Sarah Bradfield | Book Village

Going Digital

21/05/2022 by Sarah Bradfield

According to a UNESCO report published in September 2020, ”Education, the Internet and broadband connectivity have a tremendous potential to solve some of the world’s most pressing challenges including the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Nevertheless, today 3.6 billion people still have no access to the Internet and about 258 million children are out of school.” (https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000374309/PDF/374309eng.pdf.multi)

If you live in Gauteng, or probably anywhere in South Africa, you don’t have to look very hard until you find school children who have never accessed the internet. For most of the little Grade 1s at Cosmo City Primary School outside Johannesburg, the first time they did was when they used the Book Village digital library through the Sora app from Overdrive.

And for these children, Library Time is a real treat! We use some of the enriching material available on the internet all the time to liven up our lessons – but most importantly, the internet is a platform that enables the children to connect with the outside world like never before. With the Book Village app, we are extending the reach of one teacher in a classroom of over 60 children, to giving every child their own individual tutor so that they might learn at their own level and pace.

Apart from overcrowding in schools, many children start Grade 1 without having any pre-school education. There are only 50 places in Grade R at Cosmo City Primary for example, yet there are about 200 Grade 1 children. To help catch them up, we’ve designed a pre-reading programme that can be digitised and worked through with an individual online tutor when the children start school. We’ve been through this with the Grade Rs and Grade 1s this year, and they are making fantastic progress. We will include this programme in a future version of the Book Village app.

Finally, from the same UNESCO report, “School connectivity must also be about empowering those who are online by providing them with high quality, meaningful, inclusive and relevant content that is accessible through safe and secure platforms and delivered by innovative methods of instruction.”

And at Book Village, we are doing just that.

Freedom Day

27/04/2022 by Sarah Bradfield

In a country like South Africa, freedom was not afforded to everyone. Blood, sweat, and tears are what lead to the first democratic elections that took place on this very day, 28 years ago. Race was no longer considered a factor in the voting process and South Africans could rejoice over Apartheid’s demise. 19,7 million people casted their vote for their government of choice, resulting in Nelson Mandela from the African National Congress, being inaugurated as the first black president of South Africa.

Freedom Day is an important day to acknowledge because it was the start of a reformed society that began to embrace difference and welcomed notions of freedom of expression and choice. People of colour were finally able to express themselves freely through their writing and certain books were unbanned. Works such as ‘And a Threefold Cord’ by Alex La Guma, ‘I Write What I Like’ by Steve Biko, and ‘Amandla’ by Miriam Tlali were a few of these books that were unbanned.

One book that every South African child should read on this day is Nelson Mandela’s ‘A Long Walk to Freedom’ abridged by Chris Van Wyk. This book details Mandela’s journey in a beautifully illustrated work that makes the concept of Apartheid and the significance of freedom easily understandable. Another way you could teach your kids about this day is by taking them to one of the many museums that have wonderfully curated exhibitions. Learning through live interactions and experiences is one of the best ways to ensure that your children remember what they are learning. Robben Island and The Apartheid Museum are good options to visit, and if you’re lucky, you might even receive free entrance if you go on the day!

The 27 April is a day that we should remind our children to shoot for their dreams as anything is possible if you put your mind to it. The freedom fighters that resisted Apartheid are a prime example of this.

Kahlil Gibran’s famous quote: “Life without liberty is like a body without spirit” is a moving description that sums up the importance of freedom.

Mother Earth Day

22/04/2022 by Sarah Bradfield

April 22^nd is UN Mother Earth Day. A day that raises global awareness of the challenges to the well-being of the planet and all the life it supports. Mother Earth Day also recognises a collective responsibility (as called for in the 1992 Rio Declaration), to promote harmony with nature and the Earth, to achieve a just balance among the economic, social and environmental needs of the present and future generations of humanity. (https://www.un.org/en/observances/earth-day).

