Books by Jamaican Authors Chosen for UK Reading Projects

Books by two award winning writers of Jamaican heritage, Andrea Levy and Benjamin Zephaniah, have been selected for special reading projects in the United Kingdom (UK) this year.
Miss Levy’s book ‘Small Island’ has been selected for a project dubbed ‘Small Island Read 2007’, which is one of the biggest mass-reading initiatives to take place in Britain.
The project brings together pre-existing annual reading projects such as ‘The Great Reading Adventure’ in Bristol and the South West and ‘Liverpool Reads’ and partners with the Bank of Scotland and Glasgow book festivals, and Hull Libraries.
Small Island Read 2007 is part of a wider UK initiative to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the ending of the slave trade and exploring slavery’s continuing influence on multicultural Britain.
Project organizers said that the novel was chosen because it provides an insight into the initial post-war contact among Jamaican migrants, descendants of enslaved Africans, and the “white mother country”.
Meanwhile, the book ‘Refugee Boy’ by Benjamin Zephaniah, will be used in a project for young people and emergent readers. This novel follows the journey of a young boy to London in escape from the Ethiopian/Eritrean conflict.
Organizers of the project said that ‘Refugee Boy’ was chosen for the thought provoking way in which it highlights the plight of asylum seekers and the valuable contribution made to the country by immigrants.