Teddies move over, the booming book bazaar is getting younger by the day to entice toddlers barely out of their nappies to
the fine print.
Harper-Collins India has come out with a new toddlers' series aimed at developing reading skills of children aged between one and five years.
The “Big Cat Read at Home” series, a cache of 16 toddlers' books published in June, is divided in four levels.
While level one – called “First Steps” (or the red book) - strings few simple words and pictures together for children as young as one year old, level 2, “Discover Reading” teaches two-to-three year olds to read short sentences with colourful visuals.
Level three, “Explore Reading”, links stories with speech and developed characters. Level Four, “Love Reading”, stretches the stories a little more so that they can be read independently.
The books are elementary. For example, a level one book, “Woody's Week” teaches toddlers to remember the seven days in a week through little Woody's daily activities and moods – in one sentence for each day.
If on Monday, Woody is happy, on Tuesday he is sad. The accompanying illustrations explain why.
“Children are not reading these days and parents are working. They do not have the time or the energy to read books to their children. The USP of the toddlers' series is that one can go beyond the book. At the end of each book, there are notes for parents on how to use the series for various activity for kids,” Lipika Bhushan, marketing manager of Harper Collins-India, said.
The books have been prompted by the 'Mom and I' and 'Dad and I' workshops we have conducted to promote reading habits among children and help parents and their children bond better, Bhushan said.
The marketing manager of Harper Collins said 2008-2009 has seen a spurt in the sale of children's books with business growing by 10-12 per cent despite the downturn.
In keeping with the growing sale figures, Harper-Collins India has expanded its children's spread with the Dr Suess Series, the Sleepover Club Series, Darren Shan series, the Narnia series, Mary Kate series and the Ashley series- mostly adventure and little girlie tales.
Besides, classics like J.R R. Tolkien's trilogy “The Lord of the Rings”, “Hobbit” and “The Children of Hurin”- also published by Harper-Collins – have a steady market in India, Bhushan said.
The
publishing house will introduce three more three series for children- Skullduggery and Skullduggery Pleasant, the Melissa Marr series and Wings by Pyke series- in the coming months.
The price bands of the books ranges between Rs 75 and Rs 495.
The business model to sell the new series will be the same as general books – through the bookstores, retail channels and distributors who supply to school libraries, Bhushan said.
“Reading is one of the most basic steps to knowledge for a developing child and a potent de-stressing activity for all ages. Children should develop reading as a skill and a fun activity because pictorial books with simple stories engage the attention and interest of a child,” Samir Parikh, consultant psychologist at Max Healthcare said.
The publishing house is also promoting quality children books by Indian authors.
“Last year we published books like the 'Kidnapping of Amir Hamza', 'Traveller, the Tiger and the Very Clever Jackal', 'In the Indian Night Sky' and 'Captured in Miniature' by Indian writers for children aged between one and five in association with Mapin. This year, we launched a book, 'Monkey Tales and Raja: King of the Jungle' for the same age group,” she said.
The trouble, said officials at Harper-Collins India was that not too many Indian authors were writing childre's books.
The publishing house has lined up children's titles by authors M. Mangaldas & Mistri, R. Sapre, S. Shirodhkar, Rohington Mody and Balraj Khanna later this year.
The total turnover of the India publishing industry is estimated at $2 billion.
--Madhusree Chatterjee