16th June Day of the African Child

Day of the African Child (DAC) was instituted in 1991 by the Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the OAU in memory of the 16th June 1976 student uprising in Soweto, South Africa. At that time, students marched protesting the poor-quality education they received and demanding to be taught in their languages. During the protest hundreds of school children were killed. The Day of the African Child is celebrated to commemorate these children and the brave action they took to defend their rights. The Day of the African Child also serves to celebrate children of Africa as well as inspire a sober reflection and action towards addressing the challenges that children in Africa face on a daily basis.

We are lucky in Australia to be able to get children books from all over the world. Unfortunately some of them are getting very expensive as the Australian dollar drops in value, but nevertheless we can get them and our students can read about African children. There are several books in our library that enable readers to meet African children. We can read books by African authors such as Niki Daly, Jude Daly, Ken Wilson Max which are easily available, but there are other black African authors, such as Nansubuga Nagadya Isdahl,  who are at the beginning of their career and who will become more well known. Below are books that will introduce you to African children. They are not all written by African authors but they do allow our children to see others' lives.

• In Once Upon a Time by Niki Daly we meet Sarie, a rural South African girl, who dreads reading aloud in school: words on the page "tripped up her tongue. She stuttered and stammered over them." Just the reason African schools should have children's books in their first language! And if you have children who think their school life is hard read Rain School by James Rumford.

• Meet Handa if you haven't already, in the wonderful set of titles by Eileen Browne, Handa's Surprise, Handa's Hen , Handa's Noisy Night and Handa's Surprising Day.

• Meet Anna Hibiscus, a child living in modern West Africa. She lives in Nigeria with her mother, her father, her baby twin brothers, and lots and lots of her family.  She is the main character in a series of books by Atinuke. There are three picture books,  Anna Hibiscus' Song, Splash Anna Hibiscus! and Double Trouble for Anna Hibiscus! and eight short chapter books.

• Atinuke also has a series of books, Too Small Tola about Tola who lives in a flat in Lagos with her sister, Moji, who is very clever, her brother Dapo who is very fast and her Grandmummy who is very bossy. Tola is small but determined. There are already four titles.

• A third series by Atinuke, The Number One Car Spotter is about Oluwalase Babatunde Benson or No 1 as he is known. His hobby is car spotting and he is good at solving all the problems in his village. There are six books!

• Meet Jamela, a mischievous young girl who has lots of fun in books about her life with her mother. Niki Daly has written and illustrated five endearing Jamela titles, not all of which are still in print.

• In another newer book by Niki Daly, On My Papa's Shoulders we meet a child who has just started school and this story introduces his whole family, Mama, Papa, Gogo and Tata and their South African urban environment.

• Meet Lolo, another of Daly's enchanting South African children. She lives with her mother and Gogo. There are now four early reader chapter books about her, Here Comes Lolo, Hooray for Lolo, You're a Star, Lolo and Fly High Lolo.

• Meet Lalla in Deep in the Sahara by Kelly Cunnane. She  lives in the Muslim country of Mauritania, and more than anything, she wants to wear a malafa, the colourful cloth Mauritanian women, like her mama and big sister, wear to cover their heads and clothes in public.

• Meet Bintou in Bintou's Braids by Sylvaine Diouf.  She wants braids. Long, pretty braids, woven with gold coins and seashells, just like her older sister and the other women in her family. But she is too young for braids.

• Meet Beatrice in Beatrice's Goat  by Page McBrier. More than anything, Beatrice longs to be a schoolgirl. But in her small African village, only children who can afford uniforms and books can go to school. Beatrice knows that with six children to care for, her family is much too poor. But when Beatrice receives a wonderful gift from some people far away -- a goat she names Mugisa (which means "luck") who gives milk that Beatrice can sell. With Mugisa's help, it looks as if Beatrice's dream may come true after all. 

• Meet Saruni in My Rows and Piles of Coins by Tololwa M. Moller. Saruni is saving his precious coins for a red and blue bicycle. How happy he will be when he can help his mother carry heavy loads to market on his very own bicycle--and how disappointed he is to discover that he hasn't saved nearly enough! 

