Events

CBN has been extremely busy during January with forward planning and toolbox developments – as well as strategic planning meetings. But none of that has meant enough direct contact with children, which is what we are about, after all, so we are looking forward to World Read Aloud Day on 16th February, when we will […]

We have a special new year’s message to all of you from friend and founder Gcina Mhlophe ‘As a person who has felt the joy of reading a good book again and again, it is my wish to share this special feeling with the children of our country. I wish you light and courage in

This month of November sees us nearing completion of the first of three planned toolboxes – and they are even more exciting than we had hoped. Our workshops are very intense. They can’t be done with hundreds of children at a time. But we wanted to spread our methods to reach more young people –

From the outset, CBN has been blessed with friends. This is in every sense of the word – people who listen at dinner parties, people who come along and share their expertise in anything from archaeology to playing the cello, people who donate books; people who give their time to serve on our board. There

CBN will, once again, be holding holiday workshops in Stanford during the holidays – and we will be doing more trialling of our toolboxes! Watch this space for more information.

On Saturday 10th September, CBN will be presenting the toolboxes to a team of dedicated librarians working under the auspices of the Franschhoek Literary Festival Library Fund. A group of Grade Fives will join us for the demonstration.

We have been talking for ages about methods of spreading our work to reach more children and excite them about reading. Now we have two toolboxes in hand – one called Books and Stories and the other The Green, Green Theme. We have begun testing them with both children and librarians, and are getting an

By popular demand (a great deal of demand) CBN will be holding three grade-specific workshops on 11, 12 and 13 July. In an effort to keep the numbers down to manageable proportions, we will take one grade at a time! The theme will be green again.

From 4th to 6th July, CBN will be holding a Green, Green Theme reading workshop at Enlighten Trust in Hermanus. Sharing the platform with CBN will be Panthera Africa (endangered big cats) Dyer Island Trust (marine life) and the South African National Space Agency. (Nobody could ask for more variety!We are very much looking forward

A question that will be answered on Saturday for some Stanford children who will visit a honey business, and find out about bees and honey – with appropriate reading involved as well. The visit will be followed by a small workshop held, with the kind assistance of the butterfly Centre in Stanford who are kindly

On Saturday 4th June, CBN will hold a workshop on fun with reading – and making reading irresistible through games, activities and really – really – good books! The workshop is a joint project with Centre for the Book (SA National Libraries) and will be attended by invited children and school librarians.

Those who like a glimmer of hope with their gloom now and again should consider the Franschhoek Literary Festival Schools Week and Library Fund. I do. By Lesley Beake: Being invited to speak at schools in the schools week that precedes the big festival is an honour and a privilege. The aim – and one

2016 will be the fifth year of the Book Week for Young Readers which precedes each Festival, bringing over fifty children’s authors, storytellers, performance poets and workshop facilitators to visit every class in eight schools in the valley, engaging with nearly 5000 youngsters. The visitors are matched to the learners’ mother tongues or second language

This year’s theme is Green and we are kicking off an exciting workshop on Cats in general – beginning with a sponsored visit to Panthera Africa, near Stanford at the end of April. More information to follow! http://pantheraafrica.co.za/

Stanford will be the venue for a spontaneous Music and Books workshop on Tuesday 29 March, 2.00 at the Butterfly Centre. Blaq Pearl and our resident violinist will be facilitating, and we will be looking at books and stories about music – as well as activities like clapping games and painting. Sixteen children have been

CBN will be holding a workshop for children from Red Hill informal settlement at Simon’s Town Library at 10.00 until 2.00 on Saturday 13th February using the book The Possibili Tree by Tamlyn Young, published by Bumble Books in 2015. This delightfully quirky book is a story about stories, and their importance in life’s hopes,

2015 was a good year in so many ways. We reached a lot of children, read a lot of books, hopefully inspired a lot of reading. Along the way, we dipped into disciplines as diverse as archaeology and yoga. It was good. Now let’s do it all again, but more, and better, in 2016! Happy

The stars are in our eyes as we contemplate a very good year of workshops – and remember the children we have worked with. 2015 was a good year. Time now to plan for another one – and we are. 2016 is going to be great. As people in South Africa prepare for the summer

In one of our most exciting events yet, CBN will be meeting the brave pilot and his Moth biplane in Stellenbosch tomorrow, 24th october, when they complete their epic flight from northern Scandinavia to Cape Town. It is going to be astounding!