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/

Students in Burkina Faso...

I just got off a Skype call with Amy Reggio and Madelyn Bagby, two university students spending part of the summer working with the libraries in Burkina. They just returned from about 10 days in the villages. Everything went splendidly, and in particular they did a lot of reading with kids, including Crocodile Bread. They also took a lot of photos, and now will prepare a number of books: mothers and daughters working together in the village; a profile of the village midwife; girls and their favorite books. They are also preparing a book on their travels in Dogon country, which should be really neat. So expect to see some great children's books in the coming months. Someone had asked me some time ago about a $200 project, and here it is: $200 will pay for about 50 copies of one of these books, which would mean we could get it to many more libraries in Burkina. So if you want to donate to produce books (and we'll send you a signed copy of one of the books! how's that for an incentive) make your check out to FAVL and write "Microbook production, Burkina" in the memo line.

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

Crocodile Bread crossing the border right now...

Sare Eisee, FAVL Ouaga rep., is on his way back from Bolgatanga, Ghana with 400 copies of the Dioula and French translation of Crocodile Bread. Elisee did the French translation, and helped on the Dioula. Kathy Knowles, of Osu Children's Library Fund, did another superb job in conceiving and creating the book, and also finding the funding to print so many copies- thank you OCLF!!!! The book is very cute. My kids both got a big kick out of it, and the kids in the libraries in burkina are also going to enjoy it immensely. Hope the border police don't like it too much, though.

(My apologies for the scan that cut off Kathy's name.)

Thinking about the book trade in Africa...

It is worth reflecting on the American book trade of the 19th century... A fine place to start is Sarah Wadsworth. In the Company of Books: Literature and Its "Classes" in Nineteenth-Century America. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2006. xiii + 278 pp. $80.00 (cloth), ISBN 978-1-55849-540-1; $24.95 (paper), ISBN 978-1-55849-541-8.

An extract from Donald K. Pickens' review on H-Net:

One of the delightful surprises of Wadsworth's text is her analysis of Louisa May Alcott's career. Alcott was more than the sweet narrative that is Little Women. This is no criticism of the novel, but a recognition that Alcott, more than Twain, was creatively able to move in this segmented market, producing sequels that sold (p. 46). She knew her readers and, like the other literary artists discussed in In the Company of Books, Alcott wanted to write beyond the social expectation of the market.

Wadsworth's treatment of the connotation of "high brow"/"low brow" is balanced. There was a "near obsession with the cultural status of books, reading, and various types of readers" (p. 98). Publishers overran the market with cheap material. Critics claimed "cheap," in both senses of the word. By subscription and by a series of volumes such as "Blue and Gold," the coffee table book made its appearance. Some of these (and it is true to this day) were to be seen but not read. By century's end the door-to-door subscription had come to the end. The most successful example of that marketing device was Twain's help in selling U.S. Grant's account of the Civil War.

Translating Kathy Knowles new book - Crocodile Bread

FAVL Ouaga rep SARE Elisée has been busy translating into French and Dioula (with Adama Sougoué) a new children's book by Kathy Knowles, director of Osu Children's Library Fund. It is a very cute book, and will also be available in English. Check out the OCLF website for forthcoming details!

21 children's books published in Tanzania 1970-1983

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

Wonderful project: Books of Hope

Books of Hope is a service-learning program where U.S. schools sponsor a school abroad and create books to help meet the students' educational needs. We provide teachers with information about their sponsored school and instructional materials to help facilitate the project. Along with writing, illustrating and binding books, schools also have the option of collecting and sending other supplies for their sponsored school.

Books of Hope is an ideal way to incorporate service into practically any unit of any classroom at any level. We encourage schools to create books about science, math, geography, reading readiness, English grammar, and a whole variety of other topics.

Over 50,000 students, teachers, parents and community members from over 1000 schools across the country have been involved in the Books of Hope program. During the 2007-8 school year, we collected over 10,000 pounds of books and next year we hope to double that.

Bryn Mawr College student, alumna establish Baobab Prize to encourage African literature for young readers

November 3, 2008

Deborah Ahenkorah '10

As a child, Deborah Ahenkorah ’10 was a voracious reader; she practically wore out her library card. But despite the fact that she was born and educated through secondary school in the West African nation of Ghana, she had little opportunity to read the work of African authors until she took a course in African literature here at Bryn Mawr.

