[June] Many people hold fond memories of their childhood years, discovering various characters in books and films and living out those characters as they adventure in their minds to places of escape from the demands of reality. 

One local author wants to give young people the opportunity to not just live out another character, but to feature in and co-create an adventure novel with him. To this effect, he is running a competition for the month of June (Youth Month) to bring this amazing opportunity to five lucky young people.

“All I really want, is to encourage young people to read and use their imaginations,” says Kyle Jantjies, a local author and teacher. “As a teacher I’ve discovered how healthy competition brings out the best results in young people. It gives them something to strive for and provides the much-needed motivation to get them to embrace new things,” Kyle adds.

The challenge is simple. Young people ages 16-20 years are encouraged to read a few pages from their favourite fiction novel. They need to record themselves reading, post the video of at least 1 minute to their favourite social media platform and tag Kyle. The competition particularly promotes reading fiction, as Kyle is a fiction fantasy adventure writer.

The prize, a mystery day out for 5 lucky Cape Town based winners adventuring with Kyle as they use their unique experiences on their day out, to create their own story line. Kyle will combine the experiences and imaginative wonderings into a fiction story, featuring the 5 as his leading characters.

“Who wouldn’t welcome the opportunity to be immortalised as an adventure book character?” asks Kyle. “I pride myself in being a fast writer when I commit to a deadline, so I am excited to say that 5 young people I’ll meet this month, will by the end of this year be my newest characters that I get to introduce to the world,” he continues.

A fast writer he is indeed, having penned 9 books in one year in 2021, which included a 7-book fantasy adventure series, which is available online as an e-book, and the print version of book one is available in bookstores across South Africa.

“All my characters in my books have some similarities to me, my personality, and the adventures I would like to experience,” says Kyle. “It’s going to be awesome to take some young people on a journey, to get to know them and to dream up their super hero alter egos,” adds Kyle.

Kyle is a teacher, biologist, black belt in ninjitsu – a form of martial arts and a dreamer. There is no telling what an adventure with him could look like, but if the reviews of his books are anything to go by, the winners are sure to be in for a treat and have a literary legacy for their lifetimes, which few can add to their resumes. 

Winners will be selected by lucky draw from all the video entries submitted. To ensure your entry makes it into the pool, you need to use the hash tags: #YouthMonth #ReadersMakeLeaders, #Adventure and #Fiction.

The competition runs for the entire month of June and winners will be announced on 30 June 2023 after entries close at 5pm.

To find out more, follow Kyle on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram where the full T&Cs are available or mail Cristal Collins on This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..