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Jay Heale Speaks Visual Language With Four New SA Children's Books

by Nonikiwe - Editor on 24 Jan 2011   |   

Today I’m going to introduce you to four South African illustrators. The first thing children look at is the pictures. But do you know how to look? Can you look into the pictures? Do they show details that are not in the text? Do they convey atmosphere?

All four books are impressive, hard-cover volumes. Three are published by Human & Rousseau; the one illustrated by Fiona Moodie comes from Tafelberg. They are all in Afrikaans. I admit happily that I have absolutely no right to comment on the writing in the books because I don’t know enough of the language. But I do know a little about visual language.

• Read complete article at Gorrybowestaylor

Story Club Franchise Hopes to Spread Love of Reading Across SA

by Bontle on 07 Oct 2010   |   

The Story Club is a fun, new concept for young readers. It operates in pre-schools and playgroups as an extramural activity. It is in essence a book club for young readers from age 3 to 6.

The aim of this club is to promote learning through the love of reading and to have this imprinted on a child at an early age. Learning to read creates such an exciting challenge to young people as they begin to understand the written word and begin to imagine, fantasize and become a part of the story. Reading enhances a love and respect for books and these Story Club reading sessions give children the time to sit and listen, helping with their concentration levels, language skills and auditory and; visual perception.

The Story Club is currently operating in Hillcrest in KwaZulu Natal and Observatory in Gauteng

• Visit the Story Club Website

New Comic with Muslim Boy Superhero Planned

by Bontle on 06 Oct 2010   |   

Comic book fans will soon be getting their first glimpse at an unlikely new superhero – a Muslim boy in a wheelchair with superpowers.

US philanthropist and businessman Jay T Snyder says he was inspired by President Barack Obama’s effort to reach out to the Muslim world in his inaugural address.

The superhero’s appearance hasn’t been finalised, but he definitely will be a Muslim boy in a wheelchair. An early sketch shows a boy who lost his legs in a landmine accident and later becomes the Silver Scorpion with the power to control metal with his mind.

• Read the complete article

The Multilingual Children's Association Gives Tips for Boosting a Child's Second Language

by Nonikiwe - Editor on 02 Sep 2010   |   

by Christina Bosemark, founder of the Multilingual Children’s Association

Your toddler may think that he or she’s a complete superhero –and when it comes to language acquisition, it’s actually true! As easy as acquiring multiple languages is for small children, the single most important factor in language learning is the quantity of spoken language addressed to the child. So, if you worry that you aren’t providing enough, here are a few tricks to boost your superhero’s inherent powers.

1. Other kids: Join (or start) a playgroup for the second language. Children of all ages will learn from each other; there simply are no better language teachers than other kids. An added bonus will be that you will connect with other parents of bilingual children.

2. Books: Of course you know how vital those precious one-on-one moments are, but remember that they can be infused with language learning also. Books are the most effective tool for teaching language, and so I advise all parents: “Start reading at birth and never stop!” A good way to add to reading time (and make it really personal) is to create a dialogue, encouraging your child’s comments, responses, and elaborations. Talk about what the characters are like and what they might be doing next.

3. The right stuff: From books, add video, television and games. There are a multitude of aides towards fluency. In particular, games that use rhyming will make the most of language memory, but “I Spy”, “Bingo” and “Memory” with picture cards will also playfully build vocabulary.

4. Sing and dance: Children absolutely love music, but don’t rely solely on recorded music; your own singing, even if it is off-key, will still serve to unite melody and words for your child more surely than any professional recording ever could. Melody is also a fantastic memory aid. Think about how much easier children learn their ABCs when they sing them, compared to just reciting them. And, the combination of music with movement and gestures will enliven it all — as well as provide a nice outlet for squirmy toddlers.

5. Tap into their interests: Whatever your child's enthusiasms may be — whether a love of soccer, dance, or horses — make an effort to 'involve' these passions in the second language. “My 3-year old son is a really big “Bob de Bouwer” (Bob the Builder) fan,” says Martin Fredriks. “So now we always watch it in Dutch, and he’s even started speaking in Dutch when he plays with the Bob the Builder toys.”

