National Book Week’s Books Beyond Words will host Margaret Auerbach of Spellbound Puppets in their storytelling session on Saturday June 13.
This weekend’s show is titled The Magic Ball and will take children on a puppet adventure in the forest where they will meet Forget-me-Not and her friends and help Gogo Thembi find the Magic Ball when it suddenly disappears.
The weekly event is hosted by South Africa’s annual reading awareness week, National Book Week (NBW), which is dedicated to encouraging leisure reading and promoting the importance of books. It has been inviting storytellers every weekend since the lockdown began in March for a live event to tell children an interesting story, including from their own books.
NBW is a joint initiative of the South African Book Development Council (SABDC) and the Department of Sports, Arts and Culture.
Margaret’s puppet Shmeezle has built a huge lockdown following.
“Our stories have opened the window to a magical world where imagination can take children places, which are otherwise off limits due to the lockdown. Moreover, Books Beyond Words has given me a chance to connect with a larger audience as well as an opportunity to contribute in some way to encourage reading,” says Margaret.
The show is on Saturday June 13, at 11am, on NBW’s Facebook page.
