With the FIFA World Cup underway in South Africa, I thought it would be a good time to highlight some of the children’s literature resources in that country. While surfing the internet for information on the subject I came across  Zoe Toft’s delightful blog Playing by the Book. Zoe resides in the UK with her husband and two young, bi-lingual daughters and says her blog is “a review of kids’ books and the crazy, fun stuff they inspire us to do”.

In her recent post Catching South African Fever, Zoe and her girls read The Dove (Dianne Stewart, illustrated by Jude Daly) and then, based on the beaded trinkets and animals mentioned in the story, made their own beaded artwork. Zoe has allowed us to share her photos and her review of the book here but I encourage you to visit her blog to read the entire post as she has also compiled an excellent list of resources for South African children’s literature.

The Dove, set in the South African province of Natal, tells the story of Lindi and her Grandmother who are tying to make ends meet after a flood destroys crops and sweeps away many animals. They make beaded trinkets to sell in tourist shops in Durban but have little success until they decide instead of their usual keyrings to make a dove, inspired by the first animal on their land after the flood had subsided. Their beaded animals and people are a hit and now Lindi and her Grandmother need not worry about having enough money until the next harvest.

M loved the story because of the sewing/creating theme, J enjoyed the small details in the illustrations (which actually reminded me a little of Gauguin in their style), and I loved the story for its freshness and believability – it was a great introduction for my girls into (what seems to me) “real” South Africa, rather than a version you might find preserved in an open air museum (although it would be very interesting to hear what any South African readers have to say about the themes in this book). This story set in modern South Africa would be the perfect read before holidaying there – a great way to start thinking about the people behind the trinkets we might bring back from visiting there.

Inspired by this gentle book I ordered a selection of African beads and buttons and M used these beads to create two pieces of art. We used some embroidery hoops we’d picked up in a charity shop, a large needle and some embroidery thread and then M set about designing her African villages and sewing them in place.

These pieces have turned out beautifully, even if I say so myself!

Continuing with our current December/January bimonthly theme of Respect for Religious Diversity, we have added two new book reviews:

The Grand Mosque of Paris: A Story of How Muslims Rescued Jews During the Holocaust, by Karen Gray Ruelle and Deborah Durland DeSaix (Holiday House, 2009);

and Let There be Peace: Prayers from Around the World, selected by Jeremy Brooks and illustrated by Jude Daly (Frances Lincoln, 2009), which is also our January Book of the Month.

Both of these are superb books and would be perfect for sharing with children as part of the Social Justice Challenge, whose theme of Religious Freedom for this month happens to coincide with our own – I’ll be posting properly about this demanding and potentially hugely rewarding reading challenge soon…

Picture the ideal, smooth-running bedtime where the children come when they’re called, vacate the bathroom efficiently and, all clean and rosy, snuggle down for a bedtime story. Now picture the other side of the coin where, yes, they emerge all clean and rosy but the bathroom floor is awash and Mum (that’s me!) is sounding more and more like Horrid Henry’s mother and follows the marauding pirates (or whatever else it is they’ve chosen to be that evening) through to their bedroom with nerves jangling and a keen desire to volunteer to walk the plank… and then all snuggle down for a bedtime story. In our household, bedtimes vacillate between the two scenarios and are usually somewhere in between – but the final outcome is always the same and we do always snuggle down for a story. In fact, my two now can’t get to sleep without one – and it’s our special time at the end of a busy day when we can journey together into someone else’s world.

We’ve just read a lovely book called The Elephant’s Pillow by Diana Reynolds, illustrated by Jude Daly (Frances Lincoln, 2004) which went down a treat all round – with me too (I love elephants): lively, colorful illustrations and an imagination-catching story about generosity and kindness. There are lots of children’s stories around that end with the main characters going to sleep – and if that subliminal message is needed at the end of the day, this title can be recommended! It was actually told to the author as a bedtime story by her father “after his travels in the East”, so is serendipitously fitting for my first entry here for PaperTigers’ Books at Bedtime.

So what about you – what’s your family’s favorite story at the moment? What do your children love listening to? We’d love to hear from you…