Two children's books from T. Obinkaram Echewa

These stories are very nice, as are the illustration. I heartily recommend! The illustrations in The Ancestor Tree are by Christy Hale. Those in The Magic Tree are by E.B. Lewis. Echewa teaches at West Chester University in Pennsylvania.

Nice article about experience in publishing children's books

By Carole Bloch

Although Raeez Writes is the only book (selected from the original 2002 set of books) that uses photographs, it was chosen because the committee felt that the topic of illuminating how we can support reading and writing habits was significant and because the characters would be familiar enough with children from the different regions of Africa. The story provides an example of how a young child, Raeez, apprentices himself to his grandfather, who helps him to write. When Raeez is asked where he is going, the reader is told “Raeez knows where he is going.” He is then depicted sitting at a table with Grandpa who is holding a newspaper: “Grandpa wants to read. Raeez wants to write.” We then see Grandpa stand up and help Raeez: “Grandpa helps Raeez.” “Then Grandpa reads and Raeez writes.” The final page has emergent writing around a drawing, and Raeez’s words, “Look what I wrote!”—celebrating and valuing the young child’s immature explorations in writing.

In dealing with names in the different language versions of the books, it was decided that as a rule, we should keep the name of the original, existing characters. For example, Ali and Titilope would remain such—as it is in life, people usually only change their names for cultural reasons or if they are oppressed in some way. At the same time, there are differing views on this and once the stories went for translation, they sometimes took on a life of their own, with one or another translator expressing adamantly that a name needed a spelling adaptation. For example in Orange, the original name “Beruk” became “Beruki” and “Mimi” became “Mimii” in Kiswahili. In Raeez Writes, it was decided that the name Raeez would be impossible to pronounce in Portuguese and so he became Rafique.

Nice and Clean, written in Ethiopia, is about personal hygiene. The first draft of the story was reminiscent of a lifeskills lesson, probably due in part to the challenge of translating from Amharic into English as well as the new challenge of writing for very young children. In the edited English version lightness and humor were introduced into the text through the use of repetition and wordplay. We also discussed where to best situate the story, and who the characters should be. What kind of technology should illustrate cleaning? Were baths, showers, and taps attached to sinks and basins appropriate? Could we illustrate brushing teeth with a toothbrush? None of these would be familiar practices for all children.

The challenge of where to situate a story and what characters to use was resolved in this case by a decision to use a simple outside rural environment, with a basic building that allowed for inside scenes. The characters are animals common to many African settings instead of human beings thus allowing children anywhere to identify with their actions. A mixture of scenarios were chosen and used—washing outside using a tap and bucket as well as indoors with all the modern features. On the first page we read, “Everybody needs to wash” and the story ends, “Now everybody’s nice and clean,” helping to pass on the message to young children, wherever they may be, that one of the things we share is a need to keep clean.

Read the full article here...

Little hands illustrated children's book

Carole Bloch, a South African academic, also has a project to produce children' books. They have sixteen titles... see here on their website. Really nice illustrated books.

Great website for book news from South Africa

It is http://book.co.za/

Reading Fatou Keita in a village...

Fatou Keita's book, Le Billet de 10.000, is definitely one of the most popular in the libraries. What an awesome cover illustration. Click on the photo to see it in larger size. Photo: Madelyn Bagby.

Children's book illustrator from Congo

Click here for a Flash of some illustrations from the work, lovely, really, of Dominique Mwankumi.

What kinds of books are stocked in the libraries in Burkina Faso?

We're trying to get away from Berenstein Bears... so not surprising that you've probably never heard of any of these that were a selection of books purchased for the Steve Cisler Memorial Library in Dimikuy, which is about to open sometime this month. We're waiting for the "tile"... yes, in a complete innovation for a village in Burkina, part of the outdoor reading area is going to have tiled benches... more confortable and durable and aesthetic than just plain cemented mud-brick benches... we saw a lot of tilework during our trip to Dakar last November, and Koura Donkoui, our local rep. southwestern Burkina, decided to give it a try... just one more little innovation... we'll see how it works!

