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SORA Sweet Reads

Mother Earth Day

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April 22nd 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.”

Sora Sweet Reads no. 3

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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 20th 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.

Sweet Reads by Sora That We’re Reading This Winter

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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!

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