At the United Nations General Assembly in September 2015, 193 countries adopted the 2030 Development Agenda and 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). International cooperation on climate change is closely linked with the other principal concern of humanity – how to achieve sustainable development for global prosperity. Climate change, biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation threaten the achievement of all of the SDGs, including Goal 4, Quality Education, that Book Village is most closely aligned with. (https://www.unep.org/resources/making-peace-nature)

We’ve been looking for the best ways to get talking about climate change and the environment with the children at Cosmo City Primary. Ultimately, we enjoyed spending time on ‘Climate Box’, an interactive platform from the UN (https://climate-box.com). The toolkit provides to be highly enriching with the inclusion of a textbook, quiz, maps and posters – all aimed at primary and secondary school children.

Many books on the subject are quite alarming and wouldn’t make for good bedtime reading. We recently read ‘My Friend Whale’, by Simon James to the Grade 1s. We were enjoying the book until it just ended, as unexpectedly as the ‘Diary of Anne Frank’, with the friendly whale simply disappearing.

But there are some beautiful, hopeful books too, and these are the ones we chose to read to the children for Mother Earth Day.

‘The Brilliant Deep’, by Kate Messner tells the story of the environmental scientist Ken Nedimyer, founder of the Coral Restoration Foundation and how he is saving and regrowing the world’s coral reefs.

Another lovely picture book ‘What on Earth is That?’ by Sarah Savory is a story about a pangolin, the most trafficked mammal on earth.

‘I am Farmer: Growing an Environmental Movement in Cameroon’ by Miranda Paul and Baptiste Paul is the true story of how environmentalist Farmer Tantoh is transforming the landscape of Cameroon. It is a beautiful, inspirational story and the quote at the end of the book is poignant – “It doesn’t matter where you come from – you are never too small or insignificant to contribute to the long-term sustainability of our planet. By doing simple things to the best of your ability, you are improving the world.”

Human Rights Day

21/03/2022 by Sarah Bradfield

“To deny people their human rights is to challenge their very humanity” – Nelson Mandela. This quote captures the essence of why every year on the 21^st of March, Human Rights Day is celebrated in South Africa. This day acknowledges those that fought against the pass laws in the Sharpeville Massacre of 1960 and on a broader scale, for democracy. Tragically, 69 people were unrightfully killed by police officers in the Sharpeville Massacre. The protestors’ rights to life, dignity, equality, and freedom of movement were stripped away from them. Thus, this event is a reminder of how pertinent it is to learn from history and ensure that an atrocity like this does not occur again.

Human rights serve as a trajectory for the way people should be treated and should treat others. One particular right that should be focused on in a South African context, is the right to education. Although human rights are enshrined in our constitution, there is still significant work to be done to actualise these rights and not just ensure that everyone can access an education, but further, a quality education. According to a 2016 Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS), eight out of ten grade 4 learners cannot read for meaning across all languages in South Africa. These statistics are concerning, but it does not mean that many South Africans are not trying to change the course of these statistics. One of the key areas affecting literacy rates is the provision of resources. Book Village aims to combat this and hopes to make reading more accessible to young South Africans through our online literacy programme.

We, at Book Village believe that education is the tool to empower the youth to live comfortable lives filled with opportunities. Book Village is dedicated to honouring the right to education by giving children the skill of literacy. Being able to read, not only allows for a sense of enjoyment, but it also enables children to grow their understanding of the world and make it a better place for all.

Happy Human Rights Day from Book Village!

Library Week 14 – 20 March 2022

16/03/2022 by Sarah Bradfield

Benefits Of Reading Aloud - Several Children's Books Laid Out On A Table

The Library and Information Association is celebrating Library Week 14-20 March 2022 with the theme of Re-Imagine, Re-Purpose, Re-discover…Libraries! https://www.liasa.org.za/.

Libraries continue to be affected by COVID and many are still unable to provide services to the communities they serve. With this in mind, the theme for Library Week 2022 will look at the ways in which libraries are having to reimagine and repurpose their services and spaces so that communities will rediscover and see the benefit of their libraries.

The traditional hard-copy book library at Cosmo City Primary 1 school (where we are conducting our trial), was refurbished and re-opened in 2015 with funding and support from (the now closed) School Aid charity and the Peter Cundill Foundation. The Bookery NPO catalogued and covered the books that can be accessed in the library, as well as contributed towards the librarian’s livelihood for 3 years. The library was a thriving and much loved part of the school from 2015 until the beginning of 2020, when it was closed for book lending due to COVID. The book lending service of the library remains closed, and this has probably been the fate of many libraries across South Africa.

