Login

Sarah Bradfield

Young Adult Sora Sweet Reads 2

by

We’ve been enjoying reading our way through the rest of the young adult titles in the Sora Sweet Reads collection over the past couple of weeks.  These titles will be available for simultaneous use for all members of the Book Village digital library from 5thMay – 20th August.

Two of the books in the collection gave me some insights into events in history that I didn’t know too much about, and I really enjoyed reading them:

In the book, We are Not Free , the author Traci Chee was inspired by her own family history to create a story of the experiences of 14 Japanese American teenage friends, forced from their homes into incarceration camps following the bombing of Pearl Harbour during WW11.  The book is beautifully written in the style of interconnected short stories, and I think most young adults and adults will find it very interesting and moving.

I could not put Girls on the Line by Jennie Liu down.  Set in China in 2009 it is a fascinating story told from the alternating perspectives of two girls, Luli and Yun.  The girls leave the orphanage they grew up in when they turn 16 to work in an electronics factory winding up cables (in case you’ve ever wondered how this was done).  It describes how limited their options are when Yun gets pregnant with her bride trafficker boyfriend, and how they are trapped in a system that controls all aspects of their lives.  This book is a great page-turner for older teens and adults.

The next two young adult titles will appeal to older teenage girls, and if I’m honest I quite enjoyed reading them too!

Four Days of You and Me by Miranda Kenneally is an easy to read, well-written high school romance.  The book is narrated by Lulu with flashbacks from her friends, and describes four class trips taken over four years of high school.  Lulu and Alex start their relationship on the first class trip and the story progresses through the break ups and re-kindling of the romance over subsequent trips. Lulu has a full house of fashionable interests – she is a vegan eco-warrior, has a gay best friend and is a talented graphic comic book author.  I’m sure many teen girls will enjoy reading this book over the holidays.

In  The Year Shakespeare Ruined my Life by Dani Jansen,  Alison Green– desperate to be the valedictorian, thinks that agreeing to produce the school play of A Midsummer Night’s Dream will help her achieve this.  There are some funny moments and complicated teen misunderstandings and lesbian and pansexual relationships.  Overall it is an easy “ beach”  read – or in our case, a “tucked up under the blankets because it’s cold and we can’t go out because we’re isolating” sort of read.

Next time we will review the Sora Sweet Read titles selected for children in senior primary school.

Sweet Reads by Sora That We’re Reading This Winter

by

Sora Sweet Reads is OverDrive’s annual Summer (Northern Hemisphere) reading programme of children’s and young adult titles designed to encourage children to read all year round.  And with Winter in Gauteng and Covid numbers off the chain, staying at home and curling up with a good book is the safest thing you can do right now.

There are 29 children’s and young adult titles available for simultaneous use from May 5 – August 20, by all enrolled in the Book Village digital library, and we decided to try to read them all!

We started with four books for senior primary or young adult with boys as the main protagonists.

Sora Sweet Reads No. 1:  Boy Heroes

Homes by Abu Bakr al Rabeeah and Winnie Yeung is a true account of a young boy growing up in a war zone in Homs in Syria, having moved there with his family to escape from violence in Iraq in 2010.  He describes how they continued their normal lives of video games with cousins, school, playing soccer interrupted by car bombs, fire-bombs, mosque, and school attacks.  I found the book quite fascinating, and I think adults and children alike will enjoy reading it.

We started listening to the audiobook, Ikenga written by Nnedi Okorafor and beautifully narrated by Ben Onwukwe, in the car one afternoon, and then spent the whole evening listening to the rest of it.  Set in the richly described Nigerian village of Kalaria, it is a coming-of-age story about a boy who finds he has magical super-powers through an Ikenga figure, and how he uses these powers to root out the many criminals in the town, and avenge his father’s murder.  I loved the vivid descriptions of Nigerian daily life and couldn’t help noting the similarities to South Africa.  

Hunter’s Choice by Trent Reedy tells of a 12-year-old boy, finally old enough to go with his father, grandfather and uncle on his first hunting trip.  It’s something he has been preparing for for years. He’s an excellent shot and knows all about guns, but now he has to decide if he is up for killing an animal.  The book has a bit of suspense, a bit of teen angst, and I liked the characters.  It will appeal to young readers who are interested in hunting and the outdoors, and as there aren’t too many books in this category, it’s a great addition to the library.

