SA reads discussion

Welcome to Week 2. I love the descriptions of childhood and the innocence of childhood in this book. I'm also interested in the author's growing awareness of the political situation in South Africa in the 1960's and how it is interpreted through the eyes of a child.

There's nothing quite like being able to read. It encourages you to think about the world you live in. I think books played a massive role for Chris.
There are strong women in his life, his mom and outs, who encourage him.
There's awareness here, but no aggression- well written through a child's eyes.

His mom and ouma

I love the idea of his grandmother taking him to buy books even when she couldn't read herself. The awareness of the importance of an education certainly existed in the family, but a lot of it must have been Chris's own love of books and words that motivated him to keep learning.

The amazing ness of grandmothers! I've seen so many grans who can't read encourage their relatives to learn. I worked near an ABEd training school in Limpopo, most of their learners were grandmothers.

I can understand that, because they have a lifetime of being exposed to the indignities of being illiterate and depending in other people for information. One thing that I have realized while reading this book is the extent to which the employment opportunities for under-educated people have shrunk over the past few years. His was a typical working-class family, but those kind of jobs are much rarer these days.

That's an interesting observation. Probably accounted for by a booming population and not so booming economy. The opportunities for those uneducated becomes slimmer and slimmer.

I agree about the women. I'd often meet the grandmother's of my patients and they were always excited to practice their English on me, or share their achievements. I remember one of our patients Fran's got a Matric after many years of effort, our ward threw a party for her. Very proud lady!

That must have given her such a sense of achievement!

I see that the story about his grandmother was also done as a children's book - .

Grandmother buying books? Lovely children's story!