Thursday, February 22, 2007

Amar Ekushey Book Fair 2007 and Children Literature

In the west, Children literature is a big business. Just think of Harry Potter. This book is immensely popular among old and young around the world. Unfortunately, in Bangladesh, children’s literature is still largely neglected. Hardly anyone cares about children literature in Bangladesh. So, I am not surprised or shocked at all to see that very few books for children came in Bangla Academy Book Fair 2007.

This is not going to change as long as there is not a strong demand for children’s book in Bangladesh. Many parents in Bangladesh think that their children should only read text books and do not waste time after outside books. Unfortunately, these parents did not study extra curricular books when they were children and that is why they do not realize the value of reading these books. So, there is no strong demand for children book and publishers are not interested to invest.

This surely has to change. The best way is that the government encourages school children to read books, newspapers and comics. Teachers should be motivated to encourage students in this regard. Of course, it will not happen right away but still we have to do it for our own future.

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