In celebration of World Book Day, author Jess Robus held an exciting and friendly children’s book reading event on the 22nd of April 2023. This took place at Fourways Garden Estate, by the Tennis Gazebo. The VIPs of the event were children, and they had an amazing time, engaging with Jess during the storytelling session. The location of the event added to the already exciting event and the VIPs were provided with a playing area while Jess had an in-depth conversation with renowned author Lynn Joffe, who wrote: “The Gospel, According to Wanda B. Lazarus.”
Arnold the Not Dinosaur (Images supplied by Geraldine Mangwiro)
The Journey for Jess to get to where she is was certainly not easy, with COVID-19 restricting the number of guests at her events in the previous years, this event was truly a testimony of not giving up and always looking on the brighter side. Jess is a young lady of many talents; she is a poet, singer, and songwriter, and she has also written a musical. She strives to share her stories with many young children and the youth, who must deal with the stress that comes with social media and finding and accepting your identity. The multi-talented author does so with empathy and kindness and that has resulted in her audience growing day by day.
Jess and Arnold
The most important feature of the book is that the book was written in a Dyslexic font, a feature which was brought up by her Illustrator, Holly Evans. It is a font that differentiates between letters and makes it easier for people who struggle with Dyslexia to read. Before the official storytelling session, Jess signed some books and greeted her guests with warm smiles and hugs, making everyone feel welcome, which was the intention of her book. At three in the afternoon, the VIPs sat down on comfortable bean bags and waited for story-time.
Jess signing her book.
“Thank you so much to everyone for being here today, I really, truly appreciate it. Thank you to the people in the back rows, and most importantly, to the VIPs in the front row including my little sister who came to give me a book. I am so excited to have you all here today to meet a very special friend of mine, but he is a little shy and doesn’t like a lot of people. But you are all going to help me call him and make sure he knows that he is welcome here,” Jess stated and that marked the beginning of the storytelling session.
Jess’s enthusiasm and open spirit resulted in the session being a success, with both children and adults participating in the session, making Jess and most importantly, “Arnold the Not Dinosaur” feel special and welcome. The session ended with a song sung by Jess about identity and emphasising the facts that; “you are who you are and who you are is good enough.”
Jess during the Storytelling session, with her VIPs in the front row
The second part of the event was a conversation between her and Lynn Joffe, who graduated with an MA Cum Laude in Creative Writing at the University of Witwatersrand School of Literature, Language, and Media. While on stage, the young author and renowned author came with different yet unique styles, both in style and personality, and that made the stage that much more exciting to the audience. And to add the cherry on top, they had met each other for the first time at the event, as lovers of music and writing, the authors were able to get along almost instantly.
Lynn Joffe’s book, “The Gospel, According to Wanda B.e Lazarus”
The inspiration for the book started off when Jess’ father brought her a stuffed toy dinosaur, which she names Arnold. Like many young people growing up, Jess often felt like she didn’t quite fit in and was always viewed as weird. She felt close to her toy dinosaur and wrote the book out of wanting to fit in and be someone that people would like. In 2018, at just twelve years old, Jess started working on the story. In 2018, she finally enjoys and shares the fruits of her labour.
“I think I wrote this out of a place of really wanting to accept the differences that I saw in myself. Kind of like a radical act of acceptance and it ties in with my poetry book (Slithers of Light) about my experience with mental health and all the struggles. Arnold is a celebration of being weird and different,” Jess explains.
While being in matric, Jess has high hopes of taking her writing journey even further than her imagination and with the incredible support of her family, publication, and friends. The event ended with food snacks, and a hearty conversation with family, friends, and fans. The conversation opened a platform to really discuss the issues of mental health and the full video can be found on Project CBNews on YouTube. (Video will be updated soon to Youtube Project CB News, NOT TO BE MISSED)