Bestselling author Eoin Colfer, whose Artemis Fowl series of action-fantasy novels has sold more than nine million copies worldwide, may well wish to operate under a cloak of secrecy — as his famous teenaged creation does — when he arrives in South Africa this week.
Colfer (43), whose has described his tales of the young criminal as ”Die Hard with fairies”, will be appearing at a handful of Exclusive Books branches this week to meet his legions of young fans and talk about his latest novel, Airman.
The Irish author is a former primary-school teacher who left his teaching career to write full-time. His visit will be the highlight of the Exclusive Books Children’s Festival — now in its second year — and is aimed at getting children into bookshops and excited about reading.
Also, Maryanne and Shayle Bester, co-authors of The Cool Nguni and The Long Trousers, will be reading from their books and running a craft workshop for children at the festival.
The Bester sisters grew up on a cattle farm in the Free State — which later served as inspiration for their children’s books, whose characters are cattle.
Maryanne Bester told the Mail & Guardian Online this week that there are many factors contributing to South Africa’s shocking literacy levels (the country has been rated among the world’s 10 worst in this regard).
”Generally, book buyers are affluent people because books are expensive. The other thing is that in the past, South African children’s books had bad illustrations and they didn’t appeal to children,” she said. ”I strongly believe that a high percentage of the quality of a children’s book lies in the illustrations.”
Her love of reading stemmed not only from academic necessity; it was also how she spent her leisure time as a child.
”There was no TV at home when I was growing up, so all we did was read. We read everything from newspapers to picture books and my parents loved reading, so that is how I got into the habit of reading,” she said, adding that parents need to teach their children how to use a library.
”Not everyone can afford books, so it would help if parents taught their children to use libraries even though they can’t buy books themselves.”
Children’s Festival events will be held at selected branches in Gauteng, the Free State, the Eastern Cape, Pretoria, KwaZulu-Natal and the Western Cape on most Saturday mornings in March.
Penny Hochfeld, corporate social investment manager at Exclusive Books (which spends 15% of its marketing budget on the festival), said children today have many social distractions that hinder them from reading.
”Society has made it difficult for children to love reading. Parents don’t read to their children and Exclusive Books can only encourage reading. Enforcement is in the hands of the parents and the schools,” she said, adding that the bookstore chain has produced a guide to the best children’s books.
”We compile a list of books that we recommend parents to buy, and sell it for R6. The profit goes into the Exclusive Books Reading Trust, where we donate books to schools and libraries around the country.”
Starting in January 2006, the reading trust has been funding a reading development project at Emfundisweni Primary School in Alexandra, Johannesburg. In a progress report written in August 2006, the deputy principal says: ”Ever since the inception of this project, we have seen our grade-four learners’ literacy skills developing continuously; their reading level has improved unbelievably, their comprehension level cannot be explained.”
Hochfeld said that Exclusive Books has so far contributed financial support of R110 000 to the school, with a further R90 000 committed as well as donations totalling about 1 400 books for 2008.
Eoin Colfer will appear at Exclusive Books V&A Waterfront (on Thursday March 13) and Exclusive Books Hyde Park (on Tuesday March 11) during the festival. Get a copy of the schedule at any Exclusive Books store countrywide or at www.exclusivebooks.co.za