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The Mobile Donkey Librarian of Ethiopia

by Bontle on 20 Sep 2010   |   

Literacy is coming to some rural Ethiopian children on a donkey’s back. In the Ethiopian town of Awassa, an Ethiopian-American man returned to the land of his birth, and is helping youngsters who are hungry for books and knowledge. Yohannes Gebregeorgis, born in rural Ethiopia 56 years ago to an illiterate cattle merchant who insisted upon his son’s education, is today establishing libraries and literacy programs to connect Ethiopian children with books. “Most Ethiopian children have only access to textbooks in the classroom,” says Gebregeorgis. “Books children read outside of school, those are the spices of education.”

It wasn’t until he became a children’s librarian in the United States that he realized what the children of his native home were missing. Forced to flee Ethiopia to the United States as a political refugee in 1981, Gebregeorgis ultimately put himself through university, obtaining a graduate degree in library science. He relocated to the Bay Area, taking a post at the San Francisco Children’s Library in 1985. There, he met “The Little Engine That Could,” “Captain Ahab” and “Peter Pan.” He realized the impact children’s books could make on a child’s sense of wonder and vision. “Children could imagine everything from books — connections to other cultures, to other people, to other children, and to the universe at large,” recalls Gebregeorgis. “It gives them hope. It gives them pleasure. It gives them everything that they cannot otherwise get in regular textbooks.”

But Gebregeorgis found that, among the brilliantly illustrated books in 70 languages, there were none in Amharic, the primary language of Ethiopia, and none representing the places and characters of Ethiopian lore. When the library allocated $1,200 for the purchase of Ethiopian books the following year, Gebregeorgis was unable to find any, because of prohibitive publishing, purchasing and importing costs in his home country. So he wrote one. Silly Mammo was the first bilingual Amharic-English children’s book, and it led Gebregeorgis to establish Ethiopia Reads in 1988. Using proceeds from book sales and grassroots book-a-thons, the nonprofit financed his efforts to bring children’s libraries to Ethiopia.

• Read the complete article at Puo

Book details

• Silly Mammo: An Ethopian Tale by Yohannes Gebregeogis, illustrated by Belachew Bogale
  EAN: 9781883701048
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Ethiopian African Children’s Book Project Adapts Traditional Stories for Publishing

by Bontle on 22 Feb 2010   |   

African children’s book project (ACBookP) is a not for profit organisation that aims to publish traditional old stories from Africa, adapt them to suit children and distribute them for free to schools, orphanages and villages in the originating countries.

Olympic World record holder Tirunesh Dibaba has shown her support for The African Children’s Book Project by signing copies of their first book Fire on The Mountain by Jane Kurtz for them to auction off to raise funds to help the organisation continue and expand their project.

In 2007, their team went looking for some material to use for their second book. They headed to a region in the north of Ethiopia and asked people for stories. Soon after their arrival they heard talk of a town at the bottom of a lake and the death of a woman in the mountains. Speaking to priests and village elders, bit by bit they pieced together an ancient story of biblical proportions that was unique to the area. They went in search of the woman who is petrified in stone on the side of a mountain, and with the help of a shepard, they found her.

So we took the story back to Addis Ababa where we adapted it to be suitable for and attractive to children. We translated the story into English and found a local artist who painted the pictures for it. We raised £3,000 to print 3,000 copies that are being distributed back into the countryside.

• Read More About ACBookP Journey Here

Book details

• Fire On The Mountain by Jane Kurtz, illustrated by E B Lewis
  Ages 3 to 7
  EAN: 9780689818967
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Middle East Book Award Goes to Qais Sedki's Gold Ring:Volume 1

by Nonikiwe - Editor on 08 Feb 2010   |   

It’s great to see the Middle East also recognising and awarding Children’s Literature. Recently the Sheikh Zayed Book Award was awarded to Qais Sedki for his book called Gold Ring (Volume 1), meaning we may have a few more volumes to look forward to. Read more here.

The Secretary General of the Sheikh Zayed Book Award, Mr. Rashed Al Oraimi, also announced Qais Sedki from the United Arab Emirates the winner of the “Children’s literature” category for his book “Gold Ring /Volume 1” (Pageflip Publishing, 2009). Al Oraimi explained that the winning book provides an excellent introduction for children to Falconery as a well-known sport in the Gulf region since early generations written in calssical Arabic. “The book smartly employs this interesting topic to stress the deeply-rooted Arab Culture and heritage; The Arab virtues of family values, hospitality, respect for others and pride in traditions” Al Oraimi elaborated. It is noteworthy that the winner worked with two of Japan’s foremost Manga artists, duo Akira Himekawa (who worked on both Nintendo’s Legend Of Zelda and Astro Boy), to produce the book.

• Read the complete article at Middle East Online

Book details

• Gold Ring (Volume 1) by Qais Sedki, illustrated by Akira Himekawa
  EAN: 9789948037798
  Find this book with BOOK Finder!