Journey to Jo'burg: A South African Story

Product Information

She does not like being away from her children but must work in Johannesburg to provide money for food, clothing and an education after their father died. Their journey illustrates at every turn the grim realities of apartheid – the pass laws, bantustans, racism, the breakdown of family life. On their journey they experience the oppressive and harsh realities of the apartheid including the segregation by colour, the Pass laws that require all black people to carry a passbook at all times and the extreme poverty alongside so much wealth. Book reviews cover the content, themes and worldviews of fiction books, not their literary merit, and equip parents to decide whether a book is appropriate for their children. Both the truck driver and Grace take responsibility for the children’s well being once they come in contact with them.

All those lesson on writing letters…for jobs as servants…always writing how good they were at cooking, cleaning, washing, gardening…always ending with “Yours obediently.Examples that black Africans faced in South Africa included having to carry pass books, being sent to school only to learn how to be servants, and not having the rights to live or work where they wanted to.

This part of the story opens the children’s eyes even more to the uncertainties and dangers of life in South Africa. She married a man from Indian descent: their union would have been ”a crime” under the apartheid laws (I'm guessing like Trevor Noah's parents'). Thirteen-year-old Naledi lives with Nono (her grandmother), Tiro (her brother), and Dineo (her baby sister) in a small South African village 300 kilometers from Johannesburg.He celebrates Journey to Jo'burg for being the first childrens' book about the lives of black African during apartheid. Two kids see their little sister getting very ill but the lady who cares for them doesn't have money for a hospital. And determined to do everything they can for Dineo, the siblings thus set off on foot, hoping to cover the three-hundred-kilometer distance to find their mother in time.

They are successful in finding their mother, who is able to get her youngest to a doctor in time to save her life. It seems clear that the point of the novel is to point up some of the major problems with apartheid, but at the same time it seems to downplay those problems too much. When I sent two copies of my first children’s book to nephews and nieces in South Africa in 1985, they never received the parcel. When they come to another village, they walk quickly so as to not attract the attention of the police because policemen in this area are often corrupt. Naidoo has a history of standing up for equal rights and speaking out against apartheid, and that's wonderful, of course, but I still don't know how I feel about white people writing stories for PoC.This was a brilliant read and a great introduction to children in KS2 about life in South Africa for black people, the Apartheid and segregation. This edition of Beverley Naidoo's classic story includes a special "Why You'll Love This Book" introduction by Michael Rosen, former Children's Laureate.

The book follows a young girl named Naledi and her younger brother, Tiro, on a journey that not only saves their family, but also opens their eyes to nature of their world.The children have created stories and monologues from the perspective of the main characters and then performed these to create podcasts. After going with a friend to a restaurant in Frankfurt, even though it was raining like crazy, it did not stop me from going to Oxfam, where I did behave: I only got this one book (1 euro). And for children, Journey to Jo'burg is therefore a gentle but also a firm and authentic feeling (with regard to factuality) introduction to this reality (not strictly own voice of course, but considering Beverley Naidoo's biography, I do still consider Journey to Jo'burg to be pretty much from an African perspective and from the pen of a White South African author who actively fought against Apartheid and was also jailed for this).