Children's literature and challenges

In a world with many means of entertainment like today, children's literature as well as many other traditional forms of entertainment for children are facing challenges, how to increase the attractiveness and appeal to young readers while still having to convey intact messages and aesthetic and humanistic values.

The children's book sector is very rich today, but there are not many literary works for children.

Children read less and face more pitfalls

One of the problems that many parents are concerned about and have a headache trying to find a way to improve is the lack of reading in young children. In the era of the 4.0 technology revolution, high-tech gadgets naturally have a great attraction for young children. With a handheld electronic device such as a tab, ipad or smartphone, a child can sit all day "playing games", not caring about anything else. This problem is not only common in urban children, but also widespread in rural areas, because the appeal of electronic devices connected to the internet is almost absolute.

Therefore, books are not the first choice of many children, especially during the summer vacation. Writer Nguyen Nhat Anh once said: “In the current context, there are many attractive forms of entertainment. In the context of technology and engineering developing rapidly today, children seem to read less.”

Children at an author-work exchange session at Hanoi Book Street.

He also believes that today's writers must sincerely accept the challenges and difficulties when facing other attractive forms of entertainment: "Unfortunately, we cannot resist the development of society, we must adapt to it like living with a flood. Writers must live with challenges to create better works, especially works for children."

Associate Professor, Dr. Pham Xuan Thach also emphasized the risks when children are drawn into technological entertainment and away from books: “Children today always have to face pitfalls. They now have to bear terrible burdens both in their studies and in their lives. That is why children need friends, not teachers through books. They need companions who understand and respect them and see them as people who have had a few years of maturity to confide in and go through the difficulties of this life.”

To attract young readers, publishing houses have had to constantly change the form, design, and content of their books to be richer and more attractive.

Poet Phan Thi Thanh Nhan also mentioned the difficulties that children today face when facing many risks: “In the current social situation, there are many issues that we can write about to educate children, because many children sit on computers and phones all day, which contain many bad things. We can educate them with attractive books, thereby changing their thinking about enjoying life - which is very bad in their thinking today”.

“Writing is like gardening”

Growing a garden not only requires soil, light and water, but also the care and meticulousness of the gardener. And the same goes for writing. That is the viewpoint of writer Tran Thuy Duong. Writing for children is like taking care of a flower garden, it has to be airy, joyful, and has to be refined in language. Writing for children is like gardening, where we sow the seeds of innocence, and that will accompany the children until they grow up, grow old and pass it on to the next generations.

Writer Tran Thuy Duong affirmed: “I believe that there will also be literary works with both happy and thoughtful details, where the author has carefully arranged the words, and also beautiful meanings to spread good values, the values ​​of Truth, Goodness and Beauty in literature. Let literature become a spiritual friend of children, when they encounter difficulties and setbacks in life, but they will remember the stories with the characters who have gone through such difficulties, they will be supported mentally and overcome them”.

Poet Phan Thi Thanh Nhan, who won a children's writing award with her work "Escape" 40 years ago, shared her secret: "There is no secret, only what you want to convey to future generations. I find that when I love someone, I often write very good love poems. I usually only write love poems, even poems about broken hearts, but when I love my siblings or children very much, I will put my feelings into them."

Researcher, Associate Professor, Dr. Van Gia pays attention to the issue of evoking emotions in children: “Today's society only focuses on chasing intelligence quotient (IQ) in children, forgetting that emotional quotient (EQ) is also extremely important. Compassion, kindness, and love are extremely important. I really appreciate works that nurture these emotions in children. This helps us become more civilized.”

Associate Professor, Dr. Van Gia believes that literature that applies emotional and compassionate indicators will bring children love, compassion, and the ability to open their hearts to everything: “If we only care about intelligence, it is not enough, we must also care about emotions. Reading a literary work must move people. Children's literature today lacks this.”

Children's literature is currently receiving much attention from authors, publishing units and especially readers. Poet Tran Dang Khoa, Vice President of the Vietnam Writers' Association, said that many competitions and campaigns for writing literature for children have been launched, such as by Kim Dong Publishing House, the Sports and Culture Newspaper of the Vietnam News Agency with the De Men Award and the Vietnam Writers' Association... Young readers are looking forward to great works, with full humanistic values, Truth - Goodness - Beauty but still carrying the breath of the times, which will soon appear, bringing inspiration, evoking beautiful emotions and love for life and people.

Source: https://baolaocai.vn/van-hoc-thieu-nhi-va-nhung-thach-thuc-post384749.html