OUR STORY

Booksie is a love letter to African children on the continent and in the diaspora. We want all children with black and brown skin to know that their stories and experiences are valid. The books that we excitedly curate give them mirrors to see characters who look and sound like them.

Our mission is two-fold 

⭐  To make it super easy for you to find African children’s books through our online bookshop

⭐  To make reading such a fun experience that children can’t help but fall in love with books. Our Accra-based Literacy Centre is home to a literacy programme that teaches new and reluctant readers how to read.

We also host Storytime events that bring authors and their readers together, book clubs for 3-12-year-olds and reading camps. We can’t wait to fill your home or classroom with beautifully illustrated African books or see you at the Book Club!

Meet our Reader-in-Chief 

My name is Edem and I am so glad you found Booksie! Like many Ghanaian bookworms growing up in the 90’s I spent my days reading The BabySitters’ Club, Nancy Drew, Sweet Valley and more. In Junior High School I got hooked on to books by Danielle Steele, Sidney Sheldon, John Grisham and Jeffrey Archer.

 At some point, I discovered Heinemann’s Junior African Writers Series and fell in love with it. But unfortunately, it felt like for every five Danielle Steele titles, I’d find something from the African Writers Series. I share all this to say that, I didn’t have access to a lot of books with characters that looked like me or had experiences like mine.

 Things are much better now and as an adult, it’s easier to find picture and chapter books with African characters, sharing African experiences. But these books are all siloed. I created Booksie to make it extremely easy to find the beautifully illustrated books that publishers and authors across the continent are creating. I also want to give authors and publishers an avenue to sell their work. I hope you find something for your favourite tiny human while you are here!