Baby is no longer a baby?

Intellectually I knew Baby was growing and that soon, my nickname for her (Ngwana) would be a misnomer. That time seems to be approaching very soon.

She turns 10 in May, and she's 1.43 metres tall, about 14 centimetres shorter than I am. But it was on Saturday that I trully began to appreciate how much my little girl has grown.

While shopping at Exclusive Books, she found a beautiful board book that included a fairytale, illustrated fashion/hair advise including the many styles she could style her hair. It also had shiny /p[ink girl things like hair clips, beads and a comb.

Previously, she would have nagged me to buy the book. But on this day, after looking through it, she whispered in my ear that she liked the book but she was afraid to take it.

"I'm afraid of what people will say if they see me buying a childish book like this one," she said. "I'm not a baby anymore and should read big girl stuff."

I told her was welcome to read whatever she liked, and shouldn't have to apologise for her choice of reading material.

I also offered to carry the book for her, so people don't know she's the one that wants it. But she wouldn't budge. Eventually we left the bookshop empty-handed.

When we got home she immediately went through her bookshelves and packed up most of the books she regards as too young for her. She suggested that we sell them. "I can save up the money we make for my birthday," she said.

I'm not keen to sell the books, and suggested that we put them in storage... for a while. If the stage persists, I will have to negotiate with her about giving the books away to a local school rather selling them. Organising a sale sounds like too much work to me.


SA Writers' College's "Write a Children’s Book" course

Biz-Community reports that the SA Writers' College is launching a children's book writing course. "If writing books for children has always been your dream, then this one-year, online writing course will help you achieve it," the announcement says.

The course provides the guidance, skills and support you need to write a book for 8 to 12 year olds, and find out how to get it published,it says.

Cost: R3995.00
Modules: nine modules
Student produces: A book of 10000-20 000 words, a book synopsis and book proposal
Duration: One year

For more information about the course, read the announcement here