For most parents, their children are princes and princesses, the stars of their hearts and lives. Two Bloemfontein women have made it possible for your little one to be the star in his or her own storybook, allowing you to insert your child’s name and an illustration that closely resembles him or her into the book.
While the book has a pre-existing storyline, the name and character illustration are the only items parents can customise.
Co-founder of The Lighthouse Kids Book, Jamie-Lee Nortje, said she and her co-founder, Boitumelo Erasmus, customised these parts of the book so that children can literally see themselves in the lessons the storybook aims to teach them and to make it more relatable to the children.
While providing parents with a book with a difference is one of their objectives with the company, the pair’s main aim is to create books that will shape children’s mindsets, which will help make them empathetic, kind, loving and respectful adults.
“Through our books, we aim to tackle a series of important subjects meant to not only entertain children but also educate, equip and empower them,” Nortje said. Topics the books will address through a series of illustrations and text include blended families, dealing with death as a young child, bullying as well as other topics relevant to young children.
The two recently wrote their first book, titled Mica Goes to the Hairdresser (name can be customised to suit your child’s name) and launched it on 7 November.
While the pair is still in the process of setting up an app as well as the website, they have been able to reach over 7 000 people through their launch of the book, which they publicised using their Facebook page,
@LighthouseKidsBooks. “Since that post, we’ve received so many orders and we’ve even had a law firm approach us, asking to partner with us on a project they are working on,” Nortje said.
Their book basically details a child who goes to the hairdresser for the first time in his life, finding children of other races at the hairdresser. The child’s mother then explains to the child the various kinds of races and people that are on earth and that the child will encounter as he/she grows up and attends school and finds him- or herself in various situations. It basically aims to teach young children that there is beauty in diversity.
The book also has a “Rhyme Time” section, where children can memorise the rhyme as well as a “Think about it” section, where parents will prompt their children’s understanding on what the lesson at hand is trying to teach them.
“Children are very impressionable. We all have a song to rhyme or story we once heard as kids that we still remember as adults and through our books, we hope that both the rhyme as well as the lessons in the books will stay with the children reading them until they are adults,” Erasmus said. They have already begun working on their next book, which will delve into issues of self-esteem and are both very excited about.
To contact them to place an order, send an email to lighthousekidsbooks
@gmail.com. Also, visit their Facebook and Instagram accounts at Lighthouse Kids Books to get snippets into the book they’ve already launched as well as news on projects they are working on.
Note that orders are made between the 1st and the 20th of each month so that printing and deliveries may be done in the remainder of that month. Books are available at only R350 each.
Pulane Choane
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