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

Afrikaans Afrikaans is a West Germanic languages, West Germanic language spoken in South Africa, Namibia and to a lesser extent Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe and also Argentina where there is a group in Sarmiento, Chubut, Sarmiento that speaks the Pat ...

. 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 () is a prize for outstanding children's literature in Afrikaans, awarded triennially by the South African Academy of Science and Arts.C.P. Hoogenhout Award (2006–2007) for ''Wurms met tamatiesous en ander lawwe rympies'', the Tienie Holloway Medal in 2018 for ''Grom!'' (''Growl!''), and the Scheepers Prize for Youth Literature in 2019 for ''Dinge wat ek nie van skape geweet het nie'' (''Things which I didn't know about 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. Based in London, it later added a li ...

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 i ...

. 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 English illustrator and occasional writer of children's books and a political cartoonist for the ''Observer''. He has won three Kate Greenaway Medalsthe British librarians' annual ...

's ''Ottoline and the Yellow Cat'' (''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 South African translators