Janice Nibbs’ Children’s Book Series Showcasing Traditional Livelihoods of the Virgin Islands Slated for Exhibit at the London Book Fair 2024

When it comes to children’s books, the London Book Fair will definitely have its lion’s share of mainstream brands and titles for educating young minds. However, there are also plenty of independent authors who want to teach kids about a specific cultural heritage in a passionate effort to preserve it for future generations.

For retired librarian Janice Nibbs, that culture is the traditional way of life in the Virgin Islands. Having been born there herself, she grew up when the region was in the midst of a rapid societal change. Rapid modernization was bringing in more prosperity, but it also put simpler ways of life at risk of being forgotten.

To do her part in revitalizing and preserving various aspects of her island culture, she’s taken to publishing a series of children’s books about the different livelihoods that have existed on the island for centuries. The first of these is titled “I want to be a Thatcher Man.”

The story follows a little boy named Ben who always enjoys Thatch Day, when the roofs of their traditional house are maintained using techniques that have been passed down in families and communities.

Ben is now at the age when it might be time to decide what he wants to do when he grows up. And the more he thinks about it, the more he wants to be a thatcher man as well.

Readers will then accompany Ben as he learns a lot of things about this cultural Virgin Island craft, such as the distinct styles of roof building as well as the special language that thatcher men use.

Janice Nibbs is working on several more books in the series. For those who already want to check out “I want to be a Thatcher Man,” they can find the children’s book displayed at the self-publishing and book marketing company ReadersMagnet’s exhibit at stand #6A90 at the London Book Fair 2024.

The book publishing trade fair will occur on March 12-14, 2024, at the Olympia London, London, UK. Get a copy of the book on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

“I want to be a Thatcher Man”
Author: Janice Nibbs
Published date: September 1, 2022
Publisher: Choir Press
Genre:Children’s Book

Author Bio
The author is a native Virgin islander who grew up on the cusp of change between the traditional way of life and the social change to a prosperous economy. She has always held a fascination with the old way of life and all the things she was told that she was too small to do as a child - go to the ghut to wash clothes, go to the well for water, go on the bar fishing. She longed for those experiences not seeing them as drudgery, but as something exciting. Today Janice is a retired librarian who realized that not much was recorded about life in the Virgin Islands. She decided that before the information completely disappeared, she would record some of it for future generations of Virgin Islanders. Janice is a widow having lost her husband in January 2017 and her home in Hurricane Irma in September of the same year. She resides in her ancestral family home with her sister.

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