Book fair has little Tamil literature for children this year

CHENNAI: With more than 350 stalls selling Tamil books, the 35th Chennai Book Fair is a treat for readers of the language. However, the fair has little to offer children when it comes to regional literature.
Publishers say there are few takers for Tamil children’s books. “It is difficult to sell children’s books in Tamil. Our only customers are schools that buy textbooks or a few books to stock libraries,” says M Duraimanickam, books in-charge at Palaniappa Brothers that stocks a few Tamil short story and poetry books for children.“Even when it comes to non-academic books, schools are interested only in non-fiction or short biographies. There are very few published authors who write for children,” he says.
However, Tamil literature is a hit at the book fair and stalls selling Tamil literature far outnumber English book stalls. Publishers say that writers like Divakar and K R A Narasiah, the authors of ‘Emden’ and ‘Madrasapattinam’ are bestsellers. “There is an absence of new and innovative children’s fiction in Tamil. Most are either folk tales or translated versions of traditional stories such as ‘Akbar and Birbal’,” says R S Shanmugam, president of Booksellers’ and Publishers’ Association of South India.
Shanmugam says writes and publishers stay away from children’s fiction as there is very little money in it. “Most children’s books are not reprinted and there is no royalty on sales. Publishers are afraid to experiment with new writers,” he says. “Schools and parents need to encourage children to read books in regional languages. General knowledge books are the highest selling for children, maybe because of the large number of quiz programmes on TV,” he adds.
While many schools offer Tamil as a second language and parents acknowledge the need for children to be acquainted with literature in their mother tongue, the preference is clearly for English reading. “My children are starting to read and we are trying to build an interest in English books first. Maybe we will introduce them to Tamil books later,” says Lavanya, mother of two boys aged eight and 10, who loves reading Tamil fiction.
A few publishers like Mazhalai Soll Pathipagam have come out with bilingual books for children in Tamil and English. “This is for the benefit of children who are not able to read Tamil. Our books have large images and illustrations to make them more accessible to children,” says Sadiq, manager at the Samparuthy Children’s World book stall.