A book aimed at making Traveller culture visible in schools was launched yesterday in Sligo.
Created by settled and Traveller children from Nazareth House Primary School in Derry and St Edward's National School in Sligo, the groups worked together with Kids' Own Publishing Partnership on the book A-Z and Back Again - A Little Bit of This and a Wee Bit of That.
The alphabet book contains images, words, rhymes and sayings rooted in the two localities. The children worked with their older brothers and sisters and parents to produce the art work and design pages during a series of workshops.
A director of Kids' Own Publishing, Ms Victoria Ryle, explain- ed that it was the second of a series of books dealing with Traveller culture.
The first in the series was a collection of rhymes gathered from Traveller children and their families, called Charlie Barley and all his Friends.
The next book, now at planning stage, is a pictionary in the Traveller language, Cant. Kids' Own staff are working with a 102-year-old Traveller man who teaches Cant as well as an academic who has studied the language to produce the pictionary, Ms Ryle explained.
She described A-Z and Back Again as "a fun introduction to letters and words".
It includes words and sayings associated with Sligo and Derry.
The project also involved exchange visits between the two groups, and children from Derry travelled to Sligo yesterday for the launch of the book at the Model Arts and Niland Gallery.
Kids' Own Publishing Partnership, which was formerly based in Dublin, moved to the Co Sligo village of Ballintogher about three years ago.
Operating from a Georgian house in the centre of the village, it now has a staff of five, including directors Simon Spain and Victoria Ryle.
It is a not-for-profit arts organisation specialising in publishing work for children by children. It has also helped children get their work published using the Internet.
Copies of the books are available from Kids' Own Publishing, at 071-64438 or www.kidsown.ie.