6. Be creative: The trick is to give the child lots to talk about, so draw out that conversation! Encourage them to make up their own stories, play dress-up and pretend in the second language. Even painting, working with sidewalk chalk, or moulding clay usually creates more vocabulary than art! Older children may enjoy calling or using a webcam for calls overseas (one such free service is Skype).

7. Outside the box: Isabella Vellaccio, a mother in Washington DC, who reached beyond the obvious says, “I wanted my son to hear Italian from someone else than just me, and the playgroups were all during my working hours.” Isabella decided to attend the church coffee after the Italian mass on Sundays. “The older Italian parishioners were thrilled to see him learn Italian.” Needless to say, with that much attention, and Italian cookies, he loved it.

8. Baby sitter: Find a college student who speaks the language, or for something more consistent, try a nanny or an au-pair.

9. Visits: The ultimate language boost is to visit the country where it is spoken. Total immersion for a couple of weeks has an amazing effect. And visits from friends or family also provide a valuable boost.

10. Enthusiasm: While the quantity of spoken language is the most important factor in learning a language, the second most vital ingredient is the amount of positive feedback the child hears. Early on, when a child is struggling to get those first syllables out, resist the urge to correct…it can actually inhibit language skills.

There is a myriad of ways to ensure that foreign language time is “quality time”, but like any other aspect of parenting: trust your judgment, employ your imagination, and listen very, very well. So, these are great tricks to use for children growing up with multiple languages.

• Read the complete article

Children's Zone Events Promise to Delight Children of All Ages

by Bontle on 27 Jul 2010   |   

The Cape Town Book Fair is celebrating its fifth birthday this year. This weekend at CTBF, there will be plenty for parents and children alike to do, see and learn. Events at the Children’s Zone include story-times, dress-up competitions, meeting some characters from everyone’s favourite children’s books and listening to authors reading from their books.

We’ve just celebrated Nelson Mandela’s 92nd birthday, and you can listen to his favourite folktales from a book filled with 32 stories from our country and the rest of Africa. It’s at noon on Saturday 31 July in the Children’s Zone.

If you love nature, join Lulu for story time when she reads the stories of Eric the Baboon and Peter, Pamela and Percy in the Big Spill at 2pm on Saturday 31 July.

On Sunday at 11.30, come along to the Children’s Zone dressed up as your favourite Princess of Pirate character. Pan MacMillan will be giving away Priddy Princess and Pirate giveaways.

• The CTBF Children’s Prgramme

• Read the complete article

Book details

• Peter, Pamela and Percy in the big spill by Linda Fellowes
  Book homepage
  EAN: 9780620410465
  Find this book with BOOK Finder!

• Nelson Mandela’s Favourite African Folktales by Nelson Mandela
  EAN: 9781600246661
  Find this book with BOOK Finder!

Children's Story Book of Angolan Roberto Martin Out in August

by Bontle on 18 May 2010   |   

The Angolan writer, producer and actor, Roberto Martin, will present his new children’s literary work, a story book entitled O menino de Ouro (The Golden Boy), in August 2010. Martin made the announcement while autographing copies of his latest book entitled Lutarei Até ao Fim.

Mártin has also filmed a fifteen-minute movie, also to be released this year, inspired by O menino de Ouro. The movie portrays the story in the book: the life of a 10-year old boy from a poor family who dreams of success.

According to the writer the book “O Menino de Ouro” was writen to help and to stimulate children to like reading. “We have a large deficit in books for children that speak about our culture and tell stories about our provinces, this book and others will speak about our reality”, he said.

• Read the complete article at All Africa

Singapore Holds it's First Children’s Content Festival

by Nonikiwe - Editor on 11 May 2010   |   

It’s interesting that we face the same problems here in South Africa; we also need more stories available in our indigenous languages and more qualified translators are needed to keep the stories alive, fresh and fun for kids. Let’s take note of how other countries are tackling these issues. Read more below to see how Singapore is dealing with these issues through it’s Children’s Content Festival.

