Litnet

"Hoe kry jy ’n kind om ’n boek te lees? Maklik, die oudste truuk in die boek: 'Jy mag nie hierdie boek lees nie. Hoekom? Want ek het so gesê.' Klink dit bekend? Dit is hoe volwassenes mag uitoefen oor boekkeuses vir kinders."

Cliffordene Norton bespreek Foto’s & fairy lights en gesels met die skrywer, An-Mari Carmo: "Ek het meer idees as wat ek tyd het om te skryf, en daar is so baie kwessies waarmee hedendaagse jongmense te doen het wat ek dink meer verteenwoordiging kort in boeke." 

"Daarmee skep die skrywer ’n sprokieswêreld vir die nuuskierige leser, vir diegene wat belangstel in wetenskaplike natuurverskynsels. Hierdie verbeeldingsreise kom in verskillende gedaantes voor. Daar is byvoorbeeld karakters uit die mitologie en volksverhale; uit wetenskaplegendes; uit fabels, en selfs spookstories."

"Boeksemdais. Nooit die finale woord of afsluiting oor die saak nie; eerder die totstandkoming, oor tyd, van nuwe voetpaadjies, proesels van ’n nuwe umamigeur."

"In ons alledaagse lewe word ons gebombardeer met visuele tekste wat spreek tot ons begrip van prente, diagramme, vorms, kleure, ensovoorts. Dit is deel van die aandagekonomie van die moderne wêreld, veral die tegnologiese sosiale mediawêreld. En waar begin ons vir ons kinders leer hoe om sin te maak uit al hierdie visuele tekste? Dit is juis die antwoord wat illustrasies in kinderboeke vir ons bied."

"Most of these stories are set in Botswana, which in itself is refreshing since there has been a scarcity of stories in that setting since the death of Bessie Head."

"Daar is sterk ooreenkomste tussen Venezuela en Suid-Afrika – van ons uitgeeprosesse tot ons begeerte om ons tale te bewaar. Een aspek wat my beïndruk het en wat ek hoop Suid-Afrikaanse uitgewershuise sal aanleer, is dat Venezuela hulle kinderboeke tweetalig uitgee: Spaans en ’n inheemse taal soos Barí. Ek dink hierdie tweetaligheid kan meertaligheid bevorder en die belangrikheid van beide betrokke tale onder die loep bring."

"Hoekom moet grootmense kinder- en jeugboeke lees? Volwassenes kan mos al lees, maar tog is die boeke wat vir jonger lesers geskryf en bemark word, van groter belang as wat daar besef word. Dit is dalk net die boek wat jy nodig het om weer iets wat verlore was, te vind."

"By nadere inspeksie kon jy duidelik sien hoe die terme van tyd tot tyd versag is, van uitgawe na uitgawe. Van die oorspronklike, wat hard geland het op die sensitiewe oor van die tweede helfte van die eeu, is hulle telkens verander volgens wat in die tyd as sosiaal aanvaarbaar beskou is."

"And after many days contains a terrible and beautiful narrative of enduring family love, principled conduct and horrific power abuse and the greed it permits to destroy lives. Quietly told, it is a story that will linger in the mind of any reader, long after they have closed its back cover."

"With considerable simplification, but highly persuasively in its sweepingly confident claims, Bofane’s account of the world’s continuously violent history from the late 19th until well into the 21st century places the Congo centrally at its heart of darkness, then and now."

"Nevertheless, the fact that certain authors manage, like Gaël Faye does with Small country, to create chronicles that do not seem to desecrate, cheapen or sensationalise the devastating dimensions of those events, remains admirable proof of the nuanced art and deep empathy of which some writers are capable."

"While the Afro-Brazilian connection through transportation of enslaved West Africans to Bahía and other ports and parts of the 'New World' is well known, this novel does the unusual thing of depicting the return of one such (former) slave to the Yoruba region of her family origins."

"This important narrative, like other well-known, earlier examples of African prison memoirs, many of them by famous writers, is a record of courage, friendship and enterprise in loyal league against the incarcerating, isolating and obliterating forces of tyranny."

"The Indian community of Kenya comes into strong focus in this recent novel, part family saga, part social analysis and part romance, set mainly in Nairobi and combining idealistic hope with some strongly satirical exposures of the city’s and the society’s ugly underbelly."

"Brief as it is, and with some of the naïveties of a first novel, Mukasonga’s narrative packs a powerful punch without exploiting the Rwandan tragedy for merely melodramatic effects."

"Sometimes seen as primarily a family saga or a portrait of the teeming city of Cairo, this debut novel’s wider resonance is indicated in the subtitle; it is a highly sophisticated reading of the pulse of urban Egypt over a stretch of the 30 years between 1984 and 2014."

"Told with great candour and in her inimitable, forthright style, Vollenhoven’s is one of the most important South African autobiographies to have appeared."

"My name is Faustin, Faustin Nsenghimana. I’m fifteen years old. I’m in a cell in Kigali central prison. I’m waiting to be executed."

"This fine and moving text by an author originally from elsewhere is a rich contribution to the African library ..."