The final book in this collection with boy heroes is, It Came from the Sky by Chelsea Sedoti. This book describes “the absolutely true account of how Lansburg, Pennsylvania was invaded by aliens and the three weeks of chaos that followed”.  When one of 16-year-old Gideon Hofstadt’s science experiments goes wrong, he and his 17 year old brother blamed the explosion on extraterrestrial activity.  It Came from the Sky is a funny and easy to read account of the hoax, and how it developed its own life.  I loved the writing style that included interviews, blog posts and text conversations and think it will appeal to older primary school learners and young adults.

Stay tuned for the next sweet reads on our list!

Mothers in Children’s Books

by
Mother reading to her child

With Mother’s Day coming up on Sunday, we thought it would be fun to have a look at some of the iconic mothers in children’s literature. 

But from looking through my own bookcase and the Book Village digital library, it would seem that any beautiful, sensible, patient and boundary-setting good mother would get in the way of a great children’s adventure story. In the best children’s stories, the mothers are dead or missing – or really awful!

From the list of great orphan characters there are quite a few princesses – Cinderella, Snow White, Elsa and Anna, animals like Bambi, Mowgli and Bagheera and Paddington Bear, boy adventurers like Harry Potter, Alex Rider, Tom Sawyer.  

The list of motherless and orphaned girls includes Sophie from the BFG, Mary Lennox from The Secret Garden and Pippi Longstocking. Pippi is the envy of most children for her independence and superhuman strength, for her chest of gold coins and her generosity, for not having to go to school, and for sharing her house with a horse and her monkey without an adult in sight.

The worst mother in children’s literature is surely Mrs Wormwood, Matilda’s mother.  She is so awful a small part of me almost likes her.

In the category of living mothers, most are absent like the mother in The Famous Five books, or kept out of the stories which happen in other worlds such as Narnia or in The Indian in the Cupboard.

So are there any good mothers in children’s stories? 

I always loved the eccentric Mrs Durrell as portrayed in My Family and other Animals who allowed Gerald Durrell to pursue his interest in nature, but the mother I was most envious of as a child was mother in the Swallows and Amazons books.  She’s definitely not part of the adventures, but she did sew tents and hay bags and get provisions for the voyage and made possible the wonderful sailing and camping adventures of John, Susan, Titty and Roger.

So to all mothers: You probably won’t be able to identify yourselves in any characters from great adventure stories, but you are the person who is most likely to take children on these amazing adventures through the pages of the books you lovingly read to your children.

Happy Mother’s Day! 

<a href=’https://www.freepik.com/photos/baby’>Baby photo created by prostooleh – www.freepik.com</a>

Learning to Read with Levelled Readers and Other Resources

by
Spiderman reading

Most of us won’t remember the process of learning to read, but we will remember inching our way through the levelled readers we brought home from school to read to our Mums, with their baffling stories of snowy Christmasses, tobogganing, lots of tea drinking and pink iced cakes.

With schools remaining closed until mid February at the earliest, and likely to close whenever COVID numbers go up again, many children will probably spend a large part of this year out of school and so will not have access to their school’s reading scheme.

Why are reading schemes used in schools?

There is a lot of science that goes into developing reading schemes. The best ones are developed to allow for easy practise of the essential components of reading. Learning to read is not a natural process, and children need to be taught and practise phonics, phonemic awareness,  “sight” words, vocabulary and comprehension.  

But the good thing for children away from their schools is that all books will provide opportunities to practise their reading skills, and reading schemes should not be used as the only books available for children.  Whilst things have come a long way since Janet and John, and South African children will surely be more interested in the adventures of Lelo and Zazi (Aweh! From Oxford University Press),  the stories might not be motivating and interesting to all children. They should be given a wide range of reading material and choose what they enjoy. 

We have had a look at what is available to help teach your child to read at home:

  • There is a wonderful selection of children’s books to be borrowed from Gauteng Provincial Library on-line.
  • Collins have made over 300  levelled ebooks and worksheets available for free.  If you go to www.collins.co.uk you will find instructions on how to log in as a parent to access the content.
  • And aimed to increase young readers’ access to ebooks and audiobooks, the English Oak National Academy is providing a book a week from it’s author of the week.  They also have lots of excellent, free video lessons that you might like to try.

For teaching phonics we found some good free resources:

  • Feed the Monster, a free game from Curious Learning  will help little ones to learn their letter sounds.  This game is available in English and several other South African languages.
  • www.schoolroom.com has a good interactive activity to learn the phonemes.                                Fantastic Phonics have released a free digital edition for children during COVID times.
  • If you’re looking for great free printable phonic books, games and ideas for helping your child to read at home, go to www.themeasuredmom.com

Happy reading!

