A lovely roundup of beautiful reads for growing minds
WANDA THE BRAVE, SIHLE-ISIPHO NONTSHOKWENI
A book that is all about courage, friendship and standing up for yourself, Wanda the Brave is bold and fun and filled with excellent life lessons for small humans. Wanda, with her glorious head of hair, stands up for herself when her Aunty Ada, the stylist, applies a chemical relaxer on her hair without her consent. This book is a beautiful celebration of girl power and a reminder that courage and friendship are a mighty force. Wanda the Brave is the sequel to Wanda (Jacana Media, 2019), co-authored with Mathabo Tlali, which went on to achieve best-selling status and, with its international release in the USA and Canada (Crocodile Books, 2021), won the Skipping Stones Honor Award. Author Sihle-isipho Nontshokweni is an award-winning writer, scholar, television presenter and public speaker who, in the last decade, has travelled and shared her scholarship at universities in over 30 countries. The book is available at bookstores, R130.
Details: IG: @wandathebook, @officialceehl
THE BOY WHO HATED INSECTS, DIANNE STEWART
This is a lovely tale about a little boy, Joshua Finkelstein Bade, who does not want to go on his school camp to the nature reserve because of his hatred towards creepy crawlies. It doesn’t help that he is a member of an insect-loving family, with one of his grandmothers being an entomologist and his grandfather a game ranger in a South African game park. He’s also the only one in his class to not like insects! Despite trying to avoid the school camp Josh ends up going and discovers that it isn’t, in fact, all that bad. He even learns to tolerate some of the many-legged critters. Renowned North Coast based author, Dianne Stewart has written a number of books for both children and adults. She has published many folktales such as The Zebra’s Stripes and Other African Animal Tales and picture books such as Who’s Afraid of the Dark, Dudu’s Basket and Lyle the Crocodile. Available at Bargain Books, R150.
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THE LITTLE GECKO, RACHEL CAREY
This beautiful story is written specifically for kids between the ages of three and eight years old and is all about being brave. Written by Ballito-based occupational therapist Rachel Carey, it is the tale of Little Gecko, who loses his tail and then goes on a mission to find it, overcoming obstacles along the way. The book, is written with gentle rhyme to encourage language development and repeated affirmation of bravery for children, so they can internalise what they hear in the story. Created by Rachel and her sister Rebekah (who illustrated the book) during the first Covid lockdown, the book was initially intended just for their own children, but they fell so in love with Little Gecko that they decided to share it with other children too. With geckos being a big part of everyday life on the KZN North Coast, it’s easy for this character to come to life. The first in a series of books aimed at fostering the development of different social emotional qualities, Little Gecko is also attached to a holiday yoga course that Rachel is running with top yoga instructor, Helen Garner. The classes are centred around the story, as a way of introducing different poses and characters and it’s a great combination of children’s OT and yoga. The book is available at The Orange Tree in Umhlali or from Rachel herself (contact) for R150 (or R130 if you do the yoga course too).