This past weekend, the first Asian Festival of Children’s Content was held in Singapore. It may be the first literary festival of it’s kind to replace the word “literature” with “content.” But, hey, Singapore has always viewed itself as a progressive nation-state.

Claire Chiang, the festival’s advisory board chairperson, told Publishers Weekly’s Terry Tan: “We have had easy access to, and benefited from, a wide selection of educational and entertainment content from the West. In contrast, Asian materials, even those already available in the marketplace, are seldom translated and promoted, and therefore largely unexplored. This is a big loss for children worldwide, and an untapped industry with tremendous potential.”

Among the other issues raised were the need for more qualified translators for Asian languages, the dearth of collaborative projects, and the lack of a database tracking books published in Asia.

• Read the complete article at Publishing Perspectives

• Read here for more on AFCC

African Books for Children Slot at the Bologna Children's Book Fair

by Nonikiwe - Editor on 24 Mar 2010   |   

The annual Bologna Children’s Book Fair is running from Tuesday 23rd to Friday 26th March and will be covering a number of topics through different categories such as the TV and Film Centre, Illustrators exhibition, Traslators Centre, and the Literary Agents Centre to name a few, but what really stood out for me was of course the African Books for Children slot. Read here to get more about the Programme.

African books for children
A round table about the new titles for children published in Africa, their authors and illustrators, the publishing and distribution of African children’s books.
Participants: Phocas Ekouedjin, Afrilivres (Association of African Francophone Publishers) and Tainie Mundondo, Apnet (African Publishers Network), Publishers from Benin, Senegal, Tanzania, Cameroon, Mauritius and Rwanda
Moderator: Viviana Quiñones, BnF /CNLJ-La Joie par les livres
Organised by Bibiliothèque nationale de France, Centre national de la littérature pour la jeunesse – La Joie par les livres in co-operation with Bologna Children’s Book Fair
Programme
Round table : « African books for children »
Wednesday March 24th, from 11 am to 1 pm . Room Vivace.
From 11 to 12 am :
A round table about the new titles for children published in Africa, their authors and
illustrators, the publishing and distribution of African children’s books.
Organised by Bibliothèque nationale de France, Centre national de la littérature pour la jeunesse –
La Joie par les livres
Moderator Viviana Quiñones, BnF / CNLJ-La Joie par les livres
With
- Phocas Ekouedjin of Afrilivres, association of African francophone publishers
- Tainie Mundondo of Apnet, African publishers network
? Publishers from Benin, Senegal, Tanzania, Cameroon, Mauritius and Rwanda
From 12 to 1 pm :
Takam Tikou, online journal on children’s books and reading in Africa, the Arab world, the
Caribbean and the Indian Ocean.
This 20 year-old journal goes online! A presentation of its new formula by the team of Takam
Tikou.
Organised by Bibliothèque nationale de France, Centre national de la littérature pour la jeunesse –
La Joie par les livres

• Bologna Children’s Book Fair details here

African Children Writing Books for American Market

by Bontle on 12 Mar 2010   |   

Kevin McCaffrey left his consulting company to start a business producing children’s books written by children in across Africa and South America and market them to American children. The idea to start his company came from two summer away from his native United States: first teaching English in Ecuador with WorldTeach and then on a Nairobi to Cape Town trip another summer. He called his publishing house First Person Publishing and their most recent publication has been available since December 2009 and was written by children in Tanzania.

Written in collaboration with 61 Losinoni students and illustrated by Penny Weber, On My Way to School gives children a colorful glimpse into Losinoni students’ multiple kilometres trek to school from their remote village– showing the sacrifices that many African children are willing to make for the opportunity to go to school. Sales of On My Way to School will support improvements at Losinoni Primary School in northern Tanzania, where the money raised from the sale of one book can provide school lunch for 250 students for a day.

First Person Publishing has also partnered with AfricAid on a newly launched project where schools can sell copies of On My Way to School and raisie funds to participate in AfricAid’s new Kisa Project. Sponsors in the U.S. will be matched up with a young woman in Africa through an interactive website that will allow both the sponsors and the scholarship recipient to upload videos, photos, and text. First Person Publishing believes that this is an incredible opportunity for teachers to bring global education into the classroom in a very meaningful way – for both their students and the student their school sponsors.

