Reading Revolution

START A LIBRARY

readrev — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 13:57:40 +0000

Start a Library and give our children the gift of success

What do you think is more important for a child’s future – having educated parents in good jobs….or reading for pleasure?

That is right! According to an OECD study, reading for pleasure has been found to be the most important factor for a successful future. Isn’t that almost unbelievable? In a country like Kenya, with such economic disparity, the love of reading could be the MOST valuable gift we give our children.

A reading nation is a thinking nation, but most public primary schools do not have storybooks, and certainly not local books that will arouse the curiosity of our children and make them think. This is your chance to change this. Donate non-curricular children’s book packages to primary schools and ‘start a library’ yourself.

Just choose one of these packages, pay through M-Pesa and we will deliver the books to the school.

Thank you for being part of the Reading Revolution, which is all about exciting children about stories, books and reading and smashing the stereotype that Kenyans don’t read!

“If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales” Albert Einstein

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Why I Read – @McNjeri’s Reading Revolution

readrev — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 07:26:12 +0000

The explorer in me likes to travel to far flung places and experience new sights, sounds and people.

The detective in me likes to try to figure out who has committed a crime and why.

The romantic in me likes to find out how people got together, the rocky road they’ve travelled and how it all ended.

The historian in me likes to know what life was like in the olden days and how things have changed.

The psychologist in me works overtime trying to understand people’s behaviour.

And all of this I do through reading.

As far back as I can remember I’ve always enjoyed curling up with a good book. As a child I made regular visits to the local library with my parents and my brother. We each had three tickets and were given time to wander around looking through all the books and making our selection. My childhood favourites included the Nancy Drew and Swiss Chalet School series which I devoured. Three books that I owned and loved were Pollyanna, Helen Keller and Heidi. I remember the night I was coming towards the end of Heidi (a red leather-bound book with full page pictures scattered throughout). I was determined to get to the end but my mum came to tell me it was time for lights out. I asked for another ten minutes which were granted. Then the light was switched off….and after a few minutes I closed the door and switched it back on and kept reading. It was switched off again and so I got up and found a torch and hid under the covers…I got caught but persevered. I was so engrossed in the story I had to get to the end.

Over time, as I grew up it became harder to find time to read other than in bed at night. Holidays became a treasured time where I could catch up. I remember working my way through the catalogue of books by Catherine Cookson – old fashioned but I loved them! – and a series by Maisie Mosco about a Jewish family (the first book was Almonds and Raisins). As an adult this continued and I’d read anything I could get hold of – chick lit like the Sophie Kinsella Shopaholic books or crime thrillers like Ian Rankin’s Rebus books and Val McDermid’s gripping novels. One of the most relaxing holidays I had was a week away on my own where I got through 6 books in 7 days!

When I moved to Kenya, I had no television for the first year I was here and read quite often in the evenings. Then I moved to Nairobi, started watching TV and tweeting and lost the art of reading. Constant skimming of 140 character messages made it hard for me to focus on a book. Then I met Aleya Jamel of the Reading Revolution and had an exciting conversation about reading and how great it is. I realised I had been missing my escapism and picked up a book and started to read. It took a while but I got into it. Then I had a few days break at coast…finished the first book, bought another and finished it and started on a third which I’m now working my way through.

Now I remember why I love reading and I’ll never go back to that bookless place again!

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True Warriors – Book Signing with Author Ken Kamoche

readrev — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 07:11:20 +0000

True Warriors – A Novel: Book Signing with Author Ken Kamoche
Location: Text Book Centre, Nakumatt Junction, Nairobi
Time: Saturday, 23 July 2011 11:00am to 1:00pm

Chege grew up in the shadow of his illustrious brother and has little of the clan’s fighting spirit, which makes his father doubt paternity and treat him with spite. Matters come to a head when they are thrown off their land after his brother’s conviction for treason following the 1982 coup attempt. Going to the UK for further studies brings its own surprises. After being implicated in a financial scandal, he returns to Kenya to clear his name and sort out his funding. He finds the dreaded Special Branch are hot on his heels. He could be joining his brother in jail, or worse, and is quite unprepared for the discovery that he too must become a ‘warrior’, in keeping with the Family Tradition.

