Children Literature and Bring Back the Book Culture

By Prisca Sam-Duru

The worrisome dearth experienced in the readership culture of Nigerians over the years have undoubtedly, resulted in several initiatives by both individuals and organisations, aimed at encouraging people to go back to reading .

It was in line with that move that the number one citizen of the country, President Goodluck Jonathan launched a reading campaign tagged, Bring Back The Book Culture, which charged Nigerians to imbibe the habit of reading so as to enhance human and material productivity.

The president’s Bring back the Book Culture may have finally received the boost it needed to create a positive change in people’s attitude towards the print as exhibited by the children during the 2011 CORA Book Party held at Eko Hotel and Suites last week.

At the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas endowed Nigeria Prize for Literature Book Party the turn out of children, the enthusiasm with which they participated in reading, book reviews and the question segments, which were quite overwhelming, all exposed the secret yearnings of the young ones to record their names in the annals of history as great authors of this age.

It was a complete book feast for children and watching the students of Alakoto Senior Secondary School Ajegunle read out their reviews of the six shortlisted books and thereafter, intelligently answering questions posed by the coordinator of the segment, Dagga Tolar during a conversation around the six books, climaxing in one of them, advocating for the institution of Children Prize for Literature, proves that the children book party which is third in the series is a landmark initiative by CORA.

The children’s level of involvement in the programme which was actually children – centered appears to be the panacea for reviving the dying reading culture of Nigerians. Though the programme was to honour the six authors whose works were shortlisted out of 126 for the $100,000 prize money, it eloquently revealed the readiness of these young ones to be full participants as members of the literary community if motivated.

It was an overwhelming show of excellence as Bakare Salamiat reviewed Philip Begho’s Antie Felicia goes to school, Paul Kolawole handled Red Nest by Thelma Nwokeji., Mai Nasara’s The Missing Clock was worked on by Femi Folarin , The Great Fall by Chinyere Obi-Obasi was reviewed by Francesca Agbaenso, Judith Nwabia tackled The Runaway Hero written by Uche Peter Umez while Abel Afolabi reviewed Ayodele Olofintuade’s Eno’s Story .

Afterward, the six authors were paired with six children from Environmental Advocate Group, CATES Foundation while they read excerpts from each book. A heated argument however ensued when the question session was thrown open to the public. A secondary school student took it up on Olofintuade’s Eno’s story. He insisted on a prove that there are no child witches but adults as documented in the book but the author maintained her stance that there are no child witches rather, the elders who are in different cults. She went further to instruct every child present at the party to refer to any adult who calls a child a witch, as ignoramus.

Chris Osondu a cultural activist, captivated by the turn out of event, suggested that the works be translated into digital forms so as to recover the children’s attention from foreign cartoons which killed folktales on moon light programmes adding that the cartoons do little or no good to the moral upbringing of the child.

Since the six books as pointed out during the book party, reflect the realities of the society and their character in a manner that children can relate to, films could successfully be produced from them from African perspectives to purge any negative impact of foreign influence from the minds of these ones who hold the key to the future of Nigeria.

With Nigerians being serious in the business of producing high quality books for children and hopefully, notable young writers are soon to emerge if their award category is established, catching them young by encouraging their total participation in literary matters should definitely do the expected magic of resuscitating the reading culture because there can’t be children writers without having children readers just like there can’t be good writers who are poor readers.