A new children’s book, designed to be in series titled The Royal Visit by the Netherlands-based author, Ranti Akintobi, is billed for launch on Sunday, May 23, 2021, at The House, A.J. Marinho Drive, Victoria Island, Lagos.
Published by T&T Nubian Adventure, The Royal Visit: Book 1 is the first of the T&T Nubian Adventure series written for children between ages five and 11. T&T Nubian Adventure stories are centred on an African royal family living in an African country called Lafiya and ruled by an Obabirin, a female king – Queen Lara.
The Royal Visit: Book 1 focuses on introducing the main characters of Lafiya and is a story about the royal visit of the sovereign queen to Rugare kingdom to see her brother and his family. During her visit, she uses her magical powers to enable the princesses to communicate with animals when they go on an adventure to the Royal zoo. The princesses have a wonderful experience listening to an African tale narrated by one of the animals. Long time ago when animals could talk and elephants had wings.
Akintobi is a finance manager by profession, who currently resides in the Netherlands, who was inspired to write this book as a prerequisite to animation series for streaming and that brings African culture and pride to children all over the world, adding; “I feel children of African descendants (all over the world) should have the option of seeing mainstream animated characters that look like them. It was also paramount to me that the story be told by an African that Africans can connect with. My main aim is to ignite the African culture in children all over the world and bring the culture to them through stories.”
Akintobi is keen to bridge the gap on how African children access books that often a challenge because of prevailing poverty.
“I feel it’s such a shame that underprivileged children have limited or no access to books in their schools. Public (government) schools are known not to even have libraries. While it may be argued that a child’s development is dependent on educational books, I feel it’s equally important that children have access to literature in order to develop their creativity, imagination, and vocabulary.
“I plan on working with orphanages and charity organizations by donating books to them, also with the hope of sparking their imagination and their creative side and helping them to learn how to read through entertaining storybooks. There will be about 4 to 5 books in this series,” she said.