Ken N. Kamoche, Author of True Warriors

Ken N. Kamoche was born and raised in Kenya. He studied Commerce at the University of Nairobi and Management at Oxford where he was a Rhodes Scholar. He is an academic, journalist and writer of fiction. Ken’s collection of short stories, A Fragile Hope (Salt 2007)was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Best First Book Award. His other stories have appeared in various anthologies, including Hong Kong ID, Dream Miracles and Jazz, One Worls Anthology and New Writing from Afriva 2009, as well as magazines such as Ambit, Wasafiri, Kunapipi and AuthorMe. Ken has also been a columnist for Kenyan Newspapers. He currently lives in the UK. True Warriors was first published as a short story in Crossing Borders.

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Photos From The ‘June 16 Read Aloud’ Campaign

readrev — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 07:11:18 +0000

St. Austins' Kids Read Aloud

Awesome experience at Kilimani Primary School

Children from Childrens Garden Dagoretti poised to read aloud

At kuruka maisha celebrating the day of the african child

Kuruka Maisha at the GoDown Arts Centre

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Storymoja's Aleya Jamel

Mpira Mtaani

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Former Street Boys at 'The New Horizon Centre'

On 16th June 2011, courtesy of Storymoja Publishers and the British Council, approximately 84,300 Kenyans set the national record for “Most people reading out loud from the same text in different locations on the same day.” Children from schools across the country gathered together at their respective parade grounds to read the story ‘Lydia’s gift.’ Readings were done in Nairobi, Mombasa, Kisumu and as far as Mbita and Msambweni.

The reading session launched the beginning of a three-year reading campaign, dubbed the Kenyan Reading Revolution, aimed at highlighting the importance for reading for pleasure in the lives of Kenyans. Next in line: a Reading Marathon. Kenyans (that means you) are encouraged to read and donate as many books as they can from now till the Storymoja Hay Festival (16th-18th September). The donations will go towards filling the schools and libraries in need with books. The 20 minutes reading will go toward filling your day with pleasure.

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When Amnesty is needed no more – Michael Mopurgo

readrev — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 07:05:13 +0000

Michael Morpurgo on how developing a love for literature in our children could lead to making Amensty International defunct one day. How can we leverage on this and draw parallels between reading and the work Amnest does?

For 50 years now, all my adult life, Amnesty International has been there keeping watch over the injustices and cruelties we inflict on one another, reminding us urgently that in this oh-so-smug world we live in there are horrors unimaginable being perpetrated on innocent people the world over. Amnesty doesn’t just prick our collective conscience and raise our awareness, it doesn’t just talk, it is proactive, righting wrongs, campaigning tirelessly, fearlessly, to expose abuses of human rights whenever they are uncovered, wherever they occur.

Read Michael’s Article

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We Did It! 84,300 Kenyans set the national record!

readrev — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 06:41:26 +0000

Yes we could and yes we did!

‘Lydia’s Gift’ was available online so Kenyans who were not at schools, could read out loud from wherever they were: offices, universities and there is one reported case of someone reading out loud at a cyber café! The story is about a street boy whose love for reading gives him the opportunity to have a better life off the streets. It was specially written by two street children and reflects the theme of the Day of the African Child, which also falls on 16th June.

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Why I Read – @TheParasGudka’s Reading Revolution

readrev — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 09:53:05 +0000

It started as an exercise in escapism. I think I was 8 or 9 or 10 years old. Real life was a bit too drab and painful for someone with my sense of fair play. So I chose to get lost in adventures had by fictional characters in far-away lands over fist-fights and childish arguments with my peers.

My mum had discovered a bookstore in Westlands where second-hand books were being sold by the kilo. The price must have been very attractive because my house was soon filled with entire series of The Secret Seven, The Famous Five and other Enid Blyton books. I think she bought them partly to satisfy her own obsession for the written word (even though English wasn’t her strongest subject or preferred language) and partly to get my brother and I interested in the art of reading. As it turned out, her investment paid off. One of us inherited her love for consuming text while the other preferred the colourfulness of bloody knees and clothes soiled from playing too hard.

