"What is respect?" the boy asked his father.
One day, new people came. They did not talk Khossa like the boy. They did not click their tongues like the boy.
They talked Bantu.
Based on the true story of the Bantu migration with a fun dino-fantasy element thrown in, Nkhosana and The Dinosaurs introduces kids to the skill of separating fact from fiction--while exploring respect, African History, and junior paleontology.
Most adults today don't learn the importance of primary sources--or even how to ask for them--until college, if they learn that skill at all. Many never learn to question what they see. And in a world of AI fakes and commercialized "troll" news, it's more important than ever that kids learn how to think critically from an early age.
And it's actually not that hard to make that skill fun!
Nkhosana and the Dinosaurs begins with a little picture book about a kid in ancient Khossa Africa whose father walks with dinosaurs--and then, through a series of activities and lectures, kids learn to identify what about this fictional story could be true, and what would have to be false. Did you know scientists argued about stegosaurus' spine? Do you know the story behind the original "velociraptors had feathers" paper? And what really happened to the Khoi-san peoples when the ancient Bantu migrated to their lands?
Instead of telling children what to believe, the textbook teaches kids how to look for truths, with stories and activities about how scientists debate with each other and explore the world. This story is meant to be fun to read aloud to kids, but also doubles as a full Common-Core, NGSS-standards-ready textbook with math, science, reading, fact-checking "fossil digs", and peer-interaction activities. See something odd, like dinosaurs with people, or featherless velociraptors? That's on purpose! We're going to practice debate and fact-checking in a way many kids never learn until too late. Perfect for homeschoolers and public classrooms alike, additional readings are provided for teachers who want to dig deeper, with citations to scientific papers for reference. We respect the adult in the room while entertaining the kids.
Drawn By A Bantu Descendant; Written By A Historian Who Graduated From The US' Top-Ranked Program
- Writer Jen Finelli is a physician and graduate of the Corcoran Department of History at UVA, currently working to bring medicines to indigenous people with Becoming Hero in Paraguay.
- Artist Nathan S. is a proud Ugandan designer whose creations have landed him gigs with companies as prominent as Pepsi. Most Ugandans speak languages that descended from Bantu and Khoi-san tongues.
Did You Know...?
While Nkhosana's (the boy's) story about walking with the dinosaurs is fictional, the story of the Khoi-san and the Bantu is based on a true story!
The Khoi-san people lived in Africa thousands of years ago, before the ancestors of most modern African languages, the Bantu, arrived. For many years, historians who studied Africa thought the agriculturalist Bantu conquered the Khoi-san. Now, historians believe that the Khoi-san/Khossa incorporated the Bantu into their way of life, and that while some groups may have clashed, by and large many Bantu and Khossa people shared knowledge in peace to become the ancestors of many modern-day Africans.
A portion of proceeds support Becoming Hero Charities mission to bring literacy to Liberia and medications to indigenous Paraguay.
