Thandi Xaba fell in love with books; now she’s writing them for kids

When you fall in love with books, it’s hook, line and sinker. Author Thandi Xaba is a wordsmith, an inevitable calling after growing up around stacks and stacks of books where she fell in love with stories. Especially for kids.

It’s a family thing. “I grew up in a house full of books and always loved stories,” she said.

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Her mother worked through piles of Danielle Steel. Her father read just as much. Both still keep books stacked by their bedsides today. Xaba’s brother Thando is the inspiration and namesake of the main character in her children’s books.

“He is a very intelligent, knowledgeable and funny young man,” she said. “His love for animals and nature has given me great ideas.”

Xaba’s foundation as an author started early.

“I’ve been keeping journals since age 12, and now, 25 years later, I have a kit full of journals. I also write poetry and once in a blue moon, short stories,” she said.

“I have known from a young age that I’d like to be a published author, and when I was 18, I wrote, by hand, not typed, a book on faith and self-awareness, which was probably my first book. And, I have also self-published a book that started as a blog while living and working in Cape Town in 2012 titled My Taxi Chronicles.”

Author Tandi Xaba. Picture: Supplied

Wrote her first book by hand

The Thando series saw its genesis as a university assignment at the University of Pretoria, where Xaba was studying Early Childhood Development.

The first book, Thando and The Magic Window, took years to reach shelves, moving through more than one illustrator before she found Vian Oelofsen.

“He is so talented, and I love his work,” she said. The second, Thando Goes to the Sea, followed around 2018, with more adventures growing from there.

Publishing her books represented a personal milestone for Xaba, too, something she felt when she held the finished copies in her hands.

“It was truly a special moment, I even got a bit emotional,” she said. Apart from penning her books, Xaba built a career across radio, print and television journalism and founded an NPO.

Reading in the 21st century, especially amongst Xaba’s target audience, can sometimes be the exception rather than the rule. Screen time has overtaken flipping pages.

“Reading must be presented as fun,” she said. “Screens capture a child’s attention because of the colours, the song, so in play and reading books, we can recreate that.”

She returns, always, to the example adults set. “When adults instil a love for books in their children, it’ll be easier for kids to choose reading over a device.”

Two great kids’ reads. Picture: Supplied

Love books, choose it over a device

But there’s more to her writing than simply family inspiration and the desire to share stories.

Xaba wants people to read books, and of course, that’s something to be instilled from a young age.

South Africa’s literacy statistics are grim, with roughly 80 percent of Grade 1 to 3 learners unable to read for meaning, a statistic that moved her to act.

Around 2017 and 2018, she drafted a literacy programme proposal and took it directly to the Free State Department of Education, targeting rural schools near her hometown of Harrismith.

While her plan was dismissed by the department, she has not let go of her vision.

Instead of letting go of the notion, her response has been to write books that do the work from the inside out.

Each title in the Thando series is designed to carry learning inside the adventure, covering science, nature and the wider world without letting the lesson crowd out the fun.

“I always keep the child in mind by keeping the story fun, simple and relatable,” she said. “Not only is Thando having fun and exploring all kinds of things outside, but he is also learning.”

She writes books to instil a love of reading

She said there is nothing quite like seeing a child discover a story between the covers of a book for the first time, and Xaba witnesses that experience regularly through school readings.

“My little readers are so precious, and whenever I do readings, my heart is full because I see their precious faces filled with awe and excitement,” she said. “Their innocence is so beautiful.”

Her bigger ideal is still ahead of her.

“Part of my dream is to have the Thando books in as many school libraries as possible, preferably the rural schools back home,” she said.

Wherever she has lived, Xaba has always tracked down the nearest library and got herself a membership card.

She wants every child to have exactly the same access, and that’s always going to be part of her mission.

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