Singing the Truth – The Story Of Mirian Makeba born in the Apartheid days in South Africa in the townships of Johannesburg. Her singing talent took her to fame around the world, but as a black South African she was outspoken against the apartheid and was thrown out of her own country. Only when freedom came to South Africa with the end of Apartheid in 1994 was she allowed to come back again. This beautifully illustrated story tells children about life in and the history of South Africa in an inspiring way.
By: Louwrisa Blaauw, Jade Mathieson, Bianca de Jong
Text and Images from Singing the Truth – The Story Of Mirian Makeba
A long time ago, in the vast city of
Johannesburg, a baby girl was born.
That baby was me. My mom called me
Miriam. Miriam Makeba.
Mom was a sangoma, but she also
worked to make other people’s homes
neat and clean. It was hard for my
mom to earn enough for both of us. She
started selling homemade beer to bring
in more money.
The laws of the land said that selling
homemade beer was wrong. The police
sent my mom to jail for six long months.
I was only 18 days old, and needed my
mom. So even though I was just a baby,
I went to jail too.
<end of sample>
You can also 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.
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A good book for a person that wants to learn about how important is singing or what ever
this book is about one girl who wants to be a star of music and she loves to do songs
Simon writes:
This book is great, it teaches some history, the importance of music, and the importance of sticking to your beliefs.
Abdalle writes:
i really like it where can i get it now
Danielle (Site editor): we don’t have a hardcopy of this yet, but you can download and print the free pdf file.