembered that English is a minority home language in South Africa).

But reading at home also doesn’t happen at the highest levels of middle class society and the new elite either. It’s treated as a lower order activity that’s uncool, nerdy and unpopular. And it’s not a spending priority. South Africans spend twice as much on chocolate each year  than they do on books .

The situation doesn’t improve at school. Until provincial education departments ensure that every school has a simple library and that children have access to cheap suitable books in their own mother tongues, South Africa cannot be seen as serious about the teaching of reading.

Another problem lies with the fact that reading is taught badly…

Continue reading…

By: Tshwane Public Libraries take Mother Tongue Further

Posted on: february 23, 2018.

The City of Tshwane has 56 public libraries divided into 7 regions.

Region 3 has 11 libraries, which includes Saulsville Library , while Stanza Bopape Community Centre , a satellite library in Mamelodi, East of Pretoria, is one the 9 libraries in region 6. These two libraries are some of the shining examples of the hard work that librarians at public libraries put in.

Mamelodi and Saulsville are some of the most vibrant townships in the city, with diverse linguistic communities. Even though Sepedi is a widely spoken language in these townships, there are other language groups in the city, such as the Ndebeles, known for their colourful house-painting, beadwork and traditional clothing, the Batswanas, amaXhosa, VhaVenda and the others. Of course there are many other communities who call Tshwane home who come from other parts of the continent too.

In Saulsville library, as in other public libraries across the country, there is a dire shortage of staff.

Photo: Saulsville Library

With a population of 799,507 (from Census 2011) and 13 schools, Saulsville library staff is made up of one full time librarian, one library assistant and two paid interns.

Ofentse Maaroganye , Region 3 Functional Head, laments the fact that while the city should be applauded for its impressive policy of appointing paid interns to the library, the interns leave soon after, moving to greener pastures in the private sector since they are highly qualified graduates. This creates uncertainty and libraries have to train a new pool of interns each time one leaves, losing valuable time that could be better spent on giving good service to library users.

The library has nonetheless formed a good bond with members of its community, both the general community and the school community. The library runs a series of community activities to promote literacy. Most of the activities are targeted at school children, but some members of the community, notably retired teachers, are participating in these activities to promote mother tongue literacy.

Other initiatives include writing competitions targeted at school children in their home languages. Ofentse and librarian, Teresa Ponsolby , have seen a spike in the checkout of local language books since the mother tongue writing competition and increased interest on home language material in the library. Countless research has proven over and over that children learn better when they learn in languages they understand.

There is a dire shortage of meaningful story books written by Africans for African children, with empowering images depicting their lives in a positive light.

Photo: Stanza Bopape Library, Mamelodi

Some young people from around Atteridgeville and Saulsville volunteer their time to read books to children every weekday after school. Stories are told in all nine official African languages since Saulsville and Atteridgeville are highly multilingual. The topic of interest in educational and social circles in the country currently is that of decolonisation – decolonisation of information, education, the arts and other areas. Young people have taken this up in unprecedented ways, creating a level of awareness currently that has never been seen before.  Young black people are taking pride in their cultural background and languages.

On weekends, a team of retired teachers run oral story-telling sessions and then continue them during school holidays at the Saulsville library. It is still a tough sell to get the parents to bring their children to the library or for them to visit the library for other purposes other than what they perceive the library to be – a reading space.

A group of young Atteridgeville creatives – fine artists, designers, hand-crafters and the general art community under the umbrella of Capital Arts, run art programmes in and around Atteridgeville for young people who are interested in the arts, enhancing their skills and keeping them off the streets.

At the Stanza Bopape Community Centre in Mamelodi, the library buzzes with school children every weekday for their daily dose of storytelling by library volunteers. The librarian, Lucas Machipa and his team of two assistants, goes a step further by staying behind long after the library has closed to continue their story reading and story telling sessions with the children.

The community centre runs several literacy projects to promote mother tongue.

Puku will be partnering with these two libraries later in the year (2018) for its book review process and home language story creation workshops. Puku is excited about this new development and phase in its work in literacy promotion by including libraries and communities.

It is these young people who give us hope that even in the education crisis, the country is finding itself in, there is hope for the future. Young people are the future of every nation and they should be encouraged to take the mantle and run with it. We can only hope that they receive as much support in their endeavour to be proudly African by practicing their cultures and speaking their languages without fear or shame.

By: Now is the time to promote linguistic and cultural diversity.

Posted on: february 18, 2018.

In an interesting article from  July 2017 in the Daily Nation , Kenyan author Muthoni Thang’wa  suggests that, while indigenous languages may be ‘official’ in countries across the continent, they are not necessarily ‘working’ languages that help nations to flourish, questioning the lack of a Pan-African language revival.

In a recent article from  Zakeera Docrat  and  Russell H. Kaschula,  ‘ Multilingualism must be celebrated as a resource, not a problem ‘, they address “language as a problem, language as a right and language as a resource.”

In light of the South African PRLS Literacy results of 2017 and International Mother Language Day, 2018, on February 21st this week, conversations around native languages and their inclusion in education are becoming increasingly popular. Is this the time to fully address these notions in their local contexts and set new precedents for learning?

Africans must learn in their own languages – English only takes you so far

By MUTHONI THANG’WA

• Swahili is been one of the official languages of the African Union.

We keep fretting that Africa lags behind Asia in economic development, but refuse to admit that their children are instructed in their mother tongue.

• This is not about other languages: speak and master as many as you desire but start with your native language, then your national language and then all the others.

Rwanda may have taken the bold step of starting the decolonisation of Africa by adopting Swahili as one of her official languages, along with Kinyarwanda, English and French.

This bold move will be met with scepticism by those who still believe that the West is best.

They will put forward rather useless theories that French and English do not belong to France and the United Kingdom respectively, but rather are universal modes of communication that are used by much of the world’s population.

These are also the languages of the colonisers who terrorised Africa for over 100 years, a historical fact we cannot change. But it is time to move on.

Rwanda is brave enough to say, in action and word, that Swahili does not belong only to the Swahili or Bantu communities from which it has heavily borrowed, but is a language spoken by over 100 million people in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi and Congo (DRC) among others and therefore it is time it was also considered a universal mode of communication.

I totally agree with the Rwandan visionary who is crafting and pushing through such ideas. South Sudan has also indicated that it will take the same step and has started by introducing the learning of Kiswahili in schools as a precursor to making it one of her official languages.

Swahili, and “African languages”, are official, though not necessarily working, languages of the African Union. Previously, sadly and ironically, the official languages of the AU were English, French, Portuguese, Spanish and Arabic.

How ridiculous are Africans, really? African unity, whose mode of communication, except for Arabic, is all borrowed from their previous slave masters? For over 40 years none of the African leaders thought to establish an African language as a mode of communication?

So what was the foundation on which they hoped to lay the Pan Africanism we desired? It would not have mattered what language they chose, it just needed to be of African origin.

INDIGENOUS SYSTEMS

The United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco) has, since 1960, tried to initiate efforts that enhance the quality of learning and that promote inclusive education. The language factor cannot be over-emphasised.

Think about it. It is very hard for a child to understand basic scientific concepts if the language of instruction also has to be learned.

This can only work if it is supported by policies and learning materials.

Even where learning materials are in another language, the teacher will have to fully understand and synthesise a concept for onward transmission, as opposed to making children memorise it in a foreign language.

Language, read mother tongue, or its nearest closest denominator, is one of the equity-enhancing policies necessary to make access to basic education universal.

That may mean that they understand science and technological concepts that are not based in their own traditional indigenous systems much earlier than our own children.

So yes, English children continue to understand concepts faster than Kenyan children because they learn in their native language.

ONLY ENGLISH OR FRENCH

Even better, look at the economies that are production-based, ask the Chinese and Japanese. They generate Japanese and Chinese-language instruction manuals that the rest of the world has to sort out into whatever language it can.

Before you pull the old and tired tribal trump card on me, I will be the first to admit that societies are increasingly embracing multiculturalism and multilingualism.

That is the perfect situation, but one cannot climb a tree from the top. Start with your own language, your own culture. It will be the basis of understanding other people’s language and culture.

There is absolutely no cultural conflict on the various layers that define a person, a people, a nation and or a nation-state.

How is it that Kenyans are able to accept the various layers that can make a person only in so far as they are negative?

We are okay with a politician who loots public coffers, is a church elder and belongs to an ethnic community but are unable to unpack a child who learns in mother tongue and can speak the national language (Kiswahili), the official language (English) and is a Kenyan citizen.

The still colonised should not come for me guns blazing. This is not about other languages: speak and master as many as you desire but start with your native language, then your national language and then all the others.

If you are one of those sad types whose children live in Kenya and walk around saying they speak only English or French or whatever, the colonisers left with your mind and you will have to retrieve it at your own expense.

Charity begins at home and the only true love is the one within you. It is what reflects as a mirror image out there!

More by this Author

By: Maskew Miller Longman Writing Workshops now on.

Date:  28 February 2018 (Cape Town) or 2 March 2018 (Johannesburg)

Venue:  4th Floor, Pearson Head office, ℅ Heerengracht and Hertzog Boulevard, Cape Town OR Protea Boardroom, Pearson Building, Pearson Institute of Higher Education44 Alsatian Road, Glen Austin, Extension 3, Midrand, Gauteng

Time:  08.30 for 09.00 – 16.00

For queries, please feel free to contact:  [email protected]

To find out more and receive competition updates, go to  Facebook MMLLitAwards

Find the application form here .

By: News: IBBY South Africa Announces Honour List Books ?

Posted on: february 16, 2018, the international board on books for young people (ibby) south africa section is proud to announce that six children’s books produced locally have been included on the  ibby international honour list  2018..

The IBBY Honour List is a biennial selection of outstanding, recently published books which celebrates writers, illustrators and translators from IBBY member countries. The IBBY Honour List is one of the central ways in which the organization furthers its objective of promoting children’s and youth literature at an international level.

The books on the Honour List will go on to be exhibited at conferences and book fairs around the world.

They will also form part of permanent collections in some of the biggest international youth libraries.

IBBY Honour List book covers

Books included on the list are representative of the best children’s literature in their country and are suitable for international publication.

Every year, nominations are submitted in the following categories;

• excellence in writing,
• translation or
• illustration.

Read more about the titles from South Africa that have been included on the list for 2018…

By: SCBWI Event – Writing for Television!

An Introduction by Natasje van Niekerk

Venue:  Lynnwood Glen, Pretoria

Date:  Monday 26 February 2018

Time:    10:00 –  14:30

Cost:  R100 SCBWI members, R200 non-members

… if you are a child at heart, or just really passionate about children’s writing and you would like to find out about writing for animated series or adapting a book for the screen, this workshop is for you.

You need to be open to NEW ideas, and NEW ways of doing things… if you are married to how you’ve always been writing, Natasje will frustrate the bejeezus out of you. In the words of Einstein, it’s about curiosity and a hunger for greatness.

  About the venue:

This event will be held in Lynnwood Glen, just off the N1 freeway. Once you’re on the freeway, it’s easy to find. Lifts can be arranged from Joburg or from Hatfield Gautrain station.

Natasje van Niekerk  started her career in the entertainment industry as an actress. Upon her return from the London circuit, she landed a job playing the puppet-girl, Thandi in the SABC children’s series,  Thabang Thabong , from whence acting became writing.

She soon started writing for  Generations , and continued the soap track with  Muvhango  and  Binnelanders . A selection of sitcoms ( Askies ,  Pottie Potgieter  and few unproduced ones for Kyknet), magazine programmes and drama series followed. Then  Magic Cellar  came along opened up the wonderful world of animated series, and provided an opportunity to be mentored by Clive Endersby, acclaimed Canadian story editor. 15 years in television later and Natasje has a list of children’s TV shows, international animated series and PSAs and many SAFTA nominations to her belt. She is most proud of her Aurora (International Award) for Best Comedy on a series called  Buzz  and  Bite .

Natasje was the head of the Script Department for Brave Creative Media and Executive Story Editor on three animated children’s Series –  Luminati, Fledglings  and  Fishpaste  for international release. In 2015 she started The Storyteller Pod, a one stop script shop, concept development hub and writing talent incubator.

Currently Natasje is Head of Script Department for MONDO TV (Italy) on  Siss i the Young Empress Season 3. She has just been nominated for Best Writing on a comedy for  Elke Skewe Pot .

By: Creating good study habits at home.

IOL –  PARENTING FEBRUARY 2018 , SE-ANNE RALL

Durban – A new school year has just begun and your child, hopefully, is beginning to settle down. To benefit optimally, pupils need a safe and nurturing learning environment both at school and at home.

Parents today can no longer afford to take a hands-off approach to their children’s education.

Helping your child develop good organisational skills in the foundation years, for example, is essential for success in later life.

Similarly, helping him to prioritise his homework, or break up larger assignments into smaller (more manageable) pieces, lessens the possibility of procrastination on his part.

And when he sees the relevance between what he learns in class and his life outside school, he’ll likely become a more motivated pupil.

It’s never too early (or too late) to help a pupil develop the skills for academic success. This is best done by integrating study skills in both daily lessons and homework sessions.

In my practice, I come across far too many pupils who study for hours, but achieve very little. Well-designed empirical studies show that children learn most effectively by being actively involved in the learning process through writing, speaking and experiencing the material they are required to master.

Learning based on understanding enables a pupil to remember material much longer and to recall it more easily.

Some suggestions for parents and teachers:

* Have a regular study routine after school.

* Help him get his time management right.

* Teach him to become better organised. Make his environment study friendly.

* Ensure that he is not over-involved in extracurricular activities, TV or video games.

* Provide incentives for improved school performance and withdraw privileges when test and exam marks drop significantly.

* Improve reading comprehension by teaching him to underline key words, using mind maps, spidergrams, flowcharts and other illustrations.

* Discourage your child from copying “chunks” when doing research tasks. Talk about the information together, highlight key facts and help your child to write these as brief notes.

* Determine whether he is mainly a visual or an auditory learner. Get him to use his stronger modality to his advantage.

* Protect his self-esteem. Avoid humiliating him when he performs poorly.

Some possible roadblocks to optimal learning that require attention:

* Subject material is too difficult.

* Doesn’t like the subject.

* Has poor foundational knowledge.

* Pace of teaching is too fast.

* Skips classes.

* Doesn’t like school.

* Can’t understand what the teacher says.

* Pupil doesn’t like teacher, or vice versa.

* Freezes under test conditions.

* Has homework-related problems.

* Wants to punish parents.

Some problems which may require professional help include the following:

* A lack of motivation to do well.

* Problems at home, at school or with peers (eg bullying).

* Emotional/behavioural problems.

* Learning disabilities.

* Below average intelligence.

* Depression and/or inadequate sleep.

Ramphal is an uMhlanga-based educational psychologist/career counsellor

Article from Daily News

By: How to engage readers who think books are boring…

Posted on: february 14, 2018.

How To Engage With ‘Aliterate’ Readers Author: Anne Cassidy Published 29 Jan 2018 

Aliterate readers are students who CAN read but don’t want to. To them, reading is boring and something they associate with schoolwork – so how can you win them over? Try these top tips from author  Anne Cassidy …

To some students, reading is too passive, with a book feeling like a long lecture. Teenagers want to do things, be part of conversations, to have some control, have a say. Sitting on your own, reading a book, is not usually the first thing these kids want to do.

There’s nothing wrong with studying books in class for exams; it’s necessary for the study of literature and about how language works. But private reading should be something different, and although it should be promoted by teachers and parents, it should never be likened to homework.

So, in order to get these students excited about reading, we have to promote it in a different way and make reading an active activity. Here’s how parents and teachers can make this happen:

Reading: dos and don’ts

• DO  get kids talking about the books they’ve read: in registration, in small book groups, in pairs in English lessons. Lots of noisy talk; describing, evaluating, recommending, dissing.
• DO  have book groups within form classes: sharing books, swapping books, having mini book awards. February’s winner is [anything by Anne Cassidy!]…
• DO  have a class library. Let students handle and look at books, and try to guess what they’re about. Have a book SPEED DATING event where students explain a book in ONE minute. See who wants to read it.
• DO  get kids to do a book swap with a family member. Stress that it doesn’t matter if you give up on each other’s books. Discuss why.
• DO  have fun with books. Every term, ask kids to donate books they don’t want. Sell them for 10p each for charity. Make it a fun lunchtime activity.
• DON’T  associate reading for pleasure with schoolwork – no tests or forced book reviews. Imagine how many books adults would read if they HAD TO WRITE about it afterwards.
• DON’T  tell students that reading books is GOOD for them. Cabbage and prunes are good for them but you’ll never get students to eat them.

Finally  – be upbeat about the books your students/children do read and not disappointed by the fact that they haven’t moved on to Dickens or Orwell.

I had a girl in one of my classes who read  Bad Girls  by Jacqueline Wilson over and over again. She was happy with it for a long time, until one day she asked me if there were any other books by that writer.

‘Funny you should ask’, I said…

Go to article.

Anne Cassidy is the author of over 40 novels for children and teenagers.

From the author of the critically acclaimed, LOOKING FOR JJ, shortlisted for the Whitbread Prize in 2004 and the Carnegie Medal in 2005, her latest novel  No Shame  (Hot Key Books) is out now.

By: International Love Stories perfect for Teen Readers

From  9 love stories for teen readers.

First love, forever love, and everything in between.

If first love, or love forever — here are some wonderfully intense love stories…

1. Life: An Exploded Diagram

Can love survive a lifetime? When working-class Clem Ackroyd falls for Frankie Mortimer, the gorgeous daughter of a wealthy local landowner, he has no hope that it can. After all, the world teeters on the brink of war, and bombs could rain down any minute over the bleak English countryside–just as they did seventeen years ago as his mother, pregnant with him, tended her garden. This time, Clem may not survive.

Buy book for R150.00 here.

2. Dying to Know You

By: Aidan Chambers

In this Cyrano de Bergerac-like novel, Karl, a teenage boy, enlists a famous writer to help him impress his girlfriend, Fiorella. She’s asked him to write her a letter in which he reveals his true self. Convinced he’s not good enough with words to please her, Karl tracks down Fiorella’s favourite author and pleads with him to take on the task. The writer reluctantly agrees on the condition that Karl submits to a series of interviews, so the letter will be based on authentic feeling. Through these lively, intelligent discussions, award-winning author Aidan Chambers creates an indelible portrait of a teenage boy discovering his own voice in the world and constructs a love story that is as much about the mind as the heart.

Buy book for R149 here.

3. Paper Towns

By: John Green

With his trademark brilliant wit and heart-stopping emotional honesty, the Printz Medal-winning author of “Looking for Alaska” returns with a novel about a teenage girl who has mysteriously vanished, and the boy who looks for her by following the clues she has left behind just for him.

Two-time Printz Medalist John Greenas New York Times bestseller, now in paperback!

Quentin Jacobsen has spent a lifetime loving the magnificently adventurous Margo Roth Spiegelman from afar. So when she cracks open a window and climbs back into his lifeadressed like a ninja and summoning him for an ingenious campaign of revengea he follows. After their all-nighter ends, and a new day breaks, Q arrives at school to discover that Margo, always an enigma, has now become a mystery. But Q soon learns that there are cluesa and theyare for him. Urged down a disconnected path, the closer he gets, the less Q sees the girl he thought he knew.

Buy book for R119 here.

5. Rich and Mad (eBook)

By: William Nicholson

Maddy Fisher has decided to fall in love. And not just any sort of love: can’t-eat can’t-sleep crazy in love. Rich Ross is after the same thing. He’s set his sights high. The problem is, in life’s messy whirlwind of friends and lies and sex and porn, the real thing can be hard to fine. But there’s always a first time for everything…

Buy book for R99 here.

6. The Sky is Everywhere

By: Jandy Nelson

Jandy Nelson’s beautiful, funny and heartfelt novel about grief, love and forgiveness. For fans of John Green, David Levithan and Rainbow Rowell.For fans of John Green, David Levithan and Rainbow Rowell, a novel from Jandy Nelson, the bestselling and award-winning author of I’ll Give You the Sun. Beautiful, funny and heartfelt, The Sky Is Everywhere is about love and forgiveness. Seventeen-year-old Lennie Walker spends her time tucked safely and happily in the shadow of her fiery older sister, Bailey. But when Bailey dies abruptly, Lennie is catapulted to centre stage of her own life – and suddenly finds herself struggling to balance two boys. One boy takes Lennie out of her sorrow; the other comforts her in it. But the two can’t collide without Lennie’s world exploding…

Buy book for R116 here.