Photo by Road Trip with Raj on Unsplash

I Reread Twilight as an Adult, Loved It, and I Am Not Ashamed: A Confessional.

by
Twilight book on bed

Way back in 2009 I was a gangly (and angsty) fourteen-year-old. It was a simpler time, although my fourteen-year-old self would never admit this.  

A time when paperback books were more popular than kindle. 

When the idea of a world-wide pandemic would be the plot of a thriller novel. 

When school was taught in classrooms, and I didn’t have the crushing expectations of adulthood on my back. 

Vampires and Werewolves suddenly became the flavour of the month and I could not get enough.

Bella and Edward’s hardships made light of my measly fourteen-year-old problems – not enough friends, horrible at putting on eyeliner. The usual. 

My fourteen-year-old self would never forgive me if I didn’t stress the fact that I read Twilight before it was cool. Like before the movies were released. My seventeen-year-old self might die if she knew I was telling you, dear reader, that I read these books more times than I can count. And that I had a seriously unhealthy obsession with Edward Cullen. 

By the time I hit seventeen, you see, Twilight was no longer “cool” and the fact that I still had a closeted crush on Edward (and, let’s be honest, Jacob), was cringeworthy. So I shunned my old favourite, banishing Forkes and the Vampires and Werewolves to a dusty old shelf until I’d one day be ready to pick them up again. 

A few weeks back, I found myself longing for some comfort and solace in the whirlwind of the end of 2020, and who better to bring that comfort than an old friend in the form of a long-forgotten book? 

Telling anyone who would listen that I was only rereading them for “research purposes”, I picked up my well-loved copies of the books from the shelf and began reading. 

I finished the entire saga (four books, a few thousand pages) within a week, struggling to tear myself away from the books to do mundane human things like eating, sleeping and going to the loo. 

I found myself rooting for Edward and Bella in Twilight, sobbing over heartbreak in New Moon, sobbing even more in Eclipse and squealing like a teenaged girl the whole way through Breaking Dawn. Over ten years since reading the novels for the first time, and it felt just as intense as the first time. 

Reading Twilight in my mid-twenties was different. More relatable in some ways, having actually had a real boyfriend and had my heart broken. But also, a bit alarming as I realized just how poor a role model Bella Swan is for the modern woman. 

As a die-hard “Team Edward” member in my teens, I now look at Jacob with softer eyes, thinking about what would really be best for Bella. As a teen I so desperately wanted to experience a whirlwind, knock-you-off-your-feet romance like Bella. Now I see a girl who perhaps needed to spend more time with her friends and, you know, not rush into anything crazy like marriage, bearing a half-vampire, half-human child and immortality.

Reading this old favourite was a shot of nostalgia straight to the heart, and I allowed myself to be fully wrapped up in it. I let myself bawl as Edward leaves Bella, and felt my mood sour as she was plunged into the depths of depression. I stayed up until 2 am finding out if the Cullens beat the bad guys. I emerged from my reading binge foggy eyed, with a sore neck from days spent crouched over the books. 

I regret nothing. 

Except ever thinking that I was “too cool” for a book, or that rereading was cheating. So if you happen to be reading this, I implore you: go reread your Twilight, or that awful Nicholas Sparks novel which you secretly loved. Or your high school English set work that made you feel something for the first time. Do it, and do it proudly.

The joy of re-reading and reconnecting with an old story should not be something you reserve for Netflix.  

– Ali

Photo by Mel Poole on Unsplash

Creating a Reading Habit in 2021

by
Reading on a tablet

If there’s one resolution we could all be taking to heart this January, it’s developing better reading habits. 

Whether it’s to read more books, start with reading a book, or to read something different, the benefits of reading both for yourself and your child are endless.

But where does one even begin with creating a better habit?

As usual, we’ve got you covered with some nifty ideas to reach your reading goals this year. 

  1. Head to the (digital) library 

First things first, you’ll need access to books. Luckily there are a myriad of books available on the Gauteng digital library. 

Simply sign up for a library card using your ID number, and access books via Overdrive using any smartphone, tablet or laptop. 

  • Read what you enjoy

This one seems a little bit obvious, but many people feel the pressure to read something intellectual that will look good on their Goodreads list. 

Don’t do it. 

Reading is supposed to be enjoyable, so if you get 50 pages in and decide that “The 5 am club” is not for you, then that’s absolutely fine!

  • Re-read an old favourite

When was the last time you read the Harry Potter series? Or another book that just spoke to you on another level? There’s something wonderful about reading a book you know – almost like visiting an old friend. Allow yourself to bask in the nostalgia and unapologetically enjoy an old favourite – it still counts as part of your reading list.

