FunDza and Cover2Cover Books were delighted to host a visit from Jayne Bauling, to promote her new book Playmaker, published by Cover2Cover. Jayne has published many youth novels and has won many awards for them too, so we were honoured to bring her on board as a Cover2Cover writer.
Playmaker is the first in a trilogy and is set at a fictional local teen soccer club. We commissioned this series for a couple of reasons: feedback from FunDza readers showed us that in rural areas particularly, teens struggled with our original series, Harmony High, even though it was written to be easily understood and accessible. The length of Harmony High books was daunting to those really reluctant readers. And we also saw that we were still getting more girls reading them than boys.
So we decided on a simpler, shorter set of novels centred on soccer. FunDza beneficiaries have just received their first copies of Playmaker, and the second novel, Offside, is on its way to the printers.
So it was lovely to have Jayne with us to celebrate this new series. First we visited Christel House, which has been a FunDza beneficiary for many years. Jayne spoke to the grade eights there. Most of them had read over five FunDza books this year, which was hugely encouraging. Wendy Woolf, their teacher, who manages our FunDza books, said that learners from older grades still came to her to find out what was new from FunDza.
Jayne talked about her writing, and read an extract from Playmaker, which certainly seemed to get them wanting more..
That evening Jayne visited the Ubuntu Soccer Club, as we wanted to donate books to a group of soccer players. We want to see if young soccer players will get hooked on reading if they are exposed to an exciting story around the beautiful game! Members of the Under 12 team will hopefully be starting a reading habit, kicking off by reading Playmaker at the club centre during quiet time set aside for reading.
The final – and main – event was at Silikamva High in Hout Bay, where some learners had been given advance copies of the book to review. Sandiseka Xhego and Elie Mabunda gave the series 5 out of 5, and Witness Kenyama urged Jayne to keep on doing a good job. Cassandra Mabasa and Violet Kaluwa found it easy and fun. Reviewers were rewarded with a FunDza T-shirt.
Unfortunately it was the morning of taxi protests in Hout Bay. Some of us were able to get to the school on time, but the car Jayne was in was just too late, and had to turn back to find another route as the taxis had blockaded the road. So while Jayne’s car inched along in long traffic jams, Zimkhitha and Ndibulele were talking to the Silikamva learners in their assembly about the power and joy of reading. They were doing an inspirational job by the time Jayne arrived!
Ndibulele interviewed Jayne about her work, and then Jayne read an extract from the novel. After the assembly the FunDza/Cover2Cover team met about 15 keen young readers and writers to chat more intimately. The learners’ responsiveness and own stories and insights were lovely to hear, and it was a very special session.
Finally we got back to the FunDza office where Masibulele interviewed Jayne for a series of podcasts for Cover2Cover’s website. And then? Then Jayne got to relax in Kalk Bay for the rest of the day, richly deserved!
We look forward to hearing the responses to Playmaker from our FunDza readers.