ruby yayra goka

 Books

Plain Yellow

2014 Burt Award Winner

When the Shackles Fall

2012 Burt Award Winner

The Step-monster

• 2015 Burt Award Winner

• Honour Book: 2017 Burt Award for African Literature (All Star Edition) 

Whatever It Takes

2019 Inspire Us Honour Book

Perfectly Imperfect

2013 Burt Award Winner

The Mystery of the Haunted House

2010 Burt Award Winner

To Kiss a Girl

• 2017 Burt Award Winner

• Honour Book: 2018 Burt Award for African Literature 

• 2019 Ayi Kwei Armah  Award

Trotro Trio Book 1:

A Blast to the Past

Those Who Wait

2012 Burt Award Honourable Mention

A Gift for Fafa

2018 Efua Sutherland Children's Book Prize

Mama's Amazing Cover Cloth

• 2019 Efua Sutherland Children's Book Prize

• 2019 CABA Honour Book

• 2020 IBBY Honour Book

Tani's Wish

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  bio

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Ruby Yayra Goka has always loved stories and storytelling.

As a child, the only person who ‘benefitted’ from her great love of writing and storytelling, was her younger brother, Eli. Each day after school, he was made to watch a performance of a story Ruby made up. The cast of characters were usually her dolls, stuffed animals and her cat, Katie.

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Thankfully for Eli, as Ruby got older she preferred reading to putting up productions. This preference often led to conflict with her older sister, Dela, because Ruby would hoard Dela's literature books when Dela needed them to study. This love of reading and telling stories was what led her into writing many years later.

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Her first published book for young adults, The Mystery of the Haunted House, won third prize in the Burt Award for African Literature competition in 2010. The Burt Award for African Literature is an award that recognises excellence in African writing for young adults. A year later she published two more books, Disfigured and In the Middle of Nowhere.

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Her books for young adults, The Lost Royal Treasure, When the Shackles Fall, Perfectly Imperfect, Plain Yellow, The Step-monster, and To Kiss a Girl,  have all won awards in the Burt Award for African Literature competition from the year 2011 to the year 2018. Those Who Wait was given an honourable mention in the same competition in the year 2012.

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Her other books for children include A Gift for Fafa, Tani’s Wish, and Mama's Amazing Cover Cloth. Tani’s Wish was written for the Ghana Cleft Foundation to create awareness about cleft lips and palates and to reduce the stigmatization associated with the condition.

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Mama's Amazing Cover Cloth won the 2019 Efua Sutherland Children's Prize and has been nominated as both a CABA 2019 Honour book and an IBBY 2020 Honour book.

Ruby believes that the more African children see themselves reflected in the pages of books they read, the more they will dream and know they can be anything they want to be.

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When she isn’t spending time with her two dogs and turtle, Ruby will be found either reading,  gardening or holding conversations with her "imaginary friends".

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