Beverley Naidoo's Reading List

"This book is also about resilience and kindness. It really is a kind of African Cinderella with John Steptoe’s illustrations adding classical beauty to a tale that must have survived many centuries through oral storytelling The comparisons with Cinderella include a magical element to the story, but particularly, the relationship of the two sisters. There is a very mean sister, who is always jealous and bad tempered, and there’s Nyasha, who’s generous and kind spirited. Her kindness, extends to animals which, again, is an interesting element, isn’t it? Because I think of Perrault’s Cinderella , and the little animals who befriend her. “Kindness isn’t always rewarded in life, but isn’t it nice when it is in a good story?” Both sisters must go on a journey and they are faced with challenges. The sister that makes the right decisions, although she doesn’t know it at the time, is the sister who will become queen. The key is that no matter what hardships befall Nyasha (the Cinderella character) she remains generous and kind – it is in her nature. Some people just seem to have those qualities. They acknowledge inhumanity but they have that ability to maintain their own humanity. In fairy tales these qualities are very important. Kindness isn’t always rewarded in life, but isn’t it nice when it is in a good story? Absolutely, and I think that must be part of why these tales have endured so long. Even the rather gory versions like Grimms’ Tales, you know, with the cutting off of toes and all that , even in these, the common element is the fact that the good people are kind and have a moral centre to them. I also find it interesting that these stories, and stories like them, have been alive in other cultures for centuries and that we’ve been largely blinkered to them until recently. Now, thank goodness, some of them are coming through in children’s books like these."

"I just think this is a wonderful book. Particularly how she’s written what are terrible and true contemporary tragedies using really very simple storytelling. Although what appears simple is not necessarily simple at all. It’s understated and that understatement is important because it leaves imaginative space for the reader. Francesca Sanna’s illustrations encourage readers to ask questions beyond the words. I just find how she conveys the terror of fleeing your home and becoming a refugee so powerful. And all this tragedy is countered by the depictions of the strength of the mother’s love. Again, I would say this a book about kindness, hope and resilience. These are the qualities the characters need to survive their journey and keep hope alive. And, although it is not a fairy tale, there are some similarities in the qualities the characters possess in order to survive."

"To me, these books offer ways of seeing and understanding some of the frightening things happening in the world today. For me, having been brought up under apartheid where access to ways of seeing reality were actually closed down to me – because of my experience I am in favour of allowing young people to see the world – not telling them how to see it, absolutely not – but of encouraging them to look and ask questions. “In my whites-only school in apartheid South Africa, I would say that I was ‘schooled’, certainly not educated” In my whites-only school in apartheid South Africa , I would say that I was ‘schooled’, not educated. ‘Education’ means to open out, to lead outwards. Most of white society around me as a child was similarly blinkered, bringing up white children to ignore the experience of black people under apartheid. I would say that this was not just in South Africa, but typical of the experience of most white colonial children, as well as in the mother Britain. This is something I explore in my novel Burn My Heart set in Kenya in the early 1950s, through the eyes of two boys, so close and yet so far apart. I preface the novel with an old Gikuyu saying ‘Nobody walks with another person’s gait.’ How very true… and yet we have the gift of imagination. Can we not use it? My novel The Other Side of Truth is also full of questions. After being detained by South Africa’s security police under the 90 Day Act , I came to Britain and exile in the 1960s. Yet no-one here referred to me as a refugee although I was seeking refuge. Had I been a black South African, I expect that would have been different. By 21, I had made my own decisions about resisting apartheid that led to my detention and exile. I would not have changed those decisions. However, in The Other Side of Truth , my two children inherit the consequences of their journalist father’s decision to challenge the military dictatorship in Nigeria in 1995, by speaking truth to power. “Fairy tales and stories of courage and survival can help children feel that injustice cannot be ignored” There are no easy answers and there is a lot of tragedy in the world and always has been. I think fairy tales and stories of courage and survival can help children feel less alone, and that injustice cannot be ignored. And show that is there a way in which they can make a difference, however small. One of the ways I would suggest is to be kind. Kindness must be a start. And this comes through very clearly in Azzi In Between . It’s very touching – we know the family has to flee, and we know the journey will be dangerous. The story shows how the war gradually seeps into their lives and how the the acts of kindness they receive – and how kind they are to each other – is how they are able to keep hope alive and face new beginnings. Sarah Garland’s touching illustrations play an important part in vividly conveying the range of emotions experienced by Azzi and her family."

"This is narrated by an older person looking back so you have a sense of the voice of someone who survived and we have the author’s preface telling us how, as a young mother, she lived in Beirut during the civil war, giving us a little background. There is brutality – the brutality of war. All war is brutal. But it is acts of kindness that make a difference. “For me, the book’s brilliance is in its apparent simplicity” This book is also about the courage that the young Ayesha displays. And it is about imagination – it tells us that we mustn’t lose that imagination. Ayesha dares to imagine that survival is possible and you have to do that if you’re in such a desperate situation. If you allow yourself to be brought down by the desperation, you’re finished. Fortunately, the kindness prevails. There’s also an element of luck and it does work out for Ayesha in the end. For me, the book’s brilliance is in its apparent simplicity. Elizabeth Laird cuts through the complexities of the political and social reality and filters a story that allows readers, whether young or old, to understand what the war means through the eyes of a child. It’s courage, and the courage to imagine that you can survive. That is so important."

"He imagines, his parents still to be there, and then he’s imagining how they would like him to be and how they brought him up to be, and that surely is also the basis of how he survived this huge brutality. Despite the horrors and danger he maintains his morality and courage, risking his life to protect the younger child Zelda. Amazingly, Morris Gleitzman’s trademark humour shines through this dark subject matter. Here, too, is the reminder of humanity in the midst of its opposite. “Morris Gleitzman’s trademark humour shines through this dark subject matter” When I was writing The Other Side of Truth , part of my research was to talk to child psychotherapists about how some children come through terrible situations. So, I went to the Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture (now named Freedom From Torture), and I spoke to the wonderful child therapist Sheila Melzak. I learned that it is those children who understand that it is not them personally being targeted who survive with the least permanent damage. They understand that they have been unfortunate to be caught up in a terrible situation. They have an idea of the bigger picture. In these books, there is a kindness, a generosity, love ultimately triumphs over hate. These books are coming from a position of realising that in order to survive the terrors of war, and the suffering that human beings can inflict on each other, you do need some kind of moral centre of your own."