{"id":971,"date":"2019-06-19T14:41:29","date_gmt":"2019-06-19T14:41:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.sibo.co.za\/?p=971"},"modified":"2020-03-20T12:25:49","modified_gmt":"2020-03-20T12:25:49","slug":"pop-up-book-fairs-or-unfairs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.sibo.co.za\/index.php\/2019\/06\/19\/pop-up-book-fairs-or-unfairs\/","title":{"rendered":"Pop-up Book Fairs\u2026 or unfairs!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Last Saturday\nthere was a pop-up book fair at our local mall. Initially, there were about 35\nauthors who had originally promised the organiser that they\u2019d be there. Sadly,\nseveral of them cancelled at the last moment and we ended up with around 15\nauthors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To make\nmatters worse, the mall had positioned the book fair near one of the less-used\nentrances, in a closed off area that was darn near invisible unless you knew it\nwas there and went looking for it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There was no\nsignage either. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ginny and the\norganiser bounced around in the walkway, trying to entice people to at least\ncome and look. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s amazing how many people are not interested in books. They\u2019d simply say \u201cNo!\u201d <\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

So it\u2019s not\nsurprising our South African reading statistics are terrible. Reading should be\ndone at home too. If kids see their parents reading, they\u2019d be more likely to\npick up a book. There was an article on EWN two weeks ago that proclaimed \u201cNearly\nhalf of SA children have never read a book with a parent\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is\nunbelievably sad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because our\nbook fair was stashed in a well-hidden nook, it meant there were very few feet\ntraipsing around the tables laden with books and other goodies. Some authors\ntend to entice readers with cookies and brightly wrapped chocolates. I\u2019m not\nsure why they do this\u2014Ginny certainly doesn\u2019t\u2014but possibly they think if a potential\nbuyer snags a chocolate they\u2019ll feel obliged to stay a little longer, read the\nback of a book or two and maybe even buy one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The authors were not pleased with the lack of customers. Ginny used the quiet time to prowl around the tables and check out the other books. She came across a totally delightful, award winning story called \u2018Smelly Cats\u2019 written by a young girl named Stacey Fru. She wrote it when she was only seven. It has charming illustrations and the story is awesome. Stacey, now twelve, has written several more books and, amongst other things, is a motivational speaker. Check her out on Facebook<\/a> to see just how fabulous she is. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Ginny\u2019s mum\nbought Smelly Cats as a birthday gift for Isabella\u2014her great grand-daughter (Ginny\u2019s\ngranddaughter) who is turning seven this year. We know her mum will read it to\nher, and soon she\u2019ll probably be able to read it herself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Judy Skeggs aka Ginny’s mum chatting to actress Milan Murray, who also writes kids books.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Take time out\nto read to your children please people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sibo<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Position is everything when it comes to a book fair in a mall.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[259,253,260],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.sibo.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/971"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.sibo.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.sibo.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.sibo.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.sibo.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=971"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blog.sibo.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/971\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":991,"href":"https:\/\/blog.sibo.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/971\/revisions\/991"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.sibo.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=971"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.sibo.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=971"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.sibo.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}