African Storybook Project (ASP)

"The Project aims to address the shortage of books in local African languages for early reading. The main reason why there are so few stories in local African languages is that it is not cost effective to publish and print stories for reading in languages that have a small readership. But if the stories are on the internet, and also can be translated by people themselves into local languages, the challenge can be overcome." The website was established to "provide stories in African languages as well as in English for young children as they are learning to read. This website is for parents and people working with children (such as teachers, librarians, community workers) in African contexts."

The website makes it possible to:

• "find, read and download or print stories that you can use with children,
• write comments on the stories that you find and read,
• translate stories into an African language that is familiar to the children,
• adapt stories for the level and context of the children, and also
• create new stories in one of the templates.

Registration is not required to find and read books, but it is a requirement for translating, adapting, or creating stories. Its open licensing allows users to read, download, print, copy, adapt, and translate stories; acknowledgement of the writers, illustrators, translators of the stories, and the people who hold the copyright is necessary for those who adapt, translate, or copy/print the story for use.

SAIDE is revising the site in order to make it more mobile friendly – starting with a Reading App that resizes the stories according to the view on phone, tablet, or laptop. They are also working on streamlining the creation and translation process.

The browsing section lists stories by: type, e.g., "Folktale, Story, Wordless story, Child-created", etc.; language, e.g., Afrikaans, Amharic, Aringati, Ateso, and Changana, etc.; and reader level, e.g., "First words, First sentences, First paragraphs", etc.

Education, Children

Linked to the storybook website is the African Storybook Project Research Network (ASReN), a "network of researchers, students, and others who are interested in research on areas related to the African Storybook Project (ASP), such as early reading, mother tongue literacy, and related areas, with a focus on Africa". Their blogsite, aimed to engage the community in current debates as well as share information on new research, funding opportunities, and other news, contains links and posts on topics relevant to the ASP.