Begin typing your search above and press return to search.

Children�s book festival from October 9

By Staff Reporter

GUWAHATI, Oct 6 - The stage is set for the 11th Festival of Books for Children beginning from October 9 at the Assam Engineering Institute playground here.

Being organised by Anwesha, a socio-cultural organisation, the book festival aims to expose children to the world of books and inculcate the habit of reading among them and also to familiarise them with the world beyond the classroom.

A press release from the organisers stated that a number of activities have been planned this year and all the events will be organised at a pavilion named after Lummer Dai, the great author and literary figure of Arunachal Pradesh.

�The Government of Arunachal Pradesh will also participate in the festival. The central theme of the festival will be WASH (water, sanitation and hygiene). Three picture books developed on WASH in collaboration with the UNICEF are also likely to be released. There will also be an open session on Clean Guwahati and Green Guwahati involving children, leading citizens and senior government officials,� the release stated.

Prof AC Bhagabati, former Vice Chancellor, Rajiv Gandhi University, Prof Mridul Hazarika, Vice Chancellor, Gauhati University, Prof Anuradha Dutta, former HoD, Political Science, Gauhati University, Dr M Angamuthu, DC, Kamrup Metro and Narayan Konwar, Commissioner, GMC, will participate in the open session and interact with the children, which will be organised in collaboration with the Guwahati Municipal Corporation.

An important feature of the 11th festival will be a two-day workshop on storytelling for children, to be organised in collaboration with the UNICEF. This workshop will be conducted by internationally acclaimed storyteller Jeeva Raghunath who enthralled children last year during the festival.

Atanu Roy, well-known illustrator of children�s books, will conduct a two-day art workshop for children in the festival. This time, a new addition to the festival will be a two-day hands-on workshop on art and science for early graders by Mita Hegde of Circle of Explorers from New Delhi.

A library workshop will be conducted for 60 select schools of Kamrup and Kamrup Metro during the festival in collaboration with the UNICEF. The workshop will be inaugurated by Prof Dhrubajyoti Saikia, Vice Chancellor, Cotton State University, and eminent authors Harekrishna Deka and Arup Kumar Dutta will attend it as resource persons. The workshop will be conducted by Uuddalak Datta, an education expert from New Delhi.

The Centre of Plasma Physics-Institute for Plasma Research (CPP-IPR), Assam, will also participate in the festival. As part of its silver jubilee celebration, it will put up a stall to showcase its activities in the festival and conduct a video conference with the Institute of Plasma Research at Ahmedabad, Gujarat.

�Here children will interact with the Director of the institute and other scientists. Another important feature of the festival will be an exhibition of select Assamese books for children which will be organised in collaboration with the Axom Sarba Siksha Abhijan.

On the last day of the festival (October 18), the National Book Trust, India, will organise a discussion on �Knowledge Resources of the Northeast and Children�s Literature.� Save the Children and Aide-et-Action will organise a few programmes during the festival for marginalised sections of the children. However, the main attraction of the 11th Festival of Books for Children will be a children�s book fair, organised in collaboration with the National Book Trust. There will be no entry fees for visitors to the festival.

Next Story