What [South] African stories are your children reading?

A while back i compiled a list of super amazing books for young children from suggestions made by a lot of my friends, with a specific focus on South African and African stories. While it may not be imperative that your children ONLY read books from this country and continent, i think you are definitely missing out if they are not reading any. And there are some REALLY GREAT stories being written.

So yesterday i put out the word again and was thoroughly encouraged to have a whole new list of local and continental book suggestions for you to take a look at, and start reading to/with your children. Thank you to everyone who brought the suggestions.

More Great South African Books for your children to read:

‘In Africa with Avi and Kumbi’ by Nomalanga Mkhize which I purchased over here.  [Machoene Hlungwane]

‘The skin we are in’ by Sindiwe Magona and Nina Jablonski [Kari Cousins]

We enjoy the Jamela series by Niki Daly. We borrow them from our local library [Alice Stegmann] 

We have a book called ‘the day gogo went to vote’ by Elinor Sisulu… i get goosebumps every time I read it. [Emma Cocklin]

When I pray for you – Matthew Paul Turner, illustrated by Kimberley Barnes [Alexa Matthews] 

I agree with a lot of the books in the article, especially the African Nursery Rhymes (Liz Mills). [Michael Warren]

I would add:

*The Herd Boy (Illustrated and written by Niki Daly ) – A little too old for my son, but I think it is great.
*The Cross-with-us-Rhinoceros (John Bush & Paul Geraghty) – Very rhythmic and great pictures.
*Any of the books of Ed Jordan and Alan Glass’s Beautiful Creatures series (Illustrated by Sandy Lightley) – The songs and albums they are based on are awesome, and it is fun to read the book at the same time as listening to the music.
*Niki Daly’s Little Hands books are also cute/fun -I have only read some of the Little Artists so far (Mondi, Nomsa, Lulu, Joe etc) but I imagine they are all good.

‘Desmond and the very mean word’ – Desmond Tutu [Debbie Austwick]

Gretchen Zuidema Driesenga added that this is a helpful space to find  more books as is this one.

Some really great books on offer and so good to see more coming out all the time based on our diverse cultures and experiences. Do you have any others you would add to this list? Drop them in the comments below.

[For the rest of the books that were recommended in the original post, click here]