Cape Flats Book Festival kicks off in Mitchells Plain
The annual event celebrates local writing talent and highlights the role of literature in the Cape Flats communities.
Books and book festival 123rf
CAPE TOWN - The Cape Flats Book Festival kicked off in Mitchells Plain on Saturday.
The annual event celebrates local writing talent and highlights the role of literature in the Cape Flats communities.
A local author from Rocklands, Alicia English, is featured at the festival this year.
She said that her books carry positive and self-assuring themes for young children.
"When it comes to the stories that I write, I always want to, through my stories, nurture a sense of resilience and a positive self-image in children and so you will see in my three solo stories that I launched last year, Chante and the Whale, Mahalia the Rainbow Princess and then in November, I can which promotes neurodiversity, it's always about creating that positive self-image in children.”
English said her book, Mahalia the Rainbow Princess, represents children living in the Cape Flats.
"Which is inspired by a five-year-old girl from Eastridge and the imagery in the book we have actually used the maisonettes that you see in Eastridge - which is similar to so many other areas on the Cape Flats, so when I want people to open our books, I want them to be able to relate to these images and feel they are represented, our children need to see people that look like them in these books."