Cover of Oriya children’s magazine. Picture by Ashwinee Pati

Bhubaneswar, Oct. 8: Children’s folk tales and short stories from various other languages will be available to Oriya readers. A collection of tales was recently launched in a colourful and illustrated form with a view to encourage reading habit among the young readers.

Folk tales, poems and stories from Indonesia, Russia, Tibet, England, France, Greece as well as children’s literature in Gujrati, Tamil, Bengali, Hindi, Malayalam, Sanskrit and other Indian languages have been compiled together in the magazine ‘Jhumuka’ in Oriya version.

The works of well-known international authors such as Guy de Maupassant, John Foster, Robert Louis Stevenson and Indian authors writing in regional languages such as Jogendra Dubey, Tarashankar Bandopadhyay, G Satyan, Ashish Sanyal and many others have been included in the children’s magazine. There are a number of illustrations too to help attract young readers. The translators include Das Benhur, Jatin Das, Manaswini Dash, Lata Mohanty, Sanghamitra Kar, Pratibha Mishra and others.

Litterateurs for long have been complaining about Oriya children’s literature coming to a standstill in the state but they seem to appreciate this effort.

“Children’s literature is the foundation of readership as the scope of literature for this age is much wider than that of the grown ups.”

Although it is in neglected state since the last couple of decades, such initiatives should help attract children to read literature and make reading a pleasure for them,” says writer Das Benhur.

Publisher Manas Ranjan Samal says there is an urgent need for children’s literature in Oriya and more writers need to come up with enjoyable and pleasant subjects for children.

“When you look at other states, there is enough material that a child can pick up and enjoy reading. But sadly, it is not the case here. Therefore we are planning to come out with more translated works and then switch over to regional literature for children, in the coming issues of our magazine,” says Samal.

The special issue of translated works was launched at the 24th anniversary of the children’s magazine.

Similarly, teacher and children’s writer Shailabala Mohapatra’s short story collection ‘Chunmuni Jinila’ that was recently launched, includes funny stories that children starting from five years of age can enjoy.

“I have tried to include stories with moral values. With the presence of the girl Chunmuni as the main character, the kids will certainly enjoy reading the stories,” says Mohapatra.

She has already published five poetry books and ten storybooks of translated works from Hindi and English published in books under the Children’s Book Trust and National Book Trust.