But the Cosmo City Primary library has been re-imagined! It is still a busy, thriving space and it’s still devoted to books and reading. In one corner the government’s Reading Champions take small groups of grade 2 and 3 learners and help them catch up on some of the learning time that’s been lost due to COVID. We work in another corner of the library, surrounded by lovely books, which sadly cannot be borrowed anymore, but the children often get a story read to them which they enjoy. All children and teachers at the school are able to borrow books from the Book Village digital library at any time – and they’ve been loving it. We’ve been focusing on the grade 1s this term, and they have become wizards at logging in, navigating around the library and borrowing their own books. We’ve been amazed by their progress in interacting with technology.

The Cosmo City Primary community really values books, reading and their library space, even though the library has gone digital. And for this, we think the children there are lucky to be surrounded by individuals who will encourage a safe space for learning and furthering the education of these young students.

Terrific Teen Fiction – Our Latest Binge!

21/02/2022 by Sarah Bradfield

One of the best things about being a primary school librarian is that you get to read any young adult book in the library you like and call it work. We’ve been bingeing a bit on teen fiction recently, and here are some of the books we’ve enjoyed the most.

My daughter’s dog came home from doggy daycare carrying a large bone with a label tied on it that read, “Enzo’s first birthday”. She was incredulous that anyone would send home a doggy party pack, but I said, “Of course Enzo celebrates his birthday human-style, and if you’d read The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein, you’d understand!”. Narrated by the dog who has educated himself by watching TV and listening to the words of his favourite racing car driver, Enzo realises that racing is a metaphor for navigating tricky situations in life. We were captivated by this book.

Of all the books I’ve been reading lately, The Chaos Walking Trilogy by Patrick Ness is what I most recommend if you haven’t read it already. We have a special anniversary edition in the library to celebrate 10 years of this award-winning trilogy. The books are really gripping, fast-paced and original. I was hooked immediately on the story set on a planet called New World where all living creatures can hear each other’s thoughts in a stream of images and sounds called Noise. The novels feature Todd Hewitt who is forced to flee his town just a month before he is to become a man, and Viola Eade who is the only survivor of a group from a scouting mission that crash landed on New World. There are themes of flight, tyranny and war, cults, colonisation- and how that doesn’t usually turn out so well for anybody.

For a creepy, fast-paced read, try Five Total Strangers by Natalie Richards. We read this book as it was chosen for Sora’s Big Library Read from Nov 1-15, 2021. It is described as a “page-turning thriller that will keep readers guessing until the very end” (School Library Journal). And it was just that! I really enjoyed reading it right up until the end which I found to be a bit of a predictable let-down. But I’d still recommend it if you are looking to read a good teen thriller.

All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven has won literary awards around the world. Described as “The story of a girl who learns to live from a boy who wants to die”. The alternate narration by the main characters, Theodore Finch and Violet Markey weaves together their unlikely friendship that starts when they meet, both about to jump off the ledge of the bell tower at school. It is a great read, quite gripping, that deals with important teen issues, and I particularly loved the characters.

We’ll continue to bring out the youth in ourselves by reading the books that teenagers and young adults love best.

Back to School Books

18/01/202218/01/2022 by Sarah Bradfield

The summer holidays are coming to an end for our public schools this week, and unless you were lucky enough to get your Hogwarts letter by owl post, you probably aren’t anticipating a lot of magic at your school. But good teachers everywhere will be sure to take their children on many fun adventures during the year.

Boarding schools provide the perfect setting for great magical or mystery adventures; parents are out of the way, strong friendships are formed and there’s always a villain somewhere in the mix. Most of us who have never been to boarding school, and attend ordinary, everyday schools, can only visit these schools through books. Whilst my sister and I devoured Angela Brazil’s boarding school stories and Enid Blyton’s Malory Towers as kids, they would be rather old fashioned for today’s young readers, and anyway there is much more exciting stuff to read. Here are some of our favourites:

The Harry Potter series by JK Rowling first published in 1997, have since become an essential part of any childhood, with over 500 million copies of the books sold. I think every child should be encouraged to read the books, or to listen to the audio books read by Steven Fry, which are excellent.