• Meet Mustafa in My Father's Shop by Satomi Ichikawa There is a rug in his father's  shop in Morocco that Mustafa loves. Mustafa s father would like him to know some words in other languages too, and he tells Mustafa that he may have the rug if he agrees to learn. He finds a very different way of learning foreign languages...and of getting tourists to visit his father's shop. This book will really make you smile. Read this alongside Jeannie Baker's Mirror.

• Meet Fatima in Gogo's List by Portia Derry. Fatima is a young girl in Ghana who is determined to save the day. She wants to help Gogo with her to-do list so that everyone will realise that she is a big girl now! But things don’t go exactly as expected ... 

• Meet Kondi in Galimoto by Karen Lynn Williams. Kondi is determined to make a galimoto -- a toy vehicle made of wire. His brother laughs at the idea, but all day Kondi goes about gathering up the wire he needs. By nightfall, his wonderful galimoto is ready for the village children to play with in the light of the moon.

• Meet Gie Gie in The Water Princess by Susan Verde. Gie Gie is inspired by the childhood of African-born model Georgie Badiel. Clean drinking water is scarce in her small African village. And try as she might, Gie Gie cannot bring the water closer; she cannot make it run clearer. Every morning, she rises before the sun to make the long journey to the well.

• Meet Jojo in Jojo's Wire Car by Veronica Lamond. Jojo is a busy little boy who lives with his granny in East Africa.He is expected to help with the chores, do well in school and also help earn money. One day, a Wire Car Competition is announced and, along with all the other village children, Jojo enters to try to win the prize.

• Meet Fatou in Fatou, Fetch the Water by Neil Griffiths. Fatou appears to be a very forgetful child. The story is set in the smallest country in Africa, The Gambia and the picture book contains a section of facts about the cultures and traditions of this colourful nation, so you can learn as well as enjoy.

• Meet Penda in  in Don't Spill the Milk  by Stephen Davies. Penda carries a bowl of milk on her head across dunes and the River Niger, and even up a mountain, without spilling a drop despite many distractions. She gets a surprise when she arrives at the grasslands to give her father his lunch. 

Of course the library has others too:

12th April Teddy Bears in Every Window

I've just come back from walking round my neighbourhood (exercise) and I couldn't help noticing how many teddy bears are out and about too. They are sitting in windows, on doorsteps and in the rear window of cars. What are they doing you might ask?

They are part of a worldwide teddy bear hunt designed to distract children while they are homebound because of Covid 19. this hunt is said to be inspired by Michael Rosen's classic book, We're Going on a Bear Hunt. Whether it is this book or others, there are so many great  bear books to choose from. Strictly speaking, Rosen's bear is not a teddy, so here I am only going to mention books with teddy bears. I was weeding in the library and while scanning the shelves I pulled out some of my favourites, all of which have a teddy bear as a main character.


Firstly, The Beginner's Guide to Bears by Gillian Shields. Here's the blurb:
Ever wondered what kind of teddy bear is right for you? Or what you could do together with your bear? Then THE BEGINNER'S GUIDE TO BEARS is the perfect read for you. From the types of bears, "big and cuddly" or "small and fuzzy" to what foods bears like eating most, this is one children's book sure to entertain. With cute illustrations, and even a mirror to peek in with your own bear at your side, this is sure to quickly become a favourite.

Secondly, Old Bob's Brown Bear by Niki Daly. I love the premise of this story. Bob is given a teddy, but his granddaughter, Emma doesn't like the way he cares for it and thinks she can do a better job...

Thirdly, Baggy Brown by Mick Inkpen reminds us that being scruffy and worn is a sign that you are loved. There is a similar theme in Kym Lardner's Arnold the Prickly Teddy  and in James Stevenson's The Night After Christmas. All sadly out of print but gems, that you may find in your library.

