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Role Models Help Book Club Inspire Children of Nigeria

by Bontle on 26 May 2010   |   

The Rainbow Book Club was born in 2004, as part of the R.E.A.D (Rainbow Education for Advancement and Development) Africa Foundation.The group decided to capitalise on the fact that young people are inspired by role models – resulting in the very successful initiative of getting leaders to read to children.

Key figures in society read to school children (often dramatising the stories) and interact with them on an informal level. They talk about the book they’ve read and share their own experiences and love of books. The children are invariably enthralled and inspired to keep on reading. Celebrities reading to children is a concept that has been used in other countries around the world, but Rainbow has pioneered the scheme in Nigeria. Role models that have been involved in the club include the Nobel Laureate, Wole Soyinka; Governor Amaechi of Rivers State; Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State; and Dora Akunyili, the Minister of Information.

The Rainbow Book Club hosts Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani, author of I Do Not Come To You By Chance on Sunday, June 6.

• Read the complete article at Next

Book details

• I Do Not Come to You by Chance by Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani
  EAN: 9781401323110
  Find this book with BOOK Finder!

Nigerian Students Lose Interest in Reading

by Bontle on 19 May 2010   |   

Gone are the days when students were hungry to learn in Nigeria. After independence, young Nigerians seemed very passionate about education and reading. Teachers recently have begun to observe declining interest in education and learning, which is being reflected in the dismal, nationwide examination results.

Some students in Junior or Senior Secondary school found themselves in literature classes and do not know who African literary giants, Chinue Achebe or Wole Soyinka, are. Unlike their post-liberation counterparts, they do not read novels. This has many teachers and parents in Nigeria worried about the future of their country.

How can a student who has no passionate hunger for reading and acquiring knowledge succeed as a literature student? How can a science student who has no deep and consistent hunger to know more about scientific laws, experiments and knowledge succeed as a science student? Your guess is as good as mine. Success comes to any student who will develop and maintain a passionate hunger for knowledge and backs it up with hard-work and persistence.

• Read the complete article at All Africa

Beem Explores Africa in the Latest Book from Nigerian Publisher

by Bontle on 12 May 2010   |   

Beem Explores Africa follows a young Nigerian girl, Beem, as she explores the continent of Africa, meets its people and animals, and visits its key geographical and historical sites.

The book introduces children to the physical and human geography of Africa. It has easy-to-read text and a glossary to explain key geographical terms, and vivid hand-painted illustrations.

• Visit the Book’s Website

Book details

• Beem Explores Africa by Simidele Dosekun
  Book homepage
  EAN: 9789780799939
  Find this book with BOOK Finder!

Nigerians Shocked at NECO Examination's 2% Pass Rate

by Bontle on 21 Apr 2010   |   

Results published just a few weeks ago reveal that only 1.80 percent of candidates who sat for the 2009 November National Examination Council (NECO) examinations passed, resulting in a failure rate of more than 98 percent.

This national examination is taken by 234,682 candidates but only 4,000 got the minimum requirement of a credit in all five subjects to pass. English and Mathematics were among the credits that candidates failed to pass. The implication is that the candidates, who are mainly16 and 19-years old, are not qualified to enroll in higher institutions. In Nigeria, where 75 percent of the population is under the age 35 and over 60 percent of those are of the secondary school age, the results of the NECO examination have grave implications for the future of the country.

Yemitan Raphael, a M.Sc student in the Statistics Department of University of Ibadan said:

I would lay the blame primarily on the schools. It’s rather unfortunate that 98 per cent of all Nigerian students who took the exams could not make five credits in Mathematics and English Language. Even the private schools that make huge demands on parents in terms of fees and extra lessons could not fare better. It’s time we stopped blaming the government on everything. Did the government write the exams? Did they teach the students? Did they conduct lessons for them? Did they invigilate the students? I think the bulk of the blame should stop at the schools, the teachers and what they teach.

In contrast, South Africa’s pass rate in the 2009 matric examinations were 60.6% – down from 62.5% who passed in 2008.

• Read More about the NECO Examinations

• Read More about what Ordinary Nigerians Think

Authors Promote Mother Tongue Among Children in Nigeria

by Bontle on 01 Apr 2010   |   

In Nigeria, as in many African countries, many people no longer speak their mother languages. Many Nigerian parents teach and prefer their children to speak in English for diverse reasons including that they feel their children will be more intelligent, and command more respect if they speak English proficiently.

Comfort Ubosi has written a book entitled Functional Igbo to tackle this issue head-on. Speaking at the launch of the book earlier this month, Ubosi said she wrote the book because there is an “urgent need to restore our lost values and train adults and children alike on the need of speaking and understanding the Igbo Language.”

Various Nigerian dignitaries and academics attended the launch to promote Ubosi‘s cause. The population of Igbo speakers is about 20 million but there is a growing fear that the speakers of the language are gradually becoming all but extinct.

Many people suggested that Igbo language should be added to the school curriculum and that Igbo pupils should be mandated to offer it while others also argued that in some schools that offer the subject, pupils deliberately avoid offering it.

• Read the Complete Article at All Africa

Storytelling with Nigerian Princess and Writer Carroll Ayo Durodola

by Nonikiwe - Editor on 29 Mar 2010   |   

First She brought us a sweet story about perseverance based on a true story about her father with Tunde, the Little Nigerian Prince then follwed with Tunde, the Little Nigerian Prince and the Soldier Ants and now you can share Princess Carroll Ayo Durodola stories as a ‘storyteller’. Listen to the stories here.

Book details

• Tunde, The Little Nigerian Prince by Carroll Ayo Durodola
  EAN: 9780982089750
  Find this book with BOOK Finder!