I absolutely loved Truly Devious by Maureen Johnson. Two interwoven mysteries set in the private Ellingham Academy “where learning is a game”. The main character, true-crime lover Stevie Bell is starting at the academy with an ambitious plan – to solve the cold case involving the kidnapping of Ellingham’s wife and daughter 75 years before. The great thing about this book is that it’s part of a trilogy. The story follows directly on in The Vanishing Stair and concludes in The Hand on the Wall. And just when you think the adventure’s finished, Johnson comes out with another Stevie Bell stand-alone mystery The Box in the Woods.

The young adult novel, Looking for Alaska by John Green follows the main character and narrator Miles ‘Pudge’ Halter to boarding school where he goes looking for a “Great Perhaps”. I liked the characters and enjoyed the pranks they pulled off together. In the course of the book Pudge grows very close to his friends and becomes fascinated by Alaska. The description on the book jacket is accurate I think. “Poignant, funny, heartbreaking and compelling, this novel will stay with you forever”.

The Spud series of books by John van de Ruit are a hilarious (slow -)coming- of -age story about John ‘Spud’ Milton and his antics with his friends at the elite boys’ boarding school in South Africa in the 1990s. These books had a big following when they were published in the mid 2000s, and I think a new generation of children would still enjoy reading the adventures of Spud, his friends and eccentric family.

So remember, the first day back isn’t that bad! Here’s hoping for a fun and exciting school year with lots of magic and adventures for everybody.

Photo by Josh Applegate on Unsplash

Have a Go!

12/01/2022 by Sarah Bradfield

‘Volunteering is at the very core of being a human. No one has made it through life without someone else’s help.’ – Heather French Henry

The word volunteer brings to mind someone who goes out into the field and physically gives of themselves to help others. This can be done through looking after animals, teaching children new skills, building structures and so many more. And what a wonderful way to give back! According to the International Labour Organizations Statistics, it is estimated that there are 970 million volunteers worldwide.

There are so many benefits for those receiving, but also for those giving.

Individuals experience the development of new skills, being part of a community, meeting new people with similar interests, a gain in confidence, reduced stress and anxiety, extra endorphins and the ability to make a difference.

However, volunteering isn’t limited to being in a particular place at a certain time.

Virtual volunteering, especially now in the time of COVID, has changed this. It is an efficient, easily accessible, flexible and convenient way to help others and give back to your community.

Sites such as ForGood, Volunteer Match and Engage are great places to find the perfect form of volunteering suited to your skills, needs and location, whether in-person or virtually.

So, what about Book Village?

We provide our volunteer community with access to digital tutoring where they help learners from low-income areas learn to read for meaning and enjoyment. The children we help are from overcrowded and under resourced schools where teachers are far too overextended to support their learners individually. Human connection is an essential part of the learning-to-read process and so the Book Village app ensures that each learner receives one-on-one attention with a live tutor.

Along with all the positive benefits of virtual volunteering, the reading sessions on the Book Village app are no longer than 20 minutes each, which benefits our volunteers who are pressed for time in their busy schedules. It is up to them how many sessions they want to teach a day or week. There is no prep involved for volunteers in all reading sessions and tutors can teach a child to read on the app from anywhere in the world.

The Book Village app is efficient, measurable, easy to use, and convenient for all our volunteers and if you want to become a tutor and help our children learn to read go to https://bookvillage.co.za/ and sign up.

We would love to have you as part of our community!

Photo by Hannah Busing on Unsplash

The Effects of COVID on Reading in Low-Income Schools

04/06/202407/12/2021 by Sarah Bradfield

We have had our last reading and library lessons for 2021 as many of our little customers have already left for the holidays. So we thought that it would be a good time to reflect on the effects of almost two years COVID measures in our schools.

Whilst everyone has got used to mask wearing, hand washing, sanitising and temperature taking -and can’t deny that we should always have been doing some of this stuff – the biggest and most important effect of COVID has been the massive loss of learning time for most South African learners.

The NIDS-CRAM studies report that as much as a full year of learning has been lost by the majority of South African primary school learners since March 2020 due to school closures and ongoing school rotations. At Cosmo City Primary where we are conducting our pilot study, children attend school 2 days out of a 6-school day rotation to prevent overcrowding in the classrooms. The effect of a little one missing a day of school translates into 1.25 lost learning days and we have noticed a large decrease in the reading scores of the Grade 3 children this year compared to Grade 3 classes we assessed in 2018, before COVID.