Fourthly, bears have dreams of their own, I'm sure. If they could get  out and about what would they do? In Julia Donaldson's The Everywhere Bear the teddy belongs in Class One and he goes home each weekend with a different member of the class and has a myriad of adventures. In Bear's Dream by Janet Slingsby, bear dreams of meeting all the varieties of real bears. In A Bear's Adventure by Benedict Blathwayt, Bear is left behind at the seaside and has a great adventure endeavouring to get back home. Similarly, the bear in Teddy Took the Train  by Nicki Greenberg is left behind when Dot accidentally leaves him on the train, but ...
Teddy is a brave bear. What wonderful adventures will he have when he rides away on the train? Will there be picnics? Will there be parties? Will he have time for a nap? And most importantly, will he find his way home to Dot - or will she never see him again?  

I hope all of these teddies get to meet up and have one big enormous Teddy Bear's Picnic when Covid 19 allows!

8th March International Women's Day

We always celebrate this day in our library and I have written about it on this blog several times before, but given the diatribe this week about children's picture books that was on a popular website I follow, I feel the need to recommend some picture books with female main characters that are certainly worth meeting. The posts were going on and on about how all the characters in the picture books for very young children, even if they were animals, were male, 'even the Gruffalo!' While I agree that, that may well be the case, and that 'he' is used more than 'she' in books, there is so much more available to children today than there used to be. The popularity of the series Little People Big Dreams by Maria Isabel Sanchez Vegara  proves that books about girls can be popular. They are among the most popular books borrowed from our Prep school library and many of the children have some copies of their own. Kate Pankhurst's Great Women series is also popular.

We keep popular series in boxes because Preschoolers want to be able to find their friends quickly. Most of the series do have male main characters, but there is Maisy and Angelina Ballerina (both mice),  Miffy, Eloise, Fancy Nancy and Pinkalicious and these are more popular than say, Pete the Cat; Splat the Cat; Scaredy Squirrel  and Grug.

For stand alone, any of these picture books have girls as the main character and are well worth searching out in your library. Happy International Women's Day!

• One Word From Sophia by Jim Averback and Yasmeen Ismail (See Nothing! and I'm a Girl! by Yasmeen Ismail)











• Pearl Power  by Mel Elliott (There are now three books about Pearl)













• Izzy Gizmo  by Pip Jones and Sara Ogilvie (There are now two books about Izzy)













• Dear Girl  by Amy Krouse Rosenthal and Paris Rosenthal (See Amy's Uni the Unicorn books as well for a strong female main character)

• Where's Jamela? by Niki Daly (the five stories about Jamela who lives with her mother and grandmother give readers a very positive view of what women are capable of)

13th June Niki Daly (1946)

Niki Daly is probably the best-known author illustrator creating picture books in South Africa. His books have strong African themes and reflect multicultural South Africa, but they are also universal in their themes. One of his favourite themes is the solitary child finding self worth with the help of a trusted adult, often a grandparent, aunt or family friend. In Once Upon a Time, Sarie is struggling with learning to read and Aunty Anna makes the time and takes the effort to help her feel confident enough to have a go. In Not So Fast, Songololo, a small boy Malusi helps his grandmother, Gogo with the shopping. The love between them and his respect for her shines through. The names of the people are poetic and the watercolour illustrations perfect.

In my library Niki Daly is best known for his books about Jamela. Where's Jamela? amuses any children who read it. They love the fact that Jamela doesn't want to move house and hides rather than go and yet ends up going anyway in the box she has hidden in. Jamela is mischievous, playful and fun-loving and reading the five titles about her means that the reader gets to know her well.

The students at the school I teach at have very little experience of children with black skin, so they are often reticent to borrow books where the main character looks different from themselves. This is sad, but a fact, and so I see that it is up to me to make sure that the children and their parents have their reading horizons widened and see that children have the same concerns no matter where they live. If I share a book, enthuse about it or provide follow-up activities, then it is likely that they will borrow that book or others in the series or by the author. Displaying these books with puppets or toys always helps as well.