The book Beautiful Samoa was launched at the Cranbourne Library this month.By Bridget Cook
A BOOK written and illustrated by Samoan children and their families will be launched this month at the Cranbourne Library.
The book ‘Beautiful Samoa’ was created by a group of Samoan children and tells the story of their special culture in a collection of bilingual Samoan/English nursery rhymes.
A local radio station has also offered to produce a CD of the group singing the nursery rhymes, which will be included with the book when it launches this month.
Beautiful Samoa is the first of a number of projects planned under the Young Readers Program community publishing initiative with Kids Own Publishing.
The State Library of Victoria (SLV) hopes that it will encourage a love of books among children from diverse cultures and those from disadvantaged backgrounds.
Young Readers Program ambassador and children’s author Jeannette Rowe said storytelling was a powerful and simple way for people of all ages to connect and share their experiences.
“By encouraging children and adults from broad cultural groups to publish their own stories, we are hoping to create community cultural exchange and story sharing,” she said.
“Creating culturally personalised books, provides a genuine source of understanding and pride and will give parents the opportunity to read stories to their children about their own culture.”
Ms Rowe said following the successful completion of Beautiful Samoa, other groups were being encouraged to follow the group’s lead.
“We are inviting other children and adults from all the diverse cultural communities across Victoria, including those from Somali, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and Burmese backgrounds, to work with their local library to create their own books about their culture, usually in their own language,” she said.
Now in its third year, the $2.1 million Young Readers Program is a partnership between the State Library of Victoria, the Victorian State Government and the Municipal Association of Victoria.