But there are some upsides to the COVID regulations. We know that it has been much easier for us to manage the split classes of 20-24 children in the library rather than the usual 50-76 children. Every child has the use of their own tablet and headphones in the library and we’ve had some great, fun times during the year. We’ve also had the benefit of, and enjoyed working with, some young people employed to help improve reading in schools – the government’s “Reading Champions”.

We found the most popular books in the library to be the read-along books for younger children, which makes sense as we decided to work with the foundation phase this year. The most borrowed book of the year was from the World of Reading, “This is Black Panther”, followed quite closely by the World of Reading’s “Spiderman”. In third place for most checkouts was the Nal’ibali story, “Crocodile’s Funeral”. The audio book “Secrets of the Silver Lion” by Emma Otheguy, read by Kyla Garcia was in fourth place for number of checkouts.

We conducted a mini trial of the Book Village app. this year and it was really exciting for us to watch a young learner in Cosmo City enjoying a reading lesson from a tutor in Cape Town. The app is being further developed and we plan to begin our first large-scale trial in the 2^nd term of 2022, and we can’t wait!

At the moment there is a lot of uncertainty about the new Omicron COVID variant and we don’t know how this is going to affect schools opening next year. But for now I’d agree with the conclusion of the NIDS-CRAM study that “moving forward school closures should not be an option in the response to COVID -19”.

Sora Sweet Reads no. 3

19/08/2021 by Sarah Bradfield

This time we read the books in the Sora Sweet Reads collection chosen for 9-12 year old readers. All of these books are available for simultaneous use for members of the Book Village digital library until 20^th August.

The first two we read were set in summer camps which are perhaps a right of passage for American children. South African children might not be familiar with summer camps, but will identify with the themes and characters in these books.

How to (almost) Ruin your Summer by Taryn Souders. 11 year old Chloe Mc Corkle goes to Camp Minnehaha where she decides to try to learn cake decorating to earn money so she doesn’t have to ride a baby bike to middle school. Of course, nothing goes according to plan in this laugh out loud, tween angst filled, action story!

In Just Like Me by Nancy Cavanaugh, three girls adopted from the same orphanage go to Summer Camp and are asked to keep a journal of their experiences. It is a funny, sweet story about a girl longing to fit in with her peers whilst discovering connections with her Chinese origins.

The next group of four books are in the magical or fantasy genre, and the book I enjoyed the most out of this group was The Year I Flew Away by Marie Arnold. This is a magical novel about 10-year-old Gabrielle who moves from Haiti to Brooklyn and discovers how hard it is to fit in as an immigrant.

Maya and the Rising Dark by Rena Barron is a fantasy tale of 12-year-old Maya who goes in search of her missing father and finds herself part of her father’s bizarre comic book adventure stories. It’s a great action adventure with diverse characters that will be easy for our children to relate to.

The next two books are Star Wars Choose your Destiny Adventures by Cavan Scott. The two chosen for Sora Sweet Reads were A Luke and Leia Adventure, and A Finn and Poe Adventure. These are choose-your-own-adventure puzzle stories that I think would keep children entertained and would be good to get reluctant readers going.

Skateboard Sibby by Clare O’Connor is about super skateboarder, 11-year-old Sibby, who has to move to a new town and live with her Nan and Pops after her father loses his job. She’s a great girl character and there are some good life lessons and skateboard action in the story too.

I’m putting the next two books into the science category, even though Frank Einstein and the Space-Time Zipper by Jon Scieszkais definitely fantasy with crazy, fun inventions and great pictures. The story is interwoven with some good science facts though, that bring the concept of space-time to life for young readers.

Biohackers by Leah Kaminski.

This is the only non-fiction book in the group. It is a quick, interesting read that will keep the attention of readers in the 9 to 12-year age group. It introduces the topic of biohacking and explores future possibilities with excellent photos and diagrams and clear, easy to read text.

Next time, in our final post about the Sora Sweet Reads collection, we will look at the comic books, graphic novels and books chosen for younger readers.