In Why is Nita Upside Down, a children’s book about being different, we learn important lessons about the value of being proud of who you are and that everyone is different.
This book is created by Bookdash, a non-profit organisation dedicated to getting books into every child’s hands.
By: Emma Hearne, Roxana Bouwer, Sarah Bouwer
Text from Why is Nita Upside Down – Children’s book about being different
Nita’s hanging upside down,
her long hair tickling at the ground.
The trees, the grass, the everything is all the wrong way round.
Her feet, they poke into the sky. Little Navi is walking by.
He says, ‘I’ve seen you here before. You’re upside down again! What for?’
Her feet swim lightly in the air. She tries to hide behind her hair.
‘It’s h-h-h-hard to t-t-talk’, she says to him. ‘I’m not the same. I don’t fit in.’
Navi takes her by the hand.
He wants to help her understand.
They climb to Navi’s look-out spot. From up here they can see a lot.
They perch and have a quiet stare at children playing here and there.
Those kids are not the same at all.
Abe’s round.
Chi’s freckled.
Lala’s extra tall.
BamBam’s wild and must run free,
while Lulu reads quietly.
Look at Freya’s crazy hair.
And Tim wears glasses everywhere.
And me, I am just skin and bone. And you are you. You’re not alone.
Each human’s sort of strange, you see.
That makes you just the same, like me.
This world is really one big game. To play, we can’t all be the same.
Nita feels the right way round, thanks to the new friend she’s found.
Upside down was never fun. Now she plays with everyone.
<End of excerpt>
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.
Select the download or readonline buttons below the post to see the full book with pictures!
This book can be listened to and read along with in this lovely video with text clearly presented to match the words being read,
See more books from Bookdash in our Bookdash category.
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This is beautiful! Oh!!
I like the book because Nita doesn’t want to be upside down just like me, so I won’t barf. One more thing, the crazy hair looks like my homework teacher and I like that.
I love the message in the book. However, I can’t use this book in my class because the kid on page 8 smoking a cigarette.
Hi Jamie I think it’s a lollipop she is sucking, please take a look again, a bit closer, although I admit at first glance it could be deceptive, but you can see clearly her cheeks are puffed out where the lollipop is, the stick is hanging out of her mouth.
I loved this book and for sure I will read it to my students. Thanks so much!
excelent!!!!!
I love this book because it represents people of color. It also shows how it’s okay to be different, and that’s very important in this world of comparison.
Great Book!
We liked this book. It taught us it is okay to be different.
I loved it! It was great to see children of color. And the message was positive and uplifting.
I like this book. I like the differences between the characters and the rhyming words.
You are contributing alot
Great message.
I enjoyed reading the book that perfectly fits into the current need of my school children. thank you
I liked it because it shows how different we all are and that that is okay!
I really liked this book. I read it in classroom for my students.
I love the harmony and the pictures. The values it teaches are priceless.
Hi, I’m so glad you are finding the book valuable for the whole class! I agree the lesson is beautiful. Please take a look around, the category “values” has many more like this (see the menu in the right sidebar and scroll down). Hope you enjoy more of our books. Danielle
I did not like this book because when you go upside down you will fall
Hi Ninja, I think she’s swinging on a jungle gym or something like that.
yes it was really good, i learn that maybe your not the same as everyone else but you can still be FRIENDS WITH THEM
I think this is a great message about accepting everyone the way they are, and being proud of who you are. I don’t agree that the term “crazy” hair is negative or racial, we have to be more open and positive in our descriptions.
It was easy and to the point that differences are okay.
It is so beautiful and usefull to teach diversity.
It tells children that being different is ok and no one is perfect
Yes I enjoyed it. Because it has a very good message- from 7 year old reader
It was very good!!! The picture and the story.
Highlights the amaze of being different.
I read majority of books here that relate to children of color. This one unfortunately didn’t hit the mark for me, especially the point about natural black / African hair being “crazy” ( this has racist under tone) and should not be reproduced by writers of color. I understand that the author is trying to point our uniqueness but it failed for me.
The authors have European names.
I agree that the use of the word “look at her crazy hair” has subtle racist undertones.
African-American women are labeled this epithet also.
South Africa has a long way to go to heal from the anti-black racism which has continue to exist to this day.