‘When night fell, all the animals would gather around a big bonfire, which always burned brightly. The deep orange flames waved high and from a distance it looked as though horses were swiftly galloping across the sky ….. Tonight was different because five of the most dangerous and biggest animals of the land were going to share Life’s Little Magical Formulas’ – Life’s Little Magical Formulas
Zoya shares ‘Life’s Little Magical Formulas’ for children and adults through stories told by her five, bold characters, members of the Big 5. They promise to teach your children five important values. You will also get witty quotes from the animals to reinforce positive behavior. These animals are all found in Magical Kenya, where the story is set. In the heart of the Maasai Mara, a large national game reserve.
This book is made up of beautiful descriptions that will make your imagination run wild and that paint a playful / colourful picture for your children. It will encourage them to be the best that they can be, boost their confidence, stand up for themselves and learn why it is important to be mindful of others. For the parents, it brings up a nostalgic feeling of sharing special moments and magical stories around a camp fire while sipping on hot cocoa and marshmallows.
This book is a warm, cosy, bedtime treasure. A gift to be shared with your loved ones for it shares with us important life lessons that you will definitely want to pass on.
In a world which is uncertain the best gift a parent can give a child is a strong universal value system. Having a strong value system to relate to, means that a child has a strong moral compass when faced with choices. Zoya has managed to encapsulate five strong values through the animal characters in her book ‘Life's Little Magical Formulas’.
The stories are relevant to children across the world and easily embedded by the association of each of the Big Five animals and the value each adventure represents. The book is beautifully illustrated, and the stories well crafted.
As educator I believe that schools could use these ‘magical formulas’ in assemblies, during counselling lessons or as a set work to support the value based educational programs at a school.
Or alternatively … each family should have a copy on their bookshelf … the lessons learnt would be a lifelong gift to their child.
Zoya, we thank you for coming to our school. It was nice to ‘mix up’ things for the children and for them to meet an author. It was interesting for them to hear about the inspiration behind your book and to enjoy the illustrations. They enjoyed buying the book as a momento of the experience and spoke highly of your visit.
Life’s Little Magical Formulas creatively uses The Big Five animals in Kenya as characters to help children embed life’s most important values in their lives. The stories in the book creatively depict morals that every parent would wish to see in their son or daughter.
So there are a few themes to look out for: a whole community, a whole child and a whole lot of imagination. Look for them in every page.
We were privileged to have a visit from Zoya during our September 2019 term.
Zoya brought along her book ‘Life’s Little Magical Formulas’. She had prepared an art activity for each of our classes, ranging from our 2-year-old to our 6-year class. Each of her art activities focused on a story from her book. Zoya was just lovely with our children, they loved taking part in her activities which she had prepared so well for them.
Zoya’s passion for her book and her passion for writing children’s books was evident on the day she visited KJA. We just loved having her and her enthusiastic approach with us that day.
I wish Zoya all the best as she continues to be inspired by writing these wonderful stories for children.
With regards
Zoya, author of ‘Life’s Little Magical Formulas’ visited Braeburn Mombasa International School on 5th March in honour of World Book Day.
Zoya held three different workshops for different age groups ranging from 6 to 13. ‘Life’s Little Magical Formulas’ is a truly captivating book that got the children engrossed and some were able to identify with some of the animal characters in the book. Some children liked that some animals had Swahili names. The children were engaged in different activities like learning different values, describing the setting, using adjectives to describe some images in the book, using senses to describe, onomatopoeia and use of emotions.
Zoya was very thoughtful about the different ages and interests of the students. I liked how she approached the various ages with differentiated activities and she maintained a confident demeanour throughout the workshops. The children also appreciated her personal experiences which contributed to her writing. The children were fascinated that Zoya is a trained lawyer but chose to be an author.
‘Life’s Little Magical Formulas’ made our Book Day memorable and we took away values that make each day magical like a simple
‘Thank you’.
On behalf of Oshwal Academy Mombasa, I take this opportunity to appreciate your effort and commitment in making sure that our learners are well equipped with knowledge and understanding on ‘Life’s Little Magical Formulas’. The junior school learners enjoyed your presentation and they couldn’t hide their joy of learning from an author of a book they read.
The theme of the book is linked to the children’s experiences and impacts their lives positively. It was a great honour to see our learners ask and respond to questions during the session and were all looking forward to grab a book after the presentation. I also believe that they acquired moral values like perseverance, respect and generosity which were explicitly depicted in the story.
Thank you once again and looking forward to another visit.
Congratulations on your book ‘Life's Little Magical Formulas’.
Thank you for coming to NIS Kindergarten to share with our children this lovely book. The children enjoyed your fun, creative workshops and most importantly learning the morals in your short stories.
Looking forward to more books. All the best!
Zoya creates a cozy bedtime storybook set in the grasslands of Africa. Each special story is carefully interwoven with an important life value delivered through her characters.
Not everyone has the confidence to share their creativity. It has been a pleasure watching Zoya step into the role of author, embrace the challenges and grow in self-belief.
Life's Little Magical Formulas is an amazing way to introduce and foster the core moral values we live by to children. The fun characters depicted by Zoya make the read a memorable and inspired one. My favourite character, if I really had to choose, was Safari the lion who highlights the importance of perseverance.
The detailed illustrations within the book add life to the words and making it a magical read.
I would recommend this book for children and adults alike! Add this to your reading collection to help teach and remind children of values which will help guide them through the rest of their lives.
Kudos to Zoya on writing this one of its kind life forming book, we are eagerly awaiting the next one in this series!
This is a magical little story book. It combines the magnificent wildlife of Africa with teachings of values and morals.
Children are like little sponges they absorb everything we teach them and these kind of story books are a way of fun learning.
Big five to you Gaffi 😊
Thank you for the book, we enjoyed reading it. It gave me a good opportunity to talk about the values with my son.