The theme of ‘Postcards of me’ is where we encourage children to share information about themselves with other children. The activities, compiled by CBN’s Lisa Witherden, can be found at:
Book One – Activity One:
Postcards from me
CBN has had great success with the activity for today – making self-portraits. We saw that children asked to draw themselves usually drew stereotypes, often from comic books. When we give them small mirrors, they actually look at their own image and make often very realistic attempts at a likeness.
The book we pair with this activity is: My forever friend by Jeremy Daniela with illustrations by Olivia Villet, published by Tafelberg in 2013. (Also available in Afrikaans.)
A little girl makes friends with her own mirror-image – a girl she calls Copia.
‘When I say something, she says it too. She likes all the same clothes I do and we pull the same funny, stinky-bathroom faces in the mirror
That’s why I call her Copia. She calls me Copia too, but my name’s really Mimi.
I used to want her to come out of the bathroom, but she never did. I waited and waited, and then I crept to the bathroom and peeped in, and she was still there.’
The sad news comes that the family are moving home. But Mum just smiles when Mimi asks if they can take the bathroom with them when they move. Mimi is very sad to leave Copia behind.
‘My room is fine. The garden is fine. The house even has an attic, which is cool. But, of course, when I go into the bathroom, Copia isn’t there.’
Luckily, Copia reappears when Mimi opens her cupboard door at the new house – and she is there in the mirror.
This charming story takes Mimi to ‘big school’ where Copia helps her deal with bullying, on a camping holiday where Copia appears in a still pool, most excitingly in the hall of mirrors at the funfair. By the end of the book, Mimi has made a friend called Yoli – and Yoli has a mirror-friend too, a friend called Selfie.
‘Me and Yoli. Look at each other.
Then I have an idea. We could leave Selfie and Copia to play together in the bathroom, and we can go and play outside!’
