Junior School 3rd Annual Book Fair Brings Stories To Life

Student refreshes childhood memories by sifting through Diary of a Wimpy Kid at the book fair.On 11-12 February 2016, the Aga Khan Academy, Mombasa's Junior School hosted the third Annual Book Fair. The Vice Principal of the Junior School, Ms. Rukiya Cochu, emphasized that the purpose of this annual event is to nurture and develop a love for reading within students and the entire school community.

The fair consisted of not only a book exhibition but also storytelling sessions in five different languages, namely: Kiswahili, Urdu, English, Tajik and French. Everybody was invited to attend the storytelling sessions led by various faculty members in their mother tongues at the Junior School Library.

Junior School students listen to a story in Urdu about an intelligent king's adventures.It was quite an enriching experience hearing authentic storytelling from around the globe, especially experiencing how sounds, emotions, actions and body language help narrate a story better than the otherwise plain use of words.

In addition, Ms. Rukiya reiterated the significance of this activity as a means to use reading to understand other people’s cultures. “Pluralism being one of the key elements we promote at our school, telling stories in different languages is one way for us to promote this value.” said Ms. Rukiya. “The Junior School also runs a dual language programme in Kiswahili and English so having such activities is a way for the school to develop strategies to help students understand languages that are unfamiliar to them”, she added.

The book fair was on for two days and hundreds of books from a variety of genres were displayed for browsing and purchase. The storytelling sessions and the book fair was a huge success, attracting visitors from the Junior School and Senior School, parents, teachers, and the administrative staff.

A laudable improvement at this year’s book fair was that the collection catered for different age groups and interests. I look forward to next year’s exhibition and hope to see an even wider collection that attracts more bookworms like me!

-By Inaara Gangji (DP1 student)