A file picture of a children’s book fair organsied earlier by Anwesha

Oct. 17: Children’s literature in the state is all set to get a big fillip. Anwesha, a city-based non-governmental organisation (NGO), will release nine books for young readers by the end of this month.

“We want to give a major thrust to the publication of children’s literature, which still remains a grey area. We will be bringing out reprints of several classics as well,” said Anwesha secretary Dudulmoni Sarmah.

The books to be released include Navakanta Barua’s children’s anthology, Rabindranathor Lorali Kaal on the childhood of Rabindranath Tagore by Rani Gohain and Japanor Khadu (tales of Japan) by Tushoprobha Kalita.

There will also be an Assamese translation of the famous book The Man Who Planted Trees by Jean Giono, which had inspired the afforestation movement.

There would be three reprints — Moina, a children’s classic by Hari Prasad Barua, Sagarar Katha (a story of the sea) by Ramesh Chandra Goswami and Atul Chandra Hazarika’s Nila Sorai (translation of The Blue Bird by Maurice Maeterlinck).

Anwesha has also decided to launch a series titled Amar Pratibha based on the life of eminent personalities from Assam. As its first venture, there will be both English and Assamese versions of Arup Kumar Dutta’s biography of Rupkonwar Jyotiprasad Agarwalla.

“We plan to make it a regular endeavour on our part. This will help create awareness about our cultural icons among the young generation, specially the English-speaking students,” added Sarmah.

Anwesha had organised a weeklong spring festival of books for children in April this year.

The response to the Anwesha book fair is so overwhelming that within a span of five years, the number of such book fairs has crossed 375.

“The main objective of this book promotion programme is to inculcate the reading habit, particularly among the younger generation, and to create a book culture in this region,” said Sarmah.

Anwesha also participated in the New Delhi World Book Fair in 1996 and represented Asamiya publishing in the language section of the fair.

Since then it has been regularly participating in the World Book Fair.

Immediately after coming back from the 1996 World Book Fair, it had also started organising Anwesha Book Fairs in different parts of Assam and the Northeast.

“Another feature of Anwesha Book Fair is the availability of the best and latest children’s books published from around the world at easily affordable prices,” said Sarmah.

Anwesha Book Fair is not an occasion only for buying and selling books. It is also a book festival.

Various activities — including book-related competitions, a book march by schoolchildren and a workshop on children’s literature — are also organised during the fair in almost all the places.

Recently, the National Book Trust, India, provided Anwesha with a mobile exhibition van for organising book exhibitions in Assam and northeastern states.

“The Mobile Book Fair has added a new dimension to Anwesha book fairs, extending their reach further,” said Sarmah.

The NGO is also associated with Scholastic India Pvt Ltd. Scholastic India is the Indian chapter of Scholastic Inc. of the US, the world’s largest publisher and distributor of children’s books. It also publishes and distributes other learning and reading materials in English.

Besides offering Scholastic School Book Club services to more than 100 schools of Guwahati and other places of the Northeast, it has also been regularly organising school book fairs in the schools of this region.

During the spring festival of books for children in Guwahati, story telling performances and workshops on the role of story telling as an important learning medium in the schools were conducted regularly by Kusumika Chatterjee, a professional storyteller and teacher from Coventry, England. It had also organised several meet-the-author programmes with litterateurs such as Bhabendra Nath Saikia, Mamoni Raisom Goswami, Arup Kumar Dutta and Nirupama Bargohain.