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Who's Afraid of the Dark in Jacana's New Release?

by Nonikiwe - Editor on 17 Mar 2012   |   

Who’s Afraid of the Dark
By Dianne Stewart, illustrations by Joan Rankin
The wild imaginations of three to six year olds are a wonderful part of their early childhood development, but when fantasies meet phobias, particularly at bedtime, fighting shape-shifting terrors can be daunting. My six year old son completely identified with Dianne Stewart’s delightful depiction of a little girl, Sanele’s struggle to sleep because of a variety of gremlins she conjures up from monsters under her bed to the presence of a lion in her house. Joan Rankin’s vivid illustrations make Sanele’s fears larger than life and her eventual conquering of her demons with the arrival of an unexpected bed time companion, all the more credible. – Review by Heather Robertson

Book details

• Who\’s Afraid of the Dark by Dianne Stewart
  Book homepage
  EAN: 9781431401185
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Rainbow Stories for all Reasons This Saturday at the Book Lounge

by Nonikiwe - Editor on 12 Mar 2012   |   

Our country, often gets called the Rainbow Nation, meaning lots of people with different backgrounds all call it their home. Today we will read rainbow stories and make our own rainbow. Today is also St. Patrick’s Day, which often has people looking for gold at the end of the rainbow! All a bit confusing, but at least very colourful
Storytime is every Saturday at 11am.

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South African Puffin Imprint About to Kick-off

by Nonikiwe - Editor on 09 Mar 2012   |   

As from March 2012 all local children’s titles will be published under the SOUTH AFRICAN PUFFIN brand

“The Puffin imprint has a long and proud history within the Penguin Group and is synonymous with quality children’s publishing. It is with particular pleasure, therefore, that Penguin South Africa will now be publishing a range of children’s books by local authors under this imprint, titles that will sit comfortably alongside the international authors already published in Puffin.” – Alison Lowry, CEO, Penguin Books SA

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Panda-Monium at Storytime this Saturday at the Book Lounge

by Nonikiwe - Editor on 09 Mar 2012   |   

Panda-monium! Pandas are great animals, who spend lots of time eating and sleeping (which sounds great to grown ups!).

Today we will read panda stories and make our own panda masks.

Maybe just eat cupcakes rather than bamboo!
Storytime is every Saturday at 11am.

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Good Reads at the African Library Project

by Nonikiwe - Editor on 07 Mar 2012   |   

Children’s book author Gail Carson Levine once described a library as “infinity under a roof.” Yet in rural regions of sub-Saharan Africa, most children grow up without books. Even in classrooms 10 to 20 students share one book, or have no books at all.

The African Library Project hopes to change this statistic. The nonprofit builds libraries in Africa by connecting book drive organizers in the United States with African communities in need. To date, the ALP has helped set up 727 libraries in nine African countries—including Ghana, Botswana, and Malawi—with almost 750,000 books donated in total.

It’s easy to join. Anyone can start a library in Africa with just 1,000 gently used books and $500 to cover shipping costs. The ALP suggests six weeks for a book drive and recommends the project to ambitious book clubs, community organizations, schools, and families!

• Read complete article at Goodreads

Franschhoek Literary Festival Launches Young Readers Book Week

by Nonikiwe - Editor on 02 Mar 2012   |   

The Franschhoek Literary Festival proudly announces the launch of a Book Week for Young Readers, to run in conjunction with the festival.

Little kids are eager to learn to read, but too often the impulse wears off as they grow older. The reasons are many – boring textbooks, competition from TV programmes, sport and computer games, no books in the home. Worst of all, the vast majority of South African children have minimal access to books that are exciting, engaging and relevant to their lives.

This year, the Franschhoek Literary Festival aims to encourage all learners in the Franschhoek Valley to enjoy reading with our first Book Week for Young Readers from 7 to 11 May, the week leading up to FLF 2012. It is being keenly supported by local publishers and authors, as well as a new reading initiative soon to be rolled out country-wide by the Sunday Times Storybook Campaign.

More than 40 workshop facilitators and writers of books for children and young adults will visit every class (from Grade R to Grade 12) in seven Franschhoek schools, where they will talk to over 4 000 learners, choosing topics relevant to their ages and home languages. The young readers will also take part in readathons; poetry, comic and lyric writing workshops; and book and poetry competitions.

• Read complete article at Artlink

Leap Year Story Time this Saturday at the Book Lounge

by Nonikiwe - Editor on 21 Feb 2012   |   

This year is Leap Year, we get an extra day on the 29th of February!

So we thought we would read stories about time and days of the week, things we have in place to help us understand the idea of time.

Tick Tock Tick Tock!

Storytime is at 11am every Saturday.