7. If I Stay

By: Gayle Forman

NOW A MAJOR FILM STARRING CHLOE GRACE MORETZ

‘Just listen,’ Adam says with a voice that sounds like shrapnel.’  I open my eyes wide now. I sit up as much as I can. And I listen. ‘Stay,’ he says.

Everybody has to make choices.

Some might break you.

For seventeen-year-old Mia, surrounded by a wonderful family, friends and a gorgeous boyfriend decisions might seem tough, but they’re all about a future full of music and love, a future that’s brimming with hope.

But life can change in an instant.

A cold February morning . . . a snowy road . . . and suddenly all of Mia’s choices are gone. Except one.

As alone as she’ll ever be, Mia must make the most difficult choice of all.

Buy book for R139 here .

8. Noughts And Crosses

By: Malorie Blackman

Noughts and Crosses is about a black girl called Sephy and a white boy called Callum and their friendship in a world that’s divided by the colour of your skin – and how their feelings for each other grow as they grow older and grow up. As Malorie Blackman herself says: ‘I wanted to turn society as we know it on its head, with new names for the major divisions, ie Noughts (the underclass) and Crosses (the majority, ruling society). I wanted to see this new world through the eyes of the main two characters, Callum (a nought) and Sephy (a Cross).’

By: Julie Bertagna

The fifteenth anniversary edition of Exodus, a startling, thrilling novel set in a dystopian future ravaged by global warming It is 2099 – and the world is gradually drowning, as mighty Arctic ice floes melt, the seas rise and land disappears forever beneath storm-tossed waves. For fifteen-year-old Mara, her family and community, huddled on the fast-disappearing island of Wing, the new century brings flight. Packed into tiny boats, a terrifying journey begins to a bizarre city that rises into the sky, built on the drowned remains of the ancient city of Glasgow. But even here there is no safety and, shut out of the city, Mara realizes they are asylum-seekers in a world torn between high-tech wizardry and the most primitive injustice. To save her people, Mara must not only find a way into the city, but also search for a new land and a new home . . . This new edition celebrates the 15th Anniversary of Exodus featuring a new foreword from the author.

See the Puku Review here.

By: Interview with South African YA author, Sally Partridge.

Posted on: february 8, 2018.

Exclusive: Sally Partridge discusses her highly-anticipated fifth novel

By Mila de Villiers

The highly-anticipated fifth novel by award-winning local young adult author, Sally Partridge, is scheduled to hit shelves just in time for Valentine’s Day.

Mine  is the roller coaster love story of Finley September and Kayla Murphy, two teenagers trying to make sense of their lives in the mother city. In each other they find that all-for-nothing love they’ve been searching for – but also a sense of belonging. Until the ghosts from their past emerge to try and break them apart.

Cape Town novelist Sally Partridge is a three-time winner of the M. E. R. Prize for Best Youth Novel and has been honoured by IBBY International for her young adult fiction. In 2011, she was named one of Mail & Guardian’s 200 Young South Africans, awarded annually to notable South Africans under the age of 35.

Mine  is Partridge’s fifth novel for young adults.

The whimsical illustrated cover is reminiscent of international contemporary YA titles by authors like Rainbow Rowell and Nina LaCour and was designed by Cape Town-based illustrator Astrid Blumer .

Sally Partridge, author of Mine. © Warren Rasmussen

Not only does Blumer’s illustration succeed in bringing Fin and Kayla to life, but also cleverly highlights the comic book and music references featured throughout the contemporary novel.

Mine  will be available from all major retailers from 10 February 2018.

Here Partridge discusses female empowerment, why music and writing go hand in hand, the challenges she faced with writing a love story (it has to have some love in it!) and how she succeeds in creating authentic teenage characters:

In your acknowledgements you mention that the idea for the story first came to you when you had a scene in your head of a “girl with blue hair barreling down Buitenkant Street on her skateboard”, envisioning it as a teen superhero novel.   Why did you abandon the superhero angle, turning it into a “crazy love story”? The superhero angle relied heavily on a pair of siblings being central to the plot. I outlined the plot to a writer friend, who felt that siblings weren’t the right fit for the story, especially if it was going to be a series. It needed a love interest. This made total sense. And then the more I wrote, the more it became clear that this had to be a love story and not a superhero story at all. All the drama surrounding relationships completely took over. The book was always going to be about that original blue-haired girl feeling disempowered and finding her confidence. Only now it was more real. Her disempowerment came from being the outsider at a new school, where her desperate need for acceptance becomes a vulnerability the boys in her year are only too eager to take advantage of. Kayla finds her power, but it’s a power we all have to discover at some point, when the rose-tinted glasses we wear shatter after wave after wave of disappointment. Although it isn’t a superhero novel, elements of the superhero genre are present: Kayla is a big fan of comic books and Fin is a Norse mythology aficionado.  These interests aren’t exactly accepted/understood among their peers (people find it unusual that Kayla – as a teenage girl – is into comics and not many of Fin’s friends have heard of Thor the Norse God as opposed to Thor “the Avengers dude with a hammer”.)  Could you expand on their predilection for these mythical/conceived gods/heroes, and – in doing so – how they defy stereotypes? I love writing about antiheroes. Whether they’re geeks, goths or teens looking for trouble. Anyone who’s been to FanCon (run by Reader’s Den) will realise quite quickly that comics aren’t just for guys. Both DC and Marvel are writing incredible titles with all-female casts, and even local authors like Lauren Beukes, are writing comics. Saying comics aren’t for girls is like saying books aren’t for girls. It’s silly. Kayla is your average pop-culture fan – she loves Rick and Morty and comics and wears her geeky predilections like an armour – which reflects in her sense of humour. As for Fin, many people find strength in their spirituality, and he draws his courage from the strong gods in Norse mythology. He crafts a stage persona after Thor, the god of Thunder – and by slipping into this persona he’s able to do things he normally wouldn’t be comfortable doing – like going on stage in front of thousands of people. Music features prominently in your novel (Kayla is a classical flautist and operaphile, whereas Fin is a member of a rap band.)  What does music a) mean to you? and b) to Kayla and Fin?  Do you listen to similar genres as the protagonists?  And what’s it like writing rap lyrics?  Music is central to my creativity. It sets the mood, keeps me going. So really, writing and music go hand in hand. As for Kayla being an operaphile…. Continue reading here…

By: Mothertongue literacy ensures learning success.

Teach in first language, it’s the key to success

Masennya Dikotla  ( Molteno Institute for Language and Literacy NPC )

Congratulations to the Class of 2017 and their teachers for the job well done. To those who failed we say: failure is not fatal, rather it is the courage to continue that counts.

The results came at a time when we were still licking the wounds inflicted by the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (Pirls) 2016 report. According to the report, eight out of 10 children in grade 4 cannot read for meaning. South Africa scored last in reading out of the 50 countries assessed. This failure could seriously hamper the children’s performance when they get to matric.

It is tragic that most of the pupils who performed badly in the Pirls study wrote their tests in their mother tongue. We know that children learn through language, especially the one they understand, which is their mother tongue. If they begin school in a language they know well, the language they speak at home, they can understand what is being taught, and can learn to read and write.

In its 1953 report,  The Use of Vernacular Languages in Education , the Unesco Committee of Experts affirmed the centrality of mother-tongue instruction. But, when Unesco published the report, it was commonly thought, if children could have mother-tongue literacy and education for the first few years of school (one to three years) while also learning the international language of wider communication (ILWC) as a subject, they would develop sufficiently strong literacy skills to be able to switch from their mother tongue to the second-language medium by about grade 3 or 4.

Further research has shown us, by the end of the third year of school, most children in well-resourced African settings would have only a small fraction of the language skills in the ILWC/second language (in our case, English) that they need for learning across the curriculum. Most importantly, they would also not have mastered their first language to be able to master their subject matter.

The development of the type of literacy necessary for reading and writing about science, history and geography, or understanding problems in mathematics, becomes increasingly complex and difficult from the fourth year of school onwards. This is the case for most…

By: What are readers in Africa thinking?

The Puku Children’s Literature Foundation is a review site that aims to find out what Southern African readers think of the children’s books that are produced and sold locally.  As authors and their stories become increasingly more popular in Africa, this article and interview by BooksLIVE with Jennifer Malec,  editor of the   Johannesburg Review of Books , is more relevant than ever, but how does it affect those who read children’s books?

“We think it’s important that the world becomes more aware of what readers in Africa are thinking” – a Q&A with the Johannesburg Review of Books editor, Jennifer Malec

by Mila Jan 29th, 2018 

Originally published in the Sunday World: 28 January, 2018; Daily Dispatch: 29 January, 2018; Herald: 1 February, 2018. (Nal’ibali Column 3: Term 1).

The Johannesburg Review of Books was introduced to local (and international!) bibliophiles in May 2017. Carla Lever recently conducted an interview with editor, Jennifer Malec , discussing the impact of an African critical voice, why they don’t italicise South African languages in their stories, and how we can get more South Africans to start reading for pleasure:

What is The Johnnesburg Review of Books and how did it come about?

JRB is an independent monthly literary review based in Johannesburg. We publish reviews, essays, poetry, photographs and short fiction from South Africa, Africa and beyond. You can subscribe for free at  http://bit.ly/thejrbsubscribe .

There are many hugely respected reviews of books globally – the Paris or New York reviews spring to mind – but this is the first African city to claim a space. What kind of impact does the presence of an African critical voice have?

When a new ‘big’ international book is published, we know very quickly what the ‘big’ literary centres of the world think of it. But there is no city-based literary review in Africa, so we don’t hear the opinions of Lagos, Cairo, Kinshasa and so on. We think it’s important that the world becomes more aware of what readers in Africa are thinking.

What role do you see The JRB playing in global and African cultural debates?

In a global context we like to think we are writing back to centres of power as well as demonstrating the value of African voices.

You have an interesting editorial policy about not italicising South African languages in stories. Can you tell us a little about the thinking behind that?

In South Africa most people understand two if not three or four languages, so the question becomes, to whom are these words ‘foreign’? In South Africa, non-English words are not adding ‘flavour’, they are simply a demonstration of how we speak.

We want to give our writers and readers the opportunity to inhabit the story. And our philosophy is, if you don’t understand something, you can always ask. We’re readily available on  Facebook  and  Twitter , and on our website comment section.

What has reader response been like?

Very positive! It’s great to see…

Continue reading here….

If you have something you’d like to say in response to this article, please contact:

Puku’s Managing Editor : managingeditor @puku.co.za

Or alternatively send a message through on the Puku FB Page .

By: Should there be more autistic characters in children’s books?

Posted on: february 5, 2018.

Children’s stories and novels may well prepare families and communities for these types of experiences…but autistic characters in children’s books are few and far between.

It’s important that children read about characters who are different or maybe even more like them than they initially thought.

Shalini Vohra, Sheffield Hallam University

02 february 2018.

Children’s writer Michael Morpurgo has written a new novel inspired by his autistic grandson, which is set to be published later this year.   Flamingo Boy  is set in the Camargue in the south of France during World War II and features a boy who “sees the world differently”.

Morpurgo explained  how it didn’t occur to him to write a book about autism until his grandson was born, which isn’t totally surprising – as autistic characters in books are few and far between.

Fiction plays a significant role in  shaping how people understand and respond to autism . And in this way, books are often used by both schools and parents to help children and young people understand more about autism.

But the limited and skewed portrayal of autism means it is often misrepresented rather than represented in fiction. For an autistic child or young person this can be extremely isolating and they are  often unable to find a version  of “themselves” in a book.

The sad reality is many authors and publishers – perhaps from fear of causing offence – appear to steer clear of autistic characters in their narrative. As a consequence, books with autistic characters are either tucked away in the special section of bookshops and libraries, or absent altogether.

Writing together

My research  looks at the role fiction plays in creating awareness and acceptance of autism among children, as well as how the portrayal of autism in children’s books shapes how autism is understood and responded to.

As part of the research, I recently put on an interactive discussion at the Festival of Social Science around the topic of how autism is portrayed in children’s fiction.

The panel included Vicky Martin , writer of M is for autism and   M in the middle , and Amanda Lillywhite , writer and illustrator of picture books including   Friends , written for the Neuro Foundation which works to improve the lives of those affected by  neurofibromatosis  – a genetic condition caused by a mutation in one of their genes. On the panel was also Elaine Bousfield , founder of new publishing house  Zuntold . And the audience consisted of autistic children, young people and adults. As well as parents of autistic children, secondary school teachers, academics and the general public.

This is where books are written in collaboration with autistic children and young people – much like the M in the Middle series , which was authored by Martin, but written jointly with girls of Limpsfield Grange, a school for autistic girls.

By: Poetry helps readers to grasp the deeper meaning behind the words they write.

Why You Should Read and Write Poetry

Writing poetry will help you engage with your emotions in a smart way, and that will help you know yourself and understand others.

In this dull utilitarian age, there seems little less useful than poetry. What good is it? There are few who get rich writing or publishing poetry, and when it comes to practicality, it is practically good for nothing.

On second consideration, however, reading and writing poetry is extremely practical, and because our techno-utilitarian age is so focused on usefulness and economy, poetry is more vital than ever.

Where there is famine, food is precious.

So consider for a few moments the practicality of poetry. Reading and writing poetry is good for you. It’s good for your mind. It stretches your linguistic faculties in ways that pay off.

Here is why reading poetry is good for you:

First of all, poetry is emotional.

It engages that organ which is most underused in academia—the heart. Reading poetry is not simply about understanding the rhyme scheme of an Alexandrian sonnet or being able to write a paper on the theological conceits of the metaphysical poets. A poem is first and foremost an expression of emotion.

You have to engage your feelings when you read a poem or you haven’t read the poem.

This is important because academia wants you to be objective and scientific all the time. The poet proclaims, “Forget the science already! We want passion, not pie charts!”

While poetry engages your emotions it does so in a rational and structured way. Poetry is smart. It dances a formal dance around the emotions and engages them while also engaging your brain. Emotion on its own is mere sentimentality. Emotion in classical poetry fuses the intellect with emotion in a high and noble human experience.

On the simplest level it will widen out your vocabulary, but more importantly, it will widen out the way you think. Poetry takes your thinking processes outside the box. You are forced…

By: It’s World Read Aloud Day!

Posted on: february 1, 2018, world read aloud day 2018 is proudly sponsored by:.

World Read Aloud Day celebrates the importance of reading aloud and sharing stories.

Follow LitWorld on Facebook and Twitter, and #WorldReadAloudDay to stay up to date and join the conversation. Celebrate World Read Aloud Day by reading aloud and taking action on behalf of the 750 million people who lack basic reading and writing skills.

Around the world, people come together to join this global movement created by the international literacy nonprofit LitWorld, and proudly sponsored by Scholastic.

Visit litworld.org/wrad to register to participate, check out LitWorld’s free resources, and learn more!

Download the full World Read Aloud Day Event and Activity Packet as a PDF.

By: Nal’ibali highlights ‘World Read Aloud Day’ with local children’s author, Zukiswa Wanner.

Posted on: january 30, 2018.

Children’s book by Zukiswa Wanner is translated into all 11 official SA languages.

A children’s story by author Zukiswa Wanner has been translated into all 11 official South African languages for 2018 World Read Aloud Day, in a Nal’ibali initiative.

Since 2013, Nal’ibali, a national organisation that encourages reading for enjoyment, has invited South Africans to join in the global World Read Aloud Day campaign.

Wanner says:

As 2017 wound down, South Africa heard news that broke our collective hearts. A report by Progress in International Literacy Study (PIRLS) alerted us that, in case you missed it, 78 percent of South African fourth graders cannot read for meaning in any language. This, despite education being one of the ministries that consistently gets a bigger chunk of the national budget annually. So where are we going wrong? […] The aim this year is to have at least a million children participating in World Read Aloud Day. I ask all public figures, educators, parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins and all South Africans of goodwill, to take some time from their day on 1 February to commit to reading aloud to the children in their lives. Illiteracy will not end through taking part in the campaign, but it is a good way to start reducing it. More so, if those of us who take part in World Read Aloud Day commit to do it more frequently. Source: Nal’ibali

Wanner, who is based in Kenya, will be coming home for World Read Aloud Day on 1 February to read her story to 1,000 children….

Continue reading here…. 

To join Nal’ibali’s World Read Aloud Day celebration, visit  www.nalibali.org  or  www.nalibali.mobi , where you can download the special story and pledge the number of children to whom you will be reading it.

Share pictures of your read-aloud sessions on the campaign’s  Facebook  and  Twitter  feeds, using the hashtag #WRADChallenge2018, on the day.

Interview with Nal’ibali’s 2018 World Read Aloud Day author.

There is no doubt that Zukiswa Wanner is one of South Africa’s most talented authors and storytellers. Her debut novel, The Madam , was published in 2006 and since then Zukiswa has remained relevant and one of the most important voices of our time.

This year’s World Read Aloud Day story, ‘ The Final Minute ‘ was written by Zukiswa. She will also be the storyteller at the official World Read Aloud Day event taking place in Mofolo Stadium in Johannesburg on 1 February 2018.

So, what does Zukiswa think about the power of reading aloud to children?

1.  Do you think it’s important for children to be read to in a language they understand, such as their mother tongue?

Absolutely. I think the more languages children can speak, the more empowering it is. And of course mother tongue in particular helps them understand certain nuances pertaining to their selves.

2.  As a writer and novelist, do you think the literary landscape in South Africa currently embraces and promotes the writing and reading of books in a variety of South African languages?

Unfortunately not. And a lot of this has much to do with power relations in South Africa. While black people are running government, economy, including the publishing economy, is largely in non-black hands and those tend to have the dominant narrative. And the dominant narrative is that black people do not read OR buy books so therefore there is no need to make books in their languages available. Where books are available in other languages that are not English or Afrikaans, they are usually only ever used as coursework for schools or availed from direct orders to the publisher. As an example, my children’s book Refilwe has been translated into other languages beyond English and yet if one is lucky enough to find any copies of it in bookstores, it’s usually just the English version.

3. How did your love of reading and writing come about?

By: Forts & Fairies chats to children’s author of ‘ANGRY OWL’.

Blog by: Lisa Trollip Forts & Fairies

Kerryn Ponter is one such author, a local mom to three boys who has written  and  illustrated not one, but three children’s books. Her first two books,  Angry Owl  and  Angry Owl Goes Swimming , follow the adventures of Angry Owl. They are humourous, but also with a lesson to be learned, and feature beautiful illustrations. Her third book is titled  I Wonder Who? , and combines three things children love – animals, guessing, and asking questions. All three titles are available from bookstores and online retailers at very reasonable prices. Local is lekker, so be sure to support our South African authors!

Inspired after reading Kerryn’s three wonderful books, I wanted to find out more about where she gets her ideas from, how she balances being a mom and an author, and if she has any advice for readers who would like to write a book. Find out the answers to these questions and more in the interview below

What inspired you to write your first book?

I always had the idea to write children’s books in the back of my mind. Once I had become a stay-at-home mom, I decided that it would be nice to write a book for my boys who were two years old and two months old at the time. One rare afternoon when both of them were napping at the same time, I decided to use the time to start. My only intention initially was to write and illustrate one copy to read to them.

I ended up sending my story to a well-known publisher as a friend had mentioned that she had sent her story in. Much to my surprise they accepted it favourably and decided to publish it. Since then, I have been writing and illustrating on and off in between caring for my two eldest boys and their new baby brother. I’m currently working on my fourth and fifth children’s books.

You are also the illustrator of your books, do your children enjoy your characters and your illustrations?

Children are so honest so I always pitch my ideas to them first.

Thankfully they love Angry Owl . It’s often the first book they pull off the shelf. My middle son….

Continue reading.

By: Celebrate World Read Aloud Day.

Posted on: january 29, 2018.

This February 1st, 2018, read aloud. Change the World!

