Children, cheering with joy, along with their guardians thronged the Ekushey book fair venue from the opening hours at 11am on Saturday.
Amar Ekushey Book Fair 2019 has dedicated the first four hours, specially for children, called ‘Shishu Prahar,’ from 11am to 3pm every Friday and Saturday for the duration of the fair. The fair was seen teeming with children in colorful dresses.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina inaugurated the fair on Friday.
Many stalls were still under construction at the fair. Owners of the stalls said they will complete the work and start selling books within a few days.
The fair drew crowds from the afternoon. Most stalls displayed the previous year’s edition of books on the second day.
Shishu Prahar (Children’s Hour)
Children in their hundreds thronged the fair from the opening hours of the fair on the second day of Shishu Prahar on Saturday.
Children along with their parents and guardians gathered at the city’s Suhrawardy for the smell of books freshly printed.
At around 11am, kids, who we seen scattered around the book fair, gathered in front of Shishu Chattar on the east side of Suhrawardy Udyan to enjoy Shishu Prahar (Children’s Hour).
The whole book fair was teeming with children in colorful dresses. Besides buying and flipping the pages of different books at various stalls, they were seen playing and taking pictures with the characters of Sisimpur at Shishu Chhattar and enjoying them.
Much to their delight, Haalum, and Tuktuki – characters of Bangla television series Sisimpur – appeared before them in reality and gave them pleasure by greeting them, singing and dancing. Moreover, Haalum and Tuktuki replied to their various questions and delighted them, adding fun to their joy.
The children’s square at the fair had varieties of books at the stalls for children alongside entertainment. Some of them included: Chotoder Mela, Shishu Rajjo, Shaisob, Sisimpur, Ghuri publications, Mahi publications, and Shila publications, from where kids purchased their desired books.
A fifth-grader of Udayan High School of the capital, Rafiul Haque, said: “Like previous years, I came to the fair with my mom to purchase comic books and ghost stories from the Sisimpur stall as I like those books.”
Roksana Parvin Smriti, convener of Children’s Square, said: “The book fair is for people of all spheres of society. Due to the huge crowd of knowledge-seekers, children cannot come with their guardians. Therefore, the authorities have taken the initiative to keep a children’s corner at the fair so that they can easily purchase their favorite books.”
“Children are very enthusiastic about books as well as interested in buying them,” she added.
A total of 81 new titles hit the month-long Amar Ekushey Book Fair on Saturday. Among them were 20 novels, 10 story books, 14 poetry books, 4 books of short stories, 4 Liberation War related books, 1 book of plays, 2 science books, 2 travel books,2 history books, 3 biographies, 2 science fiction books, and more.