Wordless picture books

The Mikhulu Child Development Trust creates its own special wordless picture-books that can be shared with young children

When sharing a book, parents and children are much more likely to engage in complex discussions about thoughts and feelings when there are no (or few) words in the book, compared to when there is a lot of text. Consequently, wordless picture-books are core to our book-sharing courses!

​To address the shortage of high-quality and affordable wordless picture-books in South Africa, we produce our own books. We make them available to partners as cheaply as possible.

​With support from the Mila Charitable Trust, we ran an illustrator incubator in 2018, in which four emerging South African illustrators were paired with experienced mentors to produce a series of wordless picture-books with support from our board. We continue to develop books in collaboration with local illustrators and currently have ten books available to our partners and to the public.

In June 2021, we started a new partnership with University of Johannesburg to develop five new wordless books that address topics on violence. Through this partnership, professional illustrators offer their time at a reduced rate to illustrate a book written by Mikhulu Trust. The process is intensive and iterative with regular feedback between the writers and illustrators.

Please note, these books are copyrighted. Please contact info@mikhulutrust.org if you would like copies.