South Africa

Materials from South Africa

Ruby Sings the Blues

Ruby’s voice is so loud, it’s driving everyone crazy! Then Ruby’s jazz-playing neighbors come up with a plan to help her control her volume. Ruby finally learns to sing to her heart’s content without everyone needing earplugs!

Out of Bounds: Seven Stories of Conflict and Hope

We are the young people, We will not be broken! For almost fifty years, apartheid forced the young people of South Africa to live apart as Blacks, Whites, Indians, and “Coloreds.” This unique and dramatic collection of stories—by native South African and Carnegie Medalist Beverley Naidoo—is about young people’s choices in a beautiful country made ugly by injustice. Each story is set in a different decade during the turbulent years from 1948 to 2000, and portrays powerful fictional characters who are caught up in very real and often disturbing events.

The Day Gogo Went to Vote

Thembi’s beloved great-grandmother, Gogo, is so old, she hasn’t left the house in years. But when Thembi’s parents announce that black South Africans will be allowed to vote for the first time, Gogo surprises the whole family by announcing that she will travel to the polls and that Thembi must come with her. Through Thembi’s eyes, readers experience every detail of this momentous day.

The Year the Gypsies Came

Set in apartheid 1960s South Africa, twelve-year-old Emily Iris explains that her mother and father have always been eager to take in travelers and vagabonds, relying on the presence of outsiders to ease the tension between them. Emily has her gentle older sister, Sarah, and Buza, the old Zulu nightwatchman, for company and comfort. But her parents’ continuing discontent leads them to welcome some peculiar strangers.  One spring, a family of wanderers—a wildlife photographer, his wife, and two boys—comes to stay, and their strange, compelling, and dangerous presence will leave the Iris family infinitely changed.

The White Giraffe

When Martine’s home in England burns down, killing her parents, she must go to South Africa to live on a wildlife game preserve, called Sawubona, with the grandmother she didn’t know she had. Almost as soon as she arrives, Martine hears stories about a white giraffe living in the preserve. But her grandmother and others working at Sawubona insist that the giraffe is just a myth. Martine is not so sure, until one stormy night when she looks out her window and locks eyes with Jemmy, a young silvery-white giraffe. Why is everyone keeping Jemmy’s existence a secret? Does it have anything to do with the rash of poaching going on at Sawubona? Martine needs all of the courage and smarts she has, not to mention a little African magic, to find out. First-time children’s author Lauren St. John brings us deep into the African world, where myths become reality and a young girl with a healing gift has the power to save her home and her one true friend.

The Boy on the Beach

Reluctant to let the surf crash over him, Joe runs down the beach and has an adventure with an old boat. All of sudden with the dunes rising like big waves around him; he realizes he is lost and all alone. With the help of a lifeguard who comes to his rescue, all ends well.

 

Happy Birthday Jamela!

Jamela and her family go to shoe store for her birthday gift. Jamela loves what the store clerk shows, but Jamela’s mama picks the practical & comfortable shoes for her. Although Jamela gets disappointed, she decorates her new shoes with beads and sparkly bits. When Jamela shows her special shoes, her mother doesn’t show support for Jamela. Lily, Jamela’s neighbor, liked Jamela’s decorated shoes and they make decorated shoes together. Lily names them Jamela’s shoes. In the market, their shoes sold like hotcakes. Jamela got her share from Lily. On Jamela’s birthday, Jamela gets very special gift from her mother as a consequence of the ‘Jamela’s shoes’.