Kathmandu: Nepal’s first-ever International Children’s Literature Conference has concluded at the Nepal Academy in Kathmandu on Saturday.
The two-day event was organized in collaboration with Nepal Academy, the Nepal Society for Children’s Literature (NESCHIL), and Room to Read and featured more than 25 research papers, presented by Nepali and international scholars from 12 different countries on various aspects of children’s literature.
Speaking at the Conference, Pushkar Lal Shrestha, the country director of Room to Read, said, “Every child deserves access to a library filled with a rich variety of books—books that ignite their curiosity, spark their imagination, and open new worlds. Our mission is to reach even more students with the resources they need to thrive, and we believe there is no such thing as too many books.”
Panel discussions, academic presentations, storytelling sessions, and exhibitions of children’s books and artwork were the highlight of the event.
“I see this as the birth of a child and I hope I see this child growing for all the writers. When I visited the biggest library in the Netherlands, there were books from every other country but I couldn’t see any from Nepal. So, I gave them their first Nepali book. So, please give me some books so that Nepali books can have their own space as well,” said Marlin F. Verbrugge, the chair of Thang Foundation.
“Despite our rich heritage of using stories for instruction, the role of literature in the holistic development of children was not well understood until recent times. Fortunately, the need to encourage leisure reading is now widely recognized in schools and among parents,” said Deepa Agrawal, an author and poet from India.
The Conference provided an opportunity to exchange experiences, increase awareness, and increase global perspective.
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