According to Scholastic.com , every year, World Read Aloud Day calls attention to the importance of sharing stories by challenging participants to grab a book, find an audience, and read out loud!

Created in 2010 by LitWorld ( LitWorld.org ), a nonprofit that encourages self-empowerment and community change through literacy, World Read Aloud Day now reaches millions of people in more than 100 countries.

LitWorld think everyone in the world should get to read and write, and we agree.  So, on World Read Aloud Day, people all around the globe read aloud together and share stories to advocate for literacy as a human right that belongs to all people.

Here’s why that’s important:

Global Literacy Statistics

• Reading aloud to children every day puts them almost a year ahead of children who do not receive daily read aloud reading, regardless of parental income, education level or cultural background. (Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research)
• According to the latest report (2016), 758 million adults – two thirds of them women – lack basic reading and writing skills. (UNESCO) o Since 1985, the female adult literacy rate has risen 15%, which is about double the growth of the male literacy rate in the same time period. (UNESCO)
• Young people in Africa and Asia are much more likely to be literate than 50 years ago. In Northern Africa, youth literacy rate (91%) is almost three times as high as the elderly literacy rate (32%). (UNESCO)
• Even though the size of the global illiterate population is shrinking, the female proportion has remained virtually steady at 63 to 64%. (UNESCO)
• Among the youth population, female literacy rates have been rising quickly.  Nonetheless, three out of five youths lacking basic reading and writing skills are young women. (UNESCO)
• If all children in low-income countries left school literate, 171 million people could move out of poverty. (World Literacy Foundation)
• Poorly-literate individuals are less likely to participate in democratic processes and have fewer chances to fully exercise their civil rights (UNESCO)
• A child born to a mother who can read is 50% more likely to survive past the age of five than a child born to an illiterate woman. (UNESCO)
• A literate and educated girl is three times less likely to acquire AIDS, she will earn at least 25% more income, and she will produce a smaller, healthier family. (UNESCO)
• Illiterate people earn 30-42% less than their literate counterparts.  (World Literacy Foundation) UNESCO: United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization

Will you take part?

By: Call out for a South African ‘Multicultural Children’s Book Day’.

Posted on: january 27, 2018.

We Need A Multicultural Children’s Book Day In South Africa

Author:  Patricia Furstenberg

Five years ago in 2014, teachers and educators from  Jump Into A Book  and  PragmaticMom  presented their very first January 27 Multicultural Children’s Book Day as a way of celebrating diversity in children’s books.

Our mission is to not only raise awareness for the kid’s books that celebrate diversity, but to get more of these of books into classrooms and libraries.

Thanks to their sponsors, book review bloggers and thousands of readers, Multicultural Children’s Book Day 2014 achieved its goal of highlighting all of the amazing multicultural children’s books available to young readers, teachers, librarians and parents worldwide.

• Books that contain characters of colour, as well as characters that represent a minority point of view;
• Books that share ideas, stories, and information about cultures, race, religion, language, and traditions;
• Books that embrace our world and offer children new ways to connect to a diverse and richer world.

Our total social media shares for three days of our 2017 event (on the day before, day of and day after Multicultural Children’s Book Day) were an astounding  3.6-billion !

Continue reading and see the great list of local books to get kids started…

By: The success story of renowned children’s author, Sindiwe Magona.

Posted on: january 26, 2018.

Article: Beautiful News January 24, 2018

Sindiwe Magona’s life is testament to what happens when dreams meet persistence.

Now a writer and acclaimed storyteller, Magona grew up in Gugulethu as the eldest of eight children. She never completed matric, and fell pregnant at the age of 19. Magona was allowed to teach, as the bantu school system deprioritised the teaching of black learners, but lost her job after her third pregnancy when she was 23. During this time, her husband left her. With three children to take care of and an incomplete education, it didn’t seem like Magona would go far. But still she dreamed, bigger than her circumstances and bigger than her qualifications. Then she turned those big ideas into big plans.

“ There is always opportunity to redress anything that goes wrong ,” she says. “ Life, until you die, never reaches a point of utter hopelessness .” Continue reading and view video here .

By: Study shows that the villains in children’s books are almost always male.

Posted on: january 21, 2018.

Must monsters always be male? Huge gender bias revealed in children’s books

A thieving duck in Peppa Pig is one of the few female villains in the 100 most popular picture books. An  Observer  study shows that, from hares to bears, females are mostly sidekicks.

Article by: Donna Ferguson

Male characters are twice as likely to take leading roles in children’s picture books and are given far more speaking parts than females, according to  Observer  research that shines a spotlight on the casual sexism apparently inherent in young children’s reading material.

In-depth analysis of the 100 most popular children’s picture books of 2017, carried out by this paper with market research company Nielsen, reveals the majority are dominated by male characters, often in stereotypically masculine roles, while female characters are missing from a fifth of the books ranked.

The 2017 bestseller list includes perennial favourites  The Gruffalo ,  Guess How Much I Love You  and  Dear Zoo , in which all the animals are referred to by a male pronoun, as if by default. This approach to gender is equally present in more recently published bestsellers such as  You Can’t Take An Elephant on the Bus ,  The Lion Inside ,  Supertato ,  The Day The Crayons Came Home, The Lost Words, The Koala Who Could  and  There’s A Monster in Your Book  – none of which contain any female characters.

The lead characters were 50% more likely to be male than female, and male villains were eight times more likely to appear compared to female villains. Only one book,  Peppa and her Golden Boots , portrayed a sole female villain, acting alone: a duck who steals Peppa Pig’s boots and takes them to the moon. Over the course of each book, the characters who got an opportunity to speak were 50% more likely to be male than female, and male characters outnumbered female characters in almost half the stories that made it into the top 100.

Twice as many of the characters who were given a speaking part and a main role in the story were male – and, on average, there were three male characters present in each story for every two females featured. Sometimes this ratio can be far higher;  Mr Men in London , for example, has 13 male characters and just two female. It was published in 2015.

“ The research doesn’t surprise me ,” said children’s laureate Lauren Child , author and illustrator of the Charlie and Lola picture books.

By: Picture books without text, improve young brain development.

Posted on: january 19, 2018.

Article by:

A New Year’s Eve  article at the  Washington Post  cited a new brain study that suggested “the type of book you read to your baby is important.”

Reading, the study authors argue, can support brain development.

Still, it’s not really clear from the article whether it’s the  reading  matters or the conversations parents have with their children around books.

The reason for that, the  WaPo  suggests, isn’t that  Corduroy  has some magic that  Goodnight Moon  doesn’t. It may well be that parents talk more with their children about the bear missing a button, and they just read  Goodnight Moon  exactly as written, in hopes it will lull their baby to sleep.

In this case, it’s wordless books that would be best for brain development.

A new campaign  from the publisher Tiny Owl celebrates the importance and beauty of wordless books.

Of course, as the  WaPo  notes, babies are individuals, just like us, and they deserve books that fit their own particular tastes. Still, here are five great wordless book recommendation from my kids, for yours:

5 WORDLESS PICTURE BOOKS THAT INSPIRE STORYTELLING

Previous articles.

Picture books with no words help parents and children read.

By Dr Alec Basson

21 April 2017

In South Africa we largely overlook the potential of wordless picture books to help promote a culture of reading and to improve literacy, especially among parents and their pre-school children in poor communities.

“ This is despite international studies which have shown that wordless picture books are an ideal tool to nurture a fondness for reading in adults and children and to promote literacy development at an early age ,” says Dr Adrie le Roux an illustrator from Pretoria.

Le Roux recently obtained her doctorate in Visual Arts at Stellenbosch University focusing on the production of culturally relevant, economically viable wordless picture books to encourage a love of reading in the home, regardless of literacy levels of the parent.

She says her research highlighted the potential of wordless picture books to improve the reading relationship between parents and children in poor communities and to help children read and understand what they read.

As part of her study, Le Roux ran a 4 to 6 week reading and book creation project for 42 parents/primary caregivers and their children (between 3 and 6 years) at three crèches in Mamelodi, Shoshanguve and the Melutsi Township in Gauteng.

Many people in these areas don’t have money to buy books and many children are not exposed to books before they go to school.

Prior to the project, Le Roux held a workshop at the first two crèches where she and two facilitators from  Nali’Bali,  a national reading-for-enjoyment campaign, collected the stories participants told about their everyday lives. At these crèches, she used existing wordless picture books for reading.

She says participants were asked to document their stories through drawing and writing. “ While the children were busy creating illustrations, their parents or primary caregivers would ask them questions and document these stories. The parents would then elaborate on what their child was saying and sometimes also added to the drawings to help describe the story .”

Le Roux, the parents and their children, as wells as five illustrators co-authored 18 prototype wordless picture books at the two workshops and parents could take copies home to read with their children. She mentions that these books were pilot tested at the third crèche to see how they would work in a different setting. Here Le Roux used these books for reading and not existing wordless picture books as was the case at the first two crèches.

By allowing them to take the books home, Le Roux says she was able to determine the perceptions of the parents or primary caregivers and children regarding the value of using these books.

Le Roux says that because of the visual nature of wordless picture books there was a transformation in the reading relationship between parents and children and in the way parents viewed reading with their child.

“In some instances…”

continue reading here…

By: Are fairytales harmful and should they be banned?

Posted on: january 17, 2018.

The Conversation.com

Article by: Michelle Smith

Recently, an English mother, Sarah Hall, prompted  worldwide media coverage  in response to her suggestion that Sleeping Beauty should be removed from the school curriculum for young children because of the “inappropriate sexual message” it sends about consent.

It’s not the only time fairytales have come under scrutiny recently. They are increasingly being  targeted  for “banning” within schools or avoidance by parents because of their perceived sexism, passive princesses, and reinforcement of marriage as girls’ ultimate goal. But can fairy tales actually be harmful as their critics believe?

Fairy tales were once told – and then written – by adults for adult audiences. Early versions of many tales were often bawdy, salacious and replete with sexual innuendo. Since the Grimm Brothers removed these elements to reconfigure the fairy tale for children in the early 19th century, fairy tales have been seen as ideal, imaginative stories for young people. Almost all of us know the most popular stories from childhood reading or Disney films.

Tradition is not reason enough to continue a cultural practice that has become outmoded. Nevertheless, there are a range of reasons why these calls to restrict children from reading fairy tales such as Sleeping Beauty are misguided.

Children’s literature needn’t model ‘ideal’ behaviour

Initially, most children’s literature was didactic and preoccupied with instructing children in correct morals and drilling them with information.

Adult readers today would struggle to find any pleasure in children’s literature prior to 1850, let alone today’s kids. In order to provide “delight” as well as “instruction”, children’s books represent a range of behaviour, including, in the case of fairy tales, the attempted murder of children, and punishments such as feet being severed and birds pecking out human eyes.

Charles Perrault was the French author who added the famous motifs of the glass slipper and pumpkin coach to the Cinderella tale. In his version of Sleeping Beauty, after the Princess and the Prince marry in secret and have two children, the Prince’s mother is entirely unimpressed. Unsurprisingly within a fairy tale…

By: Puku Wishes All Readers A Festive Holiday Season!

Posted on: december 21, 2017.

To all the supporters and sponsors of the Puku Children’s Literature Foundation, we wish you a joyful holiday season.

May Africa’s own children stories continue to light the way forward into 2018 and may the gifts we give, always be books.

By: Brain Picking’s loveliest children’s books of 2017.

Posted on: december 19, 2017.

Profound and poetic illustrated celebrations of solitude, self-possession, friendship, and our place in the cosmos.

BY MARIA POPOVA

“Anyone who writes down to children is simply wasting his time,”   Charlotte’s Web  author E.B. White asserted.  “You have to write up, not down.”  A generation later, Maurice Sendak scoffed in  his final interview :  “I don’t write for children. I write — and somebody says, ‘That’s for children!’”  Indeed, great children’s books — the timeless kind, which lodge themselves in the marrow of one’s being and seed into the young psyche ideas that bloom again and again throughout a lifetime — radiate a beauty and profundity transcending age. They are books for all of us and for all time.

Here are seven such books published or republished in 2017, to complement  the year’s great science books .

BIG WOLF & LITTLE WOLF

But every once in a while, we encounter another such creature who reminds us with the sweetness of persistent yet undemanding affection that we need not walk alone.

Such a reminder radiates with uncommon tenderness from  Big Wolf & Little Wolf ( public library ) by French author  Nadine Brun-Cosme  and illustrator  Olivier Tallec , originally published in 2009 and reissued in 2017. With great subtlety and sensitivity, the story invites a meditation on loneliness, the meaning of solidarity, the relationship between the ego and the capacity for love, and the little tendrils of care that become the armature of friendship.

We meet Big Wolf during one of his customary afternoon stretches under a tree he has long considered his own, atop a hill he has claimed for himself. But this is no ordinary day — Big Wolf spots a new presence perched on the horizon, a tiny blue figure, “no bigger than a dot.”

With that all too human tendency to project onto the unknown our innermost fears, Big Wolf is chilled by the terrifying possibility that the newcomer might be bigger than he is.

But as the newcomer approaches, he turns out to be Little Wolf.

Big Wolf saw that he was small and felt reassured. He let Little Wolf climb right up to his tree.

“It is a sign of great inner insecurity to be hostile to the unfamiliar,”  Anaïs Nin  wrote , and it is precisely the stark contrast between Big Wolf’s towering stature and his vulnerable insecurity that lends the story its loveliness and profundity.

At first, the two wolves observe one another silently out of the corner of their eyes. His fear cooled by the smallness and timidity of his visitor, Big Wolf begins to regard him with unsuspicious curiosity that slowly warms into cautious affection. We watch Big Wolf as he … continue reading

By: Soweto Book Festival Is A Literary Mix Of Love And Magic

Posted on: december 18, 2017, abantu remains a gift that keeps on giving ..

By:  Zimkhitha Mathunjwa

The magic of Abantu Book Festival is palpable at the Eyethu Lifestyle Centre in Soweto. It’s not just a socially inclusive space where friends can catch up in-between workshops and stalls; it’s a literary feast with all our wordsmith faves and radio personalities who are on hand to share their wisdom.

The festival not only ensures that all the book lovers get to hang with their fave paperbacks, but that the children are also taken care of and have their own programme running simultaneously to the adult sessions or workshops.

The youth is kept entertained and they are made to feel just as much a part of the festival as anyone else present. The interactive sessions with the children are intellectually stimulating and affirming. The children’s programme is particularly important in light of the Progress in International Reading and Literacy Study released on December 5…. continue reading

By: NB-Uitgewers are celebrating author Louise Smit and Haas Das!

In January 2018, NB Publishers are highlighting two very special events:

as well-known author, Louise Smit , celebrates her 78 th  birthday, while one of her most loved characters, Haas Das , is celebrating his 42 nd  anniversary!

On 5 January 1976 television was introduced to South Africa for the first time.  Just a day later, on 6 January 1976, Haas Das made his first television debut.

• Haas Das was part of the very first television programme in South Africa
• Haas Das was officially the very first newsreader in South Africa
• “Haas Das se Nuuskas” was the longest running television programme in South African history
• 42 years later, Haas Das is still one of the most famous and loved characters in Afrikaans

Watch these links to some of the first broadcasts on SA TV:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWzHFQeJZQY

https://mybroadband.co.za/news/broadcasting/151635-watch-the-first-ever-sabc-tv-broadcast-in-south-africa.html

See an interview with author, Louise Smit, about Haas Das:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFFcT3LBtnE

Find books here.

By: Abantu Book Festival, December 2017, saw the children flock in.

The Abantu Book Festival has become an annual pilgrimage for black writers and is held in Soweto, Johannesburg.

In 2015, novelist Thando Mgqolozana imagined a healing space for black readers and writers, and in 2016 with the help of novelist Panashe Chigumadzi as Programme Curator the inaugural Abantu Book Festival, of which Mgqolozana is founder and director, took place in Soweto. It was a roaring success.

The South African Book Fair  writes: Now in its second year, the Abantu Book Festival is set to become an annual pilgrimage for black writers and readers held in Soweto to celebrate the rich and diverse literary heritage emerging from the African continent.

“ While the book remains the central medium of the festival, we have poetry and musical performances, writing and publishing workshops, panel discussions and in-conversations, as well as film-screening woven into the mix .”

The best poets, novelists, playwrights, biographers, literary scholars, musicians, actors, activists, thinkers, and readers from as far as can be imagined, will take over the historic location of SOWETO and make it a literary village…

But this time around, Johannesburg saw the children arrive in droves, making the event a family affair.  See Puku’s Facebook page for more photos of the event.

Renowned South African author and storyteller, Sindiwe Magona, delights young audiences at the Abantu Book Festival, December 2017.

Children flock to hear storyteller Gcina Mhlophe at the Abantu Book Festival, December 2017.

By: Exciting new isiZulu and Sesotho books out now!

Posted on: december 15, 2017.

Sanlam Prize for Youth Literature winners publish exciting new isiZulu and Sesotho books

Nal’ibali Column 18: Term 14, as published in the Sunday World (26 November 2017), Daily Dispatch (27 November 2017) and Herald (30 November 2017)

How hard is it to write a 25 000 word story – one that’s compelling and exciting to young people?

Ask Lebohang Pheko and Dumisani Hlatswayo . They’ve just been awarded prizes in the Sanlam Prize for Youth Literature. Along with four other authors writing in English and Afrikaans, their winning books – Pheko’s in Sesotho and Hlatswayo’s in isiZulu – are published and available for purchase both online ( takealot.com ) and in selected bookstores nation-wide.

Lebohang Pheko, author of Mamello

“ It took me almost a year, including the editing of the manuscript going forth and back from Tafelberg publishers ,” said Lebohang Pheko of her book,  Mamello . For Dumisani Hlatswayo, writing had to happen after hours when he came back from his copywriting job. “ This one took me 2 months to research, another 2 months to write the first draft and one month to edit .”

The discipline and time commitment proved worth it: their books for young people join the ranks of new South African stories that the competition has published since it began in 1980.

If there’s been a big story to this year’s award, it’s been one of success. With an increase of 60 submissions from previous numbers, there were record competition entries in 2017. Sponsors Sanlam generously matched this with increased prize money for the winners: R20 000 for Gold award and R10 000 for Silver.

There was more good news for language activists: entries were strong across all three categories, with 55 English, 46 Indigenous language and 33 Afrikaans submissions.

Dumisani Hlatswayo, author of Imibala Yothando

“ There can be few more worthwhile endeavors than enabling young people to read books reflecting their own realities in their own language ,” said Eloise Wessels , managing director of Media24 Books, of which NB Publishers and Tafelberg form part. Wessels added that mother tongue stories “play a key role in promoting literacy and a love for books, bringing lifelong rewards.”

Thirty-seven year old Gold Award winner, Dumisani Hlatswayo, was born in Soweto… continue reading

By: Literacy survey reveals 80% of Grade 4 students can’t read, Times LIVE

Posted on: december 5, 2017.

05 December 2017

Almost four in five Grade 4 pupils fall below the lowest internationally recognised level of reading literacy‚ and South Africa is last out of 50 countries in the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (Pirls).

According to the 2016 report‚ released on Tuesday‚ there has been no significant progress in improving children’s reading skills since the last survey five years earlier.

“ Being able to read is the key to academic and future success ‚” said Celeste Combrinck ‚ acting director at the University of Pretoria Centre for Evaluation and Assessment‚ which conducted the South African leg of Pirls.

“ If you can’t read‚ your opportunities in school or after school will be limited‚ which is why reading should start at a very young age .”

But Combrinck said there was a glimmer of hope…

Continue reading

ARTICLE BY DAVE CHAMBERS

For further reading:

The Mail & Guardian’s article, ‘Literacy must start at infancy’

IOL’s article, ‘Reading the right books at the right time is best for baby’s development’

Sunday Times BooksLIVE article, ‘ 78% of grade four learners in SA cannot read for meaning. Read the managing director at Nal’ibali’s response on solving the country’s illiteracy crisis’

By: Supernova Magazine’s December Holiday Giveaways!

Posted on: december 2, 2017.

The Supernova team are getting right into the spirit of giving this festive season with their December holiday giveaway!

