Happy Birthday Jamela!

It's Jamela's birthday, and she and Mama are off to buy some new shoes. As soon as Jamela sees the Princess Shoes with their sparkly buckles and little satin bows, she falls in love with them, but Mama points out that she'll have to wear the shoes for school too, so a sad Jamela ends up with sensible black shoes. Alone in her room, Jamela tries her best to make the shoes look princessy with beads, glitter and glue. She only succeeds in making Mama very angry, but a lady called Lilly thinks Jamela's decorated shoes are fabulous.

Niki Daly has won many awards for his exuberant work. His groundbreaking Not So fast Songololo (1986), winner of a U.S Parent's Choice Award, paved the way for post-apartheid South African children's books. Since then, he has been published across the globe and has visited and presented talks in several countries. Among his many Frances Lincoln books, Once Upon a Time was an Honor Winner in the US Children's Africana Book Awards of 2004.Jamela's Dress, first in the Jamela series, was another milestone book, chosen by the ALA as a Notable Children's Book and by Booklist as one of the Top 10 African American Picture Books of 2000, and winning both the Children's Literature Choice Award and the Parent's Choice Silver Award. Daly lives with his wife, the illustrator Jude Daly, in Mowbray, a bustling Cape Town suburb.