Young readers’ lack of access to African literature is a problem, Ahenkorah explains: “Without access to books by and about Africans, young people grow up not knowing much about the diverse cultures of their vast continent. And especially when all they read is Western literature, they have very little reason to feel proud of their national identities and continental heritage.”

Read more...

Ingse Skattum, in a short article on teaching in Bamankan in Mali

The government of Mali has made desultory attempts over the years to teach primary schooling in Bamanankan [Bambara], the main national language. (Instruction has been and continues to be largely in French.) Skattum in a 2006 article in Mande Studies notes that one problem is:

Bambara and other national languages remain essentially oral languages, and the pupils do not see, so to speak, any printed Bambara that would permit them to internalise its spelling.

This simple fact is so stunning in the light of a Malian government policy to have about 2,000 schools teach the first years in Bambara, knowing full-well that there was no reading material for the students to read in Bambara!

Sukie, by the way, proudly spelled "bib" and "run" on her Etch-a-Sketch this morning. She "sounded them out." It is so much more interesting to be thinking of literacy issues in developing countries when you run your own experimental literacy lab at home ;-)

Burt Award to encourage more African literature

The Burt Award for African Literature, made possible through CODE by the generous $1M contribution of Torontonian philanthropist Bill Burt, consists of three annual cash prizes worth $21,000 and publishing contracts for winning submissions.

In the award’s inaugural year the competition will be held in Tanzania, and will be co-managed by CODE and its UNESCO award-winning Tanzanian partner, the Children’s Book Project. In future years the award will expand across Africa, on a country by country basis.

"I speak for all Tanzanians when I say that this is a truly valuable contribution to education in our country," says Tanzanian High Commissioner Peter Kallaghe.

Read more here...

Nice profile of Tanzania's Children's Book Project

We think they are pretty cute...

FAVL volunteer Chelsea Rangel spent three months in Burkina Faso doing some amazing things in the library. One of her jobs was to pilot a new program we're working on for volunteers to produce "microbooks" that will be printed in very small runs, and will be very relevant to the local readers. Chelsea worked with the librarians and village residents to produce three books. The text is in French and Dioula, a language spoken by several million people in the region (also known as Bamana), but there are very few books in the Burkinabè version of Dioula. Volunteers Kathryn Ranney and Amy Reggio helped a lot with post-production, and the Santa Clara Rotary Club helped with a grant to cover most of the printing costs. Moquin Press up in Belmont, CA is about to print them up... here's some images. Charlie Wasser was great as the intermediary to lots of stuff to make this happen. We couldn't have done it without the constant encouragement of Kathy Knowles at Osu Children's Library Fund. To all... thanks!!!! These books will end up costing about $5 each, because of the limited small print run. Very few people in rural villages can afford to purchase a book at that price. The average daily wage in a village is something like 50 cents, so $5 is ten days of work. So we depend on grants like the one from Rotary and your generosity to be able to get these books to kids who will read them. Over and over again, in all likelihood.

Kathy Knowles' book in Dioula

FAVL worked with Kathy Knowles of Osu Children's Library Fund to translate into Dioula and print copies of her beautiful Red, Blue, Green and Yellow "I like..." books. Prof. Ada Giusti from Montana State University writes:

I just returned from a trip to Mali with my students. While we were in a village called Sanambele, I shared your beautiful books with the children and teachers. They were so appreciated! Children of all ages kept on asking me to see the books over and over again. They could read the words because they spoke Bambara. If you get on this link, you will see many pictures of Malian children reading the books (which I donated to the school of course).

Reading material that kids in Burkina Faso love

Some photos from coordinator Viviane Nabie's visit to the libraries last week, where copies are now available of the Africa-oriented children's magazine Planete Jeune (thanks to Emily H-W in Wisconsin!) and a color series of books (I like Red, I like Yellow, with text in Dioula, the lingua franca of southwestern Burkina Faso). The color books feature photographs by Kathy Knowles of Osu Children's Library Fund. They really are spectacular! Osu also generously helped FAVL with a lot of the publication cost; Osu has translated the series into other languages also. Some of you, like San Jose resident Laura Wolford, are helping with shipping costs- thanks!