Now I’m not very sure of the order in which I devoured those series of adventures, but I believe it went something like this: The Three Golliwogs (and similar stories), Noddy, The Secret Seven, The Famous Five, The Five Find-Outers and Dog (I still laugh at the thought of ‘Clear-Orf’). When I had nothing else to read, cereal boxes and car registration plates became my sources of nourishment.

From Enid Blyton, cereal boxes and car registration plates, I graduated to more ‘mature’ series like The Hardy Boys and (very rarely) Nancy Drew (just to see if I enjoyed the adventures of a feminine counterpart to the sleuthing brothers—I didn’t).

I remember spending entire weekends lying on the top bunk of the bunk bed I shared with my brother, just reading. My passion for words and fantasy was such that I wouldn’t return to the real world till I was summoned to the dining table for lunch, my 4 pm milkshake or dinner, by my mum’s very loud screams. I didn’t want to. In my mind I was an adventurer who was learning to build his own tree house after being marooned on an uninhabited island or a detective with a flashlight out solving mysteries. Why, then, would I want to come back to a reality consisting mainly of homework, studying and exams?

In high school I was introduced to sci-fi (Dr. Who) and more adult fiction (Arthur Hailey). They were followed by Sidney Sheldon and John Grisham and the Hercule Poirot series by Agatha Christie. I read many authors, some of whom I don’t even remember any more. Some, like R. L. Stine and Stephen King, I don’t want to remember. Fast forward to a decade later and I find myself staring at books with titles as obscure as ‘Why Men Don’t Listen And Women Can’t Read Maps’ and Man Booker Prize winners such as ‘The White Tiger’ in my personal library.

In my childhood, I read to escape. In my teenage years, I read to expand my horizons. Now, as an adult, I read mainly to learn. It is a life-long addiction that I am not willing to risk curing myself of. I love books and books love me.

See more of The Paras Gudka

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An Adventure, Everyday – @AKenyanGirl’s Reading Revolution

readrev — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 11:04:22 +0000

Why do I read?

I started reading at a young age, encouraged by my parents to read not just the alphabet, but to grasp larger words. And so, evening, before dinner time, would find me sitting next to my dad, trying out the newspaper, large in my tiny six year old hands. The fact that I was the youngest in the family meant that I was often kicked out of the kitchen – so as not to bug my sisters, and so that they didn’t have to babysit me. I thank them for that!

I had been brought up in Nairobi till I was about 9, when my parents then relocated up country after retirement, and I was kind of lost.

My friends were gone, and other than my siblings, I didn’t have many other kids to interact with. Given the huge size of the farm too, there wasn’t many places my little chubby legs would walk to. And so I learned to dig into my siblings books. I remember first reading the Enid Blytons, and soon enough, I’d changed my name to Georgina, and wanted to be called George. Of course, my mom would hear none of this, but it didn’t stop me from writing it on my books and term papers. Soon enough, I’d moved on to Hardy Boys. And then, I ran out of kids’ books.

I remember picking up Chinua Achebe’s “Things Fall Apart”, and wondering what that was really about. I took it as an adventure into a village that in my mind wasn’t too far – despite knowing where exactly Nigeria was. I wanted it to relate. But the book was somewhat too complicated for my 10 year old brain then, and I just read it for the sake of keeping busy. Soon enough, it was time for W. H. Lawrence. That too confounded me, but I kept reading and finished what I thought was the largest tome I’d ever laid my hands on. The newspapers helped me hone my English – I would fill out the crossword daily with my dad as we sat waiting for dinner.

When I was bored, I would read my father’s law books and some of his papers, without fully grasping what it was about. But the information would stay in my brain, and the big words wouldn’t be so scary when I learned them in school. My brother set me on a challenge: read the bible from start to finish. And in three months I was finished. I set on to my sister’s biology and nursing books, and discovered the wonders of the human body. In between, I stumbled on Grace Ogot, Barbara Kimenyi and David Malilu (GASP!) and John Kiriamiti.

