Nipsey The Ginger Cat (Book 1), a rhymes and poetry book for children ages three to eleven years, is educator and author Samuel Ubong’s resuscitation of the culture of parents/adults reading to and with their children.
Like most children’s poetry and nursery rhymes literature, Nipsey The Ginger Cat is illustrated, with rhymes and verses about a specific subject – the cat. However, unlike other children’s nursery rhymes and story book, Nipsey The Ginger Cat, is neither subject specific, nor targeted at a close-range aged group. Rather, it starts with the cat’s habit, then diverts to other subjects like Twins, The Sun, Coco Water and The Old Farmer. Likewise, it is targeted to a wide range of age-groups ages three to eleven years, as opposed to many children’s books that are targeted to one- to three-year-olds.
Hence, it is littered with big words like ‘Photosynthesis’, that are difficult for three to five years old to name or even process, with interesting mazes to trace, word association and crossword puzzles to figure out. The poetry and rhymes are informative but the organization and presentation requiring better flow and organization. But all round it does make an interesting and engaging read that will definitely require the parental/adult engagement to help the children navigate, especially for younger readers.
Speaking to Leadership Books and Arts on the book which draws from his ten years’ experience teaching children science, Ubong said he sought to rebuild the culture of parents’ engagement with their children, that is becoming extinct in a rat-race driven word, but also inspire independent and creative thinking children. A mission that sounds contradictory at a surface level.
Why go to the trouble of getting parents to read to and with their children, and then want the children to be independent free thinkers?
Not if you look at it from the point of the author desiring to give parents/guardians their money’s worth by encompassing so much material across eighty pages in one book. That way, a child can either progress according to their capacity as they grew within the range of the targeted age group, or persuade parents to engage more in their children’s vocabulary and comprehensive reading skills, to race through the books.
“It challenges them to be independent by tackling the words, puzzles and other activities by themselves, but also be able to seek help from adults when they are stuck or need help,” said Ubong.
The first of it three books planned by the author, Nipsey The Ginger Cat Book 1 focuses on the mood and abilities of Nipsey, Ubong’s real-life cat. Named after a recently deceased American hip-hop/rap artiste whose legacy is the philosophy of ‘struggle/hustle to succeed’, Nipsey was never meant to be the subject of a book, rather a ‘stressless companion’. However, the Aha! moment to make her the subject of his book came during a meeting with his illustrator Nasir Madaki which saw the orange cat comfortably strolling about the room and tumbling over his lap, right in the middle of the meeting.
“When you live with something for so long that you are doing everything to accommodate them in your daily routine, that shows they are intimate a part of your life. She is in the picture.
“The stories were written in one week, and another two weeks to come up with the entire draft copy of pictures and activities (the visual aspect). The illustrations are by Nasir Madaki.”
Published in 2022, Nipsey The Ginger Cat (Book 1) is set to launch on Children’s Day, May 27, 2023. Parents can access the book via the author’s Instagram page.
