Published date: 20th April, 2024
A chat with Ms.Shreya Veronica from The New Indian Express – about noticing the dearth of Telugu children’s books in the late 80s, which sparked Bala Sahithi to be formed. What started off as a passion project, soon took the shape of Manchi Pustakam, a public trust registered in 2004.
We discuss why we stuck to publishing and promoting Telugu language books:
The need for Telugu books was there. Until a particular time like the 80s, there were magazines, books and translations. I believe that in the 60s and 70s, all world literature was in Telugu in various publication houses. The houses focusing primarily on Telugu books were not there and that is the reason we stuck to the language.
Here is P.Bhagyalakshmi talking about an often overlooked aspect in getting children to want to read books:
I would request parents to leave the child to select books. We have seen that in so many exhibitions, the parents buy the books. Parents are buying from their own perspective but not from the child’s perspective. If you leave a child, even a one-year-old kid would select an age-appropriate book, just by looking at them. You have to give the freedom to the child to take their books so that they can enjoy the book. Many parents feel that the child might tear the book and we might insist them to buy the book. But in our experience, no child has ever torn a book here. I tell parents that we are not going to insist on taking the book if the child tears it by mistake.
You can read the full article here.
