Author: Donald Powers and Greg Rosenberg
ISBN: 978-1-928466-16-1

Improving the quality of your writing starts with rethinking your assumptions and developing healthier writing habits. This book will help you do both.

Become a Better Writer: How to Write with Clarity and Simplicity is a practical guide for those who wish to write more clearly and concisely. Drawing on their extensive experience as writers and editors, the authors discuss tools and tips for making your writing accessible and meaningful to your target audience.

The book is readable and engaging, covering different kinds of writing (including reports, essays, emails, novels and speeches) across a wide range of subjects. The examples discussed are derived from real-world material and are particularly relevant to the African context. The book will be especially useful to writers of non-fiction.

Author: Gregory Mthembu-Salter
ISBN: 978-1-928466-13-0

Given what we know about climate change, should we still be raising and eating cattle? And how do we weigh the cultural and economic value of cattle against their environmental impact? This engaging book brings history, science, economics and popular culture together in a timely discussion about whether current practices can be justified in a period of rapid climate change.

Journalist Gregory Mthembu-Salter first encountered South Africa’s love of cattle during his own lobola negotiations. The book traces his personal journey through kraals, rangelands and feedlots across South Africa to find out more about the national hunger for cattle. He takes a broad sweep – drawing on such diverse sources as politicians involved in land reform, history, braai-side interviews with cattle farmers and abattoir owners, conversations with his mother-in-law, and analysis of cutting-edge science.

Author: Athol Fugard
ISBN: 978-0-9946516-4-8

A powerful and turbulent story, set in the late 1950s, about Sophiatown gangster Tsotsi, who menaces the streets. The approved contemporary novel for Home Language English Grade 11. Specially prepared for schools.

Author: Rosamund Haden
ISBN: 978-0-9946516-5-5

Finders Keepers is on the DBE National Literature Catalogue as the approved contemporary novel for English First Additional Language Grade 10. When 16 year-old Lufuno leaves Jozi to start a new life in Cape Town with her family, she is running from her past. She doesn’t realise it’s about to get even tougher. She is bullied at school for her dark skin and her Venda heritage, and her parents are not happy about her friendship with Mandla, a Xhosa chief’s son. When a strike at a factory where her parents work turns violent, it seems as though her whole world is about to explode.

Author: Dorothy Dyer
ISBN: 978-0-9870150-7-5

CAPS Approved for English FAL Grade 9

Babalwa could not stop crying. Her whole body shuddered with quiet sobs. Everything had gone wrong. She wished she was a different person who didn’t make the worst choices possible. She wished she had never come to Cape Town. That was when it had all started…

Babalwa has always dreamed of the big city, but soon finds out that things are not as she imagined. Her aunt treats her like a servant and her cousin is unfriendly. Only Khaya, a new boy at school, seems friendly. So when a cool ‘gang’ of girls invite her to join their group, she’s overjoyed. But what kind of friends are they really? Will they manage to destroy her relationship with Khaya? And, what will happen if she dares to cross them? As Babalwa is forced to question her choices and take responsibility for her mistakes, she realises just in time the qualities that make up true friendships.

Author: Julie Barker
ISBN: 978-0-9870150-6-8

CAPS Approved for English FAL grade 8

I live in Alex. It’s a place that never sleeps. Cops, nurses and lovers live here, foreigners from war-torn countries, and the unemployed brothers of mothers. It’s everything to me, my mother and father, my auntie and my uncle. The only other place I could live – is space.

Dudu, a lively 15-year-old, lives with her mom in Alexandra township. “I’m not pale enough to be white, and not brown enough to be black. Call me difficult, everyone else does,” says Dudu. She and her best friend S’bu share an interest in astronomy, standing together against the teasing of their classmates. She persuades S’bu to help her search for her father, who disappeared back to Europe before she was born. Meanwhile, tensions are mounting in Alex. Foreignersare being targeted, and Dudu’s heritage makes her one of the scapegoats. Violence erupts. As Dudu, her mother and S’bu are forced to stand up for their beliefs, they realise the importance of the ties that bind them all.

Author: Michelle Faure
ISBN: 978-0-9870150-5-1

CAPS Approved for English FAL Grade 7

As soon as Zolani felt safe enough he stepped out from behind the tree and walked quickly and quietly across the open veld towards the building. As he moved closer, he ran from shadow to shadow, until he reached the warehouse. He was horrified by what he saw…

It’s school holidays and Zolani is bored. Next door he sees his neighbour, Fulani, has a cute new puppy. When he overhears Fulani arranging an illegal dogfight in an abandoned warehouse, he decides to try and stop him. But he can’t do it alone. He plucks up courage to ask his bossy classmate, Tashnay, who always has an answer for everything. Will their bravery and team work be enough to stop the gang and rescue the dogs from a cruel fate?