Overview

Translated by Karin Chubb • Karin Chubb was Shortlisted for the Marsh Award for Children's Literature in Translation, a unique award celebrating the high quality and diversity of translated fiction for young readers, in 2013. • Made into an award-winning film. A hard-hitting, and emotional story of AIDs in South Africa, following Themba and his dreams of becoming a famous footballer. Themba grows up dreaming of becoming a football star. One day he leaves the village and travels with his sister to the city in search of their mother. Life is a struggle and Themba has to grow up fast. A lucky break gives him the chance to train as a footballer and play professionally - but Themba has a secret - should he tell the truth and risk everything he's ever dreamed of?

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9781906582210

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“Beautifully translated from the original ... it is a book full of hope and the more young people who read books like this and who come to understand how other young children live, the more this hope will spread.” Books, Teens and Magazines “Themba reminds me of my own childhood and youth in a township close to a small village in the Transvaal in South Africa: Like him I wanted to escape poverty, like him I had the hope that our world will be a just world one day - and like him I loved my mother who was working at the time as a maid for a white family. To be very honest: in soccer Themba seems to be simply better than I was.” Archbishop Desmond Tutu “READ OF THE MONTH” Pride magazine “...an inspirational coming of age drama about a young South African boy's escape from poverty and the pusuit of a dream.” Spling onliner “It's a rags to riches story - a story of hope, of dreaming your dreams and achieving them, and it's also a story of friendship...” The Sunday Independent

'...this is a story of overwhelming hope, as well as overcoming prejudices. It's a rags to riches story - a story of hope, of dreaming your dreams and achieving them, and it's also, a story of friendship...' The Sunday Independent 'Themba: A Boy Called Hope is an inspirational coming-of-age drama about a young South African boy's escape from poverty and the pursuit of a dream... While football forms the backdrop to this emotional journey, it's simply a theme and a driving force for our title character. There are soccer matches, but Themba: A Boy Called Hope is more about the triumph of the human spirit against social, economic and familial adversity.' Spling online THEMBA reminds me of my own childhood and youth in a township close to a small village in the Transvaal in South Africa: Like him I wanted to escape poverty, like him I had the hope that our world will be a just world one day - and like him I loved my mother who was working at the time as a maid for a white family. To be very honest: in soccer Themba seems to be simply better than I was. Archbishop Desmond Tutu

Author Information

German-Dutch author Lutz van Dijk (Ph.D) was born in 1955 in Berlin. He was a teacher in Hamburg before joining the staff of the Anne Frank house in Amsterdam. Lutz has been living in Cape Town since 2011, received an honourary professorship for poetry at the University of Oldenburg/Germany in 2009 and is co-founder of HOKISA (Homes for Kids in South Africa), a non-government organisation for children affected by AIDS. Lutz received the 1997 Youth Literature Prize of Namibia. His novel Stronger than the Storm is read in South African schools in Afrikaans, English and isiXhosa. He received the Gustav Heinemann Peace Prize in Germany in 2001. His History of the Jews was nominated for the German Youth Literature Prize in 2001.

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