Photo cred: Robert Cutts

Inspired by Sam Nzima’s iconic photo of Hector Pieterson, author-illustrator Adrienne Wright has created a beautiful, graphic history book that brings the June 16^th, 1976 Soweto school protests to life. This historic day is now celebrated as Youth Day in South Africa. 

The book is written as an oral history giving accounts from Hector, his older sister Antoinette and Sam, the photographer.  The powerful illustrations give a faithful account of an ordinary 12-year-old boy and his family living in Soweto, and accurately reflect their daily lives up to that terrible day.

The fire and energy of the protest is brought to life through the vivid, moving pictures – you can almost hear the beautiful Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika erupting from the pages.

Children from about age 9 will enjoy reading the book themselves, but this book is perfect to share with your children of any age.  Use it to start important conversations about equality today and the contributions that many brave people have made in the past.

Hector is available in hard cover from Amazon.

The author-illustrator Adrienne Wright grew up in South Africa and worked with Hector’s sister, Antoinette and the photo-journalist Sam Nzima while creating the book.  She now lives in America.

She has been an amazing help to us, going out of her way to get us a copy of Hector from a friend of hers in Jo’burg before Youth Day this year. Hector will be a great addition to the Cosmo City Primary library.

Some things that we loved while doing our research for this book included an interview with Adrienne which you can find here.

The author gives us insight into her creative process, including the writing and illustrating journey here. 

Finally, Adrienne’s image of George Floyd that she posted on Instagram was picked up by the New York Times in an article about artists responding to his death. This is a great achievement.