A young girl goes in search of the spirit of spring to help save her village. An endearing tale of friendship and culture. Another great creative commons book from BookDash.
Illustrated by Selina Masego Morulane, Written by Mosa Mahlaba, Designed by Sibusiso Mkhwanazi
Text and Images from Searching for the Spirit of Spring
The Winter cold had passed.
Spring was coming to Nkanyezi’s village. Soon the villagers would gather to celebrate the new season. Nkanyezi
looked forward to the Spring festival more than any other day in the year.
One warm morning, Nkanyezi
overheard two village elders
talking about the festival.
“The people of Ndlovu have lost
their spirit of celebration,” one sighed.
“How can we have a Spring
festival in a village that has
forgotten how to celebrate?”
asked another.
Nkanyezi was worried.
“How will the sun shine again
unless we sing to wake it from
its winter slumber?” she asked herself.
Nkanyezi thought for a long time.
“I must find what we have lost,”
she decided.
“I must go in search of things
that will bring back the spirit of
celebration to my village.”
The elders gave Nkanyezi their blessing for the journey. They gave her a bag to carry the things she would find.
Nkanyezi was afraid, but she believed she would succeed.
<end of sample>
You can also follow and read along with the video below
About Book Dash
Book Dash gathers professional creatives – writers, illustrators, designers, editors – who volunteer to create high-quality children’s books that anyone can freely download, translate, print and distribute. Most of the work is done
on a Book Dash day, when small teams work for over twelve straight hours, each producing a new book.
Why Book Dash?
Books purchased from publishers cost too much. In order to distribute more books for South African children, Book Dash participants work as publishers in a single day, having a book with no publishers mean the book will be a lot cheaper the only cost will be printing the books. With these, anyone can run sponsored prints and the finished books can be handed to children.
Every child should have a hundred books when they reach the age of five. that means handing down 600 million free books to South African children who probably could not afford to buy them, More children grow up not learning how to read and write well, and every day we lose more of these children. Let us not neglect these children and help them overcome poverty by first teaching them how to read and to enjoy the worlds that a book can open up.
About Creative Commons
Content under Creative Commons licenses can be downloaded, translated and can even be used to create new stories ‐ provided you give appropriate credit, and indicate if changes were made. To know more about this, and the full terms of use and attribution, please visit the following.
See more books about Culture below
Dance Khuzwayo, Dance! - Khuzwayo is picked to be the village’s next Ingoma dancer, to celebrate the first crops of the year, but will he have the courage to dance? \ Illustrated by Jess Jardim-Wedepohl Written by Fiske Serah Nyirongo Designed by Job Mubinya Another amazing story from www.bookdash.org, aiming ...
A Trip to the Tap - Oluhle is excited to go to the tap and fetch water, she will see her friends there, but what happens when she can’t find her bucket? Illustrated by Phumle April Written by Sindeka Mandoyi Designed by Nadene Kriel Sample Page from A Trip to the Tap Download the full book by selecting one of ...
The Conical Hat - A short story about conical hats and all their important uses. Great for young children, learning to read, and ESL. Sample page from The Conical Hat Author: Ram Babu Subedi Illustrator: Promina Shreshtha Brought to us by Room to Read. Read along with Kiwi Opa: Spread the love
Bulli and the Tiger - Bulli is a little girl growing up in a bamboo-weavers’ community. Bulli finds her father troubled and discovers the bamboo suppliers threatened to raise the rates and put their whole village in jeopardy. Bulli looks for other ways of finding bamboo, and ends up facing the legendary tiger! Will the villagers find another way? Shalini ...
The Smile – Inuit Fable - In the harsh Arctic winter a girl, her family, and her dog struggle to survive. When her parents go in search of food the girl has a dream and resurrects the village landmark which in turn brings them good fortune. The book is adorned with gorgeous Inuit inspired art. Terms in the book: inunnguaq – ...
A Slice of Cake - It’s Snozz’s birthday and his mum wants to bake him a cake but she has run out of flour and eggs. Snozz and his Mum jump in their spacecraft and go on a journey to borrow some flour and eggs from their neighbours on earth. This book is symbolic of “International Day” celebrated by ex-pat ...
Tania Is Confused - This is book 34 of The Tania Series. With so many different religions, philosophies, theories and gods, Tania is utterly confused. Who or what is god? How does god affect her life? What does god want her to do? What does science have to say about god? The questions keep piling up. A discussion with ...
