A treat for young bookworms

“Taslima, wait!” called Sabrina.

But, it was almost impossible to stop her. She was having too much fun!

Not only the seven-year-old was welcomed by an array of books with bright and colourful pictures as soon as she entered the Suhrawardy Udyan, there was also a corner there, dedicated solely to children like her.

It was after all a Friday yesterday and Taslima went to the Amar Ekushey Grantha Mela along with her mother, Sabrina Akhter, in the morning to enjoy the literary fair.

The morning belonged to the children. They were also given preferences while entering the fair at Bangla Academy and Suhrawardy Udyan.

The fair was abuzz with their laughter and chatter while their parents were also busy browsing through books searching for favourites as well as new adventures.

“This is something my daughter loves the most about the fair… running around and selecting books on her own,” said Sabrina while standing in front of the stall of Tonatuni. Meanwhile, Taslima was busy picking her favourites.

During the month-long fair, on every Friday and Saturday, two hours, from 11:00am to 1:00pm, has been declared as “Shishu Prahar”. Children can play and learn at the same time, said Bangla Academy Director Jalal Ahmed.

Shefali Begum, a resident of Mohammadpur, was browsing through books near Nazrul Mancha inside Bangla Academy in the afternoon.

“Today [yesterday] being the weekend, I've decided to come early and buy books for my family,” said Shefali, also a banker.

She bought quite a few books including a reprint of Rabindranath Tagore's “Chokher Bali” from Muktodhara.

Meanwhile, inside the Udyan, people crowded “Onnya Prakash”, where Shumanta Aslam's “Sporsher Bairey” was one of the popular choices. But most of the booklovers still preferred books written by Humayun Ahmed, said the salespersons.

Fifty-four books were published yesterday on the second day. Many of the publishers were seen busy putting finishing touches to their stalls. The stalls bore a fresh smell of paint mixed with that of excitement of buying and selling new books. A total of 455 publishers are participating in the book fair.