When I was sent to boarding school, I volunteered to clean the library each day, just so I could have an hour in that sacred space, breathe in the musty smells of books, handle each lovingly as I put them back on their shelves. And when I was done cleaning, I would sit on the one little chair that was set in the corner (it was a tiny library, stacked from top to bottom on all sides). On the weekends, that would be my hiding space. I was somewhat shy, and this was one place I could escape to where I had friends. Sometimes I would sneak out the books during a lesson, so engrossed in the story that I didn’t want to put the book down. I got caught while in class 8, and was made to sit out the rest of my year of music classes. As everyone went on with the lesson, I would only be too happy to sit outside the class as ordered – only that I would bring whatever I had been reading, and finish reading it in peace! Thank God for the easy 8-4-4 system, I did pass my exams, despite the absence in class.

Everything was an adventure to me. I would pick up a book, sit in a corner, and not move until someone came looking for me. My sister would sometimes get frustrated with me, as she would be talking me yet I had gone off on another adventure. Or I’d be up all night, before my college classes, and be dozing off the next day. All because of an adventure that was offered to me, free of charge. Robert Ludlum, Wilbur Smith, Sindey Sheldon, Danielle Smith, Barbara Kingsolver all were favorites, and were as quickly discarded for new favorites as I grew up – Patricia Cornwell, Michael Connelly, John Grisham, and Dan Brown. They and more authors sent me off in journeys to seek

Recently I discovered an appetite for African writers, and writers from the middle east. Not the usual American and British fictional writers. I wanted adventures right in my backyard, or at least, close enough. Naugib Mahfouz, Chinua Achebe, Wole Soyinka, Nadine Gordimer, Alexander McCall, Ngugi wa Thiong’o, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Ben Okri, and more…. I couldn’t count the books I’ve read.

Each day is an amazing journey. I oscillate between the continents, dashing from country to country, adventure onto the next, journey into the unknown. I hoard all my books – because I’ve lost too many precious copies, and because I want my kids to learn what adventures were available to me.

Each day is a reading revolution. Come, discover the world with me.

See more of AKenyanGirl.

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Kenyans set National Reading Record

readrev — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 18:55:57 +0000

Tomorrow, 16^th June, over 80,000 students around the country will set a national record for “Most people reading out loud from the same text in different locations.”

Storymoja is working in conjunction with the over 100 schools in the British Council’s Connecting Classrooms Program to get young Kenyans reading! Participating schools will be holding a special assembly from 9.00 am to read the story Lydia’s gift; a beautiful piece about a boy and his love for reading. It was co-written by two street children and helps highlight the theme of the Day of the African Child.

You can be part of this revolution! All you have to do is check out the story here read it out loud at 9.00 am tomorrow wherever you are. Let us know that you did this by tweeting us (@readkenya) or posting on our facebook page. We would love to get pictures and videos of you reading as well.

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Not Intent on Arriving – Grace Wanjuki’s Reading Revolution

readrev — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 17:21:57 +0000

I am a traveler

I have tickets to everywhere

I know that isn’t fair

And if you think this is hot air

Allow me to share;

Manuscripts are my airfare!

A book in hand

Is worth a ticket around the world

Many that one could afford

With a yearning to understand

The wisdom of the gods

You are no longer blind

When I reads I paint

Pictures of emotions felt

By peoples different

In hearts, of lands distant

Pains and laughs otherwise faint

Becomes suddenly so acute

Every time I read

I taste wine and rare bread

From the bakeries of the dead

And somehow breed

With their attitudes and creeds

Gradually I am freed

On scribbled pages

I find dark alleys

And numerous tunnels

To elongated railways

Some, wide and common pathways

Most, narrow and troubled waterways

Whenever I read

I find and plant a seed

That painfully grows to feed

My innermost desires and needs

Thus, I ascend

That is why I read.

“The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.” — St. Augustine

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