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Speaker 1: All right, let's get on to book club. Now, children's

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Speaker 1: author Yakoo Jakorps celebrates Can you believe it is three

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Speaker 1: hundredth book and twenty five years in publishing. If you've

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Speaker 1: ever tried to keep up with the imagination of a child,

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Speaker 1: then you'll know it's a pretty magical place. It's full

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Speaker 1: of strange adventures, unexpected heroes and a lot of laughter.

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Speaker 1: And few people can capture that world's quite like children's

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Speaker 1: author Yaku Jakorps. So for twenty five years he's been

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Speaker 1: delighting young readers with stories that are funny and quirky

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Speaker 1: and wonderfully relatable. In fact, he's written and in maybel

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Speaker 1: published his three hundredth book, a milestone Moaths writers only

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Speaker 1: dream about. And today in book Club, we're celebrating the

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Speaker 1: man behind the stories, how it all began, the magic

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Speaker 1: of writing for children, and the incredible career that has

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Speaker 1: made in one of South Africa's most beloved storytellers. Yakoo,

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Speaker 1: welcome to Cape Talk.

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Speaker 2: Thank you so much, Pascat, it's very nice talking to

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Speaker 2: you now.

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Speaker 1: You were born in the Northern Cape and you started

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Speaker 1: writing at quite a young age. In high school, you

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Speaker 1: were telling you were selling your short stories to magazines already.

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Speaker 1: Do you remember the moment that you first realized that

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Speaker 1: you actually wanted to be a writer.

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Speaker 2: I can actually remember being at school, you know, in

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Speaker 2: primary school, and knowing that I want to tell stories.

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Speaker 2: I wanted to write stories. I was like seven years

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Speaker 2: old when I started creating my own books, you know,

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Speaker 2: drawing the pictures and writing the stories. And I never

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Speaker 2: really quit. When I was in primary school, I had

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Speaker 2: dreams of becoming a major conservationist or becoming a crocodile

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Speaker 2: handler and all these extreme things. But I always loved

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Speaker 2: telling stories. And in high school I started writing seriously,

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Speaker 2: you know. Then that was when I realized this is

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Speaker 2: what I wanted to do for a living. But growing

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Speaker 2: up in the Northern Cape, I think was a big

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Speaker 2: part of that. The people there are excellent storytellers. I

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Speaker 2: grew up with a grandfather who could tell the best

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Speaker 2: ghost stories and a grandma who could tell all remember

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Speaker 2: all the body that she learned as a kids. I

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Speaker 2: think that helped a lot.

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Speaker 1: So would you say that those early influencers in your

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Speaker 1: life was it less about the writers and books and

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Speaker 1: more about that people around you, Those great storytellers, and

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Speaker 1: you know people that you loved so much that were

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Speaker 1: able to, yeah, to be these great storytellers. Is that

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Speaker 1: what influenced you more?

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Speaker 2: I think both ways. When I was when I was

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Speaker 2: a kid, I grew up in a small carew town

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Speaker 2: called Kernarvan, and the town had a lovely library. So

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Speaker 2: it was very small, but the library was well stocked

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Speaker 2: and they had the strictest librarian ever. I was gett

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Speaker 2: scared of her. But at the moment I discovered, you know,

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Speaker 2: when I was seven eight years old and I started

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Speaker 2: reading by myself, it was like you discovered this magical

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Speaker 2: universe or there you discovered that the world was bigger

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Speaker 2: than that small town when you grew up. So I

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Speaker 2: ended up starting at the kids section, reading everything right

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Speaker 2: through to the adult CEC. Remember when I was nine

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Speaker 2: years old, I went up to the librarian and I

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Speaker 2: wanted to read my to take out my first Stephen

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Speaker 2: King book from the library, and she sent me back

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Speaker 2: to the kids to the kids' sation. But I think

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Speaker 2: it druns both ways. You know, I grew up with

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Speaker 2: stories and with storytellers, and I grew up with an

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Speaker 2: amazing love of books.

