Books

From the get go, I have wanted whatever time I spend in Zambia to be of use to the people I encounter. With this goal in mind, I want the books I bring to be more than vampire sagas, the trials and tribulations of Captain Underpants, and fluffy little princesses. (My apologies if I have offended anyone--I just believe there are more substantive, equally engaging books out there.)

Back to the point, however:

There is a wide range of ages and reading levels at FSC, so I need to be selective about the texts I choose. Below, you'll find the back-story to some of the books I'm taking to FSC as well as the reading group book: Nobody  Will Ever Kill Me by Mbu Maloni (a former street-child).

Nearly two years ago, I discussed this project with one of my professors and mentors, Alida Allison, who runs the Children’s Literature Center at SDSU. She listened to some of the challenges I was facing and then made one of the most generous and kind offers I have received in the development of this project: “Here, look through this catalogue. Pick the books you want, and I will order them for you.”

Suddenly, numerous, high-quality, non-fiction books were at my fingertips! When they arrived I was incredibly excited to go through them, but there was one caveat—I needed to review them first.  I’ve got quite a few of them done, but there are still a lot to go through!

Reading Group:

I needed at least one central text for students to work their way through; this book, more than any other, needed be meaningful and applicable to the students. The search began. I finally encountered Themba by Lutz van Djik—the description sounded perfect (the journey of an HIV positive boy who goes on to star in a football (soccer) team) but it wasn’t yet translated into English—great. Finally, the English translation was released—I ordered it. It was a good book, but not exactly what I needed. Nonetheless, I skimmed through the other books by Lutz. One book, co-written with Mbu Maloni, a former street child, stuck out: “No One Will Ever Kill Me”. It was in English, but it wasn’t available.

What to do? I wrote Lutz directly and, before I knew it, he got right back. He put me in touch with his publisher, who put me in touch with their distributor: ISB Books. It took a long time, but they were finally able to track down a copy, a single copy—a single, $24.00 copy. I read it and it was perfect! But I wanted at least 10 copies.

$240—if they could even track more down.

Options:

• Eat the $240—not feasible
•  Ask the publisher to donate to the proect
• Ask for a discount/permission to copy
• Copy the text

The ethics my parents brought me up with, as well as being someone who hopes to one day publish a book, left me cringing at the thought of just copying it. I began corresponding with Sue Gray to see what could be done. Well, Sue wouldn’t donate and didn’t give the green-light for copying, but she did give me a 40% discount which brought it to just about $14 per book. That's still more than I'd like to spend, but I think it's important that each student have their own book.

Getting them, however, has continued to be a bit of an ordeal. First they thought they could track down five, but then they weren’t sure. Ten? That might be a bit problematic. I am glad to say that I just got notification that my final five have shipped. It’ll be a bit of a roundabout trip—Berea, South Africa to Portland, OR to San Diego, CA to Kitwe, Zambia—but they’re going to make it!

Now to keep reviewing the other books!

Thank you, again, Prof. Allison!

Oh, I think it’d be wise to have two back up books ready for the reading group—any suggestions? I’m considering TRASH by Andy Mulligan—still trying to reach out to the publisher, however.