A Limpopo woman is exploring children's imagination by introducing them to career opportunities in space through a self-published book featuring a character of a little girl who loves satellite.
Mpho Mashita, 38, from Seshego outside Polokwane, who wrote a book titled Astro Bono taking children adventure to space, says she published the book in order to open children's minds to career opportunities in space science.
Mashita, who works at the regional radio station Capricorn FM as a content producer but lives in Pretoria, told Sowetan that since her book was launched last year during lockdown, the support she has been receiving has been overwhelming.
"I work with township and village book clubs to open up scarce career opportunities in space among young children aged five to nine years so that when they grow up they can have interest to work in space," she said.
"I am happy and grateful. The first buyer was in the US and another in Germany, they all bought the book from Amazon.
"I have always wanted to write children's book with content that children could connect and relate better to. I have created characters from my perspective that would ignite interest from readers all over the world."
Last month Mashita worked with National Library of SA (NLSA) during a webinar promoting reading and she has also held online visual book reading for pleasure.
She also held a session with children from a creche close to where she lives in Pretoria. Her self-published book can be found in a hub promoting children's books and on Amazon.
Mashita said she uses social media platforms to market and promote her book.
Her journey in writing started in high school when she first wrote an essay that impressed her language teacher and was read to all learners in her classroom to motivate them to improve their writing skills.
"The hard lockdown gave me time to pen my book. I announced on social media my plans to publish a book in two months. I put myself in a tight corner as the process of compiling the book took longer than I anticipated," she said.
"Writing for children is not an easy task to do. It requires knowledge not only about the industry but also about children, especially the young ones.
"The big issue is safety. So we ensure that we don't write anything that could potentially endanger young children should they try to practice what I have written."
She said she was now writing fantasy novels for teenagers that she hoped would be published soon.
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