In this room they're trying to create 10 new children's books in one day.
It's part of a plan to get more kids reading in South Africa.
Today there are 50 creative volunteers who are giving their everything to make new children's books in 12 hours
and their energy is high but so is the awareness of how important what they're doing is.
South Africa has a big problem with child literacy.
Nearly 80% of children are not confident readers by the age of 10.
That's partly due to poverty and inequality
but also because children's books can be expensive
and are often in English which for many is a second language.
So a group from the publishing industry started Book Dash
to make lots of books in super fast time.
We need to create books that are for children that cannot afford to buy books
and get them reading, get them falling in love with books from a young age
so that when they grow up they also know the importance of reading.
At Book Dash events volunteers create a book against the clock.
So what we're doing making these books in 12 hours is a fraction of the time
it would normally take to make in a traditional publishing model.
It is also, we've calculated, about 20% of the costs that are normally involved in publishing a book.
Each team is made up of a writer, a designer and an illustrator.
The book my team is working on is a bit different. It's a musical book.
We've got symbols of different musical instruments and over the course of the book we teach children
what sound to say when they see each of those pictures. So by the end of the book
they'll be yelling out "boom, tikky, tikky, tish!" which is quite a lot of fun.
The publishing industry in South Africa is mainly white
but Book Dash is trying to make its books as diverse as possible.
Zibu likes like soccer.
Zizo likes drawing pictures.
At the end of the day 10 new books have been created.
The main cost of the process comes at the printing stage.
Then charities give away the books to children
like at this school in Masiphumelele township.
But do the kids like these quickly written books?
Ever since we started taking the books to their kids we've seen a vast difference
the kids are now loving books.
So I remember way back kids used to read as a punishment: 'Go to the reading corner,' so there
was no love for the books but now we are actually trying to cultivate a love of books for the kids
so now they read for fun.
Book Dash has created 170 books and given away 2.5 million copies.
They're also available online to download for free
and are often translated into different languages.
The aim is for every child in South Africa to own 100 books.
That might be a long way off
but many children seem to treasure their new books.
A partner told us that the children love their books so much and it's one of the only things that
they own, that they put their books under their pillows when they sleep at night
just because it's something of theirs that they love so much.