Children’s books are selling like hot cakes at the International Kolkata Book Fair at Boimela Prangan in Salt Lake.

Titles like Tenali Ram, Gopal Bhand, Folk Tales of West Bengal, Folk Tales Retold, Stories of the Buddha, Rhymes and ABC for kids have sold out at the stall by Children’s Book Trust (CBT), which is attracting not only little ones but also officials from different schools and NGOs, who work with children.

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“We sold as many books in the fair in 10 days that we sell from our book shop at Lenin Sarani in Kolkata. Selling 500 to 1,500 books on an average daily, on weekends it reached 2,000 books a day. Some parents who cannot come again are buying up to 90 books at one go as the prices are as low,” Rana Siddiqui Zaman, lead strategist, content, communications & promotions, Children’s Book Trust

The Delhi-based trust has a motto of reaching children in the lowest common denominator in every village/hamlet. That is also the reason why they have not increased the prices for the books for a long time. The CBT’s books come with moral values. It believes that as children grow up, they should know about Indian culture, heritage and moral values.

The CBT has now embarked on a plan, ‘Look East Policy’, where its focus is on eastern and northeastern states, including West Bengal, Odisha, Jharkhand, Meghalaya and Assam, where its internal survey shows that in these states parents and their children are still willing to buy and read books.

“In this internal survey for over a year in 16 schools and libraries in the eastern region, beginning with Santiniketan, and moving to Asansol, Kolkata, Assam and Odisha, in government as well as private schools. This was more of a brainstorming discussion with parents, teachers, librarians and principals of these schools as well as children aged 6 to 16, about the kind of books they like to read,” said Ms Zaman.

The survey finds that children are still excited about reading story books of almost all kinds, especially grandma tales, untold stories apart from, especially mystery, adventure and horror. This is what they get through mobiles and that’s what they wish to read too.

Taking cue from the Look East Policy, the CBT will move to north and then to south of India. The 70-year-old publishers are now planning book cafe cum entertainment zones for children, where there would be books and activities related to books. “The child will read the book and then go to the activity zone to solve the puzzle and write back his experience. This will give a feeling of reading, achievement and physical activity. We have started this activity zone in Chanakyapuri in Delhi with a roaring success. The zones will have story-telling and writing sessions. We are trying to spot budding writers at these café zones. We will then bring out the stories in their name,” said the lead strategist.

The CBT has 1,100 titles in its repertoire. Every year, it comes out with 25 or so titles in English, Hindi, Bengali, Tamil, Telugu. “We now plan to come out with books in Urdu,” added the lead strategist.

“Kids are very aggressive today, they are impatient. They are not well conversant with English or Hindi, not even in their mother tongue. In the age of Instagram, the child is in a hurry. He is sharp-minded but lacks patience and suffers from stress and anger. He needs immediate appreciation. But in the villages, kids are willing to play and love doing physical activities whenever they get any opportunity,” observes Ms Zaman.

Another observation is that girls are no more happy playing with dolls but now are in a discovery mood, wanting mystery and adventure and puzzle. “Our chairperson, ex-MP Kishorilal ji, who is also a founding member of CBT, too feels that children should start reading books again,” added Ms Zaman.