Tana is a child of the Tankwa Karoo. She loves its dry, dusty landscape and high blue skies … and stones. Tana never gave the stones any thought until the Time Trackers arrived to tell the stories of the stones. Stories of the deep, deep past. Stories of the early people who lived here long, long ago.
The Time Trackers tells the story of the Tankwa Karoo – past, present and future – through the lives of three girls connected to this place. Saa is a hunter-gatherer from 50,000 years ago; Emma is an archaeologist who has come to study the stones; Tana is the future of the Tankwa.
The story is richly illustrated throughout, and complemented by a non-fiction section at the end of the book that explains and explores some of the Big Ideas mentioned in the story, in clear language suitable for curious children.
This book was written for and about the people of this part of South Africa’s Northern Cape Province – to our knowledge, it is the first children’s book written for the Tankwa people, who are descended from its first inhabitants or have farmed this land for many generations.
The stories within The Time Trackers were originally written for one of Children’s Book Network‘s Reading Toolboxes – the Blue Toolbox, on Time and Landscape – and interspersed with related reading, writing, thinking and creative activities. We have repackaged the stories in this stand-alone book to bring them to a wider audience beyond CBN’s target group in South Africa. As a result, we are investing the proceeds from the sale of this book back into the Blue Toolbox initiative.
The target reading age is 8-12 but younger readers will enjoy the story and older readers will better grasp the Big Ideas. Currently the book is only available in English but we are keen to hear from anyone interested in translating it into other languages (e.g. Afrikaans).
TANKWA 