Davy Brown Discovers His Roots is a simple story with a big message. This children’s book is about a boy called Davy Brown who realises that his all-American family isn’t all that American after all. While given a class assignment to create their family tree, his classmates’ tell the stories of immigrating, and how their families have overcome obstacles to legally stay in the USA (something that many of us Saffa’s have had to deal with to stay in the UK!).

Thanks to Velani Mynhardt Witthöft, one of the authors who was born in South Africa and educated in Pretoria, a South African character is even included. This book will encourage a child to think beyond what they know and to ask questions about their family history, and more importantly, to realise just how much of a multi-cultured society we live in.

One thing that this book got me thinking about was how ‘normal’ and ‘boring’ I thought my South African family life is. My parents, cousins and distance relatives were all born in South Africa and we don’t have any ritual or cultural habits like the Xhosa or the Ndebeli. Until I moved to London that is, and I realised that we are very lucky to have the lifestyle that we lead in South Africa and that this also makes up who we are.

The message that this book communicates is that we all take our heritage for granted, and we all think that we are just normal - but every person and family has their own special fingerprint.