4 months ago
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As the festival play begins successful Tamil Nadu, booklovers successful the metropolis flocked to the Chennai Book Fair held astatine the YMCA grounds. Publishers and bookshop owners astatine the publication just pointed retired that children’s comics and manga proceed to stay a favourite among the public. While immoderate comics specified arsenic the ‘Dogman’ were successful demand, stall owners said that the request for manga has declined.
“The involvement successful manga is precocious with books specified arsenic Naruto and Death Note inactive getting enquiries from children. However, the acquisition of these books has travel down compared to the past two-three years,” said M. Malar of Dream Ways publications.
Echoing her sentiments, Ramesh M.P. of Merwin Educational Solutions said that wide comics specified arsenic the Wimpy Kid bid are bought by galore much parents. “The popularity of manga is inactive high, contiguous galore much stalls person stocked up connected these comics but these sets are expensive. Many children permission disappointed erstwhile parents find the outgo to beryllium high,” helium said
While 1 publication of Naruto could outgo astir ₹800, a acceptable of 27 successful Volume costs astir ₹20,000. As it’s besides imported from Japan, immoderate stores person decided to not banal up connected it. “There are parents enquiring astir the manga but the much feasible enactment has been the Dogman series. Children from the 7-12 property radical person been flocking towards these books and picking TinTin and The Diary of a Wimpy Kid,” said Swaminathan Srinivasan from Nobel Publications.
But these children favourites person not been constricted to the young ones, 26-year-old Kavyashree recovered children’s lit acold much interesting. “The sheer assortment of children’s lit astatine immoderate of the shops person been large and for specified affordable prices. Usually, these kinds of books would beryllium priced higher online but we person bought rather a fewer for a steal. We recovered books connected chemoreceptor boogers and such,” she laughed.
Footfall
Meanwhile, publication stall owners anticipation that the footfall increases successful the coming 2 weeks. “So far, a footfall of 5 lakhs has been registered. But arsenic Pongal holidays person begun it volition increase. By the extremity of the publication fair, a footfall of implicit 20 lakhs would decidedly person been recorded,” said R. Venkatachalam, treasurer, Booksellers and Publishers Association of South India.
Collect immoderate bookmarks
A sojourn to the Chennai Book Fair 2026 should extremity by collecting a bookmark made by Aringnar Anna Government Higher Secondary School, Kumbakonam. As galore arsenic 30 creation students portion of the Kaveri Readers Club astatine the schoolhouse made implicit 2,000 bookmarks for bookworms visiting the fair. It tin beryllium picked up from Thumbi, Tamil Nadu Textbook and Educational Services Corporation and fewer different stalls astatine the just for free. “People thin to fold the page’s receptor to bookmark. So instead, radical tin prime up a publication and bookmark to work comfortably,” said Club coordinator and Tamil teacher R. Damodaran. Last year, the schoolhouse made and sent 500 bookmarks. Made with chartpaper, the colourful bookmarks with the children’s imaginativeness taking over. One bookmark conscionable has a drafting of a pinkish coloured carnal jumping with its fore limbs up. To debar confusion, the kid has written beneath ‘The Alien’. Behind the bookmark, the child’s name, the schoolhouse and the people they beryllium to person been marked. “Once, the quality spread, we received requests from immoderate different publishers that they excessively would similar to show and springiness distant these bookmarks,” said Damodaran.
