Accessing and using African Storybooks: Digital and Print format

Dorcas Wepukhulu

The African Storybook website has over 1300 unique storybooks, over 6000 translations and 193 languages of Africa. With internet connection, you can access and read the storybooks straight from the website. You can also download, for free, the African Storybook Reader App from App Store or Google Play which saves the storybooks in your Library on the phone or tablet for children to read without the need for internet connection.

You can download and save storybooks on a flashdrive, and using a laptop and projector, project them on a screen or wall for children to read. If the wall is too discoloured and doesn’t show text and images clearly, you can improve clarity by making a white cloth to create a screen supported by sticks.

You can also create a board using flip chart as in this picture of the Ras Abebe Library and Bookstore in Debre Birhan, Ethiopia. You can then project storybooks on it and lead children to read.

Children like a variety of methods to ignite their imagination and make reading enjoyable. Lolupe Primary School, a partner school in Turkana County, Kenya, discovered that a combination of digital projection and printed books boosted children’s reading and motivated teachers to try out new pedagogical approaches to teaching reading. It provided an opportunity for teachers to trans-language in class and helped children to practise reading in three languages. One teacher in particular, read with children a storybook in the local language using print books and then projected the same story to read in Kiswahili and in English. As he led the class in reading and talking about the story, children were able to use all three languages to relate words to images, recognise vocabulary in the three languages and to understand the story.

As children’s desire to read was awakened through digital projection, teachers at Lolupe School educated children on the importance of caring for print books. They encouraged them to borrow books from the school library and to read at home. Those who read and returned them in good condition, were recognised and awarded pens and pencils. Children also read for the school one of the storybooks they borrowed in the language of their choice.

African Storybook website print-ready service caters for different needs. For example, for quick printing to use at a workshop or literacy campaign and for large scale distribution, African Storybook website provides a very handy option. You can print a book(s) as need arises, as PDF or booklet. You can also print in black and white or in full colour.

The African Storybook website also offers you an opportunity to make collections or anthologies based on a language, a theme, level or a category of stories. For example, you can create your own collection(s) of storybooks developed by children or in a particular workshop or country. This collections offer children longer and varied reading using the same book. Educators can also use them to engage children around specific competences and skills. Below are examples of anthologies of up to 5 stories in isiZulu, Kiswahili and English.

Quality of the storybooks (whether digital or printed) is very important and African Storybook encourages users to do a final quality assurance on the selected stories before printing, downloading for later use or for making collections. We think that it is important for you to do the following:

1. Knowing the story

Read each story from start to finish and understand the text.

2. Pictures

Check if each page of text makes sense with the picture on the page. If the text on a page does not quite represent the picture, for example, if the text says that the characters are happy and yet the picture shows that they are crying or are sad, (which can occur through translation), the text needs to be revised so that it matches what you see in the picture.

3. Letters and special characters

Check and ensure that letters and symbols are correct and consistent. There are languages that have extra and special characters which might need to be inserted to align the text to the official or accepted orthography of the language.

4. Punctuation: Check that:

• There are full stops at the end of every sentence.
• Every sentence and every noun (names of people/places) start with capital letters.
• Direct speech is formatted correctly (Full stops, commas are placed inside the quotation marks: For example: Mary said, “I will come tomorrow.” OR “I will come tomorrow,” Mary said.)
• Spacing is correct before/after punctuation (close up / open up spaces)
• There is no use of semi-colon (;) and abbreviations
• Sentences are not too long for the reading level

5. Language Quality

Check to ensure that there are no spelling errors or missing words and that each story is presented clearly and logically, with sentences and paragraphs that are coherent.

6. Page layout

Check to ensure that the text fits well on the page and no words are cut off. If there is too much text on a page, you could edit the story and reduce the words to fit. If the story content fits higher level readers and the amount of text is consistent on most pages, you can change the story to a higher level to accommodate this.

If, in the process of reading, downloading, preparing to make collections, you come across any of the quality issues mentioned above, please seek support via the ‘HELP & NOTES’ section. Clearly indicate what you need help with or suggest changes that you need to be made by referring to the title of the storybook and the exact page.

Enjoy the reading!