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Education Still a Priority in Zimbabwe

by Nonikiwe - Editor on 21 Feb 2012   |   

A couple of years ago, President Robert Mugabe made a startling revelation: when the new black government he led took over in 1980, there was only one civil servant with a university degree.

This was the situation coming from the supremacist Rhodesian regime led by Ian Smith.

President Mugabe himself was coming in with seven degrees and almost all his ministers had a degree or two apiece.

Yet they could count themselves lucky, having achieved this feat against all odds; obtaining these degrees, via correspondence (sometimes while in colonial jails) or having won scholarships to study abroad.

Locally, “good” education for blacks was being provided by missionaries and precious little, if anything, by the Smith regime.

So, the academic achiever and teacher undertook to do one of the tasks hallmarking his career as the leader of Zimbabwe: education.

Today, Zimbabwe is ranked as the most literate nation in Africa (97 percent) by the United Nations and there are countless graduates in the civil service and the private sector.

At independence, there were around 2 000 primary schools and just over 200 secondary schools in the whole country.

There was only one government boarding high school for blacks.

This was a result of the “bottle-necking” system in which black students were constricted from progressing academically and professionally.

Education segregation was such that the majority blacks would end up as unskilled or semi-skilled labour, or employed in fields such as carpentry and agriculture. Whites and a few blacks took up sciences and business.

The uneducated blacks would provide cheap labour for the white settler economy. A robust investment in education from primary schools right to tertiary institutions since 1980 has seen the literacy rate soar and the country exports skills to countries all over the world. Primary schools have since been increased to above 6 000 while there is a corresponding number of secondary schools.

“Upper Top” (and old F2) schools are being upgraded to high school status and offer Advanced Level schooling.

There are countless vocational training institutions, polytechnics, teacher training colleges, and universities.

It is the government’s policy that each of Zimbabwe’s 10 provinces hosts its own state university while private institutions have been allowed to flourish. Mugabe spearheaded the policy that every child in Zimbabwe must have at least basic education.

• Read complete article at Southern times Africa

Jo'burg City Centre Literacy Jewel Reopens

by Nonikiwe - Editor on 17 Feb 2012   |   

FOR the love of words and learning, the City has re-opened the doors to Johannesburg City Library, which has been described by Executive Mayor Parks Tau as one of Joburg’s outstanding landmarks.

On Valentine’s Day this preserved building – now with an old and a new structure – was re-opened following a R68-million facelift, which included repairs and extensions to the original structure.

Over the past few years, the library has been transformed into an oasis for book lovers and those seeking to broaden their knowledge. This protected heritage building, located between President, Market and Sauer streets, has blossomed into a world-class city library.

Although the library is open to the public, some work is still being completed, to be finished by May.

“This facility will provide amongst others, dynamic, rare and varied materials, electronic resources in a variety of formats in sufficient quantities that are relevant, current and useful to thousands of residents in our city. It is an aesthetically pleasing and impressive building. It is envisaged that it will deliver services and programmes that are responsive to the needs of users in Johannesburg and beyond,” said Tau.

“I would like to acknowledge the generous donation of $2 million for the upgrading of the library collections and a further $2 million for the installation of Information Communication and Technology infrastructure by the Carnegie Corporation of New York. A foundation that is one of the oldest, largest and most influential in America, established by Andrew Carnegie in 1911 ‘to promote the advancement and diffusion of knowledge and understanding’,” he added

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The Basics of Education in South Africa

by Nonikiwe - Editor on 17 Feb 2012   |   

EVERY child should have the privilege of being taught in their mother tongue during the first six years of schooling.

Director of the Project for the Study of Alternative Education in South Africa , Professor Neville Alexander, says mother tongue instruction is vital for children’s development.

“If children are proficient in their first language, it is easy for them to learn a second language and also easy for them to grasp concepts.

“With the current education system, children switch to English and sometimes Afrikaans before they know their mother tongue.

“Ideally, children should be taught in their mother tongue for as long as possible.”

Alexander said the Department of Basic Education should phase in mother tongue instruction over a 5 or 10-year period.

“It is not possible to do it overnight. Parents need to be properly informed.

“Mother tongue instruction is beneficial to children. Currently, there is no material for the senior and intermediary phase in African languages, so learners have to study [in] English.”

He said the cost of rolling out mother tongue instruction would not be large.

“The most important thing is to do it over time. Training teachers can be done by [higher education institutions],” he said.

“We have the technology to make sure that printing material is not expensive. and we do not have to print a lot of books, just according to demand.

“If we were to quantify how much English is costing us now … We have children failing literacy and numeracy and that has to be a bigger price than what we would pay if we introduced mother tongue.

“All we need is the political will, competent teachers and well-informed parents so that we can have children well grounded in psycholinguistics,” Alexander said.

• Read complete article at Sowetanlive