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Speaker 1: And I'm so glad that you mentioned the library there,

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Speaker 1: because just shout out to libraries and librarians. Man, it's

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Speaker 1: really we need more of that, and even in today's

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Speaker 1: South Africa, they provide such a valuable resource and such

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Speaker 1: a safe space for young people. Can I ask you

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Speaker 1: what specifically drew you to writing for children rather than

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Speaker 1: for adults.

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Speaker 2: When I was a high school kid, I was a

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Speaker 2: dead serious, nerdy writer types. I was very serious about

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Speaker 2: what I wanted to do, and I never for once

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Speaker 2: considered writing for kids. I wanted to write books for

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Speaker 2: grown ups, and I was writing poetry for grown ups

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Speaker 2: and being very serious about myself. And I started something

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Speaker 2: short stories to magazines when I was about grade eleven

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Speaker 2: and grade twelve. And then one day, I think, I

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Speaker 2: think the story edited one of these magazines was exasperated

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Speaker 2: with all the stories he kept I like sending one

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Speaker 2: story per week or whatever. And then, yeah, that was

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Speaker 2: I was so desperate to get published, not to just

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Speaker 2: prove to myself and to the people around me that

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Speaker 2: I could actually do this. And then he wrote me

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Speaker 2: a letter that was the phase of snail mail. He

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Speaker 2: wrote me a letter saying he thinks that the kind

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Speaker 2: of stories I like writing, you know, horror and fantasy

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Speaker 2: and so on, which wasn't very very suitable for magazine consumption,

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Speaker 2: would work very well for children's books. And he would

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Speaker 2: very much advise me to try my hand at children's books.

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Speaker 2: And I thought this was a very strange idea. But

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Speaker 2: that long holiday at the end of Metric, I sat down.

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Speaker 2: I went back to the library and I re read

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Speaker 2: some of the stuff that I enjoyed as a kid,

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Speaker 2: and I sat down and I wrote, I started writing

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Speaker 2: a children's book. And moment I sat down and I

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Speaker 2: started writing this story, which was a horror story set

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Speaker 2: in a small town like mine. It was like a homecoming.

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Speaker 2: It was like I could relax and give myself a

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Speaker 2: license to just enjoy what I'm doing. And I think

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Speaker 2: that's the amazing thing when you find your voice in

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Speaker 2: a certain genre. Hmmm.

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Speaker 1: And now you've got almost three hundred books behind you.

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Speaker 1: Do you have any favorites?

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Speaker 2: Kids often ask me this question. I tell them it's

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Speaker 2: like asking your mom and dad whether you or your

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Speaker 2: brother's just Actually, there are certain books that you have

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Speaker 2: a soft spot for. A good day for climbing trees

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Speaker 2: was my first international breakthrough, and I have such a

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Speaker 2: soft spot for the main character Madners in that story.

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Speaker 2: And then I also love writing children's poetry, so I

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Speaker 2: think I have two poetry collections that have a poem

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Speaker 2: for every day of the year. So both these books

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Speaker 2: we need to book get Me In and that is

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Speaker 2: near book. They both have three hundred and sixty six

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Speaker 2: different terms, so a lot of work went into that.

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Speaker 2: And if I have to rescue two books from my

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Speaker 2: own collection of publications, those two would be it wonderful.

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Speaker 1: We are talking to Yaku Jakob's children's author, celebrating his

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Speaker 1: three hundred book and twenty five years in publishing. Over

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Speaker 1: the past twenty five years, how have you seen children's

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Speaker 1: reading habits change, if at all.

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Speaker 2: When I started out publishing my first book, I was very,

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Speaker 2: very lucky to start with a publisher who was starting

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Speaker 2: her publishing career, and she came from a background as

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Speaker 2: a senior librarian, so she knew a lot. Her name

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Speaker 2: is Mimi Duplissi, and she's been my publisher these past

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Speaker 2: twenty five years, so she knew a lot about reading

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Speaker 2: and how kids are struggling to read. And way back then,

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Speaker 2: twenty five years ago, we were already creating books for

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Speaker 2: struggling reading. And I'm afraid to say that over the

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Speaker 2: past twenty five years things have deteriorated in ways we

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Speaker 2: couldn't anticipate. I think, with growth in social media and

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Speaker 2: different forms of media, streaming services, games, reading is really

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Speaker 2: suffering at the moment. Just last week, the media reported

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Speaker 2: on a new study in South Africa that proved that

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Speaker 2: one in four kids in grade four in grade three

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Speaker 2: can't read a single word. And that is so, so

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Speaker 2: terrible to see. So it's a challenge, but it's a

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Speaker 2: challenge that I love tackling that I love partnering with

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Speaker 2: parents and teachers to try and come up with solutions

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Speaker 2: to get kids reading, to get them to see that

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Speaker 2: books are fun, books aren't only schoolwork.

