Through my little bookshelf

When my child was young, I wanted to help him develop a reading habit, so I bought many classic children's books and read them to him before going to bed at night. They were The Noble Hearts by Italian writer Edmondo De Amicis, first published in 1886, two books Sans Famille and In the Family by French writer Hector Malot, published in 1878, Robinson Crusoe by English writer Daniel Defoe, first published in 1719... I bought these books because in my time, books and newspapers were rare, so these titles were a dream. These works were mostly heard through children's story reading programs on the radio. The generation living in the North in the 1970s certainly cannot forget the voice of artist Tue Minh reading The Noble Hearts . The lessons of being human, the concepts of the value of honor, friendship, kindness, social responsibility... are expressed very simply, clearly and touchingly through the innocent perspectives of the boys and the humane behavior of the adults that will always follow me.

When I was in school, every summer I asked my parents for money to go to the bookstore to buy books of my choice. The first books I bought by myself now lie quietly on the shelf: Southern Forest Land by Doan Gioi, Treasure Island by L. Stevenson, Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Stowe, science fiction novels by J. Verne: Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, Around the World in 80 Days, From the Earth to the Moon ... Looking at the books my child chose to buy, I feel reassured because I have guided him in the right way to read.

Then in the mid-1990s, the publishing industry exploded with Japanese comic books. The smart robot cat Doraemon and his silly friend Nobita created a wave that swept all the children into their hearts, my child was no exception. Later, manga pictures such as Detective Conan, Alchemist, Dragon Ball ... my child bought every single one. At that time, I was really worried about my child's language ability if he kept getting lost in this genre. The plot was engaging, the drawings were strange and beautiful, but the language was poor, all I saw were illustrations of action words like "pop!", "oai!" and "grrrừ"... If it continued like this, reading too many books could be counterproductive, because these comics only please the eyes, with an engaging, funny plot, but the language ability is zero.

Fortunately, when I grew up, publishers focused on translating classic children's authors from around the world. Pippi Longstocking, Emil Again ... by the Swedish classic writer A.Lindgren; White Bim with Black Ears by the Russian writer G.Troyepolsky; The Extraordinary Adventures of Carik and Valia by Yan Larri, The Little Prince by the French writer Saint-Exupéry... Especially, the popularity of Nguyen Nhat Anh's story collections began to spread to teenagers, along with the Harry Potter series by JKRowling. I feel happy because there are many useful choices for school-age children.

It is true that nowadays, when going to bookstores, you will see that there are few books written for children. On the shelves are rows and rows of detective stories, Chinese love stories, books on how to get rich, books on feng shui... Stories for children are not easy to write, if you do not have a soul in tune with children, if children cannot find themselves in the pages of literature. Children's souls are as innocent as new paper, always need the first defining strokes, so let's just look forward to the old classic books.

MERCURY

Source: https://baokhanhhoa.vn/van-hoa/202505/qua-gia-sach-nho-cua-con-b864cbe/