From 20 to 27,210 Kindles in Africa When a Worldreader team visited OrphanAid Africa in Ghana with a box of 20 Kindles in 2010, we didn’t expect to spark a reading revolution or to forge a critical partnership with Amazon. We started off with a simple idea to test if e-readers filled with books could be … Continue Reading →

When we look back at what titles our mobile readers were enjoying in 2017, we see that once again romance outpaced all other genres across our markets—just like it did in 2015 and 2016. But we’re also seeing something new.   These 5 books were among the top 30 titles read across all our geographies: … Continue Reading →

In July, Lidudumalingani was announced as the 2016 winner of the Caine Prize, a prestigious award promoting and fostering new writers out of Africa. Lidudumalingani is from a small village in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa and his winning story, ‘Memories We Lost’, is set in a fictional village similar to the one he … Continue Reading →

“How can I be like you?” a young girl asks in a soft voice. He was used to answering questions from students, but usually these questions were about his characters, like for example, disapproval over the duck being yellow as opposed to something cool like purple. The girl repeated her question. This time loud enough … Continue Reading →

At Worldreader, we talk a lot about access. Access is the initial hurdle when building a literate world, so books need to be easily accessible, especially in places where they have historically been sparse. Thanks to Worldreader, readers anywhere in the world can access a library of over 28,000 free books in dozens of languages. … Continue Reading →

In November, I traveled to Govindpuri, India to meet with Parvinder Kauer, the executive director of Katha. Katha is a non profit organization based in Delhi who’s work spans the literacy to literature continuum. By seamlessly connecting grassroots work in education and urban resurgence, Katha brings children living in poverty into reading and quality education. … Continue Reading →

Two years ago, the UN declared October 11th as the International Day of the Girl in order to raise global awareness about the importance of educating girls. This year, in celebration of this important occasion Worldreader is teaming up with Rovio and Egmont to empower girls everywhere with books. Rovio is best known for creating … Continue Reading →

At the age of 13 Balaraba Ramat Yakubu was forced to abandon her education in order to get married. Fast forward a few decades and this child is now a successful novelist. Balaraba is a Nigerian author, who lives in the northern city of Kano. She has written nine novels, which offer both a female … Continue Reading →

Worldreader has teamed up with an award-winning author on an exciting project! Over the past month we’ve had the pleasure of collaborating with celebrated writer, Aminatta Forna who has written four novels, one of which, The Memory of Love, won the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize Best Book Award. Aminatta has graciously decided to share her latest … Continue Reading →

Occasionally, Worldreader likes to showcase the work we’ve been doing with African publishing houses. This time, the spotlight falls on two companies,  Nairobi-based Jacaranda Designs and Accra-based Sub-Saharan Publishers. Jacaranda and Sub-Saharan both epitomize the belief in utilizing alternative distribution platforms, such as e-books, and see the need for sharing literature in ways that go … Continue Reading →