Anita, a former primary school teacher in her hometown of Johannesburg, South Africa, and in London, has written four great, rhyming, read aloud adventures about little kids with big dreams. These kids are brainy and brave and they’re going to change the world…if they can find their trainers! (Damn that Limbobo!)
Each of the books has been brilliantly illustrated by a different artist and the result is a riot of rainbow colours and comic flair as the kids take on Mums, Dads, and a few messy monsters, and pancakes, clothes – even cars – come flying off the page. There’s some scary stuff in ‘My Monster Mayhem’ too!
These are characters that all children 4-7 are going to fall in love with!
Anita’s four titles are:
* Pancake Pandemonium, illustrations by Tom Bonson
A little girl loves pancakes. When her Mum is too busy to make them one day, she won’t take ‘no’ for an answer… although she ends up wishing she had!
* Mum’s Cronky Car, illustrations by Jon Lycett-Smith
A young girl and her brother nearly die with embarrassment every time their Mum drives them to school in her old ‘Cronky’ car. Then one day, the ‘Cronk’ does something unbelievable and their adventures together begin.
* Oh What A Tangle!, illustrations by Monika Filipina Trzpil
A young girl can’t be bothered to brush her hair. Unbrushed and unloved it soon becomes one big barnet that is full of surprises, and that’s not all!
* My Monster Mayhem, illustrations by Sholto Walker
A little girl keeps getting into trouble with her Mum, but it’s not her that leaves the lights on in every room or leaves clothes all over the floor. She’s doing battle with a mob of monsters who just want to have a little bit of fun!
‘All four books are a visual and story-time treat … they are absolutely wonderful, and in parts I laughed out loud,’said Kristen Miller, children’s writer and illustrator, and regular reviewer on the South African ‘Sunday Times.’
Digital Leaf is also producing Anita’s four books as animated, interactive apps for both android and iOS digital devices, iPhone and iPad, which will be available from the App Store and the Google Play store from mid-October.
The first of the apps, ‘Pancake Pandemonium’ will be available from the App Store from Monday 1 October but will be free to download for all visitors to the Frankfurt Book Fair by calling into the Digital Leaf stand in Hall 8, J919, and picking up a card featuring a special QR code.
Anita’s books and apps come complete with puzzles and games providing interactive entertainment for children at many levels. There are surprising details on every page and there’s always extra fun to be had as the kid’s try to find and count the missing items in the scenes; frying pans in ‘Pancake,’ for example, or hidden hairbrushes in ‘Oh, What A Tangle.’
Anita has worked closely with the app developers and says she has been ‘delighted and amazed by the whole experience.’ She said, ‘imagine, reading a book and being able to manipulate elements of the scene… wow!’
She says ‘all the stories are her favourite’ but admits that she is rather fond of ‘Mum’s Cronky Car’ which is based on her childhood memories of her Mum’s own car, a real rustbucket they called the ‘Cronk.’
When she’s not writing, Anita loves reading and painting and spending time with her husband and ten year old daughter (‘the original pancake princess!’), walking their three rescued dogs – Nina, George and Lucky – in the countryside.
In fact, it is Lucky, who Anita found scavenging in a dustbin on the beach when he was just a few weeks old, who will be the star of Anita’s new series of four books that she is currently working on and illustrating herself.
Next stop though is Anita’s first trip to Frankfurt where she is ‘very excited about launching these stories and presenting them to the world.’
Foreign language rights and international distribution rights are available for all four of Anita’s titles.