The second phase of the Friends of the Library’s children’s audiobook project is taking shape – recording South African children’s books and stories using volunteer voice actors.
The second phase of the Friends of the Library’s children’s audiobook project is taking shape – recording South African children’s books and stories using volunteer voice actors.
Hlengi Kweyama, who completed a third year-level course in radio at the Rhodes School of Journalism and Media Studies last year, is in charge of the team of voice actors and all the logistical arrangements at the journalism school’s radio division.
She is being mentored by radio lecturer Jeanne du Toit and Friends committee member Rod Amner and says this has been a wonderful growth and learning opportunity for her.
For the voice actors, who are all volunteer students, this has also been a challenging but fulfilling time. Initially thinking that they would be in the mode of dramatised storytelling, they have had to adapt to reading stories in an intimate way into a microphone!
However, they have embraced the concept and have produced some fresh and exciting readings of African
stories in isiXhosa, Afrikaans and South African English that resonate well with local children.
The first phase of this Sabinet-funded project, called Audiokids, involved placing CD players, mp3 players, headphones, speakers and a variety of commercially-produced audiobooks in four local children’s libraries. The second phase has concentrated on producing brand-new audiobooks using African stories, languages and accents.
Audio books are an important tool in promoting a love of books and reading among children. They often serve as an initial hook for children who most times just visit the library to get their homework or school projects done.
There are other advantages too: experiencing a book in both formats (print and audio) increases a child’s comprehension, imagination and vocabulary; audio books can also be considered a bridge to reading a way for young readers to enjoy literature at their listening comprehension level which is significantly above their reading level.
To date, 15 books have been recorded and another five stories from an open source website. The books range from those appropriate for children aged five years to about 16 years. There are currently six volunteer readers involved, but this group will grow next term.
Once copyright has been secured, longer fiction works can be recorded in a serialised form. Kweyama says further plans include book readings on Radio Grahamstown and RMR, and getting Gcina Mhlope to come and do a workshop with the voice actors. The recorded stories, together with their text equivalents, are being made available to all the Makana libraries.
