How can a bunch of people make more children read more and better books?

 

While this sounds like a gargantuan task, it may well be achieved with close collaboration between key people, and with proper understanding of the reader’s culture and context.

 

At a conference for children’s books organized by the National Book Development Board (NBDB), issues and possible solutions were discussed. Titled “Manguna sa Unang Pagbasa (Lead in Children’s First Reading Practices),” the conference had multiple speakers from different foundations and government bodies, along with an audience of publishers, authors and illustrators.

 

Joseph O’Reilly, senior education adviser of Save the Children United Kingdom,  said there was a “book gap” in children’s reading, especially regarding the availability of materials and appropriateness according to age, context and language.

 

“Book gaps” also exist because of parents and teachers.

 

“Maybe the parents themselves don’t know how to read and write, so even a [children’s book] like this may seem threatening,” O’Reilly said.

 

He added that by responding to such  problematic areas, First Read hoped that books would come to the possession of poor families.

 

Inquirer columnist and NBDB chair Neni Sta. Romana-Cruz also had the same sentiment  and narrated heart-warming stories about an incident in Valenzuela, where a principal who had a soft spot for literacy allowed Sta. Romana-Cruz and her group to distribute books to the children there.

 

“We should give [children] a love for reading, there is no excuse for not reading,” Cruz said.

 

Jason Griffiths, director of the Summer Institute of Linguistics Philippines, said that children’s books should have the proper cultural context and be written in the minority languages.

 

“When we use [other] people’s language, it really is affirming—maybe even more so if they see something produced in their language,” Griffiths said. “It’s empowering to see the book and see their text in their language written there.

 

Indigenizing books

 

Family and child development specialist Lovie Moneva said children’s reading should be age-appropriate and should accord with the reader’s experience.

 

“We have to consider first what their experiences are-so therefore, such a [reading] activity should be fun,” she said.

 

Education Undersecretary Dina Ocampo-Cristobal discussed the implications of K-12 and its mother tongue policy to the children’s publishing.

 

“What matters is getting people to write modules for [children], vet it, and send it out for contextualization in 19 other languages,”  Cristobal said.

 

Scholastic, the publisher of the “Harry Potter” series which has established an office in Manila, presented a plan to indigenize books.

 

“We are now taking work from Asia back to the [West],” Scholastic Asia director Selina Lee said.  “It is a fairly new initiative for us—in Malay, Thai—but we’re certainly looking at trying out Tagalog, but that’s probably something in the next year.”

 

“Discovering good work in Asia is not a problem,” Lee said.

 

A conference on children’s publishing would be incomplete without a book launch and a little fun for the kids.

 

Books on children’s games of some of Mindanao cultural communities were introduced: “Dad Snagwas Ngà” (B’laan); “Sen-gwas Kem Ngà” (T’boli); and “Danga Na Mangayse” (Tagakaulo).

 

Due to their close cultural geography, the games are almost the same, varying only slightly in name and execution.

 

A notable example is a tickling game for two (Klang in B’laan, Kleng Bonol in T’boli), which is played by having one player walk up his fingers up from the hand of another player, toward the shoulder, and tickling the playmate where it counts.

 

Two other books in Tagalog were also launched. “Beybi sa Banig” (The Baby in the Palm Leaf Mat), written by University of the Philippines  professor Will Ortiz and illustrated by GMA art director Ghani Madueño, is a counting book. It also appears to promote breastfeeding and close physical relationship between the mother and child.

 

UP professor Eugene Evasco and University of Santo Tomas  Fine Arts alumnus Jonathan Rañola teamed up in the book “Ang Espesyal na Araw” (The Special Day).

 

The book talks of the values of cleanliness and recycling. Evasco uses the word “magic” as a metaphor for doing chores, implying that these tasks can be done in a fun way.

 

The two books were also read to an audience of children and mothers from Caloocan, where the authors and illustrators immersed themselves to get a better perspective of their books.

 

Hiyas ng Pilipinas Youth Choir, led by UST alumnus and music teacher Nicanor Infante, sang Filipino Christmas songs such as “Kumukutikutitap” and “Ang Pasko ay Sumapit.”

 

They also sang folk classics such as “Bahay Kubo,” in Tagalog and T’boli, a set of Cordilleran chants that mimicked animals’ wails in the jungle, and the Kapampangan classic, “Atin Cu Pung Singsing (I Have a Ring).”