We’ve had some great news from Heulwen Davies, who is the Marketing Manager for www.atebol.com. They are working together with other Welsh publishers, e.g. Gomer, Y Lolfa, and CAA Cymru, to produce a brand new series of graded books for developing Welsh speakers.
The series is called Llyfrau Amdani and several very well-known authors have contributed, e.g. Bethan Gwanas, Manon Steffan Ross, Pegi Talfryn and Sarah Reynolds.
They would like to get some feedback on the books and are willing to send draft texts to several people who would like to read them and provide a review. If you’re interested in doing that, PM me your email address and I’ll pass your details on to Heulwen.
I would be very interested in this. Forgive my ignorance, but when you say PM you does that mean click on your picture and use the Message facility that appears and then that message goes to you and not the whole forum?
It is a fantastic initiative- 20 books being published over the course of next two years or so. The National Centre for Learning Welsh is involved to ensure that vocubalary used is appropriate to the level of the book, so there is a holisitc approach which didn’t exist before. There will be books for very new learners, in a similar way that Lois Arnold’s E-Ffrindiau is very accessible.
It’s great that they are actively engaging with the learners community here, and I am sure many SSIWers will enjoy trialling the books and providing feedback.
More information will be published on their official outlet:
@Deborah-SSi and @neilrowlands can either of you tell me if they will be availble as kindle books I could read on my ipad? I am finding my beloved paper-with-printing harder and harder as the effects of age occur!
The first two books are intermediate and advanced. No doubt the easy ones will come later. I think that I shall struggle with this, but I shall give it my best shot. Ten months ago I would never have dreamed that I would ever exchange e-mails in Welsh with a publisher.
Sue
If you’re not comfortable doing these in Welsh, Heulwen has said that it’s ok to do them in English. It’s the feedback that’s important to them.
Quite a few people have contacted me to volunteer for this. Diolch yn fawr iawn to all of you. I’m checking with Heulwen if there is a maximum number of readers that they would like, but it might be good for her to have a reasonable list of people so they can spread the books around as they come out.
Diolch yn fawr to all of you that have volunteered to help with this. Heulwen is thrilled with the support you are giving her.
She has enough names for the moment, but may need a few more once more of the texts are ready to be sent out, so you can still PM me your name and email address, but I’ll just be adding you to a waiting list from now on. I’ll let you all know if Heulwen asks me to send the waiting list through.
An update on this books for adult Welsh learners project from Heulwen:
The books that you reviewed are now out and available at bookstores or from https://atebol.com/new and one of them has a comment from a SSiWer on the cover. Heulwen is very grateful to all of you who took the time to read them and send your comments and reviews.
The texts for the more advanced level books will be ready soon. I have the list of people who put their hands up before, but if anyone wants to be added just send me a PM with your name and email address.
There is an event happening in Carmarthen on May 9th in relation to this book series. It’s a free event for Welsh learners and it takes place in the Quins Club at 7.30 pm.
