National Book Week will take place online this year
Due to the corona pandemic, National Book Week will take place online this year.
Due to the corona pandemic, National Book Week will take place online this year.
Join the South African Book Development Council (SABDC) from September 7 to 13 to celebrate books through indigenous language reading festivals across the country.
The theme for 2020 is ‘Passport to Tomorrow’. The country’s social and economic progress depends in large measure on its people’s ability to access and read.
“The theme is fit-for-purpose for the next decade as we emerge from the pandemic towards the promise of a better tomorrow. It is interpretive, and its appeal lies not in the statement itself, but in the way it is constructed by the reader, for self,” is the message from SABDC.
The programme this year includes digital content and to-do-activities which will be presented virtually on NBW’s Facebook page, respecting the boundaries of social distancing whilst still promoting all things books, writing and creativity.
The programme includes reading-related activities, storytelling, poetry sessions, writing workshops, play-based learning and motivational talks in all South African languages. New additions to the line-up include magic shows and puppet making workshops which should find new audiences all over the country.
South Africa commemorates National Book Week every first week of September. It is an initiative of SABDC in collaboration with the Department of Arts and Culture.
Reading statistics report that only 14% of the South African population are active book readers, and a mere 5% of parents read to their children. National Book Week is an important initiative in encouraging the nation to value reading as a fun and pleasurable activity and to showcase how reading can easily be incorporated into one’s daily lifestyle.
“With this year’s theme of ‘The Books of Our Lives’, National Book Week embarks on a creative campaign which reveals to South Africans the many ways in which books remain our faithful companions on the road of life, prodding us, guiding us, teasing us, and sweeping us away into history, fantasy and the inner lives of others so different, and yet so similar, to ours,” is the note from the South African Government.
The commemoration coincides with International Literacy Day on 8 September.
For more information, visit www.sabookcouncil.co.za
