By IANS,
New Delhi : At a time when books have taken a backseat to television, internet and videogames, Harper Collins Publishers India Wednesday tried its bit to promote reading Hindi books among children in the capital.
It held a storytelling session of the Hindi translation of C.S. Lewis’ “The Chronicles of Narnia” – “Rajkumar Caspian” – at the Oxford Bookstore in Connaught Place.
“Nowadays children, especially under the age of 12, are not reading much for leisure apart from their text books and through our story-telling sessions and workshops we are trying to lend a helping hand and push them a bit towards the same,” Lipika Bhushan, manager (marketing) of Harper Collins told IANS.
She added: “Moreover, Hindi being our national language is not read and followed to that extent. Harper Collins Hindi came out with the translated versions of fantasy novels like ‘The Chronicles of Narnia’”.
The publishing house is now planning a series of similar workshops in different cities across the country over a period of three months.
Bhushan added that they were also trying to strengthen the parent-child bond through such sessions.
“We are also trying to bond the parent-child relationship by organising workshops to teach parents the art of storytelling. Nowadays parents don’t read to their kids and in the long run it hampers their imaginative growth,” she said.
Other titles in the children’s section that would be read in the future sessions include Dr. Seuss’ “Fox in Socks” and “Green, Eggs and Ham”, among others, published by the house.