Book Dash

Book Dash is an innovative approach to producing, publishing and distributing new children's books freely. We maintain an exceptionally high quality while reducing costs by up to 80% of those traditionally incurred. It has the potential to be a game-changing global solution to the massive problem of unequal access t books and reading material for young children worldwide.

Book Dash is 7 years old. I've been leading it for 6 years. I was just 22 when I started and often learnt as I went. In this time we have enjoyed tremendous growth as well as significant recognition for our work. We're both particularly well-poised for the additional advancement that the Elevate Prize would unlock.

I'd like to see Book Dash leap in global reach through media amplification and connections. I'd like to see myself as a young leader (now 29) leap in growth through mentorship & guidance. I'm hungry to develop myself and have that positively influence Book Dash, and ultimately the children we work for. 

The open nature of the Book Dash model and content means that awareness is key: I want more people to know they can use what we make for free to support their work too.

At heart, I am a reader: fervidly, uncontrollably curious and passionate. I owe much of these driving forces to my love for stories.

I love what books and stories can do -- and have done -- for my life, and what I've seen then do for others. And I want to share that power with every single child in the world. At Book Dash, our vision is for every child to own a hundred books by the age of five. It's big and bold, but we're serious about its ability to change the world.

Through a series of innovations, Book Dash drastically reduces the barriers that currently prevent billions of children from owning beautiful books that are essential tools in their early development. Book Dash breaks open access to relevant storybooks for all.

Books drive us to seek out more knowledge, to want to learn more, to uplift ourselves.

A born and bred Capetonian, I've been passionate about social change since I realised inequality existed, and have lead outreach projects through high school and university. I've been humbled to be recognised for this. More about me here: www.linkedin.com/in/julia-norrish/

“The main barrier to improving children's reading skills is the lack of appropriate and engaging materials in mothertongue languages” --Global Book Alliance

The number of books in a child’s home is a leading predictor of academic and economic prospects, moreso than socio-economic-status (Evans, 2010). The first 5 years of a child’s life are the most impactful for long-lasting intervention (Heckman). Yet, millions of children around the world grow up without books! 

In South Africa, 58% of houses don’t have a single book (SABDC, 2016). Illiteracy carries huge costs to the economy. GDP/capita increases as literacy rates rise (Gustafasson, 2010). Traditional publishing models aren’t designed to create books for all. Worldwide studies continually show improving access to books for low-income children is a low-cost, high impact way of addressing the problem. 

Enter Book Dash: All children deserve the benefits of owning many books. All society benefits. 

We create new books using an innovative model, and share these for anyone to print and distribute. We distribute these in millions to increase book ownership, and boost literacy.

Book Dash is a process innovation in Children's Book publishing. Publishing is traditionally a long, expensive process. The innovation of Book Dash is the way in which we create new books: in 2014 we developed a model to make 10 brand new children's books in just 12 hours, a fraction of the time it would usually take. The model relies on experienced facilitators and expert creatives working in teams produce new books. 

Everyone on the day is a volunteer. Everything we create is our gift to the world. 

It reduces production costs by up to 80%.

To date, we've created a library of 500+ storybooks available freely at bookdash.org/books for anyone to use/adapt/translate/download/print -- anything as long as they credit. This open-license is key to our work: It amplifies our impact exponentially: The books reach millions of children daily through these 100+ content partnerships, all for free! 

This is a completely new way of publishing, and holds the key to addressing the underlying issue of illiteracy: Access to quality, relevant reading material.

For this, along with a series of additional innovations further down the book value chain, Book Dash has been recognised nationally and internationally: bookdash.org/what-we-do/awards.

The impact of books is multiplied if they're contextually-relevant, in home-language and visually-appealing. Book Dash books tick all the boxes: They're created by local creatives from across Africa who are skilled and knowledgeable about the target communities. They're versioned into hundred of languages. And they're absolutely beautiful! See for yourself at bookdash.org/books--why not read a couple?

The books only make a difference in the hands of children. This happens in two ways:

1. Books are printed and distributed to children who would never otherwise be able to afford books, through partners nationally in rural and urban areas. The feedback we get from partners is unbelievable: a child who was mute spoke for the first time, a grieving family bonded through book-sharing, another child grew in confidence overnight.
2. The books also reach millions of children daily through content-partnerships, thanks to our open-license. 

Books and stories are our lifeblood. They act as mirrors and as windows. To give a child access to stories in which they can see themselves and stories through which they can expand their worlds and feed curiosity. This is giving them a gift for the whole of life.

Case studies on our work can be found here.