A Lit Club for Kids; Sharing the Joy of our African Stories
A children's book club brought to you by Afrokidz and Baraza Media Lab
Baraza Media Lab in collaboration with Afrokidz (a company I founded in 2013 in order to digitize African children’s folklore) will be hosting its first-ever children’s book club on Saturday 11th March 2023.
Our first featured writer is Yolanda Chakava - author of the children's book series - Super Lisu.
Yolanda Chakava, our Inaugural author
Super Lisu (Book 1) - entitled 'My Super Hair' is about Kendi, a superhero from Kenya. After an unexpected encounter, she discovers the source of her powers - her natural hair! The story is fun, highly compelling and has a positive message. Super Lisu has vivid and captivating comic-style illustrations, published by East African Educational Publishers.
Super Lisu (Book 2) - entitled 'The Locust Attack' Kendi is faced with her first mission after a vicious locust attack threatens to destroy everything.
Yolanda shall be doing a book reading and signing at the Baraza Media Lab from 10 am to 1 pm. This event is ideal for children ages 6- 10yrs. Entry is free. RSVP here
Celebrating African Children's Books & Authors
The Kids Lit Club is a bi-monthly storybook reading event featuring African children’s book writers, storytellers and well-known personalities as they engage children in fireside sessions of interactive readings and storytelling.
This event aims to showcase & celebrate African Children's books and their authors in order to ensure that African children can see themselves in the books they read. Our hope is to make the reading sessions a way for children to discover and fall in love with stories that reflect their environment and their lived experiences as well as a chance for them to develop an interest and take pride in their identity, heritage and culture as Africans. We believe that this will in turn increase the volume & variety of African children’s literature not just in English but also in other African languages.
For those who have been following my initiative Tusome Hadithi - a podcast where we feature well-known Kenyan personalities reading African storybooks and sharing the joy of our stories, then this event will be a Tusome Hadithis live event. Past episodes can be heard on your favourite podcasting app or watched on our YouTube channel.
Building a community of young book lovers & children’s writers
As a mother of three children all aged below 12 years, one of the biggest challenges I’ve had was finding books with relatable stories that I could read with them. Unlike us, our children have grown up with colour and in a digital world. Much as they try, they can’t relate to our childhood reading books and watching GreatWall TVs that were in black and white.
When I was growing up, storybooks were a luxury many of us could not afford. The few that we could read told of Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Snowhite and the Seven Dwarfs and Cinderella. I had such a romanticized fascination with snow, with long golden hair like Rapunzel and living in a castle.
More than 30 years later, there is still a dearth of well-told stories that reflect our everyday realities. Storybooks that have colourfully animated illustrations printed with high quality are what our children expect. We are competing with Disney and Coco Melon and Baby Shark on TV and with Dr Seuss in print for their attention.
I am excited about writers such as Yolanda and others who are diving into these unchartered waters determined not just to swim but also to mould a generation rooted deeply in their heritage.
This event is the genesis of building a community of young book lovers, a community of children’s writers and parents who are conscious and intentional. The stories we tell our children matter.
I hope to see you all with your little ones on Saturday.
PS. If you are a published African children’s writer and would like your book featured, we’d love to hear from you. Write to us; AfrokidzKenya(at)gmail(dot)com