Someone gets an idea for a book and writes it in English. Ideally books for early to medium readers will have one illustration per page. (We’re also interested in developing more books for advanced readers as well).
Example: “What is a Train?”
Step 01 – Authoring.
An author would compose a book such as “The History of trains” or “When my grandfather was a conductor on a train” or “How do trains work?” or something like that. Each page would have temporary descriptions written to a volunteer illustrator. Once the book has been completed it can then be emailed to the illustrator & editor for the next 2 steps.
Step 02 – illustrating
For example, many people here in PNG have no concept of what a train is, but communicating such new ideas with them would allow them to be challenged with new vocabulary, etc. If someone were to write a book with illustrations that convey to people who have no way of actually seeing what a train is all about this would be exactly the kind of books we are looking to add to our library. (Ditto for concepts like slavery, foreign religions, scientific knowledge, historical events and figures etc…)
Step 03 – editing
An editor can go through and help both the author & the illustrator to further develop the book, making sure it fits consistently in layout & formatting within our library of materials as well as correcting any spelling & grammar etc.
Next steps:
Once a book has been developed it can then be uploaded to our Microsoft OneDrive where someone will translate it into a national trade language (Spanish, French or in our case here in PNG Tok Pisin.) From that point then it can be made available to church planting missionary teams anywhere. Church planting missionary teams can then oversee having local people to translate books into their own local languages and then have them published and printed for use in reading practice programs.
How books will be used:
For example the Mibu people meet twice a week to read through books together. They have various activities (games) that reinforce the three pillars of literacy (speed, accuracy and comprehension). Every six months they formally test each other to gauge individual progress, and it is having a tremendous impact! But we hope to offer an ever expanding library of content to give them new material to challenge and educate them, expose them to new vocabulary and ideas which in turn strengthens the churches.
Sample Books
Here are a couple different books (written in English) that you can look through to see the kind of books we are going for.
click here to download the “Iwam Story Book 8”
click here to download the “Flies are your enemy” book
