Book Creation
At Paleng we create bilingual picture storybooks specifically for children in rural communities. They are in Sesotho-Lesotho and in English.
All of our books are written, illustrated, translated, and produced by our team. We give out our books for free, directly to children as mine-to-take-home books.
Currently we have 18 English/Sesotho-Lesotho titles and 1 Sesotho-Lesotho title. We have also developed a bilingual fold-out 1-10 number card for learning to count. Our stories are a mix of traditional tales, educational tales, and stories just for fun. Many of our books have been created with the help of children at the Paleng library. They conceptualise stories, help with illustrations, and give us their opinions of books in progress. Our stories are designed for different reading levels, but are predominantly aimed at children from Reception (5 years old) to Grade 3 (8-10 years old). Have a look at our books below.
How do Paleng books reach rural children?
Our Books
Below are our existing titles and our number card. Click on each book cover for some more information and to see a two-page spread.
Four of our titles have full copies available for download (the coronavirus book, M’e Maneo’s Pumpkin, Thoko’s Fanta Pine Seed, and Ball). Several of our books are also available on the African Storybook website where they have been translated into other African languages.
Additionally, you can listen to M’e Maneo’s Pumpkin, Neo finds her pig, and Bophelo’s Mistake read in Sesotho-Lesotho and English by Khothatso, our-cofounder, at the respective links below. Please also check out the recording of Keke’s Swing, a Paleng book not yet in print. This story is available in English, Sesotho-Lesotho, and other languages on the African Storybook site.
Paleng books and the Paleng number card, Count (Bala), are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 Licence, and must be appropriately credited under this license.
