The birthday of the great Swedish children’s writer, Astrid Lindgren, is being celebrated this month. As we continue to seek ways to motivate and deepen reading habits among children and adults in South Africa, this offers us a moment to consider what we might learn from a life dedicated to advocating for human rights and writing for children.
Lindgren was extraordinarily prolific and is known…
Seven-year-old Athandiwe Sikade of Khayelitsha in Cape Town has been announced the winner of Nal’ibali’s storytelling competition, Story Bosso.
The competition, designed as a nationwide talent search to get people of all ages excited about reading and telling stories, invited members of the public to send in audio or video clips of themselves reading or telling their favourite stories.
“We collected more than 2 000 submissions from…
Children’s Grief Awareness Day is a reminder that children feel and experience grief and pain as acutely as adults. They may experience a wide range of emotions – anger, depression, confusion, frustration, anxiety – but they may not yet have the words to identify and express these emotions. And because they have not yet learned to verbalise emotions in the way adults do, children are…
Currently the Marketing Manager for the Africa region for Cambridge University Press, Wonder Chabalala has worked with and been inspired by books all his life. He developed a passion for the industry after becoming a part-time bookseller for a large retail company while studying, and since then has been in the book industry for 22 years in both retail and publishing. Wonder shares powerful ideas of…
On Friday, 13 November, the Nal’ibali reading-for-enjoyment campaign will transform traffic light intersections into book and story giveaway spaces. As part of International Kindness Day, the Nal’ibali Traffic Book Jam will focus on parents, caregivers and other commuters, to inspire them to bring home the power of stories to children. The Nal’ibali team will hand out free books and story cards in a range of…
Dr Garth Japhet is the founder and chief executive of Heartlines, a value-based media campaign and printed resource organisation. Heartlines has developed a series of books titled ‘Stories That Talk’, which assist educators and caregivers in encouraging early literacy skills and learning around values. Sally Mills (Nal’ibali networks and communications coordinator) and Japhet explore the role of stories in helping children cope, and understand difficulties and…