FROM BOOKS ON BUSES TO LIBRARY FOR PINOY KIDS
By Mel Fernandez
Photo: Supplied.
AUCKLAND – She is popularly known as the ‘Book Fairy’, being famous for launching the ‘Books on Buses’ project in New Zealand – a movement which originated in London as ‘Books on the Underground’. The concept for this initiative is straightforward – if people are too busy to visit libraries then why not bring books directly to them? Members of the movement casually drop free copies of their favourite books for commuters to pick up, read and share with others.
The ‘Book Fairy’ is actually Jade-Ceres Munoz, a Filipina with an inveterate love for books. It would be an understatement to say that she is super passionate about getting people to read. Whilst in Manila in 2015 Jade was already pushing ahead an ambitious project that would bring the library a lot closer to the people. When she moved to Auckland in 2017 she was fired up about getting Kiwis to read and has been actively promoting the ‘Books on Buses’ project nationwide.
What prompted this digital marketing strategist to embark on this labour of love? “I’ve always loved the idea of making the library experience more mobile and more accessible for all,” says Jade. “I actually studied literature in college and have always been in love with books and reading; it’s just something that I want to share with everyone else.”
Jade is now steering into uncharted territory with a new initiative aimed at her kababayan in New Zealand and overseas. “Over the last few years we’ve put together a project of collecting Filipino books for children and young adults in order to help migrant kids re-learn our language and culture,” reveals Jade. “It has been pretty successful so far. We’ve worked with the Philippine Embassy in New Zealand and with several publishers and authors in the Philippines.
“While we were in the process of building a collection of physical books for kids to borrow the pandemic made this a big challenge. Therefore, we’ve decided to cross over to the digital platform. The Filipino Children’s Library is now an online repository of Filipino stories for children and young adults.
“Our goal is to make stories from our culture available through videos. This way these stories can become accessible to Filipino migrant kids, not just in New Zealand, but in any part of the world.”
If Jade’s weekly storytelling videos like ‘Ibong Adarna’ (one of the most popular stories in Philippine mythology) and ‘Cora Cooks Pancit’ are anything to go by, the project is off to a flying start and more videos are in the pipeline.
To be a member of the library please visit: https://www.facebook.com/filipinochildrenslibrary
