Google has counted the total number of books in the world arriving at a total of 129,864,880. Like most statistics, this number tends to vary, but it remains a significant amount of reading. To read more about how Google did the counting, go to: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/google/7930273/Google-counts-total-number-of-books-in-the-world.html
Never say you can’t find anything to read! Read More »
This year, IBBY (International Board of Books for Young people) has produced a short film of the authors and illustrators who have been nominated for what is known as the Nobel Prize for children’s books. To see the film just go to: https://youtu.be/d2L6mrEc6eM
IBBY’s Shortlist for Hans Christian Andersen Award Read More »
This document explains just what a Children’s Book Network workshop might be for a child.
What is a Workshop? Read More »
Nal’ibali is a wonderful resource for story telling advice and encouragement, these two articles may help you to get started: http://nalibali.org/reading_story_topics/how-to-get-story-telling-with-your-children/ http://nalibali.org/reading_story_topics/storytelling-activitie/
Advice on Story-Telling from Nal’ibali Read More »
This adaptation from a traditional African tale comes from Fairy Tales of the World… enjoy it! The grass shrivelled up and turned a pale grey. Rivers and pools dried up. All day long animals scurried around looking for food and finding nothing. Mr Tortoise was getting desperate. Every day he woke up to the sound
How the Tortoise got its Scars Read More »
Book Dash has an incredible range of books created by author-illustrator-graphic designer teams on their epic Book Dash days. All of them are available free of charge online or you can order a printed copy from this section of their website: http://bookdash.org/see/books/
Book Dash – Open Source Books Read More »
From our Front Line Book Correspondent at Centre for the Book The Dash is on as twelve teams (each with editor, designer, illustrator and writer) go for the nine pm deadline in an event held by Book Dash at Centre for the Book in Cape Town. The aim is to produce, by the end of
Book Dash in action Read More »
On Saturday 13th February, 24 children (twenty-five including a baby on someone’s back!), and ten adults converged on Simon’s Town Library for a story carnival that lasted most of the day. The aim was – as always – to promote reading, and a great deal of reading was done before lunch, quietly spread out on
Possibilitrees for Red Hill children Read More »
At a recent panel discussion, Genevieve Hart, chair of IBBY SA described books for children as being: ‘Windows to look out at the world, and also windows to look back in.’ The quote comes from a fascinating (and very fast!) TED Talk by Scott McCloud: His talk refers more to animation than to children’s books,
Windows in and windows out Read More »
In a panel discussion at a recent PRAESA event in Cape Town, Professor Genevieve Hart, gave the following statistics about libraries in South Africa. The library statistics come from foreword by Arts & Culture Minister Mthethwa to the DAC booklet “The State of Libraries in South Africa” August 2015 – then DAC’s briefing to the
Some encouraging news Read More »
A remarkable team of musicians and storytellers will assemble in Simon’s Town Library on 13th February to work with 25 children from Red Hill informal settlement and their community worker Buyiswa Ponti. Blaq Pearl will facilitate song and story writing, Marlene Winberg will tell stories, violinist Anele Mhlahlo and guitarist Dirkie van Staden will work
Red Hill Workshop 13th February Read More »
IBBY, the International Board on Books for Young People is proud to announce the shortlist for the 2016 Hans Christian Andersen Award – the world’s most prestigious children’s book award: Authors: Cao Wenxuan from China, Louis Jensen from Denmark, Mirjam Pressler from Germany, Ted van Lieshout from the Netherlands and Lois Lowry from the USA.
IBBY Announces the Shortlist for the 2016 Hans Christian Andersen Awards Read More »
IBBY is the International Board of Books for Young People, representing national organizations working with children and books all over the world. Here is an extract from their new year’s message. 2015 was a worrying year with terrorist attacks and wars that have made millions of scared people take flight in search of a safer
New Year’s message from international book body Read More »
Lesley Beake and Jay Heale give some very last minute choices form their very favourite books (today). It might be different tomorrow! Lesley: I have chosen books for older readers, there is a huge choice for the smaller children, but Guess how much I love you (available in any bookshop around Christmas) remains a favourite.
Book choices for the end-of-the-year trip to the library! Read More »
CBN was delighted to facilitate the donation of the children’s book collection of our beloved book editor, Jay Heale when it arrived at Enlighten Trust in Hermanus. Jay’s move towards retirement (but not quite retirement!) in Napier meant that his children’s books were looking for a home. The busy, popular library of Enlighten Trust in
The Jay Heale Collection Read More »
The latest Bookchat Newsletter, Number 212, kindly supplied -free of charge – by Jay Heale.
Bookchant Newsletter 212 Read More »
In the last year Children’s Book Network have been connecting with theatre organisations in and around Cape Town. One such organisation is Jungle Theatre. Just as we thought we were finishing our year, they offered us the opportunity to share their production ‘Butterfly Dreams’ with some of our youth, so of course we accepted, delightedly!
CBN has completed a series of fifteen workshops over two years in Clanwilliam – twelve of them with funding from the department of Water and Sanitation in collaboration with PGS Heritage and Clanwilliam Living Landscape Project (CLLP) as part of the Clanwilliam Dam Community Project (CDCP). The History: CBN has been working with children from
Final Report on Clanwilliam Dam Community Project (CBN) Read More »
The words ‘Jay Heale’ and ‘children’s books’ go together like, well, like Piglet and Pooh. Following a distinguished career doing just about everything in books – from writing them to selling them – Jay has decided to quieten things down and do a little more gentle reading of his own after retiring to Napier in
A less exacting role – and a donation for CBN Read More »
