2020 Children’s prize
Shortlist for SA Book Awards 2020 – Children’s Title (Fiction and Non-Fiction): Die Groot Jaco Jacobs Storieboek by Jaco Jacobs Zackie Mostert by Jaco Jacobs Yes Yanga! by Refiloe Moahloli Born a Crime by Trevor Noah The Children’s prize was won by previous winner Trevor Noah for the child adaptation of Born a Crime. On […]
A perfect storm
The Academic Sector Mohamed Kharwa 2020 the year Covid-19 made us shift in the way people learn – from online learning, e-learning to distance learning – while campuses were closed under lockdown. We have had to shift in the way we do business factoring in the use of hand santitiser, sterilisation, social distancing and masks […]
Sharpening literary skills
READ Educational Trust’s annual Word Warrior Competition has always drawn attention to the creative young wordsmiths in South Africa, and last year’s competition proved no different! The 2018 Word Warrior Competition required all entrants (aged nine through 16) to craft a story around Detective WW Inkomba (which means ‘clue’ in Zulu and Xhosa). Imaginations […]
VAGABOND – Wandering through Africa on faith
One woman. One continent. Vagabond is Lerato Mogoatlhe’s story of her travels through twenty-one countries in Africa. Vagabond is a poetic, raw and honest diary of Lerato’s travels through Africa. “Watching Elizabeth and her family dance, the compound ringing with their joyful laughter, I’m ashamed of myself for belittling their home and sniggering […]
The Cheeky Natives – Taking the love for books to another level
The Cheeky Natives is a literary podcast primarily focused on the review, curatorship and archiving of black literature. Founded by Dr. Alma-Nalisha Cele and Letlhogonolo Mokgoroane, the podcast is a platform dedicated to the celebration of all things literary. This is done through the reviews of books, poetry and occasionally theatre performances, interspersed with author […]
A tribute to Stephen Johnson
The late Stephen Johnson contributed immensely to the book industry and we honour him with this tribute by Frederik de Jager, the former publisher at Umuzi and publishing director at Penguin Books I have had many bosses in the course of my career. Most of them average, some awful, and two who rose to […]
National Book Week marks a “decade of dedication” to driving reading awareness
National Book Week (NBW), South Africa’s reading awareness week dedicated to encouraging reading and promoting books, marks a decade of influence in 2019 on SA’s reading culture and the publishing industry. Celebrated during the first week in September every year, the NBW is driven by the Department of Arts and Culture and the South African Book Development […]
Nal’ibali offers free public performances to encourage national library usage
Libraries across South Africa will be the scenes of a new community activation in 2019. Nal’ibali, the reading for enjoyment campaign, has teamed up with Clowns Without Borders South Africa to produce a series of literacy-focussed shows. These free performances will tour four provinces to encourage people to see their local libraries as safe, exciting […]
Unlocking a successful career in early childhood development
The READ Group is pleased to announce the launch of The READ Institute, a leading South African training provider in the Early Childhood Development (ECD) arena. As part of the READ Group, The READ Institute is built on the foundation of READ Educational Trust. This proudly South African NGO has worked tirelessly in teacher training […]
Books Extravaganza for Kids!
The count-down is on to the 2019 South Africa Children’s Book Fair (SACBF) which will be held at the Blue Wing Conference and Events Venue, Ticketpro Dome in Northgate. Running from 30 May – 2 June, the mandate of SACBF is to encourage children to get into the healthy habit of reading thus entrenching a […]
Careers in the Book Industry – Associate Editor
The book industry forms an integral part of a country’s education system and is filled with a variety of professionals that play a specific role in the business of books. However, the average person on the street generally knows very little about what it means to be a publisher or an independent bookseller; highly popularized […]
Here’s the Story with Nal’ibali
In South Africa, children are not reading well. The results of the 2016 Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) assessment placed South Africa last out of 50 participating countries. The study also revealed that 78% of Grade 4 children in South Africa cannot read for meaning in any language. There is a severe […]
The Value of Small and Micro Publishers
Small and micro publishers contribute to the world of books in important ways. They take risks and publish genres (poetry, short story collections and plays, for example) which bigger publishers are often wary of; they also publish mostly debut authors by offering them an entry point into the world of publishing. Successfully promoted authors often […]
Van Schaik’s Innovative SmartSWOT App
Businesses in the educational sector operate in an ever-changing, tech savvy, digital centric market. Leading academic bookseller Van Schaik Bookstore has embraced the challenge with their innovative offering, SmartSWOT a digital learning solution, that links to a mobile app filled with curriculum-based resources, and brings textbook publishers, educators and learners onto one interactive platform. […]
Rolene Miller’s Womandla!
International Women’s Day (March 8) is a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women. The day also marks a call to action for accelerating gender parity. Locally, Womandla! Women Power! The “Herstory” is a reflective story of one woman’s resolve to contribute to the upliftment of women in dire circumstances. […]
Statement of the South African Booksellers Association on the Copyright Amendment Bill
The South African Booksellers Association wishes to express its concern with the Copyright Amendment Bill introduced to Parliament. Support for the need for new Legislation The SA Booksellers Association supports the updating of existing legislation (Copyright Act of 1978) that is over 40 years old, the alignment of legislation with the realities of the […]
Gift With a Book This Christmas
Are you wondering what to buy for your friend or relative this Christmas? What do they like? What do they need? Where can it be bought? We spend hours mulling over these questions in the hope of finding the perfect the gift but make very little progress and end up buying something obvious and predictable. […]
Explore Food This Christmas
Soweto-born chef Lesego Semenya, well known as LesDaChef, shares his journey from the corporate world to being a chef, and offers township cuisine with a twist in his debut cookbook Dijo: My Food, My Journey . “My goal as a township-born African chef trained in fine-dining cuisine is to remove all the snobbery and […]
Unprecedented Photographic Collection of World’s Remaining Wild
In more than 200 striking images, acclaimed South African photographers Peter and Beverly Pickford have created an unparalleled portrait of some of our planet’s most untouched places. Authors of the book, Peter and Beverly Pickford are professional wildlife photographers, committed conservationists, and inveterate travellers and explorers. They have collected the images for the […]
The Chalk Giraffe
Imagnary House launched a delightful new title where illustrator Megan Lötter joins forces with Kirsty Paxton in a cheeky and fun African children’s story, which is their first children’s book together. What sort of landscape would you like to live in? Imagine if you had the chance to tell the artist how you wanted to […]