PHILIPSBURG, Sint Maarten – Beyond Kultura visited the new building of the Philipsburg Jubilee Library Sint Maarten’s to donate some bilingual books of Loekie Morales ‘Chella and the Weird Woman’/’Chella en het Vreemde Vrouwtje’. Morales handed over the books to PJL’s representative Pyt D. Lucas.
The books have been distributed already to all primary schools in Curaçao and Sint Maarten. It is a thriller with a lesson for children. ‘Don’t go away with strangers.’ Chella is a stubborn child and finds herself in great distress, because of going home with a strange woman, who mislead her with a doll. The book is full color with hard cover, so it can last at least for 10 years . It is for age group 8 years and older. We recommend children under the 10th years not to read the story in the evening.
Morales has visited several schools in Curaçao to tell the Chella story to the children.
‘It’s great to see the different emotions on children’s faces when telling this story. The storytelling goes with props like electric candles with moving flames, incense sticks, magic candy balls, a colors-meaning card, strange dolls and so one. When Chella enters the house, the lights are switched off and the candles start to burn. Students are participating actively in the story telling Act,’ she said.
Morales has also composed a Chella Song, that is being sung with the student at the end of the storytelling.
She says: ‘To let children get into the story, one must do an appeal to all their senses. It is also a way to encourage them to read more stories. Because, like writer colleague Roy Colastica says: ‘Mas bo lesa, mas bo sa, mas bo sa, sabÍ bo ta!’ which means: ‘The more you read, the more you know. The more you know, the smarter you’ll get!’
Rita Aikman, treasure of BKE says ‘We have accomplished a mission with the aim of READING. We are most happy with the support we have gotten. The printing and distribution of more than a thousand books to 70 schools, and the libraries in Sint Maarten and Curaçao was possible because of sponsors like the Representative of Holland in Philipsburg (VNP), HIRMIC (Henderson Insurances), the Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds Caribisch gebied and the Winward Island Bank. With a hard cover book, we believe that via the schools and libraries thousands of children can enjoy the reading of Caribbean based stories for at least the upcoming 10 years.’
Photo: Left Pyt D. Lucas (PJL) and Loekie Morales, President of Beyond Kultura (right).