Titre	Auteur
Le seigneur de la danse	Veronique Tadjo
Thieni Ghanani	CEDA
Fati n'est plus triste	EDICEF
La revanche de Sonko-le-lievre	EDICEF
Kayeli	Chantal Iritie Boan Lou
Mificao	Marie-Danielle Aka
Une cueillette ratee	O.J.R.Georges Bada
Mais qu'est-ce qu'il y a Dodo?	O.J.R.Georges Bada, Hector D. Sonon
Louty, l'enfant du village	Fatou Ndiaye Sow
Akissi reine d'une nuit	Annick Assemian
Bouh et la vache magique	Abdourahman A. Waberi, Pascale Bougeault
La carapace perdue	Assamala Amoi, Benjamin Kouadio Kouakou
Louba le petit footballeur	Sanodji Yombel Abiathar, Adi Moussa
Afi et le tambour magique	Thecla Midiohouan, Hector D. Sonon
Pourquoi je ne suis pas sur la photo?	Kidi Beby, Christian Kinge Epanya
Landisoa et les trois cailloux	Raharimanana, Jean A. Ravelona
Les jeunes detectives	Yaw Ababio Boateng
La hyene affamee	Stella Katengesya
Legendes africaines	Bernard B. Dadie
La potion magique	Inna Hampateba
La legende de sadjo	Isaie Biton Koulibaly
La belle tella	CEDA
Le garcon qui chevaucha un lion	James Ngumy
Sauvee par les animaux	Pere Castor Flammarion
L'ane au crottin d'or	Yves Pinguilly
Le Sida et autres affaires le concernant	CEDA
L'enfant et l'oeil du ciel	Ansomwin Ignace Hien
Les colombes de la paix	Ansomwin Ignace Hien
Lucy la grand-tante de l'humanite	Anne-Sophie Chilard, Claire Mobio
Le grand combat	Michael Cullup
Sarraounia la reine magicienne du Niger	Halima Hamdane, Isabelle Calin
Neka va au marche	Ifeoma Okoye
Kimboo contre la drogue	Liliana Lombardo, Kolo Toure, Basile Boli
Premiere rencontres avec Jesus	Irene Mieth
Le Club des Cinq en vacances	Enid Blyton
Princesse Zelina le rosier magique	Bruno Muscat, Edith
Karateka	Yves-Marie Clement
Un pantalon pour papa	Angela Shelf Medearis, John Ward
Conte de la marguerite	Beatrice Appia
Jack et le haricot magique	Marlene Jobert
La main sacree de metallica	Usinor Sacilor
Donito la sirene des caraibes	Conrad
Georges, ver de terre	Bruno Heitz
A la decouverte de l'anglais sur les traces de Timothy	J.C. Sentenac
Un jour dans la foret	Hemma
Le petit Dragon qui ne savait pas moucher	Odile Delattre, Benoit Rondia
Contes des peuples de l'U.R.S.S.	Robert Babloian

[in French] Praise for Kathy Knowles' new book, Crocodile Bread

Baobab Prize!

From AllAfrica:

Botswana: Kubuitsile Scoops Yet Another Prize

Gasebalwe Seretse

19 March 2009

One of the leading local authors, Lauri Kubuitsile has won yet another prize. Kubuitsile won first prize for her story, Lorato and Her Wire car in the annual Baobab Prize. The prize is designed to encourage the writing of African literature for young readers.

According to the organisers of the prize, it has been birthed from a recognition of dearth of fictional African literature that focuses on the youth and encourages them to explore and develop an interest and pride in the African continent.

"I am quite excited about this prize. I am really trying to improve my writing for children - and somehow I seem to be drifting in that direction," said the Mahalapye-based author in an interview with Showbiz.

Lorato and Her Wire Car was competing in the 8-11 year-old readers' category with other stories namely, Good in the World by Marion Drew (South Africa), The Story of My Life, Fiona Moola (South Africa), Abena and the Corn Seed by Vivian Amanor (Ghana), and Live and Let Live by Jenny Robson (South Africa). Robson used to be based in Botswana and her works are well-known locally.

Lorato and Her Wire Car is a nicely crafted story about a young tomboyish or rather assertive girl called Lorato who sets out to show her male counterparts that she is a force to be reckoned with by making a beautiful wire car. Her nemesis is none other than Motshereganye who taunts her: "Look at that! Whoever heard of a girl playing with cars?"But the determined girl is not deterred by the rude remarks that she gets and continues to impress. The equally determined Motshereganye soon 'dethrones' Lorato by making a wire car that can light and he becomes the envy of everyone.

Why isn't there a Rivers of Fire by an African author?

Whenever I occasionally read the books that Elliot is reading, just for a quick evening of entertainment, like tonight, when I read Patrick Carman's Rivers of Fire, the second, I guess, of his Atherton books, and I find a charming though clunky prose styling, reworking of the Pinocchio story, not as good as Spielberg's AI, which tops my list, I do wonder why such easy to write books aren't being produced by African writers adapted to African settings. I mean, the market for books in Africa has to be bigger than the market that confronted Jules Verne 150 years ago. So where are the authors and the publishers? I mean, complex novels of the post-colonial condition are fine, but for goodness' sake write some children's books, will you? Chinua Achebe, as I noted previously, did his time with the excellent, if a trifle boring, Chike and the River.

