Continue reading the Junior Graphic, children!
Please permit me to join in the celebration of the 14th anniversary of the Junior Graphic.
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I was particularly happy that in the article by Ms Augustina Tawiah in the Daily Graphic of September 12, 2014 on the anniversary of the Junior Graphic, she made mention of the fact that there was “a special newspaper for children also known as the Junior Graphic which began in the 1950s as a pull-out in the Daily Graphic, but it folded up later”
It is this historical background that I wish to complement.
In or about 1959, the Junior Graphic club was formed. I was then in the middle school - precisely Mpraeso Presbyterian Middle School - and I immediately joined the club. I believe my number was A 59.
Again, as Ms Tawiah said, the Junior Graphic then was a pull-out in the mother newspaper. Its first Editor was called Ama Serwah (surprisingly she was a white woman!).
I continued my membership when I proceeded to Swedru Secondary School (SWESCO) and contributed short stories, some of which were published.
Once in a while, I would win a prize; those days it was a crate of Coca Cola, which was delivered to me in school.
Just as Miss Fanny Nana Ampon said her “reading and writing habits back then, have helped in shaping me into the fine journalist I have become”, I am convinced that the interest I developed at that tender age in reading the then Junior Graphic encouraged me to read more books which in turn tremendously improved my command of the English Language.
It also helped me, in no small measure, when I became a lawyer several years ago and later, a minister of state.
I am now in my late 60s and would like to urge the youth to take reading seriously, especially the Junior Graphic, since it can help them improve upon their English Language.