ARE BOOKS SUPERFLUOUS?

Books are our very first and our best teachers, as well as loyal friends for the rest of our lives. And it is no secret that ardent booklovers become addicted to this wholesome and pleasant pastime in early childhood. The era of Soviet censorship and the policy of total eradication of illiteracy were fine incentives for the "production" of a high-quality literary product for children which had not only linguistic merit but also valuable moral-ethic content. All the concepts about honour, goodness, decency, courage and other major human qualities, vested with literary form, have penetrated out conscience in a much better way.

Traditions

Along with the birth of the era of enlightenment in Azerbaijan, a concept of children's literature, already distinct from the old cradle stories and folklore, begins to take shape at the start of the 20th century. The most eminent Azerbaijani writers of works for children - Abdulla Saiq, Mirza Alakbar Sabir and Abbas Sahhat - instilled in children a desire for science, education, patriotism and civic consciousness. They were true figures in the trend towards educative realism in the children's literature of that era.

Unfortunately, today we are left with just those slabs of granite of the educational movement created by the classic writers of Azerbaijani literature. A large question mark still hangs today over the moral-ethic and literary components of modern literature for children.

Demand breeds supply

This main law of capitalism clearly demonstrates the situation in the children's literature market. This is what Tarlan Qorcu, an illustrator and head of the "Tutu" children's literature publishing house, told R+: "Our project was financed by international foundations, and when this funding ended so did the project. Questions of book publishing and marketing were very complex. Despite the fact that we were publishing several series of books for children, the main ones being "Children's Fairy Tales of the World" in 25-30 volumes, tales of the ethnic groups in Azerbaijan, and also encyclopaedias for children, they did not evoke much interest." At the same time, the publishers point out that the interest of the children themselves in literature was extremely high, which cannot be said of the parents. The mothers and fathers of the inquiring children were surprisingly indifferent in questions of the extra-mural and "non-compulsory" education of their children. Even in neighbouring Georgia, which has a population less than that of Azerbaijan, Qorcu points out, the book circulation is 20-40,000, whereas here children's literature has a print-run of no more than 5,000, and it takes years to sell them as well. 

The pitifully small number of bookshops in Baku - hardly more than a dozen or so - is indicative in itself. The trade in children's literature is much higher abroad, too. "The pre-school and early school years are the most active for children in trying to understand the world and instilling a love for reading," Qorcu says. "Throughout the world the vast majority of children "absorbing" books are in this age group. But in our country the least number of books are being sold to children of this age."

Nigar Kocarli, an expert in book selling, agrees: "Unfortunately, there is no interest at all in children's literature. What's more, there is also the problem of a shortage of local authors, who number about three or four." The percentage of children's literature in overall sales is scarcely 5-10 per cent, and 80 per cent are books in Russian. And when it comes to books in Azeri, most of them are translations from other languages. "Parents today don't want to buy books for their children if they cost more than five manats, although they are prepared to pay much more on entertainment and things they don't need."

Sahbaz Huduoglu, a director of the "Qanun" publishing house, feels the same. He says that in the mainstream there are slightly more children's books being published today than in previous years: the number has increased from 6-7 to 15 per cent. There are very few local authors, and it is mainly "ABC", "My First Words", and books like that which are being published. And again, most of these books are works that have been translated.

What can be done to help?

Tarlan Qorcu feels that the situation in the children's literature market is so pitiful that the state should take it under special control and carry out a number of measures. The system of selling children's books needs to be put right, he believes, because the situation has been completely allowed to drift. Sahbaz Xuduoglu agrees: "There is very little interest in children's literature, but we are trying to satisfy even these modest requests."

A project which is aimed at acquainting children with the masterpieces of world literature in the Azeri language is being carried out by the "Altun" publishing house. One of the people behind this project and herself the mother of a 10-year old son, Kifayat Haqverdiyeva says: "I have adapted three books for children, two of which I translated into Azeri. These are "The Time Machine" and "The War of the Worlds" by H.G.Wells, and the other one - "Spartak", by Raffaello Giovagnioli, - I have only adapted because it has already been translated into Azeri. Adapting books is a complex task because one at times has to "adjust" the difficult language of the original work to a child's interpretation, and the author often poses global and philosophical questions before the reader, which can be rather difficult for children. Generally speaking, when adapting a work sentences have to be shortened and simplified. As a parent, all I can say is that I would like my child to eventually read in full all works which he is now reading in abridged form." Kifayat also says that the work throws up problems in the world of children's literature and there is a hope that with time they will be resolved.

However, unless we have a proper state policy and we recognize the importance of education and teaching an artistic and aesthetic taste for literature among children, we will scarcely be able to solve these problems "off the top of our head" and in a short time.