Ready Set Go Books

The Happiest Herder Ready Set Go Books

When a weary goat herder finds his goats leaping and dancing, he become curious. What has gotten into his frisky herd? He samples some of the red berries they've been eating and soon he is the happiest herder in Ethiopia! Based on a legend about the origin of coffee. Side by side text in English and Ethiopian languages like Amharic, Tigrinya and Afaan Oromo help emerging bilingual readers build vocabulary and fluency. Playful illustrations bring the story to life and support vocabulary with clear visual references and engaging pictures. Part of the Ready, Set, Go! series of bilingual early readers. Part of Open Hearts Big Dreams mission to increase literacy in Ethiopian languages. Ready Set Go Books, an Open Hearts Big Dreams Project, is focused on increasing the literacy rate in Ethiopia through giving readers books with stories in their heart languages, full of colorful illustrations with Ethiopian settings and details. Profits from books sales will be used to create, print, and distribute more Ready Set Go Books to kids in Ethiopia, Africa's second most populous country. Ethiopia's population is 44% children, ages 0-14 (43 million out of 97 million total). Only 5.5% of children attend pre-school or kindergarten, and the adult literacy rate is 49%. Our books are based on wise Ethiopian sayings that often rhyme in Amharic. If an adult says the first half, many children can chant the second half. Sometimes the meaning of these sayings is clear. Sometimes it has to be puzzled out and argued over. But sayings and idioms and proverbs help people express truths and beliefs in unusual ways. Open Hearts Big Dreams Fund (OHBD) is a 501(3)(c) not for profit organization that believes the chance to dream big dreams should not depend on where in the world you are born. Our focus is to support nonprofit organizations and their programs that provide literacy, K-12 education, and leadership as well as that support the parents and communities where the kids live, in Ethiopia.