The Village Leader – Women’s Empowerment - In The Village Leader we follow the history of Than Kyi, one of the only female village leaders in all of Kayah State. In fact, she is one of the very few Myanmar women serving as village and ward leaders. Than Kyi always wanted to help her village and when the opportunity arose she stepped ...
Home – Poignant look at refugee status - Home is a poignant look at life for a little girl that ends up as a refugee. The little girl lives in a village with her family but one day armed men are on their way inbound and her and her mother are separated from her family and follow a river of people to a ...
Kali Wants to Dance – Biography of Kali Veerapathiran - Kali Wants to Dance is the biography of Kali Veerapathiran born in a fishing Village, with a talent and passion in dancing. But his family does not have enough money to spare for dance classes. And who has heard of boys dancing for a living? “Who has ever learned dance and made any money from it? It’s a ...See more books by Book Dash below
Dance Khuzwayo, Dance! - Khuzwayo is picked to be the village’s next Ingoma dancer, to celebrate the first crops of the year, but will he have the courage to dance? \ Illustrated by Jess Jardim-Wedepohl Written by Fiske Serah Nyirongo Designed by Job Mubinya Another amazing story from www.bookdash.org, aiming ... A Trip to the Tap - Oluhle is excited to go to the tap and fetch water, she will see her friends there, but what happens when she can’t find her bucket? Illustrated by Phumle April Written by Sindeka Mandoyi Designed by Nadene Kriel Sample Page from A Trip to the Tap Download the full book by selecting one of ...
Unathi and the Dirty, Smelly Beast – fun early reader - Unathi and the Dirty, Smelly Beast – A mysterious dirty smelly beast is following Unathi home, or is it really a dirty smelly beast? Find out in this fun creative commons picture book from BookDash. This picture book is perfect for young children who want to start reading and understand common words with help. The ...
The Memory Tree – Dealing with a Death in the Family - Thembi and Thulani’s Grandpa is very sick. They are sad. Then Mommy and Daddy tell them Grandpa won’t be coming home anymore. They miss Grandpa Nathi. Daddy and Mommy find a special way to remember Grandpa Nathi. Illustrated by Agrippa Mncedisi Hlophe Written by Savnola Goldridge Designed by Jason Gien Edited by Mariam Mahomed Brought ...
Catch that Cat! - The Cat has stolen a sock and then ran off, but is there a reason why she stole the sock? Find out more in Catch that Cat from BookDash. Sample Text from Catch that Cat! Hurry. Hurry! Help me, catch that cat! She stole my sock and ran off … snatch her. Grab her. Catch ...
Brave Bora – A trip to the Doctor - Follow Bora with her toy Monkey Jojo and her Baba on a trip to the Doctor to get a scary injection. Find out if she can overcome her fears and how. This book was brought to us by BookDash, see more from BookDash here on FKB below: Spread the love
An Unexpected Adventure – Wordless Fun - In An Unexpected Adventure, a boy finds some exciting scenarios on a trip to the Library. In this book you can make your own words, teachers can use it as a word prompt for students, or it can be a fun exercise for parents and children to make their own words, it’s also very suitable ...
I Can Dress Myself – Wordless Book - I Can Dress Myself is an amusing short wordless book about a child getting herself dressed while Mum is sleeping. Have fun making up some words or have your child guess what is going on in each picture. This story was brought to us by BookDash. Listen to a narration created by Kiwi Opa: If ...
Egg – A simple mystery - In Egg Crocodile, tortoise, penguin, and chicken find an egg, is it theirs? If not whose is it? Find out in this simple book for very young children. Text from Egg Egg My Egg? Not My Egg. My Egg? Not My Egg. My Egg? Not My Egg. My Egg? Not My Egg. My egg. Our ...
Tig’s World – An important question - In Tig’s World Tig asks her mom who is a scientist and her dad who is a writer what happens to the people on the bottom side of the earth and why they don’t fall off. Whose answer is right? Author: Sam Wilson, Illustrator: Dorian Dutrieux Sample Text from Tig’s World Tig’s mom is a ...Sponsored Links:
Note – if you sign up through these links, it doesn’t cost you any extra, but FKB receives a small donation, which helps us with our project to buy more FREE Hardcopies for kids who need them
All our posts are checked by Grammarly, the FREE online grammar checker (We still receive a donation even if you only sign up for the free account :-):
hasan writes:
good
Nadeen writes:
Really great book
ella writes:
i loved the book