"It's a miracle": 20 books and love make all the difference

By Cathy Gush, Kabelo Mafiri and Kearabetswe Nkadimeng

In the Masete household in Makhanda (THIS IS SUN CITY, RIGHT?), a young granddaughter (CAN WE GET HER NAME AND AGE?) holds both a baby (WHOSE BABY IS SHE HOLDING?) and a book, confidently reading aloud to her siblings and cousins.

It wasn't always like this. Reading once felt like a chore, something uncomfortable and unfamiliar.

"It was a miracle," Mrs Masete (CAN WE GET MRS MASETE’S FIRST NAME) recalls, summoning a video from her phone as proof of the transformation that began with a simple parcel of books dropped at their gate during the height of COVID restrictions. She watches with pride as her granddaughter turns pages effortlessly, even before starting school.

20 books in 200 homes in 2020

The Lebone Centre's "20 books in 200 homes in 2020" campaign delivered carefully curated, age-and language-appropriate books to enigmatically-named communities like Sun City, Ghost Town, Scott’s Farm, and Vergenoeg.

The campaign drew from a 2010 longitudinal study of 27 nations by Prof Mariah Evans and her colleagues, which showed that children growing up in homes with many books get three years more schooling than children from bookless homes, independent of their parents’ education, occupation, and class. The researchers discovered this was as great an advantage as having university-educated rather than unschooled parents, and twice the benefit of having a professional rather than an unskilled father.

It holds equally "in rich nations and in poor; in the past and in the present; under Communism, capitalism, and Apartheid", the study concluded. Homes with at least 20 books provided a "tipping point" for literacy development, with benefits increasing alongside book numbers.

Twenty books per household was Lebone’s initial target.

Once COVID restrictions eased, Lebone staff, like home visitor Kaylynne Rushin, laboriously sanitised books and, of course, their hands before cautiously delivering packages to gates in neighbourhoods where books were scarce and literacy practices rare. Families watched from afar, but the seeds were planted.

By 2022/23, the project had deepened, focusing on 50 of those original homes with regular follow-ups, training, and resources, sparking lasting literacy habits.

Mrs Masete describes how the Centre's advice to parents on helping children read built confidence and routine.

Reading evolved from a burden to a daily joy, with her granddaughter not only reading independently but sharing stories with others. "After Lebone gave us the books, they didn’t just disappear. They follow up with the kids as well as the parents."

"We're going to cry if we lose Lebone," she says. "It was life-changing. I can advise other parents that they must not take this project like a piece of paper," she says. "They must take it seriously and intervene because it has opened our minds and our children's minds."

The fieldworker's story

Fieldworker Kaylynne Rushin notes initial hurdles: parents feeling inadequate due to their own educational backgrounds, especially in informal settlements where trust had to be earned. Through patient training on book-sharing, these barriers dissolved, fostering relationships and confidence.

Rushin’s own family story mirrors this: her eight-year-old daughter was "over the moon" upon receiving a package, deciding to open a home library and share books with her siblings, aged two and 10. "I really believe that this one book package will help all my children prosper in their education, especially their reading, literacy and language skills," Rushin says.

In another home, Ms Maphete's (CAN WE GET HER FIRST NAME?) story echoes this evolution. Early attempts at teaching her children sparked fights as they resisted her efforts. But persistence paid off; now, Selunathi, Libanathi, and Luminathi read daily at 5.30 pm, even in her absence. Her advice to fellow parents? "Do not be tired. You must have patience with the kids."

The children light up as they recount tales from Lefa’s Bath and Goldilocks and the Three Bears. They eagerly discuss lessons learned: "Do not be mean; be kind, and be clever and sweet."

They love discovering new words, studying pictures to fuel their imagination and creativity, and sharing their reading adventures with others.

Building parents' confidence

The approach shows that with the right resources and ongoing guidance, families can become powerful partners in their children's literacy journey. Yet fieldworker Rushin reveals a common hurdle: "Some of the parents think they are not good enough to teach their children, depending on their educational background."

This reluctance is transformed through patient intervention. "When we come, we give them the skills, we give them training and teach them about book sharing; then they gain more confidence about sitting with their children with books," she explains. “In some homes, especially in the more informal settlements, we needed to gain people's trust because it's not a good feeling for someone to admit that they can't read or can't write."

"As the time grew, I really built some good relationships in the community and earned people's trust."

Lebone's fieldworkers approach their mission with patience, perseverance, and unwavering commitment. To them, the project represents far more than books and reading - they understand intimately the transformative power of literacy in families. Books deepen family relationships and are gateways to meaning-making and world-understanding.

Pre-school literacy scaffolding

Globally, debates rage around how children learn to read (sometimes referred to as the ‘literacy wars’), but this detracts from the essential steps of moving children into the next phase of reading for meaning, understanding and enjoyment.

What children need in the early years of their literacy development is scaffolding – the fine network of support that surrounds the technical skills of learning to read and write: the reading and telling of stories, the singing of nursery rhymes, creating access to books, modelling reading behaviour, sparking imagination and joy, creating safe spaces and pleasurable connotations of sharing and attachment.

Much of this scaffolding needs to take place in homes and community spaces, as there is often little time, capacity or willingness to provide it in schools, especially in overcrowded classrooms with few or no reading resources.

The 2016 and 2021 PIRLS Reports reinforced this, linking higher test achievements to more home books and parental involvement, amid South Africa's stark reality where 81% of Grade 4 pupils couldn’t read for meaning.

This is not to point fingers at anyone. It is simply to show how important these spaces are in children’s literacy development.

Reading versus literacy

Too many parents hold the misconception that literacy support begins and ends with reading, leaving Foundation Phase teachers to shoulder the burden. Yet children require the foundational support during their earliest developmental stages to arrive at the Foundation Phase truly prepared for learning.

Dr Shelley O’Carroll, who evaluated the Lebone project in 2024, concluded: “The ‘Creating Communities of Readers’ project successfully accompanied these families on a journey towards believing in the value of reading and being more knowledgeable and confident about sharing books with their young children.

“The majority of caregivers and parents were reading more, but also spending more time telling stories and playing. There was also a marked increase in time spent engaging in drawing and writing activities. It was evident that books sparked new reading habits, with many parents and caregivers inspired to read more and requesting more adult reading materials,” she wrote.

The high impact of simple, low-cost strategies

As a relatively low-cost intervention, Lebone's home-based literacy initiative confirmed the value of simple strategies, such as providing the right resources and meeting parents where they are.

Lebone targeted poorer homes with few or no books, and where literacy practices were not the norm. And yet, there was a hunger for reading resources and a willingness to participate in a project that might help their children.

Mrs Masete is immensely proud of how reading as a daily habit joyfully enhanced her granddaughter's early development. The shift from an uncomfortable task to a pleasurable routine demonstrates how targeted support can transform literacy cultures in families – and, eventually, wider communities.

Children using tablets to improve literacy in a rural South African classroom", image-prompt "A rural classroom in South Africa with children using tablets for reading activities, eye-level view