We went to an Indie Pop-up Book Fair at the Alklantrant Library in Pretoria. Ahem … I’m not exactly an Indie girl myself, because my books are published by Lets Look Publishers, but Ginny writes other stuff that she does publish herself, so she asked if she could take me along too.
It was such fun meeting all the other people who write children’s books.
There was quite a selection.
One young woman, Pamela Ngubeni, has written a little book about being bullied and what to do if you are.
She herself was bullied when she was younger and she has risen above the situation and gives talks in schools now too.
A fabulous book by Soraya Hendricks, called The Legend of the Gilded Scroll, covers the topic of stranger danger.
It’s an awesomely illustrated fantasy story that incorporates the topic in an exciting manner.
There were recipe stories for kids and a series of books that had a doll (from the illustrations) that was also for sale.
Yet another remarkable book called Be Amazing by Doloros Oldjohn was all about being different, making a difference, having respect, going the extra step and being nice whilst you go about it.
There’s a series by Jann Wereatunga that involves a pirate parrot called Polly (also a puppet) having all sorts of adventures (with life lessons), where you can draw your own pictures in the books, instead of them coming with ready-made illustrations.
Sandy van Zyl has a series of beautifully illustrated books The Travel Buggz that are based on the adventures of the author and her two children when they went travelling around South Africa.
The lady who organised the pop-up book fair, Sabine Lehmacher, has a book called The Moonling.
It’s a story that she found when she was sorting out her late mother’s possessions.
Her mom had written it in the 1950s.
Sabine’s family members have spruced it up and illustrated it and it’s now a fabulously relevant book (involving a moonling and an earthling) instead of being a few bits of papers hidden away.
There were not only children’s books but all sorts of other interesting titles – poetry, novels, science fiction, horror and autobiographies too.
A couple of interesting talks were thrown in for good measure.
There’s going to be another pop-up book fair in September, so if there’s anybody out there who has published a book(s) – shout and we can put you in contact with Sabine.
Read more people!
Sibo
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