Andhra Pradesh: Annual children's book fair enthralls students; comics, history books among popular categories

Former Vice-President of India Muppavarapu Venkaiah Naidu also visited the exhibition and interacted with the students
Image for representation (Pic: Sourced)
Image for representation (Pic: Sourced)

Countless books on display in an array of stalls grabbed the eyeballs of children from LKG to Class X as hundreds of them thronged the 33rd edition of the Vijayawada Books Exhibition on Sunday, February 12.

According to a report by The New Indian Express, enthusiasm was high as children along with parents and several book lovers were seen checking out the stalls in large numbers. Even the stall owners were delighted to see the rise in footfall during the weekend. The famous Chandamama storybooks, which have mesmerised children for 40 years, were successful in drawing the attention of the children. JP Publications brought seven volumes of Chandamama in Telugu as well as in English. A few schools also brought their students to experience the thrill at the annual book festival.

Meanwhile, the students showed their interest in puzzles, general knowledge, science fiction, handwriting and comic books. Teachers from different schools taught interesting stories to the children, including the Payasam for a bear written by the famous writer Sudha Murthy, who is chairperson of the Infosys Foundation. Even as books of all genres made it to the fair, children’s books turned out to be show stealers. Ch Sravani of NSM Public School said, “I like colouring books, stories of Akbar and Birbal and Chandamama are my favourite ones. Will purchase some selected books after having a tour of the expo.”

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M Vijayalakshmi, Professor in Pharmacy KVSR Siddhartha College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, who came along with her daughter to the fest, said, “Parents need to be aware of the benefits of bringing their children to such book fairs.” Speaking to The New Indian Express, Raghu, stall owner of Dreamworld India publication from Coimbatore said, “The response of the children has been outstanding during the weekend because we sell children’s books, activity books and reusable books till Class X. Apart from books, we are selling motivational stickers and posters. We have to see the response in the rest of the days.”

History books were also a crowd-puller at the exhibition. B Nivas Reddy, a Class V student, was amused to see a row of history books. “I purchased books on Indian History. Though I liked to buy children’s books, Tinkle is not up to the mark anymore,” he expressed. Nivas Reddy’s classmate, D Dhanush Raj, also shared a similar opinion. He said, “I like books on history, general knowledge and English magazines. There’s nothing better to know other than what’s happening in the country and around the world. Children’s books have lost their sheen with barely any new content available in the markets.”

Meanwhile, the former Vice-President of India Muppavarapu Venkaiah Naidu visited the exhibition. He interacted with the students of Sri Mandava Kanakayya Zilla Parishad High School of Movva of Krishna District, who displayed their science projects under Atal Tinkering Labs. He asked the students about their projects such as women’s safety system, automatic plant irrigation, waste lighting, health monitoring systems, rain detectors and so on. G Sri Sai Gopi, a student, tested the temperature and BP of the former VP by using his health monitoring system. Krishna district science officer said that Venkaiah suggested that the kids invent more equipment while setting the benchmark for others.

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