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Beverley Naidoo |
"The work of KidsLibs Trust has impressed me ever since my first visit to Mathare North Library in 2005. Collaboration, creativity and ingenuity shone through the project. The library was humming with enquiring minds, young and old. Each free community library, open to everyone, is like a precious shamba that feeds the present and the future." Beverley Naidoo was born in South Africa and began writing in exile in England while a teacher. Her first children’s book, Journey to Jo’burg, was banned in South Africa until 1991 but it was an eye-opener for thousands of readers worldwide. Her later South African work continues to explore the challenges for children in real situations that she describes as ‘more dangerous than any fantasy’. She has also taken an interest in how young people read with a doctorate in researching teenagers’ responses to literature and racism. She has won many awards for her writing, including the Carnegie Medal for The Other Side of Truth about two refugee Nigerian children smuggled to London who also feature in Web of Lies. Her first contact with KidsLibs Trust arose from an invitation to open the MYSA library at Mathare North in 2005 and her visit led to setting her most recent novel, Burn My Heart, in 1950s Kenya. Beverley is online at www.beverleynaidoo.com |
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