  • Set aside time

If you find yourself never having the time to read, then it’s time to prioritise. Set aside 30 minutes per day – I like reading right before I go to bed – that you dedicate strictly to reading. 

  • Join a book club

Meet up with (or Video call) other people who enjoy reading too. By creating a space where you can discuss what you’ve read and get recommendations, you’ll be more motivated to read and share. Besides – what better pandemic activity is there than to have a socially distanced book club?

  • Get some good recommendations

Sometimes, not reading stems from just not knowing what to read in the first place. Luckily, there are so many ways to get great recommendations including: Libby, the app powered by Overdrive that seems to know just what they have in their library that you’d love to read next. 

Another great website to get good book recommendations is Goodreads – you log books that you’ve already read and it recommends books for you in genres that you’re interested in. 

Finally, I like to use What Should I Read Next  – a website that recommends similar books based on what kind of book or author you type into their search engine. 

Happy reading everyone!

Photo by James Tarbotton on Unsplash

Does Your Little One have these 7 Pre-Reading Skills?

by
Kids playing with letters

The first time a child picks up a book, they’re unlikely to be a fluent reader, let alone know how to open it properly. 

This is because like with any skill, you must start with baby steps before you can start walking. Or in this case, reading fluidly. 

Through the course of their reading development, a child will go through 4 reading stages:

  • Emergent reader (cannot read yet) 
  • Beginner reader 
  • Early reader
  • Fluent reader

Throughout these stages there are skills that children develop in order to become fluent readers. 

Before any child starts to read, they need to first master these 7 pre-reading skills:

1. Interest and motivation to read 

In order to learn how to read, children must have a desire to read. They must be motivated in order to develop new skills, which will help them grow as a reader.  

A way to inspire interest and motivation in your children is to read to them everyday and allow them to choose the books.

2. Visual perception

This is our brains’ ability to process what we see what our eyes have picked up. 

When children learn to read, their visual perception needs to be accurate so that they can distinguish between foreground and background, and discriminate between colours, shapes, sizes and position in space. This helps children to visualise and process words in the long-term. 

If your little one is having visual perception difficulties there are many activities that will help improve these skills.

3. Book and print awareness

Before learning to read, children will pick up books and enjoy the pictures without realising that the letters on the page can be deciphered to create meaning.  

Children need to develop an understanding of how letters create words and these words can be put into sentences to create meaning. 

Playing word games, pointing out words around children in their environment, modelling the correct way to handle books and using your finger to follow the text as you read a book to them are ways to improve their book and print awareness. 

4. Narrative and listening skills

When listening to a story, a child is able to focus on what the story is about, use their imagination and develop expectations of how the story will end. 

Through this process, they are able to develop their comprehension skills, vocabulary and memory. Good narrative skills allow a child to describe things and retell events. Both narrative and listening skills are essential for a child to learn how to read as they assist in improving vocabulary, predicting, understanding, concentration and memory.

5. Letter Knowledge

In order for children to read words, they need to understand that letters have names and sounds, and can be uppercase and lowercase. 

Ways to help improve your child’s letter knowledge are to read alphabet books,  teach them the letters in their name and make them aware of letters in their environment by looking at license plates on cars, recipe books, labels on groceries and other items. 

6. Phonological and phonemic awareness

This is the ability to hear that words are made up of smaller sounds and these sounds can be manipulated. When a child hears a word like ‘pat’, they should be able to identify the different letters and their sounds – /p/ /a/ /t/. They should also be able to hear sound patterns such as rhyme and syllables. 

Singing nursery rhymes, breaking down words into sounds, counting syllables, and changing the beginning sounds of words are some of the many activities that can help improve phonological and phonemic awareness. 

7. Vocabulary

Lastly, knowing the names of things is an essential skill in order to learn how to read. The greater your child’s vocabulary the easier it will be for them to learn how to read and enjoy reading. 

When reading stories to your children they can hear the words and connect them with pictures in the storybook. This is a great way to improve their vocabulary. 

Other ways you can improve vocabulary include having conversations with your children and explaining unfamiliar words to them, asking them to describe things such as their toys or food, reading stories everyday and playing word games . 

Photo by Marisa Howenstine on Unsplash

Travelling in the time of COVID: Our picks for December’s reading list

by

School holidays usually make us think about travel and adventure, but as we reach the end of this COVID year , the only sort of travel and adventure most of us will experience is to be found in books. And the great thing about the Book Village Digital library is that it never closes.

We have chosen 10 books from our library that will take you, wherever you are, to worlds of adventure, mystery and survival.

