PUBLISHER: Independently Published03/23/2021

Follow young friends Adey and Lomi as they play a counting game in the streets of Harar, Ethiopia. Bilingual side by side text in Somali and English and an engaging story support early readers. Vibrant watercolors capture the colors and beauty of the ancient world heritage site as the girls explore and play. Exploring the markets of the city, sharing a bowl of lentils with a roll of injera, even doing math homework takes on the happiness of the color they love. Part of the Ready, Set, Go! Series of books by Open Hears Big Dreams, a nonprofit devoted to increasing literacy in Ethiopian indigenous 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 book sales are 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.