All new subscribers receive a FREE copy of a previous issue of  Supernova  for every day of the month! Keep an eye out on the  Facebook  page to see which issue is up for grabs if you  subscribe  and check out the daily activities for readers!

Supernova Magazine are kicking off all giveaways with the chance for new subscribers to receive the FIRST ISSUE EVER of  Supernova  magazine ! Make sure you get this fantastic collectable item by simply  subscribing  to the Supernova Magazine!

Read about the culture of the Māori people and dig up the dark secrets of ancient and modern day pirates in the very  first issue  of  Supernova  magazine as well as reading about:

All you need to do to get your hands on this collectable item is subscribe!

New Supernova out this month:

Coming soon take a glimpse at issue 7.2:.

Have you ever wanted to be in more than one place at the same time? The latest  Supernova  can put you in seven places at once! Travel to the 7 wonders of the Ancient World, like The Hanging Gardens of Babylon, the Statue of Zeus at Olympia and many more, to learn cool facts about when and why they were made and if they still exist today.

By: Winner of National Book Award for Young People’s Literature, 2017, announced.

Posted on: november 27, 2017.

The 68th National Book Awards were held on November 15th in New York City, honoring outstanding books in the categories of Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, and Literature for Children.

This year, the winner of the Literature for Children prize went to  Robin Benway ’s young adult novel  Far From the Tree  (Harper Teen). The novel tells the story of three siblings separated at birth who find each other as teens.

It was selected from a stellar short list of young adult titles that included  What Girls Are Made Of  by SCBWI member  Elena K. Arnold  (Carolrhoda Lab / Lerner Publishing Group),  I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter  by  Erika L. Sanchez  (Alfred A. Knopf Books for Young Readers),  American Street  by  Ibi Zoboi  (Balzer + Bray / HarperCollins), and  Clayton Byrd Goes Underground  by SCBWI member  Rita Williams-Garcia  (Amistad / HarperCollins).

Upon accepting the award, Benway thanked her fellow finalists, saying

“ Your books have just been so beautiful, and to see my title amongst yours is something I don’t think I’ve quite understood yet .” She added, “ Creativity is not inspiration. It’s not that bolt of lightning. It’s about getting up and making the coffee and finding the room that bolt of lightning lit for just one moment .”

Prestigious literary prizes like the National Book Awards go a long way in bringing attention to outstanding children’s literature.

Visit  www.nationalbook.org  to see the full list of winners.

By: SCBWI End-of-Year Event

Venue:  Johannesburg (address in Craighall Park to be sent to respondents)

Date:  Tuesday 28 November 2017

Time:   12:00 – 14:30

Cost:  None (Participants to bring a plate of eats to share for lunch)

Relax among friends and chat about books. We will exchange gifts, i.e. children’s books published in South Africa in 2017.

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By: This year’s Sanlam Awards, celebrate the best in SA Youth Literature

Posted on: november 21, 2017.

Sanlam and Tafelberg, an imprint of NB Publishers, are proud to announce the winners of the 2017 Sanlam Prizes for Youth Literature, recognizing the rich diversity and talent in local youth literature.

The prizes, awarded for new manuscripts, were announced in Johannesburg on 7 November 2017. The prizes were handed over by Lebogang Monyatsi , head of group market development & stake holder relations at Sanlam, and Eloise Wessels , managing director of Media24 Books, of which NB Publishers and Tafelberg form part.

“ We are privileged and proud to be part of this enormously important initiative by Sanlam to develop new writing talent and create quality literature for young adult readers in all our official languages ,” says Eloise Wessels.

“ There can be few more worthwhile endeavors than enabling young people to read books reflecting their own realities in their own language. It also plays a key role in promoting literacy and a love for books, bringing lifelong rewards .”

Held at Exclusive Books in Hyde Park, Johannesburg, the prize-giving was a youthful affair, with extracts from the winning titles read by learners from St Mary’s School, Waverley , and performances by the Amazwi choir from St Stithians Girls’ College . The prize-giving was also attended by principals of Sanlam Blue Ladder schools , which each received copies of the winning titles.

A record number of 134 entries were received in the three categories – English (55 entries), African languages (46 entries in eight languages) and Afrikaans (33 entries) – with two winners (gold and silver) chosen in each category. Prize money totaling R90 000 was awarded, with Sanlam increasing the prize amounts to R20 000 for gold and R10 000 for silver in each category.

The eclectic range of winning titles includes stories of abuse, cyber bullying, the disintegration of families, post-apocalyptic survival and forbidden love, and reflects issues young people of today grapple and can identify with.

The 2017 winners are:

Author Lesley Beake wins gold for Hap .

• Lesley Beake won gold for Hap , described by the judges as “a well-structured and beautifully written coming-of-age story”.

In it, a troubled teenager travels from New York to South Africa to spend time with her father on an archaeological site, where she identifies with the fossil of a young woman whom she names Hap. Lesley Beake lives in Stanford.

Author Jayne Bauling wins silver for New Keepers .

• Jayne Bauling won silver for New Keepers , which, according to the judges, “has the feel of a Lauren Beukes novel crossed with Hunger Games”.

Set in a post-apocalyptic future, it follows a boy who advertises a trip into the Wildlands for those seeking adventure.

In 2013, Bauling won gold for Dreaming of Light . Jayne Bauling lives in White River.

African Languages

Author Dumisani Hlatswayo wins gold for  Imibala Yothando.

• Gold went to isiZulu writer Dumisani Hlatswayo for Imibala Yothando (“The Colours of Love”), described as “a riveting tale of love, betrayal, jealousy and growing up in the social media era”.

It centres on Sinenhlanhla, who is sent to a new school in Soweto, where she falls prey to a cyber bully. Dumisani Hlatswayo lives in Somerset East.

Author Lebohang Pheko wins silver for  Mamello (Sesotho).

• Debut author Lebohang Pheko won silver for Mamello (Sesotho), a “perfect tale of overcoming adversity”, with the power of education and forgiveness as key themes.

Its main character, Mamello, is a young girl who is not allowed to attend school, but dreams of becoming a human rights lawyer. Lebohang Pheko lives in Virginia.

Carin Krahtz wins gold for  Blou is nie ’n kleur nie.

• Carin Krahtz , author of the much lauded Elton April youth novels, won gold for Blou is nie ’n kleur nie , a story about the disintegration of a dysfunctional suburban family, as told from the perspective of 16-year-old Vicky.

The judges called this a universal, gut-wrenching tale tempered with witty dialogue and humour. Carin Krahtz lives in Centurion.

Author Jan Vermeulen wins silver for  Soen.

• Jan Vermeulen won silver for Soen , “a page-turner with countless twists and turns” about a popular and gifted head boy whose unhealthy obsession with a young teacher nearly costs him his life.

In 2002, Vermeulen won gold for Geraamtes dra nie klere nie . Jan Vermeulen lives in Dispatch.

The winning manuscripts were developed and are published by Tafelberg and will be available in both print and e-book format. Manuscripts were judged anonymously so that debut writers were able to compete on an equal footing with established authors.

Call to entry Entries for the 2019 Sanlam Prizes for Youth Literature are now open. Entry forms are available at www.nb.co.za and the closing date is 5 October 2019.

Photographs of this event can be seen in the NB Publisher’s  Albums  and on Puku’s Facebook page. The Sanlam Prize for Youth Literature 2017

By: Durban is named Literary Capital of Africa.

Posted on: november 14, 2017.

Durban Has Finally Been Recognised As A Unesco World City Of Literature Huffington Post South Africa By  Garreth Van Niekerk

Photo: Thanks to Brittle Paper

Durban – the home of literary greats like Alan Paton , Imraan Coovadia , Gcina Mhlophe , Bessie Head and Mazisi Kunene (the first poet laureate in South Africa) – has finally been recognised for its literary contribution to the African continent, and the globe.

Unesco has designated the coastal city as an officially recognised — and now protected — Unesco World City of Literature, the first city on the African continent to be designated with the prestigious title.

“ This is big. In a sense it means that Durban becomes the literary capital of Africa, the literary gateway to Africa. Everything that the city plans from now, literature must be at its heart. It must define the city ,”  says   Darryl David , former head of Afrikaans at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, who headed Durban’s bid for Unesco City of Literature status.

Durban’s recognition is part of Unesco’s  Creative Cities Network  programme, which intends to “promote the social, economic and cultural development of cities in both the developed and the developing world,” it says.

Now, the city needs to… continue reading.

By: Exciting books to carry on the thrills of Halloween…

Posted on: november 9, 2017, skeleton tree.

By:  Kim Ventrella Illustrated by:  Victoria Assanelli ISBN: 9781509828678 Publisher: Macmillan Children’s Books Age: 8 – 12 years

When Stanley Stanwright finds a bone poking out of the earth in his back garden, he is determined to take a picture of it and send it to the Young Discoverer’s Competition, thinking it will help bring his dad back home. But the bone begins to grow, reaching up out of the ground until it turns into a skeleton – a skeleton with an unusual interest in his unwell younger sister Miren.

As time wears on, Miren’s condition worsens, and the only time she is truly at peace is when she is playing with the skeleton. But Stanley is wary of him, especially when he finally manages to get a picture, and spots a scythe at the skeleton’s feet. . .

A whimsical, heartfelt story about a boy who finds a friend in Death with the help of an unusual tree growing in his back garden. With black line illustrations throughout by Victoria Assanelli .

“… this book was so beautiful and heartbreaking. It may be a children’s book but it’s definitely a book that can be enjoyed by adults and teens too …” — Sarah, GoodReads

Buy this book here.

Flame Of Truth

By Bontle Senne ISBN: 9781928346555 Publisher: Cover2Cover Books Age: 7+

Only the Shadow Chasers, with their magical knives, can save the world from the evil that lives in the dreamworld. The powerful Oyo has a Shadow Chasers knife … and only the cleverest and bravest can withstand the Flame of Truth to win it back from her. With the guidance of Zulaika, a helpful ghost, Nom, Zithembe and Rosy travel through the unknown terrors of the dreamworld to find Oyo and regain the knife.

Flame of Truth  is the third in the Shadow Chasers series, an Afrocentric fantasy adventure for pre-teens (9 to 12 year olds.)

“ Scary riveting fun! Escape in this magical and modern South African fantasy .” – Nonikiwe Mashologu, childhood literacy specialist

“ I love the book because it’s scary and cool. Nom is a very brave girl .” – Gugulethu Machin, tween reader

  How to Make Friends with a Ghost

by  Rebecca Green   (Author) ISBN: 9781101919019 Publisher:  Penguin Random House Age: 4 – 8 years

What do you do when you meet a ghost?

One: Provide the ghost with some of its favorite snacks, like mud tarts and earwax truffles. Two: Tell your ghost bedtime stories (ghosts love to be read to). Three: Make sure no one mistakes your ghost for whipped cream or a marshmallow when you aren’t looking! If you follow these few simple steps and the rest of the essential tips in  How to Make Friends with a Ghost , you’ll see how a ghost friend will lovingly grow up and grow old with you.

A whimsical story about ghost care, Rebecca Green’s debut picture book is a perfect combination of offbeat humor, quirky and sweet illustrations, and the timeless theme of friendship.

“ This charming ghost story warms the heart… a heartfelt lesson in kindness and caring, qualities essential to creating ‘lifelong (and beyond) friendships .” — Booklist

The Jumbies

by  Tracey Baptiste   (Author) ISBN: 9781616205928 Publisher:  Algonquin Young Readers Age: 9 – 12 years

When Corinne spots a beautiful stranger at the market the very next day, she knows something extraordinary is about to happen. When this same beauty, called Severine, turns up at Corinne’s house, danger is in the air. Severine plans to claim the entire island for the jumbies. Corinne must call on her courage and her friends and learn to use ancient magic she didn’t know she possessed to stop Severine and to save her island home.

“ A scary but cheerful tale that draws on Caribbean folk traditions. A great update on the ‘town under supernatural attack’ story, with a marvelous setting .” — Baltimore Sun

  The Shadow  ( Kindle Edition)

Author(s):  Thembinkosi Kohli ASIN:  B01CLHCJ0S Publisher(s):  New Africa Books Age: 3 – 5 years

What do you do when a big, scary stranger follows your every move? Where do you hide? Can you ever really get away from the frightening giant? This story uses simple text and uniquely evocative illustrations to great effect.

Worldreader proudly presents this ebook in a new series of children’s and young adult books from Sub-Saharan Africa. Worldreader is a non-profit organization committed to delivering digital books to children and families in the developing world using e-book technology. By purchasing this book you directly contribute to this effort by helping fund school literacy programs, and promote the writing and publication of great books from local authors everywhere.

Monster Trouble!

by  Lane Fredrickson   (Author) Michael Robertson   (Illustrator) ISBN: 9781454913450 Publisher:  Scholastic Age: 4- 8 years

The delightfully sweet ending will have every kid—and little monster—begging for an encore.

The Replacement (eBook)

By  Brenna Yovanoff ISBN: 9781847388407-029 Publisher: Simon & Schuster Age: 14+

By: Children’s books about water that are still relevant today.

A long walk to water: based on a true story, parched (ebook).

Sarel is a girl with secrets. She knows which tree roots reach down deep to pools of precious water. But now she must learn how to keep herself and her dogs alive. Nandi is the leader of those dogs. She knows they can’t last long without water—and she knows, too, that a boy is coming; a boy with the water song inside him.

Musa is that boy. His talent for finding water got him kidnapped by brutal men, yet he’s escaped, running away across the thirsty land that nearly claims his life. And so Sarel, Musa, and the dogs come together in what might be their last hope of survival.

“ This book left me hungry. Hungry for more details about the main characters and the world the story took place in. For me it ended too soon. ” — Akoss, Good Reads

The Water Princess

Inspired by the childhood of African–born model Georgie Badiel, acclaimed author Susan Verde and award-winning author/illustrator Peter H. Reynolds have come together to tell this moving story. As a child in Burkina Faso, Georgie and the other girls in her village had to walk for miles each day to collect water. This vibrant, engaging picture book sheds light on this struggle that continues all over the world today, instilling hope for a future when all children will have access to clean drinking water.

“ This timely and well-crafted story will educate readers on the preciousness of potable water .”— Kirkus Reviews ,  starred review  

Find out more about the  Georgie Badiel Foundation here .

Rain (Rise and Shine)

“ An evocative depiction of the rain cycle in the African savannah marks Stojic’s debut as writer and illustrator .” — Kirkus Review

One Big Rain: Poems for Rainy Days

The rain stomper.

By Addie Boswell ISBN: 9780761453932 Publisher: Amazon Children’s Publishing Ages: 4 – 8 years

“ I liked the part where she stomped higher and higher. I love your story. It was the best I’ve ever read.  You should write more books. ”  — from Taylor

“ The Rain Stomper had so many onomatopoeias. I liked the part of the story where all the people kept coming outside and how they kept flooding the streets. I am a really good rain stomper. ” —  2nd grader

By Julie Bertagna ISBN: Publisher: Ages: 13 – 18

The fifteenth anniversary edition of Exodus, a startling, thrilling novel set in a dystopian future ravaged by global warming.

It is 2099 – and the world is gradually drowning, as mighty Arctic ice floes melt, the seas rise and land disappears forever beneath storm-tossed waves. For fifteen-year-old Mara, her family and community, huddled on the fast-disappearing island of Wing, the new century brings flight. Packed into tiny boats, a terrifying journey begins to a bizarre city that rises into the sky, built on the drowned remains of the ancient city of Glasgow. But even here there is no safety, and, shut out of the city, Mara realizes they are asylum-seekers in a world torn between high-tech wizardry and the most primitive injustice. To save her people, Mara must not only find a way into the city, but also search for a new land and a new home . . . This new edition celebrates the 15th Anniversary of Exodus featuring a new foreword from the author.

“ A miracle of a novel… a book you will remember for the rest of  your life. ”  —  The Guardian

By: Tafelberg & Sanlam announce the Youth Literature Award winners for 2017!

Posted on: november 8, 2017, press release.

Wednesday 8 November, 2017

2017 Sanlam Awards Celebrate the Best in SA Youth Literature

Sanlam and Tafelberg , an imprint of NB Publishers, are proud to announce the winners of the 2017 Sanlam Prizes for Youth Literature, recognizing the rich diversity and talent in local youth literature. The prizes, awarded for new manuscripts, were announced in Johannesburg last night, 7 November 2017.

A record number of 134 entries were received in the three categories – English (55 entries), African languages (46 entries in eight languages) and Afrikaans (33 entries) – with two winners (gold and silver) chosen in each category. Prize money totaling R90 000 was awarded, with Sanlam increasing the prize amounts to R20 000 for gold and R10 000 for silver in each category.

The eclectic range of winning titles includes stories of abuse, cyber bullying, the disintegration of families, post-apocalyptic survival and forbidden love, and reflects issues young people of today grapple and can identify with. The 2017 winners are:

• Lesley Beake won gold for Hap , described by the judges as “a well-structured and beautifully written coming-of-age story”. In it, a troubled teenager travels from New York to South Africa to spend time with her father on an archaeological site, where she identifies with the fossil of a young woman whom she names Hap. Lesley lives in Stanford.
• Jayne Bauling won silver for New Keepers , which, according to the judges, “has the feel of a Lauren Beukes novel crossed with Hunger Games ”. Set in a post-apocalyptic future, it follows a boy who advertises a trip into the Wildlands for those seeking adventure. In 2013, Bauling won gold for Dreaming of Light . Jayne lives in White River.
• Gold went to isiZulu writer Dumisani Hlatswayo for Imibala Yothando (“The Colours of Love”), described as “a riveting tale of love, betrayal, jealousy and growing up in the social media era”. It centres on Sinenhlanhla, who is sent to a new school in Soweto, where she falls prey to a cyber bully. Dumisani lives in Somerset East.
• Debut author Lebohang Pheko won silver for Mamello (Sesotho), a “perfect tale of overcoming adversity”, with the power of education and forgiveness as key themes. Its main character, Mamello, is a young girl who is not allowed to attend school but dreams of becoming a human rights lawyer. Lebohang lives in Virginia.
• Carin Krahtz , author of the much lauded Elton April youth novels, won gold for Blou is nie ’n kleur nie , a story about the disintegration of a dysfunctional suburban family, as told from the perspective of 16-year-old Vicky. The judges called this a universal, gut-wrenching tale tempered with witty dialogue and humour. Carin lives in Centurion.
• Jan Vermeulen won silver for Soen , “a page-turner with countless twists and turns” about a popular and gifted head boy whose unhealthy obsession with a young teacher nearly costs him his life. In 2002, Vermeulen won gold for Geraamtes dra nie klere nie . Jan lives in Dispatch.

250 Words a Day

To make the competition more accessible to young and upcoming writers, and to motivate them to complete their 25 000 word manuscripts in time, would-be authors were encouraged to join Sanlam’s “250 Words a Day” campaign on Facebook. Here they were asked to write 250 words every day, with feedback given by well-known authors acting as mentors.

“ Apart from making the competition more interactive and reaching a broader audience, this helped increase the total number of entries by 60 from the previous competition ,” says Michelle Cooper , publisher of children and young adult fiction at Tafelberg. “ An incredible 48 entries were received from debut writers, reflecting the success of the Facebook campaign .”

Since these biennial awards were first bestowed in 1980, close to 80 entries have been prescribed for schools, emphasizing the value of the competition, says Cooper. Among the long list of prescribed prize-winning titles have been Praise Song by Jenny Robson, Kungasa Ngifile by E.D.M. Sibaya, Leba Seipone by Kabelo Duncan Kgatea, SuperZero by Darrel Bristow-Bovey and Hoopvol by Derick van der Walt. Some titles have also been made into films, including Lien se lankstaanskoene by Derick van der Walt and Die ongelooflike avonture van Hanna Hoekom by Marita van der Vyver.

The prizes were handed over by Lebogang Monyatsi , head of group market development & stake holder relations at Sanlam, and Eloise Wessels , managing director of Media24 Books, of which NB Publishers and Tafelberg form part.

“ We are privileged and proud to be part of this enormously important initiative by Sanlam to develop new writing talent and create quality literature for young adult readers in all our official languages ,” says Eloise Wessels . “ There can be few more worthwhile endeavors than enabling young people to read books reflecting their own realities in their own language. It also plays a key role in promoting literacy and a love for books, bringing lifelong rewards .”

