Book Dash

A hundred books by the age of five

Book Dash is a not-for-profit, South African social impact publisher of open, African picturebooks for very young children. Our vision is that “Every child should own a hundred books by the age of five”, long before they enter school!

To that end, Book Dash gathers creative professionals who volunteer to create new, African storybooks that anyone can freely translate and distribute. We employ our unique, 12-hour book-making methodology to create beautiful new books in just one day! Then, we share with the world, here on our website and in physical format for children to own.

Research shows that owning books is a key factor in holistic early development and lifelong academic and economic success: the effect of owning books outweighs a child’s socio-economic status and is equaled only by parents’ level of education.

By working together to increase book ownership among young children, we could effectively disrupt a cycle of inequality for good.

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Become a distribution partner

If you represent a social-impact organisation that works directly with children, you may qualify to get free or subsidised books from Book Dash.

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Help us give books to as many children as possible

Grants and donations allow us to do our best work: create, print and distribute books. Join our family of donors and creative contributors as we get more and more children reading!

Discover how you can help