Lorato Trok, director of Nal'ibali, a national reading campaign, explains how teaching in mother tongue may improve SA’s literacy levels and why hearing stories is as important as reading them. https://nalibali.org/ Plus a few book recommendations. Best new picture book, Who Ate Steve, by Susannah Lloyd (Nosy Crow), the trending Lottie Brooks tween series by Kate Kirby (Puffin Books) and Singing for Mrs Pettigrew, stories and writing inspiration from one of the world’s best loved story tellers, Michael Morpurgo. (Walker Books).