Cape Flats Book Festival kicks off in Mitchells Plain

CAPE TOWN - The Cape Flats Book Festival kicked off in Mitchells Plain on Saturday.

The annual event celebrates local writing talent and highlights the role of literature in the Cape Flats communities.  

A local author from Rocklands, Alicia English, is featured at the festival this year.

She said that her books carry positive and self-assuring themes for young children.

"When it comes to the stories that I write, I always want to, through my stories, nurture a sense of resilience and a positive self-image in children and so you will see in my three solo stories that I launched last year, Chante and the Whale, Mahalia the Rainbow Princess and then in November, I can which promotes neurodiversity, it's always about creating that positive self-image in children.”  

English said her book, Mahalia the Rainbow Princess, represents children living in the Cape Flats.  

"Which is inspired by a five-year-old girl from Eastridge and the imagery in the book we have actually used the maisonettes that you see in Eastridge - which is similar to so many other areas on the Cape Flats, so when I want people to open our books, I want them to be able to relate to these images and feel they are represented, our children need to see people that look like them in these books."