Tag: International Literacy Day

Being polite when using public transport

sibo-event-post-2

Remember last week I told you that it was International Literacy Day on the 8th of September! Well, I am super stoked. My latest book – Sibo on the Move – which is all about the Gautrain and how you should behave when you travel on public transport – is being launched on this very day in the Rosebank Gautrain Station.

How cool is that!

Wait! I hear you say… how on earth did you, Sibo, get to write a book about the Gautrain?

Actually it’s quite a funny story. We were busy with the road safety book – Sibo Looks Right. Not sure if you remember but actually we crowdfunded for this book so that we could share it with as many kids as possible.  Sadly we did not get enough money to print thousands of copies to distribute – but we did print a few and share them around the place. Plus of course the e-book is on my website for anybody to freely read.

Magically (there was a bit more to it than that – but we’ll leave it there) Gautrain got to hear about my road safety book and asked us all to a meeting. We thought that maybe they wanted to donate some money towards this book but it turned out, in fact, that they wanted their own Sibo book.

This is the book that is going to be launched on the 8th of September.  Actually it is also going to be used for transport month. This happens in October every year.  There is a serious drive in Jozi to minimize traffic on the roads and everybody is encouraged to use public transport as much as possible.

In fact – to make sure that people actually do this, some of the roads are closed off – so that people have to use public transport to get where they want to go – or walk!

This is part of the reason that Sibo on the Move was written – to help people remember that there is some etiquette to be adhered to when travelling on trains and buses.

Simple things like…

  • don’t listen to loud music
  • don’t put your feet on the seats
  • don’t sit in the seats that are allocated for the disabled or elderly
  • wait until people get off the train or bus before you jump on… and
  • eergghhhh – never ever stick chewing gum under the seat – that is beyond gross.

Travel safely people!

Sibo

PS – If you want to read this book – it’s also freely available on www.sibo.co.za – just click on the cover of the book.

International Literacy Day

Sibo studying

For more than 40 years UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) has been celebrating International Literacy Day on the 8th of September to remind everybody in the world that “literacy is a human right and it is the foundation of all learning”.

So true – if you can read you can just about do anything.  Reading sets you free!

Many of us take reading for granted and forget that there are still millions of people in this world who cannot read. I’m not talking about babies or young kids either. I’m talking about adults who just never had the chance to learn.

The sad thing today is that many kids have plenty of opportunities but just can’t be bothered to read. My friend Ginny had a stand selling books at the mall last year and some kids sauntered over to check them out. One dude picked up a book and leafed through it. His friend took it out of his hand and said “No ways! It’s a chapter book. We don’t like chapter books.”  Then they ran away laughing before Ginny had a chance to ask them what they meant by not liking chapter books?

Books are great. They open up so many different worlds. You can get lost in them and imagine that you are the heroine or the villain in the story. You can learn about new places and different countries. You can find out about different animals and how they live – ones that you will maybe never see in real life either (except in a zoo).

Of course the more you read the cleverer you get too!

Kindles and electronic readers are all the range these days  – they are useful if you are going away because then you can take plenty of books with you in one neat little package instead of lugging a suitcase!

Reading makes me happy when I feel sad. If I’m bored, I grab a book to read.

Even if I don’t really feel like reading a story – I can still read something that shows me how to make things – like the nifty beads I told you about last week.

Of course it’s not just books that we read; there are newspapers, magazines and comics as well. You can watch subtitles on the TV too.

If you’ve got a computer you can go to www.sibo.co.za and read some books on-line free.

Read more!

Sibo