“Our gran is beautiful.” So is Susan Binion and Kathy Haasdyk’s new picture-book Our Gran. Kathy’s soft water-color illustrations bring to life Susan’s three African children living with their grandmother since their mother died. Gran goes to the ladies’ meeting every Thursday afternoon. “She always comes home singing.” She and the children go to church on Sunday and “always come home singing.” But the day the children’s mother died, their gran didn’t smile or sing.
The problem of AIDS orphans is all too common in KwaZuluNatal where Susan Binion and her family live as TEAM missionaries serving at Union Bible Institute. For generations elderly Africans have been cared for by their grown children, but in these days of HIV, too often those adult children have died, leaving their parents to care for the next generation. The elderly might raise a dozen or more grandchildren with little or no income. This book pays tribute to those hard-working grandmothers.
Our Gran has a special place in my heart because I know both Susan and Kathy (an SIL missionary recently returned to Canada.) The model for the grandmother is a dear Zimbabwean lady, the mother of a friend in my church. My friend’s wedding picture even appears in some of the illustrations.
The book is aimed at pre-schoolers and includes discussion questions appropriate for any child, not just those who have lost their parents. I have read it with groups of elementary school children in Tembisa who embraced it enthusiastically, especially when I showed them copies in both Zulu and Xhosa that they could read for themselves more easily than the English.
Africa needs many more books like Our Gran that reflect the contemporary world and speak to the hearts of ordinary children.
To order contact :
Union Bible Institute Literature Department
PO BOX 50, Hilton, 3245
South Africa
Phone: +27 33 343 4547
FAX: +27 33 343 1795
Email: ubi-administrator@wandata.com
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