The purpose of this day (every year) is to celebrate the love of reading, and children’s right to learn to read and write! Our aim is to encourage our youth to fall in love with reading to ultimately fill their lives with fantasy and adventure. Unfortunately in this day there are many other ways to entertain children, but if we can excite them with literature a whole different world opens up to them. It is with this purpose in mind that we introduce our kids to big names among South African talent. We are grateful to these wonderful authors and illustrators who so kindly joined us today to make this event possible.
The children (and some teachers and parents!) had the opportunity to present their own questions to the authors and illustrators, and we all enjoyed the event very much!
With lots to eat, drink, read and share at all our stalls, Thorntree Prep provided everything to make the day run smoothly, and we saw a lot of new faces from the community!
Kids Book Club Mokopane
Since it was a community event, we invited CANSA to host some of their Shavathon…
The Ladies from CANSA Mokopane having fun during their Shavathon
… as well as the Needforum Mokopane, who baked the most delicious pancakes!
Ladies from Needforum Mokopane baking delicious pancakes
Jacqui Shepherd read to the foundation phase kids, and they really enjoyed her!
Jacqui Shepherd reads to the foundation phase kidsJacqui van der Merwe (Shepherd) is a South African author of children’s books. Born in Zimbabwe, schooled in England, and travelling abroad in South Africa as well as Swaziland, she now resides in our own sunny Mokopane with her husband Stephan.
Jacqui started writing when her children were small. Because their ages are so very close to one another, she was presented with numerous challenges during their formative years, one of which was never having a spare hand to hold a book! This resulted in her making up her own stories to keep the kids entertained. In order to remember the stories, she wrote them down. Four of the stories in her first set she wrote for each of her children, who loved having their own special story.
Over the years her family grew and she was blessed with stepchildren. Years later when they all left the nest, she started writing again, and her books have been published along with several new ones.
Animal Adventures (her first set) is a set of 10 beautifully illustrated books, each a story with a moral, so that children can learn valuable lessons while enjoying the stories. Jacqui is a firm believer in stories with morals, and as a mother found it a wonderful educational tool.
Jacqui credits her father for her storytelling talent, who himself was a very avid storyteller, and publishes her books under her maiden name in remembrance of him. And her inspiration she accredits to her children.
Jacqui believes it is important to read to a child and to teach a child to love reading. She is in full agreement with the famous Dr. Seuss quote, “You are never too old, too wacky, too wild, to pick up a book and read to a child.”
Jacqui Shepherd read to the foundation phase kids
Illustrators Chantelle and Burgen Thorne joined us via an online session… Chantelle & Burgen Thorne online interview session
Portfolio piece of Chantelle and Burgen ThorneHello there!
We are Chantelle and Burgen Thorne and our speciality is illustrating for children’s books.
Our favourite things to draw are animals and little people (of all shapes, sizes and colours) and we get excited about interesting settings (like jungles! – see on our website: https://chantelleandburgen.wixsite.com/chantelleandburgen).
We trained as graphic designers and branched into illustration for educational publishing, where our work is widely published by companies such as Pearson International, Cambridge University Press and Oxford University Press.
Our largest project involved developing a set of quirky characters of varying ages and races as a template for Pearson SA’s Vuma reading series. The project spanned 4
years and 4 languages and we illustrated 132 readers between the two of us for one of those languages!
Last year (2018) we illustrated our first picture books with Jacana Media and Clear Fork Media. This year will see several more trade books coming out with us as the proud illustrators for Stripes UK (part of the Little Tiger Family), a second book for Clear Fork Media, as well as a second book for Jacana.
Afrikaans Author Jaco Jacobs also joined us in an online interview session… Jaco Jacobs online interview session
…after technical issues, we had to revert to Plan B – a Whatsapp Video call!
Jaco Jacobs interview session
Jaco Jacobs was born and grew up in a little town in the Karoo, called Carnarvon. After his High School career, he completed his BA Degree in Communication Science and an Honours in Afrikaans and Dutch literature at the University of the Free State. He then started his working career at the Volksblad in Bloemfontein, where he was also the editor for JIP magazine (“considered the authority on popular culture, local music and the latest ‘cool’ in South Africa for Afrikaans youth”). Currently he is publisher of children’s and youth books at LAPA publishers.
His writing career started when he was barely 7 years old. After his first “self-published” picture book was not such a huge success, he picked up his pen again when he was 13, and completed his first proper book in matric (which was only much later published as Pretpark). His first book available on the shelves was Troetelgedrog (2001).
Jaco participated in many a writing competition during his school years, including the “ATKV poësie- en kortverhaal” competitions. He did so well that the Bloemfontein Writersunion published his work in their competition bundle (Inkvars). He also received the Poortprys prize for prose and poetry amongst others. When he was in matric, his first magazine stories were published in Sarie, and he was encouraged to write children’s stories.
Since then he’s published over 140 children and Young Adult books, including a compilation of various authors’ poems written specifically for teens, called Toulopers.
Jaco also publishes under other pen names, such as Tania Brink (love stories for girls) and Lize Roux (the Stalmaats-series).
His top-seller “Suurlemoen” was made into a film in 2014, which was followed by “Nul is nie niks nie” in 2017.
He’s been a publisher at LAPA-publishers since 2004, where he is responsible for the selection and proofreading of new manuscripts for publication, and also translates many books written by overseas authors into Afrikaans.
Jaco also visits schools regularly to inspire and encourage children and teens to read.
All-and-all a very successful event, and a wonderful incentive!
Jaco Jacobs was born and grew up in a little town in the Karoo, called Carnarvon. After his High School career, he completed his BA Degree in Communication Science and an Honours in Afrikaans and Dutch literature at the University of the Free State. He then started his working career at the Volksblad in Bloemfontein, where he was also the editor for JIP magazine (“considered the authority on popular culture, local music and the latest ‘cool’ in South Africa for Afrikaans youth”). Currently he is publisher of children’s and youth books at LAPA publishers.
