Golden Kuraz Winning Book - Miti Mittiti

The picture on the left shows Author, Mary Jaafar with Executive Director of Ethiopia Reads, Yohannes.


An English translation of Miti Mittiti, the Golden Kuraz winning book, is now available, prepared by Board member Chris Kurtz. EthiopiaReads.org gave the Golden Kuraz award during Book Week in April, 2005. It was made possible through donations given in memory of Chris Saad, who was a book lover, and Mary Eyerus, who still loves books. A kuraz is a small tin can lamp that brings a glow to the dark inside of rural houses in Ethiopia.

We hope this award will gradually encourage the writing of more children’s books in diverse Ethiopian languages.

Educated Ethiopians are quick to talk about the need to develop a reading culture to help their country tackle the problems of AIDS, poverty, hunger, and high unemployment rates (at least 50% in the city of Addis Ababa). But few children’s books exist in Amharic, Oromiffa, Tigrinya, or other Ethiopian languages. Books are desperately needed to help encourage a love of stories and a curiosity for information. Every other year, EthiopiaReads.org will give a Golden Kuraz award to bring attention to the best books published for children in the previous two years.

A committee of EthiopiaReads.org staff, Friends of EthiopiaReads, and others evaluated the children’s books that were submitted for this first Golden Kuraz Award. The winner was Mit’I Mit’iti written in Amharic by Mary Jaafar who was honored at a ceremony at Alliance-Francaise in the spring of 2005.

Miti Mititi, is the first winner of the Golden Kuraz Award. In this delightful story a young chick bursts with bravado. She decides to prove herself to the other farm animals by imitating their best qualities. "I can bark as loud as any dog," she proclaims proudly. "Peep, peep, peep." Only slightly less daunted she moves on to the cats. With each failure a lesson is learned. In the end mother hen holds the secret that helps Miti Mititi find a sense of self worth in being who she truly is.

During a summer visit, Board member Chris Kurtz, who is learning how to read Amharic, bravely waded in to read a few pages of the Golden Kuraz winning book aloud for children at the Shola library. According to their votes, he is now reading on a third grade level. He pledged to be up to sixth grade level by the time he next returns—and challenged them to make similar gains.