• The Big Fight (Junior African Writers Series Level 1)

    Level 1 is for readers who have been studying for three to four years. The content and language have been carefully controlled to increase fluency in reading.

    Joseph is big and strong. He is a good boxer. His brother is being bullied. Joseph can help him. But can he win the big fight to help his school win the cup?

  • The Strange Piece of Paper (Junior African Writers Series Level 2)

    Level 2 is suited to learners who have been studying English for 4-5 years. Short sentences and a large number of illustrations combine to make these books both enjoyable and easy to read, either individually or in class. Learners have a wide variety of stories to choose from.

    Lesego finds a strange piece of paper in the playground. She gives it to her teacher. Two tough men want the paper and tell Lesego to bring it to them. What is she to do?

  • The Midnight Caller (Junior African Writers Series Level 2)

    Level 2 is suited to learners who have been studying English for 4-5 years. Short sentences and a large number of illustrations combine to make these books both enjoyable and easy to read, either individually or in class. Learners have a wide variety of stories to choose from.

    Someone is watching John’s house. John has seen him — a strange and frightening man. Then one dark night the man comes calling. What does he want? John is determined to find out.

  • Taxi to Johannesburg (Junior African Writers Series Level 1)

    Level 1 is for readers who have been studying for three to four years. The content and language have been carefully controlled to increase fluency in reading.

    Tumi is going to Johannesburg by taxi. But the taxi breaks down and then it is stopped by a policeman. Will Tumi ever get to Johannesburg?

  • Dog Dip (Junior African Writers Series Level 2)

    Level 2 is suited to learners who have been studying English for 4-5 years. Short sentences and a large number of illustrations combine to make these books both enjoyable and easy to read, either individually or in class. Learners have a wide variety of stories to choose from.

    Jerami lives near the dog dip in a town in Malawi. He wants a dog of his own, but his mother won’t agree. Then one day he looks after a lost dog and hides it away. What will happen when his secret is discovered?

  • The Magic Pool (Junior African Writers Series Level 2)

    Level 2 is suited to learners who have been studying English for 4-5 years. Short sentences and a large number of illustrations combine to make these books both enjoyable and easy to read, either individually or in class. Learners have a wide variety of stories to choose from.

    Was it true that no one ever came back from the Magic Pool? Did a dangerous python really live there? On the last day of the holidays, Boni, Lorato and Kagiso decide to go and see for themselves.

  • Junior African Writers Series Bookset Levels 1 – 2 (20 titles)

    Develop literacy skills in your 8-17 year olds with exciting and engaging books for all reading levels.
    The sentence structure and vocabulary has been carefully constructed to suit your students experience and age so that as they grow, so do their literacy abilities.
    Titles in this set include (likely to change due to availability of titles):
    Taxi to Johannesburg — Matlakala Bopape and Peta Constable (Level 1)
    The Big Fight — Michael Cullup (Level 1)
    The Frightened Thief — Amu Djoleto (Level 1)
    The Midnight Caller — Anthony Umelo (Level 2)
    The Hyena Valley — The Hyena Valley (Level 2)
    The Secret of Nkwe Hill — Marcus Khama ter Haar (Level 2)
    The Smile Thief — Fatou Keita (Level 2)
    The Magic Pool — Gaele Mogwe (Level 2)
    Happy the Street Child — F.M. Mlekwa (Level 2)
    Kodua’s Ark — Yaw Ababio Boateng (Level 3)
    The Ashanti Golden Stool — Ayebia Ribeiro-Ayeh (Level 3)
    The Haunted Taxi Driver — Kofi Sekyi (Level 3)
    Valley of Skulls — Anokye Wiredu (Level 3)
    The Secret Valley — Mike Sadler (Level 4)
    Paulo’s Strange Adventure — Barbara Kimenye (Level 4)
    The Ivory Poachers — Linda Pfotenhauer (Level 5)

  • Every Man Is A Race (African Writers Series)

    ‘A man’s story is always badly told. That’s because a person never stops being born. Nobody leads one sole life, we are all multiplied into different and ever-changeable men.’ So it is with all the stories in this collection, which never make a definitive judgement on the individual life, but only suggest its possibilities.Set in Mozambique, the stories reflect the legacy of Portuguese colonialism and the tragedy of the subsequent civil war.Mia Couto’s first collection, Voices Made Night, was described as ‘lyrical’, ‘magical’ and ‘compassionate’ by the reviewers, who were unanimous in identifying a significant new talent from the continent. This volume confirms that judgement.

