April is the time to look at all the different facets of the written word: from the creative process of writing to the job of publishing.
And in Cape Town a lot more has been planned, with youngsters due to listen as authors read, share their own stories, take part in exhibitions and performances.
Meanwhile, language teachers and librarians in greater Cape Town have benefited from a series of creative writing workshops conducted at schools, libraries and community centres. The workshops were meant to equip them to guide learners in Grade 7 and 8 in writing short stories. These stories are to be entered in a story-writing competition entitled ‘It happened right there in our street”. Prizes include books as well as publication in a booklet that will be distributed to participating schools and libraries. The winners will gather on the afternoon of April 23 to share their stories.
At the Department of Extra Mural Studies at the University of Cape Town, morning poetry workshops will be held for a hundred Grade 11s from Mount View in Hanover Park and Ntlanganiso Secondary School in Khayelitsha. These workshops will be conducted by Cape Town poets.
The Western Cape Department of Education Library Services has developed a worksheet of activities especially for World Book Day. You can find this on their website, www.nlsa.ac.za/cb/projects/edulis. html
Also on the website is a calender of events for World Book Day.
The Centre for the Book, established in 1998 by the former National Library of South Africa to act as a book ambassador for the country, has also done its bit to make the day special. The centre has printed 65 000 colourful posters featuring ordinary South Africans engaged in the everyday pleasure of reading – on park benches, in cafés and on trains. The images on the poster capture the theme of this year’s World Book Day, ‘Read wherever you are”.
‘Read wherever you are’ posters are available from the centre, on (021) 423 2669 or e-mail at [email protected]