A 24-YEAR-OLD author from Soshanguve, Tshwane, uses her five books to help pupils improve their reading skills and make difficult school subjects easier to understand.
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Botshelo Margaret Mthomboti is an accountant, financial management graduate and published author who believes books can help change young lives.
Her latest book, I Can Read, is aimed at primary school pupils who struggle with English.
The book has five short stories written in simple English, with a workbook containing activities to test pupils on what they’ve read. It also includes answers at the back.
Botshelo said she was inspired to write the book after noticing how many kids struggle with basic reading and writing.
“South Africa is facing a literacy crisis. We have primary school kids who can’t even construct a simple English sentence, let alone read it,” she said.
She hopes the book will help kids improve their sentence construction, vocabulary and grammar.
But her love of writing started long before she became an author.
Botshelo said she had always enjoyed creative writing and was one of the top pupils in the subject at school.
Her first book, A Black Child Transformed by Accounting, uses poetry to help pupils understand accounting.
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She said she wanted to make the subject more enjoyable and encourage more young people to consider becoming accountants.
She later published The Poetic Atmosphere of Income Tax and Poetic Atmosphere of Mathematics, which also use poems to explain difficult subjects.
Her fourth book, The Journey of a Trainee Accountant, is based on her own experience working at an accounting firm.
Botshelo said she wrote it because many young people come from families without accountants who can guide them when they start their careers.
“I wish someone had sat me down and told me the dos and don’ts before working as a trainee accountant. I don’t want others to repeat the same mistakes that I made,” she said.
Botshelo said she wants her books to make a difference by encouraging pupils to explore accounting, taxation, and mathematics.
She also wants kids to realise that they can improve their English if they read and speak it often.
“I want my books to make a change!” added Botshelo.