Call to entry

Entries for the 2019 Sanlam Prizes for Youth Literature are now open. Entry forms are available at www.nb.co.za and the closing date is 5 October 2019 .

Hevette le Grange Publicist: Dictionaries and children’s and youth books 021 406 3414 / 083 234 5774

[email protected]

By: Youth Literature Award winners soon to be announced.

Posted on: november 6, 2017.

Launched in 1980 and one of the longest-running competitions in the country, the Sanlam Prize for Youth Literature is awarded every two years.

This week the prize winners for 2017 will be announced.

Presented by  Tafelberg Publishing , the Sanlam Prize for Youth Literature seeks to develop high quality literature for teenage readers (ages 12-18) and YA novels in all the official languages are considered for the prize. The competition is only open to South Africa, Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, and Swaziland citizens, who submit their writings in one of the six language categories: English, Afrikaans, Tshivenda, Xitsonga, Nguni and Sotho .

This year Sanlam introduced the “ 250 Words a Day ” campaign to make the competition more accessible to young and upcoming writers. By joining the “250 Words a Day” group on Facebook, entrants had access to a panel of renowned authors who acted as writing mentors. To motivate would-be authors to complete their manuscripts before the closing date of 7 October 2016, they were encouraged to write 250 words every day.

Six finalists are included in each category: English, Afrikaans and African languages. The total prize money amounts to R54 000: R12 000 for the winner (gold) and R6 000 for the runner-up (silver) in each category.

The Shortlist for the 2017 Sanlam Prize for Youth Literature Awards are:

English:  Nick Wood from London;  Nerine Dorman from Welcome Glen, Cape Town;  Lesley Beake from Stanford;  Joanne Hichens from Muizenberg;  Erna Müller from Windhoek; and  Jayne Bauling from White River.

Afrikaans :  Nellie Alberts from Calvinia;  Annerle Barnard from Bloemfontein;  Jan Vermeulen from Despatch;  Carin Krahtz from Centurion;  Riana Scheepers from Wilderness; and  Jelleke Wierenga from Napier.

Nguni languages:  Dumisani Hlatswayo from Cosmo City, Johannesburg;  Siphatheleni Kula from Butterworth (Eastern Cape); and  Thabi Nancy Mahamba from KwaNdebele (Mpumalanga).

Sotho languages:  Mathete Piet Molope from The Tramshed, Pretoria;  Thabo Kheswa from Bophelong, Vanderbijlpark; and  Lebohang Jeanet Pheko from Meloding, Virginia.

Tshivenda languages:  Lazarus Mamafha from Kutama, Zimbabwe; and  Thilivhali Thomas Mudau from Rosslyn, Pretoria.

Xitsonga languages:  Musa Given Sithole from Kempton Park.

Number of entries per language: English: 55 Afrikaans: 33 Zulu: 14 Venda: 7 Xhosa: 7 Xitsonga: 5 Ndebele: 4 Sesotho: 4 Setswana: 3 Sepedi: 2

“ As Wealthsmiths, we have a deep understanding of and respect for what it takes to turn the twenty-six letters of the alphabet into something of great value.  The Sanlam Prize for Youth Literature celebrates writers’ ability to make the most of what they have. Their books create enriching experiences for our youth and have the ability to take readers on journeys that will make them cry, or scare them, and to places that will stay with them forever ,” says Elena Meyer (Senior Manager:  Sponsorships for Sanlam).

Puku eagerly awaits South Africa’s newest stories!

By: Nal’ibali Announces Story Bosso Winner, 2017

Posted on: november 1, 2017.

Nal’ibali, the national-reading-for-enjoyment campaign, has announced 11-year-old Lindiwe Makhoba from Mangaung, Bloemfontein, as the national winner of its annual storytelling contest,  Story Bosso . Chosen from over 6 000 entries collected from across the country, Makhoba’s winning entry,  My Life as a Princess , is a masterfully-told, multilingual poem with the power to inspire the nation.

Each year Nal’ibali hosts its month-long Story Bosso drive in September or Literacy Month, to encourage members of the public, young and old, to get storytelling in their home languages. A simple yet effective method to lay the literacy foundations that children will need to learn to read and write; storytelling is something that anybody can do: anytime, anywhere. The sharing of stories is also part of the collective culture and heritage of all South Africans.

This year the talent search attracted a record number of entries and included a provincial road-show with celebrated storytellers, including Gcina Mhlope and Sindiwe Magona , giving special demonstrations of their craft to adults and children in different parts of the country. Driving the initiative at local level, Nal’ibali Literacy Mentors held over 100 audition and entry events in seven provinces to source stories directly from communities and from Nal’ibali’s network of over 1 000 reading clubs.

Makhoba , a Nal’ibali reading-club member, entered at Kgato Primary School where she attends school, and where her win was announced on Friday 27 October. With a passion and talent for poetry… continue reading

By: FunDza’s Writer of the Week

Posted on: october 27, 2017, zweli tells us why he loves to write.

You can read his story Never Give Up here:

http://ow.ly/p3hF30fNePJ   # Literacy   # Read

Reading changes lives

By: Children’s Book About Kalk Bay Fishermen Returns To Shelves

Posted on: october 20, 2017, catherine stock’s children’s book,  armien’s fishing trip ,  is reissued by meerkat books..

The illustrated children’s book is set in the sleepy village of Kalk Bay, a seaside community that conjures images of bright fishing boats, noisy seagulls and delicious fish and chips.

Since the 1850s, Kalk Bay harbour has helped the local fishermen in providing for their families. Many of the traditional fishermen that leave the harbour and head out to see every morning come from families that have been doing so for generations.

Armien’s Fishing Trip  celebrates this shrinking local profession. The children’s book tells the story of a young boy who stows away on his uncle’s boat when visiting the village. With trouble afoot on the stormy seas, Armien’s quick thinking proves that he’s not a little boy anymore.

Originally published in 1991, this is a beautifully illustrated children’s tale of adventure, excitement, family and hope. The book is being reissued in 2017 with a message that is as relevant as it was 25 years ago.

Catherine Stock is an award-winning author and illustrator who has… continue reading

By: Children’s Book Celebrates Life of Renowned Polka-Dot Artist

Yayoi Kusama Children’s Book Tells the Story of Her Legendary, Polka-Dotted Life

ARTSY EDITORIAL BY CASEY LESSER

OCT 13TH, 2017

What’s the best way to introduce kids to  Yayoi Kusama ?

Start with the dots.

That’s what  Museum of Modern Art  curator Sarah Suzuki has done in  Yayoi Kusama: From Here to Infinity , the new children’s book that teaches wee audiences about the legendary Japanese artist’s life and work.

The picture book is filled with lively illustrations by Ellen Weinstein , and also includes reproductions of works by Kusama . As a whole, it reflects the brilliant colors and serene poetry of the artist’s work, with an eye to developing art lovers of the future.

“ Kusama really had the force—and the talent—to create a future for herself that no one around her really thought was possible ,” says Suzuki. “ She’s quite a remarkable woman .”

Interior, Yayoi Kusama: From Here to Infinity. Courtesy of the Museum of Modern Art, New York.

The artist has become synonymous with otherworldly sculptures and paintings born out of personal ruminations on eternity and mortality, and the beloved “Infinity Rooms”—chambers filled with mirrors and flickers of light and color—which see museum goers queue up for hours on end to witness (and Instagram).

Now 88, she just debuted  her own museum  in Tokyo. From her earliest years as an artist in 1950s New York, she was a pioneer, making a series of “Infinity Nets” paintings and performances where she painted her friends with dots.

Translating the artist’s legacy (which is still ongoing) into a succinct, upbeat tale for children was no easy task. Suzuki approached the project as she does with much of her research on artists—she read everything she could, including the artist’s autobiography and past interviews. She examined Kusama’s work and thought back on her favorite children’s books.

“ I tried to get to the essence of why I loved them so much, and why they stayed with me ,” she offers.

The book begins with… Read more here.

By: Puku’s look at books – October reads for ages 3 to 5 years…

Posted on: october 18, 2017.

Check out the latest picture books to catch our eyes on the bookshelves.

Pan Macmillan: The Great Gran Plan By: Elli Woolard Illustrator: Steven Lenton ISBN: 978-1-4472-5479-9

To be released on 27 November 2017

Preorder this book here .

Description: The Complete Guide to Being a Monster  is Astika Chetram’s and Danica Ricciardi’s first children’s book. Every little monster faces challenges while growing up. Wouldn’t it be great to have someone teach you how to deal with these challenges?  The Complete Guide to Being a Monster  is a fantastic read on how to be the best monster you can possibly be… have you practiced your roar? Have you embraced the dark for its glow worms and twinkling stars? Have you built a lair yet? Follow three adorable little monsters, Ike, Spike and Mia, as they discover what it means to be a monster, and learn what it means to enjoy being  you .

Good news! It’s out on pre-sale right now at 20% OFF! Use the code “MONSTERGUIDE” at checkout for this festive offer.

Description: Are you ready? Because here comes Thoko! Thoko is resourceful, Thoko is kindhearted, Thoko is full of fun and ready to meet you. Hooray! Thoko  by award-winning author, Niki Daly , is the first in the Thoko series. It has four wonderful stories that all follow a girl named Thoko who is figuring out life. The beautiful text and illustrations make it impossible not to love Thoko and learn a few important life lessons on the way.

“ Then she kissed Thoko on the forehead and whispered, ‘And that’s for being such a kind, thoughtful girl.’ Thoko touched her forehead and thought a little more as she drifted off to sleep: gold stars get curly corners and fall off, but kisses last forever! ”

Niki Daly makes reading about life as a child entertaining and realistic with his delightful new local heroine, Thoko. Thoko skips through life, leaving behind a trail of laughter and a few frowns. She will become your new favourite friend.

Also available in: Afrikaans:  Hoera! Thoko –  ISBN:   978-1-4314-2526-6 IsiXhosa:  Halala! Thoko – ISBN:  978-1-4314-2528-0 IsiZulu:  Halala! Thoko – ISBN: 978-1-4314-2527-3

Buy this book here .

By: Read the latest Jade Khan Mystery from FunDza!

Posted on: october 12, 2017.

A man is dead, thrown at the side of the highway. Detectives Jade Khan and Debra Botha discover that one of his kidneys is missing. Is there an organ smuggling ring in their area? What other sinister motive could there be for this murder? Meanwhile, as Jade follows the clues, she also has an unexpected personal issue to deal with.

By  Lauri Kubuitsile

Jade sat up in bed and waited a minute, to let the world stop spinning. She needed two things immediately: water and aspirin. After that she could start sorting out the particulars of the new day. She stumbled into the bathroom and collected those priorities then sat back down on her bed. She’d start with four aspirin and work from there. She lit a cigarette and waited for the painkillers to kick in.

Why? she asked herself. Why did she do this over and over again? It made no rational sense. She remembered going out to Parks Inn with Debra after work and coming home in the wee hours of the morning, but the rest was a bit cloudy.

She was drinking too much and acting recklessly because of it. Yes, one part of the night was crystal clear in her mind: going to the backseat of her car with Constable Owen.  How could she have done that?  And now she needed to get to the station; the station, where it would be impossible to avoid the perky Owen. Could she call in another sick day? But what would be the point, really? It wasn’t as if Constable Owen was going to disappear. God! How stupid can a person be? Jade wondered. He was twenty-two years old! Just out of the academy, a baby really, with his big blue eyes and spiky blonde hair, bouncing around like a hormone-driven teenager. How had she thought sleeping with him was a good idea?

But that was the problem. Lately Jade wasn’t thinking and that was getting her into all sorts of sticky situations. There would be no avoiding it. She took two more aspirin and got ready for work. There was nothing else to be done, she needed to butch-up and face her mistakes.

When she arrived, her partner, Debra, was already at her desk. She smiled knowingly when Jade sat down.

“Don’t even,” Jade warned.

“What?” she said, feigning ignorance.

“Stop it, Deb. I’m an idiot, okay? End of story.” Jade shifted some papers around on her desk then lowered her voice. “Is he in yet?”

“Already been sniffing around here looking for you. I think he might be in love.”

“Go to hell. You’re not even funny, Deb.”

Debra laughed at her own joke. Jade heard someone behind her and turned, expecting the worst, but was happy to see it was the Station Commander, Superintendent Dikgang. He handed Debra a piece of paper.

“We’ve got a body out on the western bypass highway. Driver found him in the ditch. Looks like a vagrant,” he said.

About FunDza

FunDza believes that all South Africans should have the opportunity to fall in love with reading with all its benefits. To read for pleasure, and to make it something you want to do every day, you need to LOVE what you’re reading, and you need to be able to access great content, easily.

But it’s not only about reading, its about writing too. So FunDza also provides readers with a space to get published on the fundza.mobi network. All the writing submitted this way is marked as ‘Fanz’ work.

So, become part of the programme, join the FunDza Fanz network and read (and write) with FunDza today!

To find out more, visit the corporate site:  www.fundza.co.za

By: SCBWI Seminar: Children’s and Young Adult Books

Posted on: october 6, 2017.

To be held on 21 October 2017 in the Auditorium at the Sandton Public Library 

This seminar features a number of authors talking about the path to publication, both traditional and independent, about the power of dreams and hard work. It promises to be stimulating, thought-provoking and motivating.

Cost:  Early bird payment by 13 October:  R100 SCBWI members, R200 non-members

At the door: R150 SCBWI members, R300 non-members

RSVP:   By 9 October to Jenny at [email protected]

All welcome – members and non-members. This event is for illustrators and writers – aspiring and published.  

Tea and coffee will be available but participants are asked to bring their own lunch boxes.

By: 2017 National Book Award Finalists revealed

Posted on: october 5, 2017.

Article by Colin Dwyer

October, 2017

It began with more than 1,500 books.

With all the works submitted by publishers, the judges for this year’s National Book Awards have had their hands (and bookshelves) full the past few months. But that daunting number of contenders winnowed further Wednesday, as the National Book Foundation announced the finalists for its literary prize — just five works each in four categories:  fiction ,  nonfiction ,  poetry  and  young people’s literature .

Finalists for Young People’s Literature

Elana K. Arnold ,  “What Girls Are Made Of”

Robin Benway ,  “Far from the Tree”

Erika L. Sánchez ,  “I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter”

Rita Williams-Garcia ,   “Clayton Byrd Goes Underground”

Ibi Zoboi ,  “American Street”

Book Finalists for the Young People’s Literature Awards, 2017. Photo: CBS News This Morning.

The finalists of the National Book Awards are chosen by a panel of five judges for each category. Their decisions are made independently of the National Book Foundation’s staff and board of directors.

Read more about the other categories here…

By: Returning Nature’s Words To Children’s Books

The Lost Words by Robert Macfarlane and Jackie Morris review

Article by Katharine Norbury

2 October 2017

I n 2007, the new edition of the  Oxford Junior Dictionary  introduced new words such as “broadband” while others,  describing the natural world , disappeared.

The dictionary’s guidelines require that it reflect “the current frequency of words in daily language of children”. However, the philosopher AJ Ayer introduced a generation to the notion that unless we have a word for something, we are unable to conceive of it, and that there is a direct relationship between our imagination, our ability to have ideas about things, and our vocabulary.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, a groundswell of opposition to the word cull began to grow and, in 2015, the debate reached a tipping point when an  open letter to the  OJD , coordinated by the naturalist Laurence Rose , was signed by artists and writers including Margaret Atwood , Sara Maitland , Michael Morpurgo and Andrew Motion along with the brilliant illustrator Jackie Morris and the hugely acclaimed wordsmith, word collector, and defender of the natural world, Robert Macfarlane .

“ There is a shocking, proven connection between the decline in natural play and the decline in children’s wellbeing ,” the letter said.

A heated debate in the national press ensued, both for and against the lost words, and the collaboration between Morris and Macfarlane was born.

The Lost Words  makes no mention of the dictionary and Macfarlane deftly insults the  OJD  with a taste of its own medicine by ignoring it. Instead, in a book of spells rather than poems, exquisitely illustrated by Morris, Macfarlane gently, firmly and meticulously restores the missing words. Acorn, blackberry, bluebell, conker and “perhaps the one that cut the deepest” for Morris, “kingfisher”, are lovingly returned to future generations of children. It is a big, sumptuous, heavy book.

Continue reading …

By: The importance of reviewing children’s books in African languages

Posted on: october 4, 2017.

A case for Setswana, by Lorato Trok

October 2017

The future of every nation is dependent on its children. In South Africa, for many years children’s stories have been published in English and Afrikaans, languages mostly spoken by a minority of the population. Even though the publishing industry has changed over the years, publishing children’s stories remains dominated by English and Afrikaans. Children whose home languages are not English and Afrikaans are still largely denied enjoying books in their home languages as very few books are published and available in African languages. This poses a challenge for establishing a good foundation for children to learn to read, write and simply enjoy stories in their home languages.

In South Africa, books which are available in African languages, especially children’s books, have mostly been translated from English with foreign themes. In most cases the translation is appalling and mediocre. Earlier this year (April 2017) the Parliamentary Committee on Arts and Culture formed a technical task team of Library and Information Specialists in the country. This team was tasked with writing an LIS policy for public libraries in South Africa.

The team travelled across the nine provinces of the country meeting with librarians and management teams of public libraries to discuss, among other things,  challenges faced by libraries, overcoming the challenges and what is already working. In Gauteng, the indaba was held at the National Library of South Africa. Below are some of the points discussed at the indaba and the problems librarians indicated they encountered:

Do you have any comments on the collections (print, multimedia and electronic) in your library? Do you feel for example that they have adequate coverage of South African literature and languages?

• Users don’t take out books in African languages- they complain about the poor translation quality and side-lining of books in African languages.
• Decrease in library budget affect collections- there is no balanced collection- books are governed by licences and it’s too difficult to secure books.
• Libraries have encouraged writing competitions in indigenous languages but schools have not taken interest. Some teachers have indicated that they will only enter their schools in writing competitions where the learners are required to write in English.
• Self-published books are a big problem- stories are unedited and therefore there are too many grammatical errors- there’ve been instances where politicians impose self-published books of authors they know, riddled with mistakes but the librarians have resisted.
• Users have complained of stories in African languages being too moralistic and therefore a turn off.

What are the barriers to “access to information” in your situation in Gauteng?

• Librarians indicated legislation- internal and provincial red tape policies as barriers access to information.
• Speed at which new books get to libraries.
• Not reaching out to communities- involving CBOs, NGOs and civil organisations in communities and finding ways of working together.

Libraries can only function with an active public use. An unsatisfied and demoralized public means reduced budget for libraries. Users complaining about the quality of books available in African languages puts to rest the long held myth by some publishers that South Africans don’t want to read in African languages. If the public are exposed to books in African languages of the highest quality, how are they expected to read in those languages? Teachers not wanting children to write in African languages may also be an attribute of a lack of accessibility to books in African languages in their schools.

In March 2017, PEN SA and IBBY SA funded a two day “Children’s literacy, literature and multilingual storybook production/translation” seminar facilitated by PRAESA. The seminar was to create an opportunity for literacy promotion agencies, government and the private sector to work intensively with one another to assess progress and challenges, and agree on the next practical steps.

Sarah Howie of PRLS (Progress in International Literacy Reading Study), a study designed to measure trends in achievement and to indicate growth or decline within a global context, indicated during her presentation of the study report for South Africa that 50% of Sepedi learners are not reading and writing in their home languages. South African children were assessed in English and Afrikaans, even though a large percentage of them identify African languages as their home languages. She also indicated that there is no material available for children in their home languages, and that Sepedi translations used in the assessment were appalling.

The report ended with this observation:

“ South African learners’ performance in the PIRLS assessments reinforces the need for reading instruction practices that address the difficulties in language and reading in both the Foundation and Intermediate Phases. Unless children are fully functional in the language of teaching and learning they are at considerable risk of failure or repeated failure in primary school and dropping out of school at secondary level. Therefore, the continued and close monitoring of reading literacy in all the languages in which it is offered, is critical for the successful development of all individuals in the schooling and training systems, and it needs to remain one of South Africa’s priorities in the immediate future.”

