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Why Book Village offers a digital library

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Apart from the Book Village App, we also provide our own digital library with thousands of children’s and young adult books for the learners and teachers to enjoy.

Reading for enjoyment has been described as a form of play.  It is a creative activity that allows us to experience other worlds, roles and feelings, in our imaginations.  The OECD in 2002 found that reading for pleasure in childhood is a better predictor of future educational success than a family’s socio-economic status.

From our experience many young South African children do not have any books at home, and so libraries are essential for them to access books to read outside of the classroom.  To encourage reading for enjoyment at any time, we have provided a digital library with thousands of children’s and young adult books.  The children love the freedom of being able to choose their own books, and a trip to the library is the highlight of the school week.   All the children at Cosmo City Primary are members of the digital library and can borrow and read books all year round if they have a device at home.  We’ve found that whilst most children do not have their own tablets, smart phones or laptops, almost all the children’s parents have a smart phone, and often let their little ones read stories on them at home.

We also want to encourage children to enjoy reading and listening to stories in their home language, and so we have added collections of the excellent Nal’ibali stories to the digital library.  We couldn’t agree more with the Nal’ibali idea that “Children who read and hear engaging stories in languages they understand are well equipped and motivated to learn to read and write.  They are also more likely to make a meaningful contribution to society.”

Frequently reading for pleasure and fun results in children achieving higher PIRLS literacy scores. (PIRLS 2006), but apart from that  – “The more that you read, the more things you will know.  The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.”  Dr Seuss

Photo by Catherine Hammond on Unsplash

Going Digital

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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.

Terrific Teen Fiction – Our Latest Binge!

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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. 

Creating a Reading Habit in 2021

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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

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