Jaco Jacobs (born 1980) is a South African children's author who writes in

Afrikaans Afrikaans (, ) is a West Germanic language that evolved in the Dutch Cape Colony from the Dutch vernacular of Holland proper (i.e., the Hollandic dialect) used by Dutch, French, and German settlers and their enslaved people. Afrikaans gra ...

. Jacobs was born in the South African town of Carnarvon, Northern Cape. He started writing at a young age and sold his first short stories to magazines while still in high school. To date, he has published more than 260 books for children, ranging from picture books to books for young adults, some of them under the pseudonyms Lize Roux and Tania Brink. In 2007, his young adult novel ''Suurlemoen!'' (''Lemon!'') was chosen as an International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY) Honour Book. Jacobs has won the

Alba Bouwer Prize The Alba Bouwer Prize ( af, Alba Bouwerprys vir Kinderliteratuur) is a prize for outstanding children's literature in Afrikaans, awarded triennially by the South African Academy of Science and Arts. Works qualifying for the prize should have been ...

twice (in 2007 for ''Wurms met tamatiesous en ander lawwe rympies'' (''Worms in Tomato Sauce and Other Silly Poems''), and 2019 for ''Moenie hierdie boek eet nie'' (''Don't eat this book'')), as well as the C.P. Hoogenhout Award (2006–2007) for ''Wurms met tamatiesous en ander lawwe rympies'', the

Tienie Holloway Medal Tienie is a town in Grand Cape Mount County, Liberia Liberia (), officially the Republic of Liberia, is a country on the West African coast. It is bordered by Sierra Leone to Liberia–Sierra Leone border, its northwest, Guinea to its n ...

in 2018 for ''Grom!'' (''Growl!''), and the Scheepers Prize for Youth Literature in 2019 for ''Dinge wat ek nie van skape geweet het nie'' (''Taking Selfies With a Sheep''). A film adaptation of ''Suurlemoen!'' was released in South African cinemas in 2014, and in 2017 his novel ''Oor 'n motorfiets, 'n zombiefliek en lang getalle wat deur elf gedeel kan word'' (published internationally as ''A Good Night for Shooting Zombies'') was adapted into a feature film, titled ''Nul is nie niks nie''. His young adult novel '''n Goeie dag vir boomklim'' (published internationally as ''A Good Day for Climbing Trees'') was chosen as one of the winners in the In Other Words competition, sponsored by the British Book Trust. Worldwide English rights of the book were subsequently sold to

Oneworld Publications Oneworld Publications is a British independent publishing firm founded in 1986 by Novin Doostdar and Juliet Mabey originally to publish accessible non-fiction by experts and academics for the general market.

in 2017. ''A Good Day for Climbing Trees'' was longlisted for the Carnegie Medal, and subsequently published in Dutch by Uitgeverij Ploegsma and in Italian by

Rizzoli Libri Rizzoli Libri, formerly Rizzoli Libri S.p.A. and RCS Libri S.p.A. is an Italian book publisher and a division of Mondadori Libri, a wholly owned subsidiary of Arnoldo Mondadori Editore. RCS Libri was a former subsidiary of RCS MediaGroup, but in ...

. In addition to children's literature, Jacobs also writes magazine articles and columns. He has translated more than 300 books from English and Dutch to Afrikaans. His translation of

Chris Riddell Chris Riddell ( ) (born 13 April 1962) is a South African-born British illustrator and occasional writer of children's books and a political cartoonist for the ''Observer''. He has won three Kate Greenaway Medals - the British librarians' ann ...

's ''

Ottoline and the Yellow Cat ''Ottoline and the Yellow Cat'' is a children's book by Chris Riddell, published in 2007. It won the Nestlé Smarties Book Prize, Nestlé Children's Book Prize Gold Award and the Red House Children's Book Award for Younger Readers. It was also sh ...

'' (''Willemien en die Geel Kat'') was awarded the Elsabe Steenberg Prize for children's book translation, as well as the SATI Prize for the translation of children's books.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jacobs, Jaco 1980 births Living people People from Kareeberg Local Municipality Afrikaans-language writers South African children's writers