LBLiteracy

SA Platform For Neurodivergent Children Wins Global Award A South African-founded platform built to support the parents of neurodivergent children has the Global Champion 2025 for Learning

Gogo Reading Club Launches in Johannesburg! Gogos in Johannesburg now have their own Gogo Reading Club and Gogo Library as part of an incredible initiative that aims

Alisha Berger, a consultant for the World Bank @Home program, has deep experience in the publishing industry. She recently wrote a letter of reference for Book Dash and said we could share a few excerpts - which have truly inspired and humbled us!

Alisha has worked as a development publisher in over 50 languages and across 25 countries, and knows “intimately the challenges of training and supporting book creators.” She finds that Book Dash’s uniquely innovative model taps into professional creators’ skills in a way that is unseen elsewhere. It is thanks to the Book Dash events - at which such professionals volunteer their time during the course of one day - that Book Dash is able to create such high-quality, accessible books.

In her letter, Alisha describes how Book Dash is unique in the world in being able to “both develop excellent, community-relevant content and to make it truly open.” She celebrates an example: the Book Dash book, 'A House For A Mouse'. This book has been translated into 3 African languages and 17 Asian languages by Room To Read and ’sReadAsia.

We were particularly grateful that Alisha provided a real-life example of Book Dash's impact - in Tajikstan, in this instance. 'I am writing this letter while traveling home from a trip to Tajikistan," wrote Alisha, "where I was charged with presenting available openly-licensed, print-ready books to a ministry working group. The group wants to translate and print early childhood books in Tajik for the World Bank’s Read@Home program. As their own locally developed titles do not have available InDesign files, the best available titles were those from Book Dash. From the 20 Book Dash titles I shared, the group selected 12 titles for their project. Given the strong nationalistic mindset of the Tajik government, this fact is truly astounding.'

Book Dash, says Alisha, “uses a spectacularly innovative model" and - despite being a small team - its "accomplishments in a mere 10 years are astounding."

Thank you, Alisha, for your kind words!

Sweet dreams, book lovers! 🌛
What book are you taking to bed?

William Kamkwamba, from Malawi, is a born inventor. When he was 14, he built an electricity-producing windmill from spare parts and scrap, working from rough plans he found in a library book called Using Energy and modifying them to fit his needs.

The windmill he built powers four lights and two radios in his family home, a journey detailed in the book and film titled "The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind."

Since then, he has built a solar-powered water pump that supplies the first drinking water in his village and two other wind turbines, the tallest standing at 12 meters (39 ft), and has built two more, including one in Lilongwe, the political capital of Malawi.

Get the book, "The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind." by William Kamkwamba at:
https://amzn.to/46fetgP

Learning to read remains crucial in the era of AI for several reasons: - Reading Therapy & Literacy Support 1. Information Access Reading is the primary medium for accessing vast amounts of information. While AI can assist in organizing and presenting information, the ability to read allows individuals to critically evaluate and interpret the content. Reading provides access to a wide range of sources, in...

The 100 greatest children's books of all time BBC Culture polled 177 experts from 56 countries to find the greatest children's books ever. From Where the Wild Things Are to Haroun and the Sea of Stories, here's the top 100.

https://www.unjumblemywords.co.za/5-tips-for-parents-to-help-their-child-read-for-meaning/

Tips for parents to help their child read for meaning - Reading Therapy & Literacy Support Cheryl Cupido shares tips for parents on how to help their child to read for meaning as well as improve their vocabulary.

This is a great image describing exercises for putty or play dough.

https://blog.codinghorror.com/programming-your-hands/