Soft Work

C R I E S FROM THE HEART
Stories from Around the World
These stories come from many different countries, and are about very different people — from a poor young boy in India, to an African American teenager in the USA; from a sad and silent wife in Malaysia, to a terrified child in Uganda. But one thing is always the same. What makes them laugh or cry also makes us laugh or cry. Life is cruelif you are a child worker in a factory or a child soldier in a war; we feel their pain and fear too. The kindness of a street fruit-seller in Jamaica makes us happy; a loving wife making the last present for her sick husband makes us sad; and the story of the vet and Granny's cow in South Africa will surely make anyone smile . . .

BOOKWORMS WORLD STORIES English has become an internationallanguage, and is used on every continent, in many varieties, for all kinds of purposes. Bookworms World Stories are the latest addition to the Oxford Bookworms Library. Their aim is to bring the best of the world's stories to the English language learner, and to celebrate the use of English for storytelling all around the world. Jennifer Bassett Series Editor

OXFORD B O O K W O R M S LIBRARYWorld Stories

Cries from the Heart
Stories from Around the World Stage 2 (700 headwords)

Series Editor: Jennifer Bassett Founder Editor: Tricia Hedge Activities Editors: Jennifer Bassett and Christine Lindop

R E T O L D BY J E N N I F E R B A S S E T T

NOTE ON THE STORIES

The eight stories in this book were selected from the twenty-six winning stories in the 2004 Commonwealth ShortStory Competition. Regional winner (Southern Africa): Tod Collins (South Africa) for 'The Festive Season in a Part of Africa' Winners of Highly Commended stories: Sefi Atta (Nigeria) for 'The Photograph' Jackee Budesta Batanda (Uganda) for 'Dora's Turn' Janet Tay Hui Ching (Malaysia) for 'Callus' Adrienne M Frater (New Zealand) for 'Leonard' Lauri Kubuitsile (Botswana) for 'A Pot Full of Tears'Anuradha Muralidharan (India) for 'Nimble Fingers' Erica N Robinson (Jamaica) for 'The House'

Cries from the Heart
Stories from Around the World

Illustrated by

Kwame Nyong'o

OXFORD U N I V E R S I T Y PRESS

CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
NOTE ON THE L A N G U A G E
NOTE ON THE ILLUSTRATOR NIGERIA

1
viii
viii

The Photograph Sefi Atta
NEW ZEALAND

1
6
11

Leonard Adrienne MFrater

BOTSWANA
A Pot Full of Tears Lauri Kubuitsile

JAMAICA The House Erica N Robinson
UGANDA

16
21
26

Dora's Turn Jackee Budesta Batanda
MALAYSIA

Callus Janet Tay Hui Ching
INDIA

Nimble Fingers Anuradha Muralidharan
SOUTH AFRICA

31
36

The Festive Season in a Part of Africa Tod Collins

GLOSSARY

41 44 46 50

ACTIVITIES: Before Reading ACTIVITIES: AfterReading
A B O U T THE A U T H O R S

NOTE ON THE L A N G U A G E
SEFI ATTA

There are many varieties of English spoken in the world, and the characters in these stories sometimes use non-standard forms (for example, leaving out auxiliary verbs such as am, are, is). This is how the authors of the original stories represented the spoken language that their characters would actually use in reallife. There are also words that are usually only found in a particular variety of English (for example, kraal in South African English) and in some stories there are a few words from other languages (for example, Afande from Swahili). All these words are either explained in the stories or in the glossary on page 41.

A story from Nigeria, retold by Jennifer Bassett

In today's world there arephotographs everywhere - web pages on the internet, magazines full of fashion and film stars, newspapers full of photos of war and sport, places and people from other lands. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, and maybe it is, but what is the picture telling us? Sometimes we only see what we want to see ...

NOTE ON THE ILLUSTRATOR
Kwame Nyong'o was born in Chicago, USA, and now lives...