Open Book ‘policy’ opens pupils’ eyes to delight of reading
Carla Lever speaks to the Open Book Festival co-ordinator Frankie Murrey. What made the team at Open Book Festival decide to take up the challenge of giving young children access to quality books? From the start, we have been committed to doing whatever we are able to, in order to increase pupils’ access to books. Books have such a far-reaching impact on one's life and understanding of the world.
Can you tell us a little about the school book project?
Initially the Open Book School Project saw us putting libraries into schools, but we came to realise those libraries were under-used. Now we put boxes of library books – we call them Open Boxes – into classrooms so teachers and pupils have access to books throughout the day. We work with the teachers to ensure the books are relevant to the pupils.
Are there any grades you choose to target, or is it different for every school? We piloted the Open Box Project at St Mary's Primary in Cape Town, going through the entire school, donating boxes of books grade by grade. In 2018, we worked with Siyazingisa and placed Open Boxes in their grade R classes. We’re looking to work with another grade R class in Gugulethu in 2019.
Of course, it’s not just books you give children access to, but also a culture of reading for enjoyment and fun. Can you tell us a little about the mentoring and event side of the project? At each of the handovers, we run some kind of book-related activity that’s designed to get the kids excited about reading. This depends a lot on the age group we are working with, so this past year has been storytime and drawing.
What has the feedback been like?
From teachers and kids, the feedback has been fantastic. It’s been particularly tricky in 2018 to source a range of books in Xhosa, though. Teachers we’ve worked with, have understood that at times we have had to put English titles into the boxes, but we always try to stock a variety of stories in the children’s mother tongue.
What have some of your favourite moments been working on this project?
Watching the kids get hooked into the stories that are being read to them is amazing. Lwandiso Ntanga of the Book Lounge has been central to the smooth running of the project in 2018. Watching him interact with the grade R pupils has been an absolute delight. The world missed out on a very gifted teacher when he went the route of bookseller!
What can we all do to support and develop all SA children’s love for reading?
There are a number of organisations that work to get books into schools – Nali’bali and Book Dash are great examples. See if you can join a group that visits schools. Check with your local public library what their youth programme is like.
How can people get involved with your specific project?
They can get in touch with me at So often we make our literacy challenge the problem of individuals - people should donate more books, support more charities and so on. This often lets the big players off the hook. Ultimately, of course, today’s children without books become the next generation of workers and entrepreneurs supporting our economy. What role do you think businesses and government should be playing to take responsibility at a macro level? I would love to see government increasing budgets to allow schools additional salaries to employ librarians. I would also like to see them putting money into growing children's publishing across all languages in SA. On the corporate side, many companies already have projects of their own that target pupils in different ways. It would be fantastic to see more companies involved in supporting increased reading in some way, whether it's through putting a book directly into someone's hands, or through supporting the creation of kids content. Reading and telling stories with your children is a powerful gift to them. For more information about the Nal’ibali campaign, or to access children’s stories in a range of South African languages, visit: www.nalibali.org