Khanya’s First Day at the Park is the story of a curious little girl who goes to a park with a big yellow slide for the first time since lockdown. Written by Amanda Mahlangu (A) and Nonkululeko Nkosi (N) and illustrated by Kagiso Mahoko, the story was created for children who lost time during the pandemic. The book was released in August 2021. The Daily Vox chatted with the pair who exhibited their work at Comic Con Africa.
N: The background of the book is that during lockdown – she (A) had a baby during lockdown. They couldn’t go play outside and go to the park and make friends. So during lockdown, we were sitting and saying why don’t we make a book about after lockdown. So Khanya goes to the park for the first time after lockdown. That’s where she heightens her senses…
A: smelling the flowers and playing with friends. Actually we touch upon [the senses] the touching, the smell and getting active outside. We are trying to get back to normal. This is basically just a little girl trying to be a normal child playing outside.
N: It’s also about representation because representation matters for the little girl. What we do is that we don’t just sell the book. Companies, organisations and individuals can sponsor books and buy books. We then donate them to schools and we do reading sessions.
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A: We do this at the less privileged creches where they don’t know much about reading or the parents can’t afford books or don’t have the culture of reading. We go to those schools to actually teach about reading – making it fun and fashionable. That’s why we do reading sessions and motivate them to read everyday.
A: This is our first book. We are currently busy with our second book which is more about boys and more diverse as all. It’s about an older crowd. This is the beginning but definitely not the end of our…
N: Of our Read Aloud company. We have a company called the Read Aloud company where all our books are going to be distributed under.
Aside from the book, the pair have full-time careers. Mahlangu has a marketing agency and does marketing for different industries as well as the book. Nkosi owns a virtual assistants company which provides companies with admin assistance.
A: I believe that when you read you get to explore. You get to travel without going far. Your vocab is even more. Our problem in South Africa is that most children do not read for understanding. They read as an activity but they don’t actually understand what they are reading about. Reading is definitely important to brighten their senses and actually become smarter and realise how much more possibility there is out there.
N: It broadens their knowledge and imagination. It’s funny how kids – you tell them something, they don’t listen. But if you say “who-and-so-in-a-story”, then they say I want to be like who-and-so-in-a-story. It gets their imagination going.
N: The book is still in English for now
A: But we are working on getting it collaborated in other South African languages as much as possible. We want all the kids to have access.
N: So we are self-published so the journey is a little difficult so it’s still in English only. But we are working to get it into other languages.
A: So most kids when they see the T-Shirt are super excited and they don’t understand how you guys are authors. Majority have never met the authors of the book they read or get to see. They are very excited because we are young and black. They have never seen that. And to see Khanya who resembles them… They are very excited. Parents find it exciting because for them with the bookshelf at home, there is variety. The response has been great. The book is in Angola. It’s made its way to Abu Dhabi, UK. Yesterday we did our first sale in the US.
The book is available on several online platforms.
