Lubuto – a library on fire in Lusaka

Ruth HartleyBooks by Ruth Hartley, Dust and Rain4 Comments

I had a wonderful experience at the Model Library in Garden Compound, Lusaka. I met Kenny and Brenda, two very inspiring facilitators and mentors who work in the Library. On fire to promote reading, they arranged for me to read part of my new children’s book, Dust and Rain, to a group of children and then answer their questions. I think […]

Welcome Readers – come with me to Zambia and read my new story –

Ruth Hartley Storytelling, Book Launch, Children's Stories, Dust and Rain, ZambiaLeave a Comment

Dust and Rain: Chipo and Chibwe save the Green Valley Two children make a perilous journey through the heart of modern and magical Africa to save their parents’ farm in the Green Valley from drought and climate change. Kambili brings the drought in a whirlwind of dust into the lives of CHIPO, an eleven-year-old girl with a special gift, and […]

Spinning stories out of the stuff of life

Ruth Hartley Storytelling, Dust and Rain, Zambia2 Comments

When you see this post I will have just arrived in Zambia and my children’s book Dust and Rain: Chipo and Chibwe save the Green Valley will have been published by Gadsden Publishers. How a story grows and changes as the world spins It was a shock when I first realised that my story, Dust and Rain, so relevant 20 […]

Dust and Rain: Chipo and Chibwe save the Green Valley

Ruth HartleyBooks by Ruth Hartley, Children's Stories, Dust and Rain, Southern Africa, ZambiaLeave a Comment

What happened next in the making of this story There is the ‘day job’ and there is the troubling and tragic war in Ukraine. It’s necessary to have something ordinary to occupy your mind. I must carry on with my stories and writing and I believe my little children’s book does matter, even in a small way. It certainly did […]

The story of two children who try to stop the drought destroying their farm

Ruth HartleyBook Launch, Books by Ruth Hartley, Children's Stories, Dust and Rain, Southern Africa, Zambia4 Comments

The long and surprising journey made by the story of the Chipo and Chibwe and the drought Readers and friends, I have wonderful and exciting news to share with all of you. For the first time in my long writing career, one of my books is being commercially published, not self-published. The Drought, my middle-grade children’s story, will be published […]