By Gifty Amofa/Elizabeth Yaa Brobbey, GNA
Accra, Aug. 29, GNA – The International
Board for Books for the Young (iBBY) has opened its Fifth African Regional
Conference in Accra with a call on publishers to use illustrations to make
their books attractive to children.
Madam Akoss Ofori-Mensah, the President of
iBBY-Ghana, who made the call, said illustrations were important to children
because pictures fascinated more than words hence the need to use images to
make the books attractive.
The four-day conference brought participants
from Gambia, Brazil, Uganda, Tanzania, Sierra Leone, China, United Kingdom,
Germany, Sweden, Denmark and South Africa to discuss the importance of
illustrations in children’s picture books.
It was on the theme: “Importance of
Illustrations in Children’s Books.”
Madam Ofori-Mensah said some books from the
colonial era were still being used today because the texts, illustrations,
printing and binding were beautifully done.
However, it was time to replace such books
to get children to relate to things in their environment, she said.
“As a child, I read stories such as Snow
White and the Seven Dwarfs and others. The colonial masters shared their
stories with us and I remember my school teacher taught me poems that I can
still recite now, made to draw daffodils in my exercise book but until I
travelled to the UK, I had never seen daffodils,” Madam Ofori-Mensah said.
She said Ghana had stories to tell such as
folktales that would help children learn about their culture, environment and
build their confidence.
Mr Shi Ting Wang, the Chinese Ambassador to
Ghana, urged parents to invest more in books for their children, saying it
would better their lives in future.
He said if children developed the habit of
reading, it would build their abilities to explore and learn new things.
Mr Shi said children’s literature in China
had grown ten-fold since 2005, becoming a dynamic and promising sector in the
publishing industry.
He said in 2,000 about 12,000 children’s
book were published in China, which had increased to 40,000 in 2015 due to
outstanding performance of the publishers and children’s interest in reading.
“As China has grown into the second biggest
economy in the world, children’s literature are attracting more and more
attention of the world,” he noted.
He commended Professor Esi Sutherland Addy
for her contributions to education, literature, theatre and culture in the past
decades.
Mr Mingzhou Zhang, the iBBY President, said
the group’s prime function was to promote the joy of reading and literacy among
children and make children’s literature and plays more accessible, affordable
and of high quality.
It is also to produce quality books with
illustrations to help the children acquire more knowledge.
He said the high rate of illiteracy in
Africa had become a barrier to prosperity, adding that it was good to encourage
children to read because it provided them the ability of learning
spontaneously.
This, Mr Mingzhou said, would create an
opportunity for the children to become addicted to reading and desist from
technology, which had taken their attention nowadays.
He said reading created wisdom,
understanding and broadened the minds of children.
Mrs Cynthia Mamle Morrison, the Minister for
Gender, Children and Social Protection, said the conference had coincided with
the National Children’s Day and the 40 years of the establishment of the
Government machinery for implementation of Children’s Rights.
Also is the commemoration of the 30th
Anniversary on the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
She said the theme was apt as words in
themselves did not mean much to children but pictures stuck forever, adding
that encouraging children to read would develop them holistically.
Professor Esi Sutherland Addy advised that
African books be made attractive to compete with those on the international
market.
GNA
