Where do Vietnamese children’s books go? (Vietnamnet 6-6-2007)

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Where do Vietnamese children’s books go?

Since Tre and Kim Dong publishing houses, Vietnam’s biggest publishers of children’s books, announced many foreign book titles for the upcoming summer season, many have been wondering where made-in-Vietnam children’s books are.

Tre (Youth) Publishing House will at least have I am Beto by well-known writer of books for children and teenagers Nguyen Nhat Anh. Kim Dong (Children), on the other hand, is empty-handed when it comes to new Vietnamese books.


Writer Nguyen Nhat Anh

It will reprint two Vietnamese classics for children, Flag Embroidered with Six Golden Letters by Nguyen Huy Tuong and To Hoai’s House-cricket, Dove, and Pelican. Nha Nam Media and Culture Company, which has recently released a series of books for children, won’t introduce any new works by Vietnamese writers either.

Asked about such a lack of Vietnamese books for children for the summer season, Pham Quang Vinh, Kim Dong’s President and Quach Thu Nguyet, Head of Tre Publishing House, had the same answer, “There isn’t anything good to publish.”

In fact, these two publishers have tried their luck with Vietnamese works before. Kim Dong, for instance, has recently published 12 Fighters by Tuyet Nhi. All of their Vietnamese projects, however, haven’t been “as successful as expected”.

In a recently conference titled Why can’t writers survive on their works? many affirmed that Vietnamese writers couldn’t support themselves by writing alone. This is especially true for authors of children’s books, since most of them hold extra jobs.

Explaining this problem, some writers say since readers are in favour of foreign works, and publishers don’t care for Vietnamese children’s books very much, writers become too disheartened to create good works.

Nguyen Nhat Anh is generally considered an exception. He is constantly changing and exploring new topics to satisfy readers’ tastes.

When the fantasy wave hit the market, for instance, he immediately wrote Langbiang Stories, which is full of fantasy and magic. And now that children are growing up and getting tired of fantasy, the humanistic and hilarious I am Beto is currently available in bookstores.


Date update: 06/06/2007

(Source: VietnamNet)