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Speaker 1: I think it's so fascinating that already twenty five years ago,

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Speaker 1: you and your publisher were already trying to create the

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Speaker 1: I'm going to say the world, because that's what the

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Speaker 1: book that's sort a story does, right, It creates a

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Speaker 1: world for you. But to create the world in such

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Speaker 1: a way that it was going to be appealing for

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Speaker 1: kids and help them to love reading. Why is it

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Speaker 1: that twenty five years ago you guys already wanted to

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Speaker 1: be so intentional about that.

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Speaker 2: Twenty five years ago. It seems like a million years ago,

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Speaker 2: but there were already big challenges with the advance of

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Speaker 2: the Internet, with you know, SMS services and things like that,

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Speaker 2: and obviously the video game industry and all those things

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Speaker 2: that we're teaching kids in a certain sense to read

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Speaker 2: in a different way. You know, what we saw way

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Speaker 2: back then was that kids were already struggling to read

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Speaker 2: longer texts. They tended to get lost in a sea

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Speaker 2: of texts. They were reading shorter things on the Internet

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Speaker 2: and on videos and so on. So we started creating

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Speaker 2: books where even for all the kids, we're illustrations or

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Speaker 2: graphical graphic content was part of the pay and the layout,

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Speaker 2: so that it was a less daunting experience. But as

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Speaker 2: I said, I think the challenge is threefold nowadays. Mm hmmm.

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Speaker 1: We've got a lovely voice, not from Rhann. Can we

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Speaker 1: play that please, Alex?

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Speaker 3: I get often in Saskia Rhan Yah. I'm a teacher

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Speaker 3: and I love yakuyakubs. My goodness is so good to

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Speaker 3: Yea's voice and to listen to his story. I teach

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Speaker 3: grade seven. I'm a math teacher. But I always asked

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Speaker 3: the teachers trated to use the yakuyakubs. So no, no, no, no,

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Speaker 3: he's the best.

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Speaker 2: He's the best.

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Speaker 3: My kids is at the different school and they are

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Speaker 3: doing yakuyakos. It's is only yakuyakos. I love his storytelling.

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Speaker 3: Oh my goodness, this is very exciting for me. Uh

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Speaker 3: you guys just are making my day.

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Speaker 1: Thank you, oh Rian, how would you respond to that yaku?

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Speaker 2: Well, Rann obviously just made my day. It's so good

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Speaker 2: to have a mass teacher who loves reading. I had

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Speaker 2: a mess teacher in high school who wasn't as enthusiastic

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Speaker 2: about reading it. I wasn't as enthusiastic but mass. But

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Speaker 2: if you for my math teacher, I would have done

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Speaker 2: maybe a dead mess.

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Speaker 1: Now I want to ask you about I mean, that's

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Speaker 1: feedback from some of the adults. Children can be very

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Speaker 1: honest readers. What kind of feedback do you get from

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Speaker 1: your young young young readers like what stays with you

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Speaker 1: the most?

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Speaker 2: I think, like you said, the enthusiasm of the younger

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Speaker 2: is is absolutely wonderful. Last week I was on a

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Speaker 2: school tour in the Southern Cape and some of the

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Speaker 2: kids picked One school picked up on the fact that

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Speaker 2: I love funky socks, And there was this way where

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Speaker 2: schools my birthday was or three weeks ago, and all

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Speaker 2: of these schools last week wore funky stocks for my birthday.