Tenka and his Magic Drum is a Call to Action for Nigerian Publishers

by Bontle on 09 Mar 2010   |   

Temi Halim is very critical of the Nigerian children’s book industry. According to her, local publishers don’t spend enough money on non-set texts and the only books African children have access to bombard them with images of places and norms they cannot relate to or understand. As an academic (Halim holds a Masters degree in International Law and Diplomacy from the University of Lagos) it’s also not surprising that Halim also blames an uneducated government for the lack of developemnt in children’s literature.

To her credit though, Halim has done more than just complain about the problem: she’s trying to change things too and the start to a solution comes in the form of a truly beautiful 29-page book, Tenka and his Magic Drum: A Story Adapted From Yoruba Folklore. Right from the very attractive cover of an exquisite rich-colour illustration of Tenka and his magic drum; the book has all the ingredients that will greatly appeal to children. In her self-published book, she takes the young reader on a mental magic carpet ride across nations and cultures in Africa. Halim’s also borrowed names and words from across the continent: Tenka, for example, was a King of ancient Ghana.The author also offers the reader a taste of her lyricism. “…when the world was young and new, when trees grew lush and green, mountains stood tall and proud, rivers gushed out in full excitement, eager to begin the journey of discovery…”.

Expertly exploiting the fluidity of African folktales, she employs her artistic licence in a narrative rich in kaleidoscopic imagery that inform and educate, with twists and turns and, people and places spanning centuries of African history. If the primary intentions was to turbo-charge and fire the imagination of her young readers to spark their quest for answers and more explanations, she has indeed succeeded. For example; the fascinating story in which the magic drum also sings will trigger their interest in the traditional connections between drums, ‘talking’, speech, song and drum language.

• Read the complete article at Next

Book details

• Tenka and his Magic Drum by Temi Halim, illustrated by Judith Bicking
  EAN: 9789003927
  Find this book with BOOK Finder!

Nigerian Princess Ayo's Book Tunde, the Little Nigerian Prince Now Out As An eBook

by Nonikiwe - Editor on 08 Mar 2010   |   

Tunde, The Little Nigerian Prince is the story of Princess Ayo’s father, Prince James Iyetunde Durodola, and his introduction to formal education. The little prince was a very bright little boy who caught the eye of a missionary. She asked his father, the king, if the little prince could be allowed to attend Sunday school. The King was very much against it, but the missionary was persistent. Eventually, the King was convinced and ‘Tunde was allowed to not only attend Sunday school, but elementary school as well. He studied very hard, traveled to the United States, and became a very respected doctor.

FREE CHILDREN’S BOOK!
That’s to get your attention. I hope it worked. It’s true though. If you go to KidStoriesOnline.com you will be able to get my next children’s book in the Tunde series, “Tunde, the Little Nigerian Prince and the Soldier Ants” for free!!! It is being offered on this site as an e-book and we are only offering it there.

In the first book, “Tunde, the Little Nigerian Prince”, we see Tunde, watching his dad rule as king, going to Sunday school for the first time and then off to school. Tunde finally gets to go to America and go to university and become a doctor. Of course he ends up being my daddy.

The second book is called “Tunde, the Little Nigerian Prince and the Soldier Ants” and in it we see Tunde as a little boy in his town of Egbe. Here he gets into trouble with some ants when his mother sends him on an errand. They are not just any ants though, they are soldier ants and they bite hard!

• Read Full Article Here

Book details

• Tunde, The Little Nigerian Prince by Carroll Ayo Durodola
  Ages 6 to 9
  EAN: 9780982089750
  Find this book with BOOK Finder!

Nigeria Searches for Viable and Updated Children's Literature

by Nonikiwe - Editor on 20 Jan 2010   |   

There has not been much movement by way of Children’s Literature in Nigeria since 1960 when Cyprian Ekwensi‘s The Drummer Boy was first published. According to the information supplied from the University of Nigeria Nsukka (UNN) much more still needs to be done, particularuly in indigenous langauges.

Read more here.

Lagos — The genesis of written Nigerian children literature is often cited as 1960, the year Cyprian Ekwensi’s Drummer Boy and Passport of Malam Ilia were published. Perhaps not by chance that this coincided with the year Nigeria got her independence from Britain. By implication, Nigerian children literature should be celebrating its golden jubilee this year. The question most literary critics would love to ask is whether the Nigerian author has gotten the right literature content for his children?

Nigerian authors of children’s literature have been charged to improve their researches on what children are yearning to meet in their type of literature rather than writing abstracts that have no relevance to children intellectual development. Professor Virginia Dike, Library and Information Science Department, University of Nigeria Nsukka (UNN), said authors of children’s literature, as a matter of priority, need to consider how the contents of their literature would “develop their (children’s) capacities intellectually, emotionally, morally, socially, spiritually, aesthetically and creatively.”

Nigerian children literature, by her context, is the literature for children from pre-school years to the mid-teens, written by Nigerians with a Nigerian setting and in most cases published in Nigeria. Regrettably, Dike noted that this literature, traced back to 1960, is almost written in English rather than in Nigerian indigenous languages. It is noted that most indigenous and expatriate publishers brought out series of juvenile novels termed supplementary readers in the ’60s and early ’70s. Some of those publishers include African Universities Press with their African Readers Library, Onibonoje, Longman, Evans, Nelson, among others. Most titles, according to Dike’s preview, were targeted at pre-adolescent readers in the upper primary and lower secondary classes with a few aimed at junior primary and upper secondary school readers.

• Read the complete article at All Africa

Book details

• The Drummer Boy by Cyprian Ekwensi
  EAN: 9789966464125
  Find this book with BOOK Finder!