Babu’s Song
Daily story – 25 March 2020 Read ‘Babu’s Story’ – a charming story of Bernardi, a young boy who dreams of going to school. Stephanie Stuve-Bodeen New York, Lee & Low, 2008
The Tin Forest
Daily story – 24 March 2020 Read ‘The Tin Forest’ by Helen Ward and Wayne Anderson (New York, Puffin Books, 2003).
How can we help?
With schools closed and contact with others limited, what are children to do with themselves? We have been brainstorming ideas about resources that can be accessed through our website now, and also after everything settles down. Each day, from today (24 March) there will be free stories to download. From Monday 30 March there will
Children’s Book Network Funding Proposal for 2020
Thank you for your support. Our Funding Proposal can be found at the bottom of this article by clicking the PDF links, or on OUR RECORDS page. To all the friends and funders of Children’s Book Network  Thank you for your belief and confidence in our work over the last eight years. Without you,
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Talking to our children about the Corona Virus
With all of the hype and misinformation around the Corona virus, it is important to put our children’s minds at ease about the pandemic. It is also vitally important to properly inform them about COVID-19 – what the virus is, how it spreads and what we can do to stay safe. We came across this
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Cancellation of workshops until it is safe for our children to come
With heavy hearts, we decided at a meeting this morning to postpone the planned workshops for the next quarter, or until the emergency has diminished. There really is no choice. This comes at an otherwise very positive time for Children’s Book Network. We have a dream team on the management and creative side and great
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A CBN Ambassador of note – Inga Mfundisi
CBN is proud to welcome Inga as a serious part of our team – and a wonderful inspiration to our children. As an Ambassador for CBN, we hope that she will raise our profile locally and she already has fifteen Teen Team members from Hermanus High School interested in helping out at workshops. As a
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Workshop on 7 March 2020: Underground
This has to rate as one of our best! We had 36 children in attendance – only three of them in the ‘Little CBN’ category. These were most competently absorbed in stories by Lisa Witherden, and some teddy bears, while the rest settled in for some serious work with books and reading. The theme was
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How does our programme work?
Children’s Book Network (CBN) has been operating since 2012, and while we’ve changed and adapted over time, the core of our programme remains the same – to instil a love of reading in our children, and to give them access to books. Basically, to bring books to children and children to books. Learn all about
How does our programme work? Read More »
Book Reviews 2020
The reviews of children’s books by Jay Heale over the years will be maintained as a precious resource. His careful choices based on years of experience remain invaluable. There are hundreds of them, meticulously curated as ‘Six of the Best’ under headings such as Home and Family, animal stories or South African favourites. We will
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Workshop Programme 7 March 2020
UNDERGROUND! Theme: Looking at non-fiction – and looking at the fun in photographic ‘big books’. The story of going underground – and what might be found there. LITTLE CBN Going underwater and what might be found there! 10.00 Whole group for the story of the boy whose dog disappeared. Landscape – looking from the sky
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Our Teen Team
High School children are keen to help – but very pressurised by work and sport. We have enthusiastic support from children at Hermanus High School who come when they can. Surprisingly, this often includes more boys than girls. During 2018-2019 the Teen Team was led by Nyasha Makwarimba, who subsequently worked as an intern between
Monitoring and Evaluation: how are our children doing?
We at last had the resources and staff to develop a proper M&E system. Our Administrator, Wilien van Zyl, recorded all children attending our workshops and noted demographic details that enable us to make decisions for 2020 on a more factual basis. Each workshop is fully recorded and documented, with piecharts to make things visually
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Whopping workshop stats!
During 2019 we held 21 Workshops in total, and worked with just over 1 191 children in Stanford, De Kop, Zwelihle (Hermanus) and in Mitchell’s Plain. Our first two workshops for 2020 brought us a further 69 children. We realized early in 2019 that we needed a way of assessing the children’s progress. A ‘Book
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Springfontein and Children Reading!
Springfontein Wine Estate is working closely with the non-profit organisation Children’s Book Network, ‘to bring books and children onto the same page’. Children’s Book Network (CBN) began early in 2012, the dream of founders Gcina Mhlope, Lesley Beake and Sindiwe Magona. It was in 2018 that Hildegard Witbooi (board member of CBN and Springfontein management)
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Children’s Book Network News
Still in the same venue at Norfolk Place, CBN is welcoming even more children than ever this year, with additional help from volunteers and part time staff as well as the old trusted team. We thank them all. There is also a new squadron of the Teen Team – volunteers from Hermanus High School waiting
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Welcome to a new member of the CBN Team
We are delighted to have the help and enthusiasm of Lisa Witherden, who turned up at exactly the right moment to assist with some of the critical issues facing an expanding CBN. It is not often that the person with just the right credentials turns up on the doorstep – and there is no such
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Workshops working their wonder
Children’s Book Network (CBN) has officially kicked off our Saturday workshops for the year. These workshops take place twice a month and give our children a chance to read, space to let their imaginations fly, and access to knowledge outside of their everyday experience. Our first workshop was a lovely introduction to the year’s programme
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Toolboxes Forever!
It has been a very longstanding dream to pass on our ideas to other people and organizations working with children and reading. Six years, to be precise. That’s how long it took to assemble the books, the ideas, the methods, the inspiration and – hardest of all – the funding to make this dream come
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How do they read? Let us count the ways.
Photographs of children doing things tend to be more alluring, and maybe reflect more of the activities around the theme of the workshop than the actual business of reading. But they read! A lot. It wouldn’t be much use handing out a pack of books, however interesting and expecting our children to become immediately engrossed.
How do they read? Let us count the ways. Read More »
