I woke up this morning to the news that Barbara Kimenye, the author of the Moses Series of children’s books is dead. Very sad. There is hope for children’s literature still though.
The Guardian yesterday reported that Barbara Kimenye passed on at the age of 82. It doesn’t state how the grand dame of children’s passed but if she had any input into her passing there were probably some naughty kids who had tried to save her from some evil kidnappers. They would have succeeded in saving her but the kidnappers who had stashed her on the school farm would have left her rained on and she got a killer disease. In spite of seeking all the help they could even from a pen pal from a faraway land she would have passed on.
Since she stopped unleashing children’s books so prolifically one has to wonder where the next generation of authors for kids are. They are there. The world decided to follow the children’s market when JK Rowling stumbled into this Harry Potter thing. So many international celebs have them with Madonna’s five books for children quickly coming to mind.
It’s not just the international publishing marketplace that is flush with books for kids. Locally Phoenix Publishers is the home of so many titles that when I passed by recently I was a bit inundated with the number of titles available. There is hope. There are even several well-known names in literature doing books for kids. Muthoni Likimani has a few titles as does Doreen Baingana. Even Zukiswa Wanner who has recently unveiled the new short story collection Behind The Shadows has a few in the pipeline.
There is still hope for children’s literature. Barbara Kimenye would be proud.
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