An initiative in which The Herald and other Times Media Group (TMG) newspapers are partners has won international recognition. The not-for-profit Project for the Study of Alternative Education in South Africa (PRAESA), the Times Media partner in the Nal’ibali reading-for-enjoyment campaign, was awarded the Ibby-Asahi Reading Promotion Award in Mexico City this month. The award was initiated by the International Board on Books for Young People (Ibby) and sponsored by the Japanese newspaper company...

PRAESA (the research initiative behind Nal'ibali) talks about nurturing readers and writers in South Africa, and its solutions for a literate country.

This International Picture Book Month, Nonikiwe Mashologu shares why picture books aren’t just nice to look at, but are an essential part of children’s literacy development. One of the main reasons I found myself in the field of children’s literature was my love of the imagery that often goes together with the words in children’s books. I’ve always loved the art, colours and textures that...

Mandla Langa is an accomplished author whose book The Lost Colours of the Chameleon won the 2009 Commonwealth Writers’ Best Book Award for Africa., and his latest novel is The Texture of Shadows. Mandla speaks to us about growing up reading in a world where books were not a priority: I grew up in Mayville, Durban, as the fifth child in a family of nine, including my parents....