  • Money Galore (African Writers Series, AWS161)

    01

    This witty, extravagant but seriously intended satire marks the arrival of Ghana’s answer to T.M. Aluko. Abraham Kofi Kafu finds teaching a hard grind and lacking in rewards. He stands for the Liberation Party, the party of businessmen, landlords, smallholders and taxi drivers. As Minister of Internal Welfare, Kafu pursues his political career with a lively devotion to women, drink, gambling and skulduggery of various kinds and an almost total aversion to work unless it is devoted to some personal end. He is supported by a large cast: a crooked  but amiable contractor, Anson Berko; a less amiable and even more crooked contractor, Nee Otu Lartey; the Permanent Secretary, Mr Vuga, an ineffably dreary civil servant who strives to manipulate Kafu as he has manipulated previous Ministers but also turns out to be as crooked and so is subject to blackmail; the slimy Reverend Dan Opia Sese, who takes over as headmaster from Benjy Baisi and seduces Kafu’s maid. But even Kafu cannot get away with it for ever.

  • Voices Made Night (African Writers Series)

    In this collection of stories, the Mozambican poet, Mia Couto, expresses, through striking poetic metaphors, the emptiness and absurdity of lives bound by poverty and subject to arbitrary incursions of extreme violence. The frustrated longing of the lipless snake catcher who surrounds his lady’s house with snakes; or the man who fears his wife is a witch and scalds her with boiling water, are caught in dual tension. In Voices Made Night, an African cosmology portrays a surreal world defined by its contradictions, set against a background of political instability.
  • When Rain Clouds Gather (African Writers Series, AWS247)

    In the heart of rural Botswana, the poverty stricken village of Golema Mmidi is a haven to exiles from far and wide. A South African political refugee and an Englishman join forces to revolutionise the villagers traditional farming methods, but their task is fraught with hazards as the pressures of tradition, opposition from the local chief and the unrelenting climate threaten to divide and devastate the fragile community.
  • Harvest of Thorns (African Writers Series)

    The revolution that ended white minority rule in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) is seen here chiefly through the eyes of Benjamin Tichafa, a young guerrilla. He is the son of a devoutly religious couple, his father a government messenger completely subservient to his white superiors. Enraged by the treatment of blacks, a teenage Benjamin turns from his parents’ apolitical religion. After being arrested in a demonstration, he joins the revolution.

    The novel is enriched by the viewpoints of black Rhodesians who, out of fear or for economic reasons, do not fully support the struggle. The slaying of a dictatorial white farm owner dismays his foreman, whose livelihood is now threatened. The fatal beating of a woman who reluctantly informed on the guerrillas raises misgivings in Benjamin’s outfit. Though ultimately portraying the victory as worthwhile, Chinodya also shows the price paid in lives, tattered families and lost traditions. The result is a humane and penetrating look at a brutal government and a bloody revolution.

    Harvest of Thorns is a novel of great significance which will give all those who read it a greater understanding of the road along which Zimbabwe has travelled, as well as indicate many of the directions ahead.

  • Equiano’s Travels (African Writers Series, AWS10)

    Olaudah Equiano was born in 1745 in a village east of the Niger River in what is now Nigeria. The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano or Gustavus Vassa the African was published in London in 1789. This is his own account of a remarkable life.

    At the age of ten he was captured by slave traders and taken to the southern states of America. He was sold to a planter in the West Indies and worked there and abroad slave ships sailing between the Caribbean and England. At the age of twenty-one he had saved enough money to buy his freedom. He visited the Mediterranean, took part in Phipps’ expedition to the Arctic in 1773 and crossed the Atlantic several times. He was an ardent member of the Movement for the Abolition of Slavery and was appointed Commissary for Stores when the freed slaves were settled in Sierra Leone.

    This abridged edition has a new introduction by Professor Ogude of the University of Benin, together with explanatory notes on the text.

  • A Question of Power (African Writers Series, AWS149)

    “Your mother was insane. If you’re not careful you’ll get insane just like your mother. Your mother was a white woman. They had to lock her up, as she was having a child by the stable boy who was a native.”

    It is never clear to Elizabeth whether the mission school principal’s cruel revelation of her origins is at the bottom of her mental breakdown. She has left South Africa with her son and is living in the village of Motabeng, the place of sand, in Botswana where there are no street lights at night. In the darkness of this country where people turn and look at her with vague curiosity as an outsider she establishes an entirely abnormal relationship with two men. A mind-bending book which takes the reader in and out of sanity.

  • The Joys of Motherhood (African Writers Series, AWS227)

    The fourth novel from the Nigerian-born writer, Buchi Emecheta, The Joys of Motherhood is recognised as one of Africa’s 100 Best Books of the 20th Century in an initiative organised by the Zimbabwean International Book Fair.

    First published in 1979, The Joys of Motherhood is the story of Nnu Ego, a Nigerian woman struggling in a patriarchal society. Unable to conceive in her first marriage, Nnu is banished to Lagos where she succeeds in becoming a mother. Then, against the backdrop of World War II, Nnu must fiercely protect herself and her children when she is abandoned by her husband and her people.

    The Joys of Motherhood is a powerful commentary on polygamy, patriarchy and women’s changing roles in urban Nigeria.

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