• Learn more about the project and the book

Book details

• On My Way to School by AfricAid Inc., Losinoni Primary School, Paul Kim, illustrated by Penny Weber
  EAN: 9780984214600
  Find this book with BOOK Finder!

The State Of Writing And Publishing For Children In Africa

by Nonikiwe - Editor on 09 Mar 2010   |   

I came across this interesting article by a person who goes by the name Chailit. Though I’m not sure where Chailit orginates from I did find the piece very informative. Here is some food for thought on the Present Situation for Writing and Publishing Creative Writing for Children in Africa.

Africa has been marked by a dearth of books, especially picture story books for younger children reflecting an African environment both in textual context and illustration. Problems militating against a rapid growth in writing and publishing for children in Africa include the following:

(1) The bulk of reading matters available to the African child are textbooks rather than books for pleasure and enjoyment.

(2) Most children’s books are still imported. Such imported works are mostly insensitive to local culture, and unreflective of the social realities of the African child and his aspirations.

(3) Not enough African published children’s books are available.

(4) If they are available the illustrations in them are either

(a) of poor quality

(b) not in full colour

(c) Do not have beautiful dust jackets.

(5) And if they are in full colour, and of good quality, they are either much too expensive or for an elitist few and well beyond the reach of most African children, especially those in the rural areas.

(6) Most serious African authors do not bother to write for children since it is not accorded the same status as writing for adults.

Africa has very little concern for written literature. Even Nigeria which is rich in award-winning authors is marked by neglect of her authors. Writers are seldom as honoured.as footballers are. Hardly any foundations exist to boost the creativity of African writers. Prizes for literature are also in short supply. Book Development Councils seem to be either non-existent or collapsing except in Ghana. In Sierra Leone and the Gambia its absence is still being bemoaned. Whereas in Nigeria where one was once set up to develop indigenous book publishing, it hardly made any impact until it was swallowed up by the Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council. In Africa generally adults seldom read children’s books – not even parents. Compared to the over 2,000 titles published every year for children in Britain, the output in Nigeria is hardly up to 60.

In spite of the over 100 publishers in Nigeria the situation remains bleak for children’s literature. This is due mainly to their textbook orientation which makes them lazily rely on a captive school market. It has been proven that if only African children had access to more books they would read outside the classroom. An illustration of this fact could be seen from the 1985 Ife Book Fair where the Children’s Literature Association of Nigeria (CLAN) held a special exhibition of books

Visitors to that stand were fascinated by the colourful poster illustrations of folktales decorating the wall, the top and back of shelves. Some even wanted to buy the poster-sized illustrations made by a very gifted woman artist from the Nigerian television authority. The festive air given to the stand by the balloons decorating it along with the colourful posters attracted many children. There was the astonishing sight of three children of varying ages reading one picture book at the same time, visibly very fascinated by this picture book entitled No Bread for Eze by Ifeoma Okoye and published by Fourth Dimension in Enugu. It was one of those picture books where both story and illustrations were ideally integrated. It was about a young boy Eze who loved bread and could not eat enough of it. He wanted bread all the time. So his exasperated parents made him eat nothing but bread. Eze was at first very happy. Nobody was pressurizing him to eat nourishing food. But he soon grew tired of eating bread all the time and pleaded with his parents to give him other types of food. But they would not relent. So Eze became tired of bread and stopped eating. He grew hungry and weak and could not even play football with his friends. In the end his parents relented and Eze began to enjoy a balanced diet, having learnt that boys shall not live by bread alone. This emphasizes the importance of illustrations in children’s books, for those children were fascinated not only by the story of Eze but also by the imaginative and sometimes humorously drawn pictures. If children are to acquire the reading habit, they must be given attractive books which also mean well-illustrated books. Even a two-year old baby can enjoy looking at a picture book. Picture books could indeed be expensive to some extent if one insists on printing in four colours which is ideal as could be seen in the lavishly illustrated folktale The Drum specially written for children by Chinua Achebe. But even line and wash drawings could be so well drawn that they too could be captivating.

• Read the complete article