South African children fare poorly in assessments not because they are not smart but because they have no access to reading material in their home languages. Puku’s Children Literature Foundation works in reviewing children’s stories in African languages, a step in the right direction for South Africa, for the education system, for libraries and especially so for the publishing industry.

Translation of African languages is a major problem in this country. When children’s books are reviewed, feedback given by reviewers can be used by publishers to include in their subsequent editions when reprinting, the department of education can access the database created through reviews to see what’s available in African languages and authors will have quality feedback on their material and to incorporate it in their writing to improve their work.

Recently, there has been a surge in the number of authors writing children’s stories in African languages, including Setswana. Unfortunately in South Africa, children’s authors are not as celebrated as biographers, political writers, poets and the likes. Not much publicity and credit is given to these authors, as well as translators. It’s also a struggle to secure a publishing deal with commercial publishers for African languages, therefore writers resort to writing in English as it is easier to get their work published.

Stories of university students struggling academically, especially with reading and writing have been widely publicized. Especially first year students who are just out of high school, even those who did exceptionally well in matric. Language and literacy experts attribute this to a lack of proper foundation in acquiring skills in mother tongue education as well as lacking in the knowledge of the English language. To understand a second or third language, experts say, one needs to have a solid foundation, reading and writing in their home languages. Hence the emphasis in promoting the creation of literature in Setswana and other African languages as of utmost importance. Authors, translators and proof-readers need to be encouraged to continue their work in producing Setswana high quality literature.

Writers discussing their story lines in languages of the Northern Cape, including Setswana during the creative writing workshop at the 2016 Northern Cape Writers festival in Kimberley. The workshop was conducted by Lorato Trok

Puku encourages reviewing of children’s books written in African languages and this work is vital, especially with the points indicated above in the article.  Reviewing children’s books in South Africa and the entire African continent, unlike in the West and particularly in the United States of America, is not invested in by literacy promotion organizations and the publishing industry. Puku will be breaking ground.

Ms Debbie Reese is a prominent reviewer of children’s books in the United States. Her focus is on how Native Americans are represented in children’s books. She also conducts creative writing workshops designed to help participants gain awareness about issues such as stereotyping, appropriation of stories and cultures ( http://www.ipl.org/div/natam/bin/browse.pl/A445 ).

Puku will be facilitating creative writing workshop and across the Northern Cape, a province with a large population of the indigenous San people, a people whose languages are at the risk of extinction and whose stories need to be told. Reviewing children’s books in South and Southern Africa will bring to life stories, identities and cultures of people whose stories are not mainstream through Puku’s writing workshops. The Pan South African Language Board (PanSALB) and Khoisan communities in the Northern Cape have resolved to introduce indigenous languages in schools in the province. They have agreed to have the languages added by 2019 (SABC News, October 2, 2016). They believe this will save many of the languages from extinction.

Kgosigadi Katrina le morwadiagwe Lena

Queen Katrina Esau , popularly known as ‘Geelmeid’, is one of the pioneers of preserving the San languages. Queen Katrina runs a school in her back yard teaching young children in her hometown of Upington songs and telling stories in her language, !Nxu.

Reviewing children’s books in Setswana encourages authors to write quality stories. Publishers will continue to invest in and hire qualified translators and proof-readers, knowing that their work will be critiqued and available on a public platform.Information gathered through this process can be used for research purposes about what material is available in the country as compared to other countries and what still needs to be done to promote early literacy in Setswana

Lorato with Ouma Katrina Esau, a pioneer of the! Nxu language and her team of advisors during her visit to Upington in 2016

Puku does not only review books, but uses reviewers who are experts in the field of early literacy, education and African languages. Reviewing children’s books creates a robust environment for all sectors of the book chain in the country. Analytics from the website can be used to reprint popular books and/or create a collection of popular children’s books in the country. Book sellers can use this list to make available these popular titles in the bookshops. The DBE and provincial education departments and public libraries can use this list when deciding on the selection of books for schools and public libraries. A domino effect is created through this process and it is the children of South/ Southern Africa who benefit the most, as it should be.

The National Library of South Africa collects every book published in the country each year, whether self-published or through trade publishing. Puku goes a step further through the review process, by aiming to review every children’s book published in the country for quality and cultural appropriateness. This ground-breaking work is what South Africa needs, a country still struggling to give African languages a space and voice in education, the arts, etc., more than 20 years after the dawn of democracy.

By reviewing Setswana books, Puku opens up a whole new world of looking at early literacy and sets a new publishing trend for publishing, both in this country and on the continent.

By: Thanks to volunteers, kids get reading

Posted on: october 3, 2017.

Article by  Eugene Yiga

03 OCTOBER 2017

Book Dash is a non-profit organisation on a mission to make sure every child in SA owns at least 100 books by the age of five.

“ My co-founders and I had all been in book publishing for years and were frustrated by how hard it is to publish children’s books in SA viably, despite the immense and desperate need ,” says its chairman Arthur Attwell .

“ I knew about projects that created children’s books by volunteers like Pratham Books and the African Storybook Project and about others that created books in one-off hackathons, like Book Sprints .

“ So, we called a bunch of our creative friends and spent a day making children’s books together. It turned out better than we ever expected and kind of addictive. ”

At the first Book Dash day in May 2014, two teams made two books at Attwell’s Cape Town office. A few months later, after a successful 10-team Book Dash at the Cape Town Library…   continue reading

By: Local Publisher Speaks out on South Africa’s Reading Culture.

Posted on: october 1, 2017.

The South African publishing scene is a strange one, consisting of many peculiarities and oddities.

The first thing that you notice is that it’s not representative of the country and its diverse range of cultures. There are many factors that lend to how lopsided our reading statistics are. The biggest factor is that as a nation we don’t read much and there are no books in most households, so a reading culture is never fostered.

I have worked in publishing for four years and can testify that books are luxury items for most households because they are expensive, especially local books. Publishers would love to make books more affordable, but the reality is that publishing books is expensive, with the highest cost being printing. In order for publishers to survive, they have to print enough books to cover the cost of producing the books when most of that print run sells. The more books publishers print the cheaper the cost of printing and thus the cheaper the book for buyers, but if those books don’t sell they sit with excessive stock and pay warehouse costs for that stock, which eventually will have to be pulped.

The South African publishing scene, thus, is a fine balancing act of publishers trying to make books as accessible as possible while making enough money to continue existing so as to publish more books.

Now, as both publisher and reader, I am thinking we can all do more to promote diverse South African literature, especially as readers.

South Africa already has… continue reading

By: Discussing The Power of Stories in Education and Literacy

Posted on: september 28, 2017.

PRAESA,  The Project for the Study of Alternative Education in South Africa, is an independent research and development unit affiliated with the University of Cape Town, whose  work in literacy curricula, training, materials development and research uses stories and imagination as its compass point .

Sive Mbolekwa , PRAESA literacy mentor, reflects on his sessions with Grade R children using the picture book An Extraordinary Egg by Leo Lionni ( IQanda elinguMmangaliso ).

In this story, three frogs discover  a beautiful white egg.

Though they’ve never seen a chicken egg before, they are sure that’s what this must be. So when the egg hatches and a long, green, scaly creature appears they call it a chicken. 

The Storyplay team had discussed ways to bring the story alive. This included taking eggshells to class to help animate it and see what thinking and imagining this might prompt in the children.

Sive notices the learning opportunities these young children seek out and what the teacher promotes and enables, and what she restricts or denies.

He raises some critical issues about power relations: between adults and children and also between children themselves, with the consequent and interrelated expectations and attitudes that appear to form and inform one another.

I put some eggshells outside the classroom, next to the playground, and then I asked the children to come outside with me. Once outside, I drew their attention to the eggshells. Acting surprised, I asked. “Haibo! What could be happening here?”

“ It’s eggs, teacher. They are broken ,” said one. “ Miss N was eating eggs. Maybe she put these here ,” said another. “ But Miss N put the eggshells in the dustbin in the classroom, ” corrected yet another.

While we were wondering what could have happened, two boys crushed the eggshells into fine pieces by stepping on them. Genuinely surprised, I asked them to pick up the small pieces of eggshell and throw them in the dustbin. One girl voluntarily started to help them – actually doing most of the work. I stopped her:

“ Child, please allow them to pick up the mess of their own creation .”

Of course, I was a bit disturbed that they could just decide to stop the fun of the rest of the 12 children who were interested in interrogating the mystery of the broken eggshells; choosing to do so despite the free access to the rest of the playground that had attracted the other 15 or so children who were now climbing and playing. In hindsight, I could have asked them why were crushing the shells. My understanding is that girls are raised to be responsible not only for themselves, but also for boys, and I brought this into the situation: I did not hold myself back from stopping the girl cleaning up because I was worried about perpetuating this understanding that girls are brought up to look after males.

This might not actually have been the case here. This could have just been a little girl who is kind and helpful.

I then asked the rest of the children who were interested in the investigation what could have hatched out of the eggs.

“ It is a baby bird. While I was coming to school I saw a bird. It is small, it came out of there ,” said one boy child pointing to the eggshells.

I followed the children to the playground…. continue reading

By: Botlhokwa jwa go seka-seka dibuka tsa bana tsa Setswana

Article by Lorato Trok

September 2017

Bana ke bokamoso jwa setšhaba se sengwe le sengwe. Mo Aforika Borwa, go tloga kgale, dibuka tsa dinaane tsa bana di phasaladiwa ka diteme tsa Seesemane le Seaforikanse, diteme tse gantsi di dirisiwang ke basweu. Le fa dinako di fetogile ebile e tlile ka diphetogo, dilo dingwe di tsaya nako go fetoga. Bophasalatsi jwa dibuka ga ise bo fetoge mme dipuo tse di tshwereng pele esale tsona tsa basweu. Bana ba puo ya bona ysa selegae eseng Seesemane kapa Seaforikanse, ba sa itemogela tlhokego ya dibuka ka diteme tsa bone. Se ga se a siamela motheo wa bana mo dithutong tsa go buisa, go bala le go itumelela dinaane ka diteme tsa bona tsa selegae.

Mo nageng ya rona dibuka tse di fitlhelwang mo ditemeng tsa bantho gantsi di fetotswe go tswa kwa Seesemaneng. Gole gantsi boranodi jwa teng ke jwa maemo a a kwa tlase, di tletse ka diphoso. Ka kgwedi ya Mopitlwe ngwaga wa 2017, komiti ya tsa botaki ya palamente ya Aforika Borwa e ne e laetse batsamaisi bagolo ba dilaeborari mo diprofenseng tsotlhe tsa naga go kgobokanya tshedimosetso e e ka thusang go tokafatsa dilaeborari mo nageng. Mo porofenseng ya Gauteng kopano e ne e tshwaretswe kwa Laeboraring ya Bosetšhaba ya Aforika Borwa. Badiri ba dilaeborari ba ne tlhagisa dingongorego tsa bona ka tiro ya bona. Bontsi jwa bone ba ne ba  tlhagisa ngongorego ya tlhokego ya dibuka tsa diteme tsa bantsho mo dilaeboraring . Mme ba tlhalosa gore tse di leng teng, badirisi ba dilaeborari ga ba di adime ka gonne ba ngongorega ka thanolo e e maemo a a kwa tlase e e sa tlhompeng dipuo tsa bona. Badiri ba dilaeborari gape ba ngongorega ka bakwadi ba ba iphasaletsang dibuka. Ba re bakwadi ba ga ba latele melao e e maleba ya go phasalatsa, mme dibuka tsa bone ga di mo maemong a gore di ka rekelwa dilaeborari. Ba ne ba gatelela gore bakwadi le baphasaladi ba tshwanetse go netefatsa gore tiro ya bona ke ya puo ya maemo a a kwa godimo. Ke ka moo go seka-seka dibuka tsa bana go leng botlhokwa.

PRAESA e ne e tshwere kopano ya baitseanape ba puo, bakwadi ba dibuka tsa bana le ba batlisisi ka kgwedi ya Phukw 2017i. Maikaelelo e ne e le go tlhotlheletsa dipuisano ka mokgwa o go ka tlhabololwang dipholo tsa diteko tsa bana tsa ANA le PIRLS ka teng. Dipholo di bontsha fa bana ba Aforika Borwa ba saletse kwa morago thata mo dinageng tsa lefatshe ka go buisa le go kwala. Ka gonne diteko di dirwa ka loleme lwa Seesemane, go nna bokete mo baneng ka gonne ga ise loleme lwa bana la ntlha. PIRLS e tlhalosa fa barutabana ba kaile gore boranodi jwa Seesemane go ya kwa dipuong tsa bantsho ke jwa maemo a a kwa tlase, mme se e ka nna nngwe ya mabaka a a dirang gore dipholo tsa diteko di nne kwa tlase ka ntlha ya fa bana ba sa tlhaloganye se se kwadilweng. Baphasaladi ba dibuka tse di kwadilweng ka diteme tsa bantsho le bona ba ne ba ngongorega ka boranodi jwa maemo a a kwa tlase. Ba ne ba ikuela gore pele ga dibuka di ka phasaladiwa, baphasaladi ba tseye nako ya go lekola tiro le go netefatsa gore baranodi ba nale bokgoni jwa go ranola.

Mo dingwageng tsa segompieno, go bakwadi ba le bantsi ba ba kwalang ka diteme tsa seAforika, go akaretsa le leleme la Setswana. Mo Aforika Borwa, bakwadi ba dibuka tsa bana ga ba fiwe tlotla jaaka bakwadi ba dibuka tsa matshelo a batho, dipolotiki, tsa bogwebi jalo jalo. Ga re utlwe thata ka bakwadi ba  ebile le fa ba phasaladitse dibuka ga di tlhagisiwe thata mo diraleng. Re utlwa go le gantsi gore baithuti ba diyunibesithi, bogolo-segolo ba ngwaga ya ntlha, ba goga ka thata mo dithutong tsa bone, le ba ba dirileng sentle mo dithutong tsa marematlou. Baitse ba dipuo ba re mathata a a tlhodiwa ke gore baithuti ga ba na kitso ya leleme la Seesemane mme gape ga ba na kitso e e tseneletseng ya dipuo tsa bona tsa kwa gae. Go tlhaloganya puo ya bobedi, go tlhoka gore motheo ya puo ya ntlha o be o tiile. Ke ka moo go leng botlhokwa gore bakwadi ba Setswana ba tswelele go kwala dibuka ka Setswana ebile ba tlhoka thotloetso le tlhotlheletso.

Photo: Bakwadi ba dibuka tsa Setswana ka nako ya keteko ya moletlo wa bakwadi kwa profenseng ya Kapa Bokone

Puku e thotlheletsa tshekatsheko ya dibuka tsa bana tse di kwadilweng ka diteme tsa seAforika. Tiro ya Puku ya go seka-seka dibuka tsa bana tsa Setswana, e botlhokwa thata, bogolo-segolo fa go lebelelwa dintlha tse ke di tlhagisitseng kwa godimo tsa thanolo ya maemo a a kwa tlase. Tiro e ya go seka-seka e tla thusa go tlhagisa diphoso mo dibukeng pele ga diphasaladiwa, mme fa di phasaladitswe tsheka-tsheko e tla thusa gore mo kgatisong ya bobedi le dikgatiso tse di latelang go dirwe dipaakanyo tse di maleba. Tsheka-tsheko ya dibuka tsa bana e tla rotloetsa bokwadi jwa maemo a a kwa godimo mme babuisi ba dibuka, go akaretsa barutabana, ba tla tshepa gore dibuka tse ba di buisang ke tsa maemo a a kwa godimo.

Tiro ya tsheka-tsheko ya dibuka tsa Setswana tsa bana, etla  thusa le mafapha a thuto go itse gore ke eng se se leng teng mo phasalatsong le gore dibuka tse ba di batlang di bonwa kae le gore di ka fitlhelelwa kae. Baphasalatsi le bona ba tla itse gore dibuka tsa bona di fetile mo matsogong a baitseanape ba puo ya Setswana. Puku ga e seka-seke fela dibuka, e dirisa baitseanape ba puo ya Setswana le ba dithuto tsa motheo tsa bana. Ga gona mokgatlho ope Mo Aforika borwa o o ikgethileng ka go seka-seka dibuka tsa bana tsa dinaane tsa puo ya selegae. Puku ke ona fela mokgatlho o le mongwe mo Aforika Borwa o o dirang tiro e. Se gape se tla thusa go itse gore ke dibuka tse kae tsa puo ya Setswana tsa bana tse di phasaladitsweng mo nageng. Ke molao wa naga go romela buka nngwe le nngwe e e phasaladitsweng mo nageng kwa Laeborari ya Bosetšhaba ya Aforika Borwa, mme fela Puku yona e gatela pele ka go seka-seka dibuka tsotlhe tse di leng teng mo nageng. Mokgatlho wa Bosetšhaba wa Dipuo mo Aforika Borwa (PanSALB) o tsene mo tumalanong le maloko a morafe wa ma Khoisan kwa profenseng ya Kapa Bokone go rotloetsa tiriso ya dipuo tsa selegae tsa ma Khoisan kwa dikolong tsa profense. Ba dumelane gore dipuo di tla dirisiwa ka ngwaga wa 2019. Se se tla thusa gore dipuo tsa morafe o di se nyelele. Kgosigadi Katrina Esau wa morafe wa ma San ke mongwe wa b aba ipeileng kwa pele ka go rotloetsa tiriso ya loleme lwa se!Nxu, nngwe ya diteme tsa ma Khoisan. Puku e ikaelela go tshwara dithuto tsa go kwala dibuka tsa bana ka diteme tsa profense ya Kapa Bokone, bogolo-segolo Setswana, Nama le! Nxu. Ka jalo dibuka di tlile go kwalwa kwa tshimologong ka dipuo tse mme di ranolelwe mo Seesemaneng.

Photo: Kgosigadi Katrina le morwadiagwe Lena

Ka go seka-seka dibuka tsa bana tsa Setswana, se se tla thusa go rarabolola bothata jwa dibuka tse di ranotsweng ka meomo a a kwa tlase ka gonne baphasaladi ba ba tla dumelang gore dibuka tsa bone di seka-sekiwe ke Puku, ba tla tshwanela ke go dirisa baranodi ba ba maleba. Lefapha la Bosetšhaba la Thuto le la Botaki le Setso, go akaretsa le mafapha a a diprofense, a tla kgona go dirisa dintlha tse Puku e di tlhagisang go tswa websaeteng ya bona go itse gore ba ka reka dibuka tse feng tse di itsegeng mo dilaeboraring le mo dikolong. Se ke tiro e naga ya rona e e tlhokang thata. Ka tiro ya go seka-seka dibuka tsa Setswana, Puku e bula tsela e ntšhwa ya go lebelela dibuka tsa bana le go phasalatsa ka diteme tsa seAforika.

By: Future Nation Schools Book Fair & Literary Festival

Posted on: september 20, 2017.

With September being Heritage month, Future Nation Schools is hosting a Book Fair focused on all things African – literature, authors, art, music and publishers.

It’s a day showcasing African literature, writers, poetry and arts.

Feeding Future Nation School’s vision of spearheading the African education revolution through driving content relevant to the continent, the latest literary offering is setting the agenda for local book discussions.

The first of its kind, this new literary festival promises to be multi-faceted event with a programme for children, adults and teens.

The all-day event will also include various partners and stakeholders in the education and publishing space. Visitors will also have a chance to meet some of their favourite authors and icons, including Mandla Langa, Khaya Dlanga, Hugh Masekela and Sizwe Mpofu-Walsh.

Check out these 5 reasons to save the date…

By: Baby Riav and the Power of Reading.

Posted on: september 13, 2017.

With International Literacy Day almost a week ago and the launch of the new website announced to promote literacy in Southern Africa,  Puku is honoured to present this incredible story by  Nivashni Nair, a South African Mum who has experienced  the vital importance of books in her young baby’s life.  

11 September, 2017

THE 900 gram infant focused on my lips as if he understood every word of the Dr Seuss book. My voice drowned out the sound of the heart monitor attached to him in the neonatal intensive care unit.

The baby boy, born at 32 weeks, was just two days old and already owned 22 books.

