Books with author Ruby Yayra Goka

Patience Acolatse is not amused when she learns that her ex-cousin, Rowena Quarshie, whom she hasn't spoken to in six years is going to move in with her family, share her room and attend her school. However, Patience has a big heart and she is prepared to befriend Rowena once again and pick up their frienship from where they left off. What she isn't prepared for is for her entire life to be turned upside down and inside out when Rowena gangs up with a group of girls and makes her life miserable. What does Patience do when she runs out of patience?

Amerley is not your average teenager--well, she does love books and fashion and her boyfriend, Nikoi, but that is where the similarity ends. She's become a mother and a father to her three younger sisters, not that she minds because family means everything to Amerley.When financial constraints make her relocate to a plush neighbourhood in East Legon, she puts her own dreams aside in order to be a maid to make her family's life better. But how far should her self-sacrifice go? Doesn't her own life matter? Will she always put her family first even when it puts her own life at risk?

Patience Acolatse is not amused when she learns that her ex-cousin, Rowena Quarshie, whom she hasn't spoken to in six years is going to move in with her family, share her room and attend her school. However, Patience has a big heart and she is prepared to befriend Rowena once again and pick up their frienship from where they left off. What she isn't prepared for is for her entire life to be turned upside down and inside out when Rowena gangs up with a group of girls and makes her life miserable. What does Patience do when she runs out of patience?

Everyone knows stepmothers are bad, wicked and just plain evil. Buerki Puplampu cannot believe that her widowed father is getting remarried when her mother has not even been dead for long! She just knows that Naadu Nartey is wrong for her father. It isn't even because Naadu is bigger than a hippo or because she laughs like a cow or has hair on her face and chest like a cavewoman. She just knows.Some people call that feeling intuition, some call it superstition, soem even say it's a gift. Call it what you want but Buerki's gut feelings have never failed her. She vows to do everything in her power to save her younger brother and herself from the fate she knows is awaiting them. They will not be maltreated or abused by this new woman. She will make sure of it.

Yayra Amenyo's life is no longer perfect and these are the reasons why: 1. She killed her father. 2. Her mother acts like everything is normal when it isn't. 3. Her boyfriend is on 'a break' with her. 4. She looks like a freak. 5. She's moved to a town far from anyone she knows. 6. She has to repeat Form Two in SHS. Could her life get any worse? Will she ever get her life to be as perfect as it once was?

A 2014 Burt Award for Young Adult African Literature (BAYAAL) winning title, Plain Yellow, by Ruby Yayra Goka is one of the first YA novels in Ghana to talk about rape and sexual violence. Naa Amerley Amarteyfio, is a-not-so-average teenager. Well, she does love books and fashion and her boyfriend, Nikoi, but that is where the similarity ends. After the birth of yet another daughter, Amerley’s father disappears again even though the baby was stillborn. Her mother keeps to her bed and refuses to do anything. Amerley’s parents’ responsibilities fall on her shoulders. She takes on the role of being both a mother and a father to her three younger sisters, but she doesn’t mind because family means everything to Amerley.Salvation comes to the Amarteyfio family in the form of a rich aunt who offers payment for Amerley’s services as a maid. Amerley is forced to relocate to a plush neighbourhood in East Legon, where she puts her own dreams aside in order to make her family's life better. Life in East Legon is far different than anything she’s ever known, but she adapts and learns to fit in until one night when everything changes. Amerley is forced to decide how far she will continue sacrificing herself to make life better for her family.Told in alternating chapters between the present and the past, which showcase the stark differences between the two worlds Amerley is straddling, this book reminds readers that silence is not always golden, sometimes it’s just plain yellow. This book is a good resource for discussing sexual violence and what to do in its aftermath. Six of Ruby Yayra Goka’s books have won awards in the Burt Award for African Literature competitions. She has also won an award in the inaugural Burt Award for African Literature (BAAL): All Star Edition in 2017. Goka won an award in the Authorship and Creative Writing Category in the 40 under 40 awards in Ghana. Her books are used as supplementary reading materials in schools across Ghana.

Everyone knows stepmothers are bad, wicked and just plain evil. Buerki Puplampu cannot believe that her widowed father is getting remarried when her mother has not even been dead for long! She just knows that Naadu Nartey is wrong for her father. It isn't even because Naadu is bigger than a hippo or because she laughs like a cow or has hair on her face and chest like a cavewoman. She just knows.Some people call that feeling intuition, some call it superstition, soem even say it's a gift. Call it what you want but Buerki's gut feelings have never failed her. She vows to do everything in her power to save her younger brother and herself from the fate she knows is awaiting them. They will not be maltreated or abused by this new woman. She will make sure of it.

What constitutes perfection? Yayra Amenyo thought she had the perfect life—parents who loved her, friends she could count on, membership in the elite Maths and Science club at school, a boyfriend she had had a crush on for a very long time, and best of all, relief from inflammatory bowel disease. After an accident that killed her father and left her face and parts of her body scarred, she knows nothing about her life would ever be perfect again. Not just because her mother acts like everything is normal when it isn’t or because her boyfriend is on a break with her. Not even because she looks like a Dr. Blyte from Captain Planet or because she’s moved to a town far from anyone she knows and she has to repeat Form Two in SHS, but because she knows she’s the reason her father died that day. Just as she begins making friends and settling into her new school, people find out she uses a colostomy bag and they treat her like a freak. She forms an unlikely friendship with one of the other school outcasts, a teenaged father named Jamal.As she struggles to adjust to life in a new community far from the only place she’s ever called home, she learns to find perfection in the imperfect, find her place in her school community, and find love in the unlikeliest of places.

A young adult book featuring, Nayram Agbezudor, a girl who wants to stand as head prefect in an elite mixed secondary school which has a history of only male head prefects.This book is part of the Inspire Us Collection.Sponsored by the Pussycat Foundation, Worldreader has created a digital collection of stories featuring Ghanaian and West African women role models. This collection is made up of 10 original pieces of content sourced through a writing contest. The collection includes stories that clearly articulate women as protagonists, change agents, and leaders of the future, with themes ranging from discrimination to early marriage, to inadequate access to employment.The Inspire Us Project is leveraging mobile technology and literature to redefine gender stereotypes and boost women’s and girls’ empowerment and assertiveness through this digital collection of books. Worldreader is a non-profit championing digital reading in underserved communities to create a world where everyone can be a reader.