‘No Limits’ creators head for South Africa
By Brendan Grehan
THE CREATORS behind the 'No Limits' series of books are travelling to South Africa next month to compete with other youth-run businesses from around the world, reports Brendan Grehan.
Aoife Dardis, Katie Grogan and Caoimhe Currie are three fifth-year students in St Joseph’s College in Lucan. While in Transition Year they decided to do something about the issue of representation in children’s literature.
St Joseph's College Lucan students
From personal experience of relatives with disabilities and special needs they started writing the ‘No Limits; series of books.
First they came out with ‘Wonder Wheels’ then ‘Anna’s Amazing Aura’ and ‘A Royal Rescue’. In each story the main character uses their self-knowledge of their disability or special need to save the day.
In August, Aoife, Kate and Caoimhe will be one of two groups travelling to South Africa to compete in the SAGE World Cup against other youth-run businesses from around the world. The trio will present their books in front of 40 judges.
Aoife told The Echo: “We started ‘No Limits’ when we were in Transition Year. So we have been working at it for the last two years. We started writing the books together.
“First there was ‘Wonder Wheels’ then ‘Anna’s Amazing Aura’ and ‘A Royal Rescue’. We give 10 per cent to a relevant charity and the rest we put back into printing more books and materials.”
The books are illustrated by former St Joseph’s student Kelly McCarville.
Make children’s literature more inclusive
She added: “We would like to make children’s literature more inclusive and believe that seeing characters with disabilities and special needs in books from a young age would be a great way to show children with disabilities and special needs that they are just as important and able as everyone else.”
The girls have been fundraising for their trip to South Africa. Bank of Ireland held a bake sale and there were church gate collections at St Mary’s Lucan recently.
Aoife said: “We are very pleased with the reaction so far. Bank of Ireland has been great. They held a collection then a bake sale. The church gate collection went really well.”
The girls are planning to write more stories and increase the accessibility of their books.
They recently recorded audiobooks of their three titles and now hope to make them available in braille. Translations of the stories into Irish and French will also take place this year.
For further information you can check out ‘No Limits’ on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram or contact at nolimitsbooks [at] gmail [dot] com