I starting buying books to stock my son’s library seven years before he was born. At the time he was only conceived in our minds, but we had pledged that our child would appreciate the value of reading.

One of my fondest memories as a child was the weekly trips to the library with my mother. Three excited children, my sister, brother and I, would walk alongside my mother to the local library a few kilometres away. We would proudly show off our yellow bags which were given to us at a Library Week event.

More than 30 years later, I still get goose bumps remembering the unique scent of books – glorious books – as we entered the library. We would scatter. My mum would head off to find Danielle Steele books. My sister would look for the latest Enid Blyton offering while my little brother’s heart was after picture books.

As for me, I would run my fingers along the titles on the shelves and search for that one book that would give me the greatest adventure of the week.

As the years went by I travelled on magic carpets, solved mysteries, visited exotic locations, fought wars and made friends without leaving our living room.

I found knowledge, courage and comfort in books.

I want the same for my son, Riav. We introduced him to some of the books in his library when he was in NICU in January this year.

By the time he came home at 28 days old, we had already read several stories to him. His library also grew as friends who understood my love for reading bought him books to welcome him into the world.

My husband and I made a commitment that we would read a story to him every day. At first we thought ourselves insane to make such a commitment as we struggled with a baby who had acid reflux and colic.

We would take turns trying to soothe him and a bedtime story was the last thing on our minds until we discovered that reading comforted him.

Soon the colic disappeared and was replaced by curiosity. He wanted to touch the books. We introduced him to cloth and  baby books with pages that he was able to turn on his own.

Our nightly story time continued “no matter what.”

During these moments when we sit on his play mat reading to him while he holds his book, we are creating memories while teaching him that there is something valuable – knowledge – in those pages.

At eight months old he already knows that the words I speak during our story times comes from those pages. When I stop speaking, he gestures to the book and waits for me to read on.

Baby Riav reads in the car on the way to school.

Each morning, when he is strapped into his car seat, I place a book on his lap.

His tiny hands open it and his eyes become brighter as he looks at the pictures on the page. Unfortunately he never finishes the book as he falls asleep before we make it out of our street, but he never lets go of it. He clings onto it throughout the journey to day-care.

Before he was born, visitors to our home would always ask why I had a collection of children’s books. And I would always reply: “ That’s my child’s inheritance .”

Teaching him to recognise that value of reading – that it can take you on an adventure, educate you, and entertain you – is the greatest inheritance that Riav will ever receive. And I, as his mother, will do my best to give it to him.

About the author:

Award winning news journalist Nivashni Nair Sukdhev is more than a word warrior. The senior South African journalist who ran the Durban bureau of The Times , these days balances her precious waking hours lobbing keyboard strikes against those in power on behalf of the downtrodden or voiceless; indulging her passion for shoes and shopping; keeping the man who swept her off her feet in a record 12-day romance happy; satisfying her bibliophile tendencies and most recently being rewarded with priceless, infectious laughs from the precious bundle of boy that symbolises her victory against Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome and infertility.

By: Puku Goes Live!

Posted on: september 12, 2017.

On Friday, Puku launched the new-look Puku.co.za website at the South African Book Fair.

Revamped to coincide with International Literacy Day 2017,  and in line with the theme “Literacy in a Digital World”, Friday the 8th of September, 2017 held a great deal of meaning for Puku’s Founder and Chairperson, Elinor Sisulu .

“ The Puku.co.za website went live in 2009, run by a small team with big dreams, to bridge the digital divide.  I feel quite nostalgic when I remember the passion and devotion of the founding team – Ben Williams, Colleen Higgs, Nonikiwe Ndebele and a thin, little UCT intern called Bontle Senne. ”

Following the progress of the website, Sisulu continues,

“ Bontle later became the MD of Puku and with the assistance of Thoughtworks, took the website to it’s next level .”

In life, as in digital, the only constant is change. After years of running a custom-built site in C#, the PUKU Board decided to refresh the site with newer and more accessible tools.

Taking direction from Board Member, Melvin Kaabwe, site-evaluations were done and input received from the Puku diaspora world-wide. After an exhaustive comparison of potential web development partners, the decision was made to enlist Country Digital. As a team that is well known in the SA Book scene as well as having developed sites in multi-language formats, it seemed a natural fit to work with Puku for a refreshed website.

“ Thanks to Jessica Faircliff and the Country Digital team, we now have a revamped website, ” concluded Elinor.

Elinor Sisulu was speaking at the Puku exhibition stand of the widely anticipated SA Book Fair 2017. The SA Book Fair was the culmination of the National Book Week held by the SA Book Development Council, an agency of the Department of Arts and Culture. More on the SA Book Fair here

The new Puku website is not only a source of news regarding mother-tongue literacy events. It will host

• a platform for authors to submit and review literature for children in African languages
• an opportunity for individuals and organisations to donate funds for Puku to continue it’s work
• publishers in children’s literature who wish to showcase their authors and illustrators
• an e-commerce portal for parents, teachers and organisations who wish to purchase children’s literature that has been reviewed by Puku language expert panels
• increased branding screen real-estate for sponsors
• mobile friendly content sections for mother-tongue language readers in rural areas with limited connectivity

Puku is excited to invite South Africa to join us online as we celebrate African children’s books.

@PukuBooks Celebrating launch of revamped https://t.co/Z5dyZ57fjQ website at #SAbookfair on InternationalLiteracyDay2017 pic.twitter.com/e97eGYTauC — Elinor Sisulu (@ElinorSisulu) September 8, 2017

By: Julia Donaldson Brings South Africa’s ‘UGLY FIVE’ to Life

Posted on: september 7, 2017.

Puku affiliate, Lynn Joffe, musician,  author of the Pitterpat the Crazee Caterpillar  books  and Brand Ambassador for the DBE’s Read to Lead campaign , speaks to the world’s biggest seller of children’s stories in the UK, past Children’s Laureate (2011-2013), Julia Donaldson.

As the Puku Children’s Literature Foundation launch the new puku.co.za website on World Literacy Day, 8 th September 2017, world-acclaimed author, Julia Donaldson shares the magic of Africa by spilling the beans on The Ugly Five…

8 September 2017

I first met Julia Donaldson at Exclusive Books in Melrose Arch in January 2016. A natural performer and musician – Donaldson was a singer-songwriter for decades before she turned to writing – her words and verse at that time were issued forth in an entertaining aural cascade for parents and children alike. I also lurked in the gods at the Linder Auditorium where an enthralled young audience recited every single word in tandem with Julia’s stage antics, but little did we suspect that coming to South Africa would be the catalyst for her new work. While Julia was on safari with her husband, Malcolm, she created a classic story-poem about Africa’s very own Ugly Five. I caught up with Julia and her illustrator, Axel Scheffler , by telephone to London, to speak about their funny and heart-warming new book.

‘The Ugly Five’ by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler

Lynn Joffe: I believe your inspiration began on safari when you saw a wildebeest for the first time?

Julia Donaldson: We’d actually seen a lot of wildebeest already.  We knew they were allegedly ugly – they are a bit ill-proportioned, I suppose – but my husband said they’d got rather a bad press and he thought they were strangely noble.  That’s when the ranger said, ‘I hate to tell you this, Malcolm, but the wildebeest is one of the ugly five.’ I immediately pricked up my ears and said, ‘Who are the other ugly five?’ I found out they consist of the spotted hyena, the lappet-faced vulture, the warthog and the marabou stork. So, the ugly five is an actual thing like the big five, I didn’t actually make it up.

Lynn Joffe: When the spark happened on that safari you said by the time you got back you almost had the whole piece outlined. How did that work from a creative point of view?

Julia Donaldson: It’s not like it’s a very complicated story, but nevertheless, it doesn’t often happen that way. Usually I get the germ of an idea; I might think I’d like to do a story about a dragon schoolteacher or something, but it might be months before I figure out exactly what’s going to happen. In this case, I got the whole story straight away, but then it was much more difficult when it came to actually writing it, because I then had to research all the animals and actually, they’re ugly in quite similar ways, because these mammals all have big forequarters and sloping backs and rather too big heads and it’s quite hard to try and make them very distinctive in the verse. So, it was quite a job actually writing it.

Lynn Joffe: Do you always imbue your animals with human qualities? Are they little monsters in your mind that become human? Is it a conscious choice?

Julia Donaldson: I think I’m just following a tradition of fables, like the tale of the hare and the tortoise. The hare is a hasty person who’s naturally able and doesn’t try hard enough and the tortoise is a slow person who gets there in the end. So, it’s the same with most of my stories. I suppose in this story it’s more like Hilaire Belloc – just having fun with words, finding ways of describing ugliness as best as I could. It wasn’t so much a matter of their individual characters.

Lynn Joffe: You write in rhyme, a form which children pick up first as ‘heard word’ and then progress to reading aloud and eventually read for themselves. In your choruses, when the characters sing, ‘ I’m the Ugly One …’ and then ‘ We’re the Ugly Two …’ and so on, I almost feel as if there’s music in the words. Do you have a song in your head already?

Julia Donaldson: It’s not just in my head, we’ve actually performed it.  And when the babies sing, it’s part of the song too and it soars up towards the end.

Lynn Joffe: You say that the songs already exist… When the stories come to you, do they come to you with the music? Do the tunes happen afterwards for you? Or at the same time?

Julia Donaldson: The music happens after the words – I was a songwriter for decades before I wrote any books, so song is my natural medium.

Lynn Joffe: Is the music going to be sold with the book? Or is it a separate project?

Julia Donaldson: Eventually there will be audio available, but it’s funny because lots of my books have songs, and so many parents have said, ‘We’ve got our own tune,’ and I thought it would be quite fun at some stage, to have a CD with all the different tunes that the parents have made up…

Lynn Joffe: I think that’s the appeal of your work to both parents and children; there’s something else in there for the reader who has to read this to their kids over and over again. Are you conscious of that when you write? Do you write for the parents as well?

Julia Donaldson: To be honest, I’m just writing the story. I’m not consciously thinking about the audience at all. So, some books end up a bit younger and some a bit older and so it’s really up to the publishers to market to the different ages. I must say, I get a kick out of writing stories that I know that grownups are going to read as well, because I think it must be a bit galling just to write for 9-year-olds. They’re reading and the parents don’t know what it’s about, so I like the fact that the parents are familiar with the stories.

Lynn Joffe: Question to you, Axel , as the illustrator – does Julia always come to you with the ideas? Do you ever brainstorm? How much input do you have into the story itself?

Axel Scheffler: I have no input at all.  She comes with the story finished and then I see it. We never sit together and think about the books. We only met after the first book was published. It’s been a very separate process and it worked very well.

Julia Donaldson: I think it’s the case with most authors and illustrator partnerships, unless they’re husband and wife or something like that. Everyone was a bit disappointed when they found that out. They kind of imagined that we’re sitting over brewing cups of coffee or swigging back red wine. I don’t think it would be fair for me to interfere with what Axel is doing and I wouldn’t like him to tell me what I had to write…

Lynn Joffe: And how does it come to you when you’ve said something in words and he sends back these creatures of your imagination; how does that feel?

Julia Donaldson: It’s great with Axel because I’m familiar with his work. It’s always very hard when you have a new illustrator and you do, of course, have a picture in your head and how they see it isn’t going to be the same.

Lynn Joffe: When you do conceive the book, I know it isn’t finished by the two of you. In The Ugly Five , the text is separate to the illustrations – is that a deliberate decision from a layout point of view?

Axel Scheffler: There is sometimes text on illustrations and we made the decisions with the designer, the art director and the editor and publisher to give this book a different look, because it is a different book… more like a poem, I find.

Axel Scheffler © Liam Jackson

Julia Donaldson: I’d really wanted that for a long time, but normally my books contain more complicated stories and you kind of need little vignettes, etcetera, but because this is a patterned poem or song, it just lends itself to that classic look which I really love. I’m really, really pleased with that.

Lynn Joffe: Do the two of you ever clash on the vision of the stories and pictures? Is there ever any conflict creatively?

Axel Scheffler: I know that Julia often has different ideas of what the characters look like, but we don’t have direct contact.

Julia Donaldson: I think initially I did see the animals as a bit more exaggeratedly ugly, but Axel is quite keen that they should retain their nobility.

Axel Scheffler: I did feel it wasn’t really my style to make them grotesque caricatures of the real animals. I wanted them to be more natural and they always look different anyway.

Lynn Joffe: Julia , how long did it take from that moment in the safari park to publication?

Julia Donaldson: That was last January and it was just published now, so, a year and a half.

Lynn Joffe: So, it seems that what the publishing process allows you to do, is focus on your true talent on your creative writing and Axel on your illustrations and the business side is left to a veritable factory of people?

Axel Scheffler: Yes, it’s a very complicated process because we have very high print runs so it is logistically quite a big enterprise, but I actually only took five to six weeks to do the actual pictures.

Lynn Joffe: Wow. That’s some kind of deadline.

Axel Scheffler: Yeah, there is a deadline, but I was very late. Always when it’s late, there’s the pressure of a few weeks.

Lynn Joffe: Are your books going to be translated into any South African languages?

Julia Donaldson: I know it’s going into Afrikaans… and perhaps into Zulu and Xhosa…?

Lynn Joffe: Do you have any input into the way that the poem is rendered?  For example, South African languages don’t rhyme the same way as English; they have more of an internal rhyme with assonance and rhythm and the like…

Julia Donaldson: Look, the Gruffalo is in 72 languages. If I had to spend all my time pouring over the languages and overseeing the rhyming, I don’t think I’d have any time left to write.

The Gruffalo translated in New Zealand

I think some of the translations rhyme, some don’t, some probably have other features. For the Maori edition in New Zealand, their language has only a certain amount of consonants, so they couldn’t name the Gruffalo ‘ The Gruffalo ’, because they didn’t have certain letters, so they called it Te Tanguruhau . There are many challenges for different translators. Some languages I can vaguely speak… I can recite some of the books in French, German and Italian and Scottish as well.

Lynn Joffe: I see that you’re very involved in animal conservation as part of the heart of the book. Any plans to come out to see us again?

Julia Donaldson: I’d love to! We’re starting a partnership with Tusk which is a charity which works on conservation of animals. They’re hosting their Tusk Awards in Cape Town in October this year, so we’re helping promote Tusk alongside the book and we’re getting some events with them next year. We’re hoping that The Ugly Five spreads the word and gets people more interested in animal conservation.

Lynn Joffe: You have an educational piece at the end of the book that speaks about the Big Five, the Ugly Five, the Shy Five. Do you have any plans to do a sequel?

Julia Donaldson: I was looking at it the other day. I didn’t have much input into that; it was really the editor’s idea to have those pages at the back. I think when I’m writing I tend to want to do something different from the book before, so if I haven’t had a villain for a long time I’ll write a book with a villain. I don’t think that straight away I’d write another book about South African animals, but it is something to think about in the future.

Lynn Joffe: How many books do you write? What kind of pace to you keep?

Julia Donaldson: Well, I suppose I’ve had four major books published… I spend much more time doing interviews like this and putting on shows and presentations. We’re about to do some performances at the Leicester Square Theatre in London so I’m staying in a hotel in London. Perhaps I’m more of a performer and dramatiser than a writer?

Lynn Joffe: Are The Ugly Five songs going to be part of that new show?

Julia Donaldson: We actually did some performances at a safari park in Scotland and there was a vulture. Not a lappet-faced vulture, but there was a vulture called Kevin…

Lynn Joffe: Safari parks in Scotland? Good grief!

Julia Donaldson: There’s a few. Not at all on the scale of South Africa. More like a big zoo with fields for the animals, it’s not that they’re actually roaming wild and unfenced.

Lynn Joffe: It’s been an honour,  a privilege and an inspiration to be in direct touch with you. I was at your concerts and shows in Johannesburg and saw how children and parents alike are enthralled by your personality. The presence of a great author on stage – with a great book – is something I’ll never forget. I’m sure South Africa can’t wait to get their hands on their own copy of The Ugly Five .

The Ugly Five , the new picture book by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler, is out in September 2017

Published by Alison Green Books, imprint of Scholastic

Image: Lynn Joffe

By: Digital writing – is the Internet changing the way we write?

Submitted by Fiona Beal What comes to your mind when you hear the term ‘digital writing’?  Is digital writing something we need to take note of or explore in the classroom? The answer is a resounding yes! There is no doubt that in our current digital age, the Internet is transforming the meaning of what it means to write. No longer is writing private and personal, or confined to a learner’s workbook, as it once was – it is now loudly and widely proclaimed and shared and remixed with other writing by means of the tools available on the Internet. The interesting thing is that as a result of the opportunities that digital writing affords, more people than ever before are writing…digitally!

What exactly is digital writing? A very simple definition is that digital writing is writing that doesn’t require a pen and paper. It is writing that goes beyond text as a result of using technology. Digital writing can become a multimedia experience that includes images, sound and video due to the vast availability of web resources.   Digital writing can take many formats. It can be anything from a text message, an email, a book review, a comment on a news article or blog post, a tweet, a Facebook update to a blog post or self-published novel.  It often contains hyperlinks which link it to other writing. There is even some blur starting to emerge between the written and the spoken word with the advent of voice typing.

Digital writing and traditional schooling Digital technologies have made it easy to “write” in all sorts of new ways which are different to traditional writing at school.  The truth is that young people are writing more than they ever did and school mostly doesn’t take into account the digital reality that our learners live in daily. Educators are being faced with the challenge of changing and adapting their traditional teaching of writing practices to ones that are more relevant.

Here are ten ideas to get you started with digital writing The following ideas relate both to you personally and to your learners if you are a teacher. We encourage you to try some of them.

1) Note-taking or reflection apps

2) Annotate PDFs digitally

3) Mind mapping

Mind mapping and brainstorming often go hand in hand. There are a number of great free tools one can use.  Brainstorming is a great way to get all those ideas down whilst thinking out of the box. Use a mind mapping app to display your brainstorm as a mindmap.  Four favourite, free mind mapping tools are Bubbl.us , Simplemind Free , Connected Mind , and Spiderscribe .

4) Virtual  Collaborative Boards

5) Create visual text

6) Virtual White Boards

A virtual whiteboard is great way to make one’s thinking visible.  A person can write, draw or sketch their thoughts in an uncluttered way. Some virtual whiteboards allow you to add colour. Some can be shared with others. Take a look at AWWAPP which is a simple, free, easy-to-use virtual whiteboard.

Twitter  (and ‘tweeting’) is a way of broadcasting short messages to one’s followers on Twitter in 140 characters. A picture can be included. Some high school teachers use a class Twitter account for getting their learners to improve their writing skills. A popular trend with teachers is for their learners to write a novel using Twitter. Take a look at some examples from well-known authors.  These Twitter novels would include the plot, pacing, character development, theme and an obvious story arc.

8) Collaborative writing

There are several online digital programs that allow users to write on the same canvas at the same time from different devices. This is great for collaborative story writing in the classroom. Primary Pad is such a program, and it is free. Each learner’s writing shows up in a different colour so that you can identify who wrote what.   You could give groups of three some writing prompts to choose from and they could discuss this as a  group and create a story from it. They then decide who will write the beginning, the middle and the end of the story and they do so individually on the shared primary pad program on their own devices at the same time. From there the draft can be edited and transferred to a PowerPoint for example to display. Learners enjoy these types of activities,

9) Story writing programs and e-book creators

10) Blogging Have you ever thought of creating a blog for yourself, or for your class if you are a teacher? Best is if your learners can each create their own blogs and use them as digital portfolios. Blogs are a space to share and reflect, and others can comment on the posts. Learners can write for a real world audience depending on how private you wish to make their blogs. The most popular free platforms for are Blogger , WordPress and Edublogs.

There’s so much to explore with regards to digital writing – the list of useful tools is endless. Think about trying out some of these ideas, or introducing them to your learners if you haven’t already done so. Digital writing will take us all to greater heights – much further than pen and paper ever could.

By: Giving heroism a new face with a South African identity

Posted on: september 5, 2017.

Through her Shadow Chasers trilogy, Bontle Senne hopes to inspire young black women. “I like the idea of a black girl also kicking butt and breaking down the gender stereotype,” she says. “It is important for young people to see heroes who look like them in mainstream media, role-models who represent their gender and background.”

