World Book Day 23 April – A Twinkl Story
As part of their month-long celebrations around World Book Day, the international kid’s educational publisher, Twinkl, has teamed up with everyone’s favourite children and young person’s author, Jaco Jacobs.
23rd April is the UNESCO World Book and Copyright Day. A celebration of both writers and writing, this year, the focus of the is on the unsung heroes: the publishers, the booksellers, the librarians.
Twinkl was founded in 2010, with a mission to ‘help those who teach’. The company provides high quality, trusted educational materials, which are all teacher-created and checked. This ranges from schemes of work and assessments to augmented reality games and much more.
The writer of over 170 books including picture books, young adult fiction and poetry, Jacobs has twice won the Alba Bouwer Prize, C.P. Hoogenhout Award, the Tienie Holloway Medal, the Scheepers Prize for Youth Literature, seen his work adapted into feature films. In addition to seeing his work translated from Afrikaans into English and other languages, he has translated more than 250 books from English and Dutch to Afrikaans.
As part of this World Book Day effort Twinkl has published an interview with Jacobs (a sample of which is below), along with a range of supporting resources both of which are completely free.
Who/what inspired you to get into writing?
I grew up in a small farming community in the Karoo. My dad is a sheep farmer, as was my grandfather. The Karoo has a rich history of storytelling, and I grew up listening to wonderful folktales, legends and ghost stories. My grandmother knew hundreds of poems by heart and loved reciting them to us. I think that was what inspired my writing in the first place. My dad often recounts how I would make up elaborate stories as a kid, and entertain my older cousins at family gatherings.
Article from SA Good News