“There is a unique kind of
magic that comes from hearing a story told. With only the power of a voice, an
entire world can be created,” writes Evan Turk in the author’s note to the new
book he wrote and illustrated, The
Storyteller.
The Storyteller
is one of this year’s Children’s Africana Book Award (CABA) winners. The awards honor books that
contribute to an accurate, balanced picture of Africa. The
Storyteller takes place during a drought in the ancient Kingdom of Morocco.
Only the power of storytelling is capable of filling everyone’s brass cup with
water to share.
Encourage children to write
their own story – and then share the stories out loud or with pictures. Talk
about what makes a story so exciting that readers or listeners never get bored
and keep wanting more.
· Are there stories or legends you hear at home about
the countries or places where your parents or grandparents were born?
· Can you imagine a story to explain a natural
phenomenon – like why fireflies sparkle at night, what the man (or lady) in the
moon might be thinking or why pandas love to eat bamboo?
· Write about a day in your life when something magic
happens to you – like the boy in the story whose brass cup is suddenly
overflowing with water.
Each of the 2017 CABA books
could generate writing prompts – beginning with finding out more about the
African country featured in each title.
The 2017 CABA Winners are:
·
Gizo-Gizo! A tale
from the Zongo Lagoon (Ghana) by Emily Williamson with the students and teachers of the Hassaniyya
Quranic School in Cape Coast Ghana/Sub-Saharan Publishers / available via
African Books Collective
· The
Storyteller (Morocco) by Evan
Turk/Atheneum
· Amagama
Enkululeko! Words for Freedom: Writing Life Under Apartheid (South Africa) Anthology/Cover2Cover/ available via
African Books Collective
2017 CABA Honor Books
· Aluta (Ghana) by Adwoa Badoe/Groundwood Books
· The Bitter
Side of Sweet (Ivory Coast) by Tara
Sullivan/Putnam
· The Boy Who
Spat in Sargrenti’s Eye (Ghana) by
Manu Herbstein / self-published for international distribution via Ingram
Publishing Services /Techmate in Ghana
2017 CABA Notable Book
· The World
Beneath (South Africa) by Janice
Warman/Candlewick
This is the 25th anniversary
of the CABA awards - 90 books set in 24 countries have been recognized since
the awards began. The authors of all
seven 2017 winners will receive their awards at a celebration dinner November
3, 2017, in Washington, D.C.
Ten
previous winners are also attending the dinner, including Kathleen Wilson
winner of the first CABA, five-time CABA winner E.B. Lewis and two-time winners
Liz Zunon, Baba Wague Diakité
and Ifeoma Onyefulu. Ntshadi Mofokeng, representing the NGO Equal Education will be coming from
South Africa, author Manu Herbstein will be traveling to the celebration from
Ghana, Adwoa Badoe from Canada and Janice Warman from the U.K. Click here for tickets and more information.
On
Saturday, a free CABA family festival will be held at the Smithsonian National
Museum of African Art. Children can
learn to spin a yarn and weave a story, based on tales from Ghana, Morocco and
Ivory Coast. A panel of CABA
authors/illustrators is featured and both current and past CABA winners will be
signing their books. The event is free and open to the public. More information here.
“When a storyteller dies, a library burns.” Old Moroccan saying
https://childrensbookguild.org/karen-leggett-abouraya
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