21 children's books published in Tanzania 1970-1983

From an interesting study by Walter Bgoya, from the 1980s, available here as PDF.

Are you an African author writing children's books?

The Macmillan Writer’s Prize for Africa is a biennial competition devoted to previously unpublished works of fiction by African writers, and aims to promote and celebrate story writing from all over the continent.

The prize is sponsored by Macmillan Education and focuses on the reading interests of children and young people. There are two awards for children’s literature and teenage fiction and an additional award for the best new children’s writer.

Entrants may select freely from themes that they consider to be of interest and value to their intended readership but all stories should have a strong African flavour. The judges will assess each entry on the depth and originality of the work, the quality of the writing and the story’s appeal to its audience.

The competition is open to all nationals or naturalized citizens of countries throughout Africa and to those born in those countries.

The winners of the 2007/08 Macmillan Writer’s Prize for Africa and Macmillan Children’s Illustrator Award will be announced in January 2008. Shortlisted entries for the Writer's Prize awards have been announced.

More details here.

HT: Teresa Jolly Holt

[French] How many words in a children's book?

Bonjour Michael,
Monsieur X a remarqué que dans les livres il n y a pas beaucoup de textes. Il dit que ce genre de livres intéressent plus les nouveaux alphabétisés ceux qui apprennent a lire. Il dit qu'il serait bien si les volontaires écrivent un peu plus de textes, cela serait adapter aux besoins en lecture des anciens alphabétisés (ceux qui savent déjà lire).
Elisee

Michael répond:
"Pourquoi des livres de photos et dessins et petits phrases?" Bien sur je suis d'accord avec X que ca serait souhaitable d'avoir les deux types de livres! On ne peut pas tout faire. Hier j'ai lu un livre avec Sukie- 15 pages, cinq mots par page... c'est ca qui est bon pour les tous nouveaux lecteurs. X ne se rappelle pas peut-être que la lecture est difficile et très fatigant dans les premiers mois. Si le texte est trop long, le nouvel lecteur se décourage facilement. Quand Sukie voit un paragraphe, elle dit "Toi tu peux lire ca papa, je suis trop fatiguée." Apres lire un petit livre de petites phrases pour 10 minutes, elle est très fier de chanter ses propres louanges: "Je l'ai lu complètement maman, moi seule!!!!" C'est ca qui l'encourage a continuer avec assiduité. Donc il faut tenir en compte la psychologie de l'enfant.

Ifeoma Onyefulu's children's books

From her publisher, Frances Lincoln:

Award-winning author Ifeoma Onyefulu is Igbo and grew up in the city of Onitsha in Eastern Nigeria. She moved to London to study and worked for a number of black newspapers as a photographer before becoming an author of children's books. Her older son inspired her first book. Disturbed by the stereotypical images of Africa projected in Western media and literature, she was worried that he might grow up with distorted views of his ancestral home. "I began writing for children because I wanted to show him the Africa I grew up in, and its culture."

Onyefulu's internationally-acclaimed photography has been described by Books for Keeps as 'stepping from a darkened room straight into noon sunshine.' She lives and writes in North London where she lives with her two sons.

See her books at her website.

For $.03 (yup, 3 cents) I got this great book

Well I had to pay shipping too. The photos and text are by Mohammed Amin and Zulf Khalfan... it is called "We Live in Kenya" and it is a very nice elementary school level reader... printed in 1984. Seriously out of date, but a great model for what never happened (thousands of other books just like this...). Mohamed Amin is one of Africa's greatest photographers (he sadly died in in a plane hijacking that went awry). Here's a video intro to his life.

Children's photo books

FAVL friend Teresa Jolly Holt sends us to... Sandra Pinkney

Sandra Pinkney received her CDA in Early Childhood Development from Washington, and went on to become the owner and director of a daycare in Poughkeepsie, New York. She is also actively involved in the organizations, which aim to help the development and enrichment of young children, including the New York Association of Early Childhood, and the National Black Child Development Institute.

Myles Pinkney is a free-lance photographer who has collaborated on works with his wife as well as celebrated children's author, Nikki Grimes. Myles graduated from Marist College with a BA in communications, however he has been studying photography since he was a child.

Contes Du Pays Des Moose: Burkina Faso

My colleague Nina Tanti is translating another colleague's book, Stories of the Moose country, by Alain Sissao. It is a collection of folktales that Alain collected over the 1980s and 1990s. Curiously, many of them are reminiscent of folktales I've read that were collected in northern Sudan. Lots of arbitrary killing of animal, ogres, chiefs, women and children. The hyena is the figure of ridicule, the hare of cleverness. I'm sure there is a deep logic to it all! I enjoyed Alain's crisp rendering of the tales: for an advanced French reader (though hardly fluent) who is also very comfortable with Burkinabè French style, it is a pleasure to read. Nina's translations should bring the book to a wider audience.