1. Jock of the Bushveld

A classic South African adventure, travel story of the smallest, bravest and best pup of the litter is Jock of the Bushveld (based on the film and written by Lesley Beake).  Set in the 1870’s when hopeful gold diggers are streaming into South Africa and opportunities, dangers and crooks lie around every corner.

2. Magic Tree House Collection

Readers from ages 6-10 can adventure through history with Jack and Annie with the help of spellbinding books and a tree house filled with mysterious powers.

3. Dogtective William Series

Children will love reading the thrilling adventures of 12 year old  South African, Adrian and his four-legged detective hero, rescue dog William, described as a cross between Hercule Poirot and Paddington Bear.  Read their adventures as they investigate rhino poaching in the Bushveld, diamond theft in Namibia and the theft of a celebrity pet in New York.

 4. Mission Survival Series by Bear Grylls.

Meet Beck Granger, fearless traveller and youngest survival expert, and follow his explosive adventures. From the Colombian jungle to the frozen wilderness  of Alaska to the Sahara desert, Beck Granger has the skills to make it out alive.

5. The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle

Audiobook

The heroine in this breathtaking tale of murder and mutiny on the high seas is 13 year old Charlotte Doyle who finds herself the lone passenger on the long voyage from England to Rhode Island in 1832.  

6. Wild Robot Series

Audiobook

What happens when technology and nature collide? When robot Roz opens her eyes for the first time, she discovers that she is alone on a remote, wild island.  Can she survive in the wilderness?

7. I Will Always Write Back

Audiobook

The compelling, true story of the correspondence between a Zimbabwean boy and an all-American girl that started as a class assignment and developed into a friendship that changed both their lives.

8. Alone on a Wide Wide Sea by Michael Morpurgo

Audiobook

“I was there on the quayside to see Allie take her out for the first time, saw her dancing through the waves, and I knew I’d never built a finer boat.”

Inspired by the history of English orphans transported to Australia after World War 2, it is an adventurous, life affirming novel in two parts.

9. Diary of a Wimpy Kid

This is easily the most popular series in the library.

 Join Greg and his family on their surprise road trip in The Long Haul, or in The Getaway, when the family go on a tropical holiday, where everything that can go wrong does. 

10. The Adventures of Tin Tin 

Whilst we don’t have Tintin in our library yet, we just couldn’t leave him out.  Tintin is surely the most intrepid travelling book character of all time. Tintin and Snowy visited dozens of countries, real and fictional, in all five continents and even went into space during their 23 adventures. 

Photo by PerfPhoto by Perfecto Capucine on Unsplash

6 Benefits to Online Educational Games

by
Boy on iPad

Technological ‘distractions’ throughout the years have made it increasingly difficult to encourage children to read. TV, computer games, tablets, phones, Xbox and many others are seen by children as a more exciting past time than picking up a book. However, there can be benefits to using this technology as an educational tool. Here are 6 reasons why we believe online reading games will benefit children: 

1.    Motivating

Online games provide children with a fun and exciting experience. With such a variety of reading games, every child’s needs and interests are catered for. With their interactive element, online reading games can keep your child entertained for hours, while they are learning essential skills.

2.    Designed by literacy experts

Most online reading games have been carefully designed by experienced educators and literacy experts to include the stages of reading development, as well as the skills and strategies needed to improve fluency. However, we would recommend you supervise your child’s choice of games before they begin.

3.    Learning skills and strategies

Many games teach a variety of skills and strategies that contribute to the 5 components of reading. These components are phonics, phonemic awareness, vocabulary, fluency and comprehension. With the motivation of having fun while they play, your children will be developing and improving these skills. 

4.    Rewards systems

With so many different and fun reward systems, online reading games keep children captivated for hours. Meaning that while they are having fun and enjoying their game, they are improving their reading abilities and developing new skills. 

5.    Technological fluency

Learning how to use and navigate applications and the internet is an essential tool for any individual in this day and age. We are living in a society dominated by technology and so it is important to understand how to use it. Therefore, these online educational games improve reading skills, as well as a child’s ability to use technology. 

6.    Improving memory capacity

Most games require memorization and so while playing online reading games children are improving their memory capacity.  This includes memorizing vocabulary, steps to solving games, sequences and many others. Memorization is a foundational skill.

Limiting screen time doesn’t have to be a painful, ‘police-parenting’ experience anymore. As Mary Poppins says ‘In every job that must be done there is an element of fun. You find the fun and – SNAP – the job’s a game!’.

Photo by stem.T4L on Unsplash

Sign Up To Be Part Of Book Village!

By signing up to become a volunteer, you will be among the first to hear when the Book Village app officially launches and have the opportunity to be among the first people in the world to start making an impact through the Book Village platform.