When the World Was

By: Pippa Skotnes
Reviewed by Robyn Alexander
in February 2026

Pippa Skotnes’s gloriously detailed pictures add soul to the wonderful, poetically written and very necessary story of When the World Was – a picture book based on |xam texts from the Bleek and Lloyd archive. It tells of a beginning when the world was alive with possibilities, animals were people, people could command the wind and rain, the sun had the power of speech, and many languages were spoken. A folk tale from Southern Africa that adults are likely to enjoy just as much as kids will.

Published: 2025
Publisher: NB Publishers
ISBN: 9780624093862

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