Given African culture’s rich history of myth and magic, Senne finds it startling that the fantasy genre is yet to fully express itself in South African literature. Her fantastical new trilogy is opening up a whole new world of possibilities for her country’s children to explore, encouraging them to stimulate the source code of dreams – their imaginations.

Reads the full post see the Beautiful news video here

By: SCBWI Workshop: Collage, by Joan Rankin

Posted on: august 18, 2017.

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By: Sindiwe Magona Catalogue

Posted on: june 15, 2017.

For nearly thirty years, Sindiwe Magona has been authoring the lives of South Africans from a broad range of ethnic and economic backgrounds. Her probing and poignant stories, poems, articles, and plays examine the ever- thorny challenges within the apartheid and post-apartheid world.

Given her vast oeuvre, Magona and her works deserve the attention of an ever-increasing audience. Hers is a voice that lights a candle in the darkness to show the way for others to see through the eyes of a mired history into a future filled with hope and promise. She is an opportunity not to be missed. This celebration of her work is long overdue. Halala! Nomabali!

Download the Sindiwe Magona Catalogue here.

By: The Day Gogo Went to Vote

Posted on: may 25, 2017.

This Freedom Day marks 20 years since the publication in South Africa of the classic children’s book, The Day Gogo Went to Vote.

The story of a hundred-year old woman voting in South Africa’s first democratic election, was penned by Puku founding member and current Executive Director, Elinor Sisulu. The story is based on her own experience when working in a polling booth in the Johannesburg suburb of Bez Valley in the 1994 elections.

“It was one of the most moving experiences of my life,” she recalls.

“An old man dressed in tattered clothes presented us with his tattered ID. Because the photograph was unrecognisable, we could not allow him to vote. The presiding official, Malinda Miller, advised him to go to the Home Affairs office in the city centre to get a temporary ID.

My heart sank as he shuffled off.

He will never make it, I thought.

Minutes before we closed the polling booth at 6.00pm, in shuffled the same old man with his temporary ID and he managed to vote in the nick of time. Malinda Miller gave him the box of chocolates she had organised for the last voter and everyone in the polling booth stood up to applaud him. It was an emotional and satisfying climax to an extraordinary day and it was the main inspiration for the book that would have such an impact on my life.”

The Day Gogo Went to Vote was first published in the United States by Little, Brown and Co in 1996. Tafelberg Publishers bought the South African rights and went on to publish the book in six languages:

English, (The day Gogo went to vote), Afrikaans, (Die dag toe Gogo gaan stem het), isiZulu, (Mhla ugogo eya kovota), isiXhosa, (Mhla uGogo waya kuvota), Sesotho, (Mohla Gogo a neng a ilo vouta), Setswana, (Letsatsi le Nkoko a ileng ditlhophong)

In the US, The Day Gogo Went to Vote featured on the 1996 best books list of the American Library Association and the Smithsonian Institute. It won the 1995 Jane Adams Peace Award for books promoting democracy, as well as the African Studies Association 1996 Children’s Book Award.

The Day Gogo Went to Vote has been extensively reviewed in the US and is a standard text for teaching children about South Africa, voting and civic rights.

In South Africa, The Day Gogo Went to Vote was selected by the Library Association of South Africa as one of the 10 best books about South African democracy. Apart from that award, the book did not achieve the same level of accolade in South Africa, perhaps because there are few accolades for picture books in this country.

It was this experience that inspired author Elinor Sisulu to devote herself to promoting children’s books and was one of the motivating factors behind setting up the Puku Children’s Literature Foundation and the Puku Story Festivals, now gaining momentum in South Africa.

By: Puku Story Festival 2017

Posted on: february 21, 2017.

21 – 26 February 2017, Grahamstown

It is Puku Story Festival time in Grahamstown again and festival organisers are thrilled to announce that this year’s guest of honour is legendary musician, poet, storyteller and teacher Latozi Mpahleni, better known as Madosini. Widely acknowledged as the foremost living player of isitolotolo, uhadi and the umrhube mouth bow, Madosini is truly a national treasure formally recognised by the Department of Arts and Culture as a Living Legend.

Festival director, Ziyanda Gysman can hardly contain her excitement at having Madosini at the Festival this year. “Alongside other iconic Eastern Cape writers and artists such as Dr Sindiwe Magona and Dr John Kani, Madosini is internationally acclaimed in her field and has performed all over the world, but her work has not received the recognition that it should in the province of her birth, especially among the youth. Just as the Puku Story Festival gave the children of Grahamstown schools exposure to Sindiwe Magona and John Kani, so will we bring Madosini to the same audiences.”

This year’s celebration, which will mark the opening of the festival, will be a community event held in partnership with the Makana Municipality. The event will take place at the Noluthando Hall and will focus on activities for school learners, members of the Community Works Programme and guests from Elithembeni Old Age Home and the students from the local Adult Education and Training School. As has been the tradition of the past four years, International Mother Language Day will also be celebrated with the St Phillip’s Church Congregation in Fingo Village. This celebration on Sunday 26 February will mark the closing of the festival.

School Roadshows, focusing on Grades 1 -3 learners are scheduled for 22 February, in partnership with the Eastern Cape Department of Education’s Grahamstown District. Visits to three farm schools by the Puku Story Festival team will include storytelling sessions, presented in isiXhosa. The Nelson Mandela Institute and Nal’ibali will also present activities to encourage reading amongst children

The main festival venue has changed from the Monument to the new building of the National English Literary Museum (NELM) in Worcester Street, Grahamstown. A highlight of the Festival is the Exhibition that will run daily, alongside book launches, conversations and reading, and open mic sessions. The Exhibition is curated by the National English Literary Museum, and will be a display of isiXhosa children’s books and digital content, with a focus on environmental content.

The Children’s Programme provides exciting and interesting activities for children which will run throughout the day and aims to illustrate how work can be presented across multiple platforms – storytelling, print, theatre and more. The Festival will also demonstrate how to harness the digital space to promote indigenous oral and literary traditions and to foster intergenerational communication between artists and audiences.

Local and national artists, poets and musicians will have the opportunity for conversation on indigenous musical instruments and storytelling with Madosini, as well as young but highly-accomplished poet, musician, storyteller and children’s book writer Zanele Ndlovu, who plays traditional musical instruments with great skill. Zanele will perform and facilitate a workshop on how to make indigenous musical instruments from recycled material.

Young local poet Akhona Mafani who has been involved in the Puku Story Festival since its inception in September 2013, will launch his debut poetry album “Iintonga Zetyendyana”. Dr Mhlobo Jadezweni, of the Rhodes University Department of African Languages will facilitate the launch programme.

Author conversations will focus on new and innovative ways of self- publishing. Graphic designer and author, Siya Masuku will talk about how he wrote and published his book Siyafunda isiZulu. Zanele Ndlovu will do the same for her book Umakhweyana, Neo Mda, son of iconic author Zakes Mda, will talk about taking the plunge in illustrating and designing his father’s new children’s book The Prels of Ukhahlamba.

Unathi Magubeni, an Eastern Cape-based writer whose most recent book Nwelezelanga was shortlisted for the prestigious Etisalat Prize, will talk about how he departed from the corporate world to become a sangoma and pursue his love for writing. Author Sidima Mntubu will add his voice to the challenges of writing and publishing children’s books.

Dr Sindiwe Magona, who was honoured at the 2016 Puku Story Festival, has graciously agreed to join Puku Executive Director Elinor Sisulu in giving a Biography Writing Workshop, focusing on the value of biographies for children and young adults.

The Open Mic sessions that have been so popular in past sessions will be repeated, giving learners an opportunity to demonstrate their skills as storytellers and poets. Acclaimed stand-up comic Tsepiso Nzayo will be Programme Director for the Open Mic sessions, one of which will be dedicated to a poetry reading by local learners in commemoration of the anniversary of the sinking of the Mendi.

Other past festival favourites will be repeated- which include poet and musicologist Hleze Kunju’s popular poetry master classes and screenings of the feature film Intonga.

The site visits to the Printing Press have been extended to include visits to the International Library of African Music (ILAM), the South African Library for the Blind (SALB) and The Albany Museum.

The programme activities are designed to:

• Encourage amaXhosa as a linguistic community to appreciate the educational and cultural value of artists and writers of their language and to ensure that such work is accessed by educators
• Provide a platform for interaction between producers and consumers of these works
• Illustrate how work can be presented across multiple platforms – storytelling, print, theatre – and how to harness the digital space to promote indigenous oral and literary traditions.
• Strengthen children’s awareness of environmental issues

By: 25 Children’s Books to Teach Your Kids Meaningful Values

Posted on: february 8, 2017, as confucius said, “you cannot open a book without learning something.”.

Books are awesome, aren’t they? They open a whole new world of imagination, letting the reader travel to a distant land or accomplish otherworldly feats without leaving the comfort of their home. They stimulate the mind, increase knowledge, expand the vocabulary – and also teach important life lessons.  Puku found this cool list of children’s books that  Goodnet released on International Literacy Day last year.  These books teach meaningful values to children. Take a look here.

By: PUKU Afri Kids

The Puku Afri-kids Festival took place on Saturday 26 November at the SGI-South Africa Community Centre in Parkwood, Johannesburg.

Designed to appeal to children, teenagers, parents and grandparents, caregivers and educators, writers and cultural activists, the Puku Afri-kids Festival was a great success.

Children’s entertainment included storytelling by acclaimed storyteller Gcina Mhlophe, Zanele Ndlovu and others, puppet shows by Segosametsi-A-Afrika

An exhibition/mini-market for producers of local toys, books and games to showcase their products.

Book launches and Conversations were facilitated by Lebo Mashile, Nomvuyo Mzamane, Siya Masuku and Bontle Senne.

There was a strong environmental focus creating awareness amongst children. The main themes of the children programme were ‘Are we raising our children to be creators or consumers?’ and ‘Afri-kids Content: Industry or Illusion?’

Discussions looked at the kinds of books, toys and games that we want to promote for our children, Including content for children with special needs and how to promote environmental awareness through books and toys.

“In the few years of our existence as Puku, we have come across an amazing creativity and innovation in our communities. There is no reason why we should not have a thriving publishing and toy-making industry that addresses the needs of our children and their families. We aim to make the Afri-kids festival a platform that informs, entertains and promotes networking,” says Elinor Sisulu, founder of Puku and Festival Director of the Puku Afri-kids Festival.

“As an initiative focused on understanding the value that can be derived from waste, REDISA is committed to educating the youth about the importance of recycling and reusing products and this partnership with Puku allows us to do that in a fun and engaging way,” says Stacey Davidson, Director at REDISA who was headline sponsor of the event.

By: Books to help kids understand what it’s like to be a refugee

We see the news stories about refugees almost every day. We hear the true but almost unimaginable accounts of families forced to flee their homes, their homelands, their entire lives. While we may wish that our children didn’t have to know about such trauma, the facts are that it’s real and very present — and there are countless children actually living it. Stories can facilitate dialogue and promote healthy communication on this difficult topic, help to foster empathy and understanding, and even inspire young readers to take action to ensure safe and welcoming environments in their own communities.

Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich  give us a list of titles that can help on www.readbrightly.com

By: heavy screen time alters young brains.

There’s new evidence that excessive screen time early in life can change the circuits in a growing brain.

Scientists disagree, though, about whether those changes are helpful, or just cause problems. Both views emerged during the Society for Neuroscience meeting in San Diego this week.

The debate centered on a study of young mice exposed to six hours daily of a sound and light show reminiscent of a video game. The mice showed “dramatic changes everywhere in the brain,” said Jan-Marino Ramirez , director of the Center for Integrative Brain Research at Seattle Children’s Hospital.

“Many of those changes suggest that you have a brain that is wired up at a much more baseline excited level,” Ramirez reported . “You need much more sensory stimulation to get [the brain’s] attention.”

Read the full article here

By: What does it mean to be literate in the 21st century?

Posted on: february 7, 2017.

“Around the world, education systems are in crisis. Progress has been made to increase access to at least a basic education over the past several decades, but not nearly fast enough. At the current pace the last impoverished girl will not even have access to a classroom until 2086. More than 260 million children and adolescents remain out of school , and it is estimated that at least 250 million more are in school but not learning. The challenge of getting all children in school and learning is immense.

To address this, world leaders committed in 2016 to “ensure that all girls and boys complete free, equitable and quality primary and secondary education leading to relevant and effective learning outcomes” by 2030 in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

But what is quality learning in increasingly connected and rapidly evolving information and technology-dominated economy? What is it that children need to be learning now to be literate and ready for the jobs of the future, and how do we build systems designed to deliver this?”

Kolleen Bouchane, a poverty and development policy and advocacy expert explores this on www.aljazeera.com

By: Learning Tools

Posted on: february 1, 2017.

The 21st century has given widespread access to an array of digital technologies, which has redefined literacy to include negotiating online media in a variety of platforms, understanding visual and auditory messages, and recognizing which medium best suits both content and audience.

The exploding growth of high quality audiobook production, and the availability of affordable and instant downloads to any device, arrive at just the right time to delight young listeners and help with language understanding and fluency.

Listening comprehension

Children develop a wide, varied range of skills and experiences in their first decade, and audiobooks are able to address different learning styles as they develop. Since listening comprehension is typically two grades above visual reading skills, audiobooks can help meet the needs and developing skills of everyone from early print readers and young bookworms to delayed readers, tactile explorers and strong listeners.

Children who love the sounds and rhythms of language, for example, find audiobooks a compelling delight; they allow these children to explore rich language and repeat hearing stories that please them. Kinesthetic, or tactile-oriented children, can explore the story created in their mind’s eye through an audiobook performance while engaging in quiet play such as coloring. And at any age or reading level, audiobooks can positively impact vocabulary skills, pronunciation and reading accuracy.

“Libraries are reporting high popularity of free downloadable audiobooks in their collections, which are also expanding as digital access alleviates a library’s budget and space needs…”

Equal opportunity

Contemporary audiobooks drench young ears and minds in language, culture and imagination, all the reasons we value literacy skills. Audiobooks also help level the field between children with language-rich home environments and those with less family access to literacy. Like print books, audiobooks are available at public and school libraries. And libraries are reporting high popularity of free downloadable audiobooks in their collections, which are also expanding as digital access alleviates a library’s budget and space needs while also allowing for diversity and growth in accessible titles.

Audiobooks also offer children — and older listeners — a unique “reading” experience.

Authors, narrators and production directors come together to create a professional performance that enables the material and format to fit together seamlessly. A wide array of performance techniques and artistic interpretation used by narrators and producers help convey the author’s voice and writing style. The listening experience, as a result, is quite different from reading the same book in print.

Cognitive, educational, and social researchers provide a wealth of data and stories about the power of audiobooks and listening literacy.

Literacy initiatives that recognize the essential role of audiobooks have been developed and promoted by many national and international organizations, including the International Literacy Association, the National Conference of Teachers of English, the International Dyslexia Association, and Learning Ally.

Article by Michele Cobb

Executive Director, Audio Publishers Association

Originally published on www.educationandcareernews.com

By: Puku Story Festival 2016 – Dr Sindiwe Magona

Posted on: february 27, 2016.

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Edyth Bulbring

The Mark is the award-winning book of the English Academy’s 2016 Percy FitzPatrick Prize for Youth Literature.

In the future, the world has flipped. Ravaged by the Conflagration, this is a harsh place where the sun beats down, people’s lives are run by a heartless elite and law is brutally enforced. A mark at the base of the spine controls each person’s destiny. The Machine decides what work you will do and who your life partner will be. Juliet Seven – “Ettie” – will soon turn 15 and her life as a drudge will begin, her fate-mate mate will be chosen. Like everyone else, her future is marked by the numbers on her spine. But Ettie decides to challenge her destiny. And in so doing, she fulfils the prophecy that was spoken of before she even existed.

The Mark was published by Tafelberg in September 2014.

The Mark is a fast-paced, gritty and uncomfortable read and Bulbring maintains a cracking pace, blending elements of SF  dystopia with nuances of magical realism. Pick this one up if you’re looking for something slightly different –  Nerine Dorman, Pretoria News

Darker than The Hunger Games and more thrilling than Divergent, Edyth Bulbring’s new dystopian novel will fascinate teen readers – Fiona Snyckers, The Sunday Times

This is the South African fiction we have all been waiting for –  Nikki McDiarmid, Puku

A dystopian, futuristic, mystical dark novel with twists and turns that keeps its reader enthralled to the last page. With its examination of a futuristic political system, it would make a great setwork for teenage pupils – Stephanie Saville, The Witness

Bulbring paints a believable society in which steampunk is married to advanced technology. Although there is action and excitement, the focus is on the characters and their emotions, so this is never just another post-apocalyptic adventure story but something deeper and more serious – Aubrey Paton, The Herald

Edyth Bulbring is South Africa’s premier story-teller for young adults – Library Thing

Exclusive Books

The Mark on the Wall

By virginia woolf, the mark on the wall character list.

The narrator of “The Mark on the Wall” bears many of the distinctive hallmarks of being a thinly-veiled, semi-fictional self-portrait of the author, although Woolf never explicitly asks the reader to make this connection. Not much is really known about the narrator except that she is a woman, probably rather young, married, and well-educated. More than a few hints lead toward a strong suspicion that she is a writer, although no concrete evidence exists to make this assumption foolproof. The fact that she is sitting in a chair staring at a hole on the wall while her mind contemplates a thousand different things without engaging in conversation or referencing the fact that another person is there in the room with her—a person whom, it can be assumed, is her husband—strongly suggests a strained relationship marked by emotional distance and a lack of awkwardness during periods of sustained silence.

The Husband

The other person in the room is not explicitly identified as the narrator’s husband, but all contextual clues point to this being the case. Not a whole lot is known about the husband other than the fact that he is perfectly comfortable sitting in the same room as his wife and having no words at all pass between them for extended periods of time. It can also be extrapolated contextually that he is not particularly aware of what might be going through his wife’s head due to his very casual and dismissive identification of the mark on the wall. What is known for sure is that the husband is angered by the continuing war in Europe; we may also assume that this outrage is affecting his domestic enjoyment. The snail that the mark on the wall turns out to be is transformed into just another imperfection to complain about, and something upsetting his putative expectations of perfection.

The snail is the third major player in this odd little drama. While it does not speak and is not directly involved in the action—it is not even identified as a snail until the very end of the story—the snail is not only the title character, but also the catalyst for the stream-of-consciousness meandering through the vividly engaged mind of the ironically reposed narrator. The snail’s lack of easy identification and its potential for actually being a variety of other things stimulate the narrator to move broadly about through both space and time, thus making her physical immobility practically pointless in giving an accurate and full summary of the story.

The Mark on the Wall Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for The Mark on the Wall is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

In your own words, explain what happened to all the trees, and explain the only way Ettie can see them if she wants to.

The Mark on the Wall is a short story by Virginia Woolf. What title and author does your question pertain to?

Explore how the Mangarians were dishonest.

I'm sorry, I see no evidence of the term, Mangerians, in The Mark on the Wall by Virginia Woolf.

Are you referring to The Mark on the Wall by Virginia Woolf? This is a short story.

Study Guide for The Mark on the Wall

The Mark on the Wall study guide contains a biography of Virginia Woolf, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

• About The Mark on the Wall
• The Mark on the Wall Summary
• Character List

Essays for The Mark on the Wall

The Mark on the Wall essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of The Mark on the Wall by Virginia Woolf.

• “The Mark on the Wall” as a Representation of the Thought Process
• ‘The mundane’ in the short stories of James Joyce and Virginia Woolf
• Pursuing Reality in the Mystery of the Unconscious
• ‘There is much more to the telling of a story than simply listing what happens.’ Compare and contrast the narrative methods of any two modernist and/or postmodernist texts

Lesson Plan for The Mark on the Wall

• About the Author
• Study Objectives
• Common Core Standards
• Introduction to The Mark on the Wall
• Relationship to Other Books
• Bringing in Technology
• Notes to the Teacher
• Related Links
• The Mark on the Wall Bibliography

The Mark on the Wall

Virginia woolf, ask litcharts ai: the answer to your questions, the narrator.