What’s in the Pot children’s story Early Reader

What and who is 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. Those days are the heart of Book Dash. Then, between Book Dash days, we help funders print and give away thousands of books to children. We have a tiny, mostly volunteer team coordinating everything: Julia Norrish, Michelle Matthews, Tarryn-Anne Anderson and me.

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.

For thos who want to listen, here’s a fun video reading of the book from Story Time Sandi, a FKB patron, Sandi reads along with the text so this version is perfect for learning to read age children.