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Hope Through Books for Children

by Nonikiwe - Editor on 23 Mar 2011   |   

While working with an international children’s organization struggling with the HIV/AIDS pandemic, I recently spent a month in Zambia, Swaziland, and South Africa. I visited homes, outreach centers, hospitals, and hospices. I heard hungry orphans laugh and saw the dying smile. I held the hands of ten-year-olds who, as heads of household, care for their younger siblings. I watched children without enough food for themselves share with each other and wait patiently in line for their bit of warm milk. I met many children, but I did not see one children’s book.

The presence of a book may seem insignificant compared to the overwhelming infection rates, the starvation, the death. In many countries, one out of four adults is infected with HIV or AIDS, and most are heterosexuals between the ages of 15 and 49. Few have access to, or money for, decent food or health care, let alone the ARV’s (antiretroviral medications). Seventy percent of all new HIV/AIDS infections and deaths in the world are now occurring in sub-Saharan Africa.

As the parents die, the children are left behind. Over 11 million children have become orphaned due to HIV/AIDS in this region, and their numbers keep growing. Stigmatized and forgotten, many are already infected. With little time left on this earth, quality of life is measured in small joys, like jumping rope, singing an ancestral song, or learning how to read.

Before my trip, I asked two of my publishers to donate a few boxes of my books to the orphans of Africa. I imagined reenacting my school and library presentation that I’ve been sharing with American kids for the past ten years. I would encourage the children in Africa as I had encouraged those in the States to read everything they could get their hands on. Write your own stories, I would tell them. Write about things that excite you, things you are passionate about. Use words to find out about the world, to explain your world to others. I didn’t realize that books were a luxury only the most affluent could afford.

Neither publisher sent books due to cost and bad timing. So when I returned home, I mailed a box of my books, along with other children’s books I was privileged to have on my shelves. The cost was incredibly reasonable using the U.S. Post Office’s media mail.

Yes, these kids need food. They need clothes. They need health care. They also need art. They need our books. A book in a child’s hands gives him/her access to the world, and perhaps, hope. If you would like to donate your books or help in other ways, please contact me at my website, sharonsharth.com. We can make a difference.

• Read complete article at Sharonsharth

2010 M-Net and Via Afrika Literary Award Winners

by Nonikiwe - Editor on 25 Aug 2010   |   

The M.E.R. Prize was established in 1983 and is awarded annually by M-Net and Via Afrika in two distinct categories. A prize is awarded to the best illustrated children’s book and another to the best youth novel published during the previous year. The only condition is that the books must be aimed at younger readers and that the authors and illustrators must be South African citizens. The award is named after MER (Mimie E. Rothmann 1875-1975), for her groundbreaking work in the field of children’s literature. No distinction is made between English and Afrikaans books.

2010 M-Net/Via Afrika Literary Award Winners – MER Prizes

The M.E.R Prize for best youth novel – The Bird of Heaven

The M.E.R Prize for best illustrated children’s book – In the Never-ever Wood

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MER Prize Winner for Youth Literature

An explorer of inner and outer spaces, the author Peter Dunseith lives in the magical Umbuluzi valley in the Kingdom of Swaziland. After practising for thirty years as a human rights lawyer and champion of the underdog, and a three year stint as the judge president of the Industrial Court of Swaziland, he has recently embarked on a new career in alternative medicine. His first novel The Bird of Heaven reveals his fascination with the myths and rituals that denote the cultural soul of the Swazi people.

Young Adult Fiction

Writer: Peter Dunseith

Publisher by Tafelberg Publishers in 2009

The plot follows the training and growth in power of Mandla, son of Ingwe.

Although it is superficially a fantasy adventure with some magic realism thrown in, it also deals with archetypes representing the struggle between innocence and corruption; transition from boyhood to manhood; the relationship between a boy and his distant father (a leopard in the body of a man); self-empowerment through the gifts of our ancestors (the muti bag); and the transcendent victory of a noble spirit (the lightning bird).

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MER Prize Winners for Illustrated Children’s Literature

Linda Rode was born on 3 July 1937 at Ladismith, Western Cape.
She matriculated at the Hoërskool Langenhoven in Riversdal in 1954 and
studied at Stellenbosch University, where she obtained an Honours degree in German and a Teacher’s Diploma (1963).
a-Bird-3.jpgShe taught school in Calvinia, in Hermannsburg, at the Pionierskool in Worcester (school for the blind) and at Herzlia in Cape Town and works as a free-lance translator for publishers.
Linda is married to Erwin Rode. They live in Bellville and have two children. 1989: MER Prize for Goue fluit, my storie is uit and Tienie Holloway – medal
Goue Lint, My Storie Begint: Voorleesverhale En Verse Vir Kleintjies

Fiona Moodie was born in Cape Town on 6th May, 1952. She grew up on an apple farm in Elgin . She obtained a BA degree from UCT in 1971 and later a Secondary Teacher’s Diploma from the same university.

After university Fiona left South Africa for Europe. She taught English in Madrid and travelled in Greece, living for a while in an uninhabited monastery on the island of Siphnos and drawing.

She had always wanted to write and illustrate children’s books and with her parents’ support she was able to attend the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs in Paris (1975). By chance in Paris she met an Austrian book illustrator who advised her to go to the Bologna Children’s Book Fair with a portfolio of work. At Bologna she met several encouraging editors and many European illustrators. As a result in 1976 she began living outside a small village called Rugolo in Northern Italy, in the farm house of the Czech film animator and illustrator Stephan Zavrel. His home was an open house for artists who came to stay and work for various periods. There Fiona Moodie learned about illustrating and making books and has illustrating children’s books ever since.

In the Never-ever Wood

Retold by Linda Rode

Illustrated by Fiona Moodie

Published by Tafelberg Publishers in 2009

Here are sixty stories, selected and retold by fairy-tale lover and compiler of children’s books Linda Rode.
It is a comprehensive collection that will open up the wide, wide world of fairy tales and other folklore to children.
A short annotation at the end of each story points out the land of origin and puts the stories from Africa, Europe, the East and other parts of the world in context with one another.

Fiona Moodie’s evocative illustrations are drypoint etches printed by hand and painted afterwards – an intricate process that took more than two years to complete.

(English translation by Elsa Silke)

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Invitation to nominate books published in 2008 and 2009 for the Katrine Harries Award

The Katrine Harries Award that originally was the only and most prestigious award in South Africa for children’s book illustrations, and that has been dormant for the past six years, will soon be awarded again. The award that was made for the first time in the early 1960′s by the SA Library Association and later the South African Institute for Library and Information Science (SAILIS) has been awarded to South Africa’ s most well-known illustrators: Katrine Harries personally received the award twice before it was named after her. Thereafter Niki Daly, Joan Rankin, Alida Bothma, Cora Coetzee, Jeremy Grimsdell (and others) have received it with Emily Bornhoff finally receiving it in 2008.

All publishers, illustrators and other interested parties are invited to nominate books published in 2008 and 2009.

Please send your nominations asap to: Thomas van der Walt, Children’s Literature Research Unit, UNISA – vdwaltb@unisa.ac.za

Book details

• The Bird of Heaven by Peter Dunseith
  Book homepage
  EAN: 9780624045571
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• In the Never-Ever Wood by Linda Rode, illustrated by Fiona Moodie
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  EAN: 9780624047681
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