“I’m telling you, Faheema, it was because of your red crayon and that stupid clown’s nose. That’s what made us friends.” “And I’m telling you, Louise. There was no red crayon! No, it was because of my pink lunchbox at break and that horrible Sean Groenewald.” “Red crayon!” “Pink lunchbox! And your hair shining like a gold crown.” “Oh, come on! How could my hair ever look like a gold crown? You’re making that up!” We argued until we both burst out laughing. But there were other arguments...
The story takes place on the day of Dirk’s eighteenth birthday, when he has applied for a position in a youth training programme at Kagiso Holdings. At seventeen, and without finishing school, he had hitchhiked back to Johannesburg, where he lived with his parents until he was twelve years old. Now, back in Villa Park, his old Johannesburg neighbourhood, Dirk lives in the maid’s quarters of the house in Groenewald Street where he lived as a boy. At the Kagiso Holdings interview Dirk finds he...
Tommy, the newcomer at Colliery Primary, wears a balaclava to school every day. Why? What could possibly be underneath? A terrible scar? Some alien life form? Dumisani and Doogle, aka the Doo Dudes and best friends in the world, are determined to find out. Whatever it takes. This school edition of Balaclava Boy is included in the Department of Basic Education’s National Catalogue for Senior Phase learners. It has been revised and updated with activities for pre-reading and post-reading,...
Thoughtful, insightful and compelling, Granite is a well-executed imagining of what happened to cause the collapse of the civilisation of Great Zimbabwe (called Zimba Remabwe in the book). While adult historical fiction has experienced a recent resurgence in interest, narratives are mostly drawn from European history; Granite is refreshingly African, illuminating a relatively unexplored area in fiction. It also shifts “fictionalised history” away from the European centre: in the story, Zimba...