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Speaker 2: You know that kind of enthusiasm, And we bring it

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Speaker 2: back to books all the time. So that's wonderful. But

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Speaker 2: as you said, kids are very honest. So when you

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Speaker 2: on a more serious note, when you're writing for kids,

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Speaker 2: I always say kids have a BS detector. Both end

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Speaker 2: to them, so you can't fool them. You have to

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Speaker 2: write honestly. You can't write down to them, you can't

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Speaker 2: preach to them, because then you lose them. So when

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Speaker 2: I'm sitting down and writing for kids, I'm trying to

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Speaker 2: talk to the kid. But I was when I was

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Speaker 2: nine or ten years old, who loved adventure and who

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Speaker 2: loved funny stories and stuff like that. And that's what

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Speaker 2: I'm doing all the time. You know, I never write

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Speaker 2: the kind of books that want to teach kids. The

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Speaker 2: only thing I want to teach them is that books

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Speaker 2: are fun and books help you to step into someone

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Speaker 2: else's shoes, and that's an amazing experience that they can

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Speaker 2: get to do that.

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Speaker 1: Unfortunately, we are running out of time with you, Yako Yakob's.

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Speaker 1: But your new book, Strange Things Happen on a Tuesday,

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Speaker 1: What can people expect from the story.

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Speaker 2: The story behind that book was very funny. I sat

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Speaker 2: down one day and I had this wacky idea for

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Speaker 2: a story set in a library garden. And there's this

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Speaker 2: boy who hates reading and his grandma spends every Tuesday

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Speaker 2: with her reading group at the library, and there's only

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Speaker 2: one other kid in the garden. It's a girl. And

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Speaker 2: this girl never talks to him because she keeps reading

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Speaker 2: and it irritates the heck out of him. And then

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Speaker 2: one day he discovers a ball in the garden and

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Speaker 2: he kicks the ball because after the girl the book

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Speaker 2: bill warns him not to kick it, and he literally

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Speaker 2: kicks off a huge fantasy adventure. And it was the

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Speaker 2: strangest thing. I wrote this book and I thought it

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Speaker 2: was a story, and I thought this story is too strange.

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Speaker 2: My publisher isn't going to touch this, and I never

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Speaker 2: sent it to her. And then one December, as I

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Speaker 2: was wrapping up things to go on holiday, I've discovered

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Speaker 2: this manuscript. After six months and I sent it to

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Speaker 2: my publisher and she called me as sins as a

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Speaker 2: joke and said, I know you weren't like this, but

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Speaker 2: I wrote this thing. And she called me back and

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Speaker 2: she said, this is one of the most amazing things

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Speaker 2: thinks I've ever wrote written, and she's very excited to

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Speaker 2: publish it. And now it's going to be my three

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Speaker 2: hundred books. So it had a strange history.

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Speaker 1: Well a super super congratulations on reaching this remarkable milestone

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Speaker 1: of three hundred books. What's next for Yako Yakob?

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Speaker 2: I always have something up the pipeline, so I am

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Speaker 2: working on a new collection of poetry at the moment.

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Speaker 2: There are some other books that are due to be

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Speaker 2: released later this year. So as long as I keep

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Speaker 2: having fun, they will continue to be a stream of

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Speaker 2: bookshitting the bookshelves hopefully.

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Speaker 1: Wow, we look forward to chatting to you again and

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Speaker 1: continuing to watch your prolific career unfold, and say thank

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Speaker 1: you for all the wonderful story and for the real

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Speaker 1: commitment to keeping kids reading. We really appreciated and we

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Speaker 1: wish you ah so much luck with this new three

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Speaker 1: hundredth book release.

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Speaker 2: Thank you so much. First, Geedar was wonderful you two.

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Speaker 1: That's Yaka. Yakub's children's authors say, prolific award winning South

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Speaker 1: African children's author three hundred books, including a Good Day

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Speaker 1: for Climbing Trees and settlemun Writing in Afrikaans and English,

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Speaker 1: his work often features yumi, quirky characters and relatable themes

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Speaker 1: for young readers. He has won so many accolades, including

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Speaker 1: the Alberbauer Prize and multiple Arti Cavier Children's Book awards.

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Speaker 1: As he said, born in Carnarvon in the Northern Cape,

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Speaker 1: and that's where this love for storytelling began. You can

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Speaker 1: find his new book on the bookshelves soon. Strange Things

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Speaker 1: Happen Been on a Tuesday