Somalia collapsed, but byproduct is a great publisher

This is pretty amazing:

SOMALI BOOK FAIR
Bandhigga Buugta Soomaaliyeed
STOCKHOLM, KIST TRAFF
25th-26th October,2008

Jointly Arranged by

Scansom Publishers, SSUF, Somali Publishers and Writers Association

WELCOME, SOO DHAWAAD

Saturday 25th October, 2008

Opening and welcoming statement by: SSUF Chairman: Ahmed Hassan

Opening speeches and introduction Scansom Publishers: Mohammed SH. Hassan The enocuragement of minority languages by the Swedish National Council for Cultural Affairs ( Kulturradet).

Keenadid Mohamoud who currently teaches Somali at Goteborg University will illuminate us about the newly started Somali course programe. The initiative has been widely welcomed by the Somali community in the Diaspora.

Stockholm Stad Bibliotek Rinkeby & Tensta Libraries – Karin Sohlgren

Bashir Osman: Somali Teachers Association in Sweden.

Book Tour & Lunch

The Somali Publishing Industry in the Diaspora, Mohammed SH. Hassan, Scansom which is the leading Somali Publishing house in the Diaspora. The Company has published and distributes as well over 170 different titles of Somali books covering a wide range of issues and topics.

Karin Sohlgren: A librarian at Rinkeby Public Library and consultant to the Swedish Agency of School Development. Karin is in charge of finding good and relevant books for pre-school children. Karin will share her experiences with us and will give as well the information of the Somali resources and material collections in Rinkeby and Tensta Public Libraries.

Axmad Farah “Idaaja” and his publications: A leading Somali Cultural Historian, Author and a former member of Somali language Commission board. Wrote and published over 10 titles of Somali books covering a wide range of issues and topics. Currently lives in Nairobi

Khalid A. Gul and his Publications: A leading Somali writer, Poet and cultural Historian living in Denmark. He has written and published over 13-15 different titles of Somali books covering a wide range of issues.

Bashir Amaan ( The Principal of Al-Azhar Islamic school in Stockholm. The challenges and the opportunities of running private schools in Sweden )

Abdiaziz Xildhibaan living in UK Is one of the promising Somali writers of the future. So far the author has published 5 excellent books. The Author will share his elaborate His publications.

Axmad Farah Idaaja and his diverse Publications, including the just released play Dabkuu Shiday Darwiishkii

Said Shire living in UK has just published a new book about business ( Furaha Ganacsiga). It is one of the rare publications about such an important subject. The book is a new release in 2008

Abdifatah A. Abubakar (The author lives in Italy) and His Publications include Asaaska Suugaanta Soomaaliyeed, which is a very difficult subject and the author has written it in a very simple and clear method. Currently his 2nd book is under publication ( The Somali Trees), and hopefully should be ready during the book fair event.

Abdullahi Diiriye Carralle ( The author currently lives in Denmark) is one of the pioneers Who substantially contributed in developing and translating the structure of Somali poetry (iisaanka Maansada) in the mid 70`s. The Author has laid a solid foundation for For this difficult subject. His first book was published in the early 70`s. An updated and Revised Version of the authors research was again published in Sweden 2003 which is still so far probably the only published book about this subject. The Author will share his experiences with us during the event.

Abdi Bashir & Yusuf Hassan ( from Sweden) will present their respective publications, We shall listen as well a poem conducted by Abdi Bashir.

A good source for African children's literature

Is at the University of Florida Africana collection website:

The purpose of this web page is to introduce scholars interested in African children's literature to a variety of material that is available for research in this area. I hope that what I have gathered here will serve as a useful starting point to anyone else interested in studying or doing research in African children's literature.

Calling all "friends"

What books are great for kids in African villages to read? A question that we all wonder about. Theresa Jolly Holt wrote in with some new suggestions:

Akimbo & the Elephants $4.99 paperback Alexander McCall Smith
Akimbo & the Lions $4.99 paperback Alexander McCall Smith
Akimbo & the Snake $4.99 paperback Alexander McCall Smith
Beatrice’s Goat @Uganda (USA) 7.99 P 9780689869907 McBrier

Coincidentally this morning I was thinking about a great book to share with young adults in Ghana and other English-speaking countries (and even in Burkina, where there are some English readers)... and it is Dreams from My Father, by, guess who? Barack Obama.

So go support your local used bookstore owner, or go garage-saling this weekend, and send some of these books off to the libraries in Ghana:

Sumbrungu Community Library

c/o CESRUD

Box 267
Bolgatanga GHANA