Summer reading for youth lacks Vietnamese titles

HCM CITY — Local publishers will print 17 new books for young readers to consume on their summer holidays, but people are concerned about the availability of authentic Vietnamese material, as 15 of the titles are foreign.
Local publishers and readers are concerned about the ratio.
Explaining the shortage of Vietnamese stories for children, Nguyen Quang Vinh, director of the Kim Dong Publishing House, said his company did not receive good ideas from authors that know how to appeal to children’s imagination.
"We hope to receive creative ideas for characters and stories that appeal to Viet Nam’s children and youth and give them an appreciation for stories about Vietnamese life," Vinh said.
Toi La Be To (I’m Be To) by well-known writer Nguyen Nhat Anh and Sieu Nhan Do (A Red Superman) by Nguyen Thi Hong An are the two new Vietnamese stories published to entertain the country’s young readers over their summer holidays, which begin next week.
Anh’s story is about five dogs living in a writer’s family. His story Kinh Van Hoa (Kaleidoscope) broke publishing records in Viet Nam, selling more than 1.5 million of copies when it was published two years ago.
A Red Superman, with illustrations by Eddy Coubeaux, a painter from Belgium, praises teenage friendship.
Kim Dong also will republish some already popular Vietnamese children stories like To Hoai’s An Adventure of a Cricket and Nguyen Huy Tuong’s A Flag Embroidered with Six Golden Letters.
The Youth Publishing Co and Kim Dong Publishing House will organise a week-long children’s book fair at the HCM City Exhibition House, 92 Le Thanh Ton Street, beginning tomorrow.
Next Monday, participants will have the chance to meet An and Coubeaux, the writer and illustrator of A Red Superman.