‘Bone appetite!’ is the common good wish for a friend which is also found at some fanciful restaurants in our mega cities. It is doubtful if libraries hang a notice plate inside their hall where a frustrated reader may gaze over ‘Bone reading!’ and rejuvenate his reading in good spirit. Hilariously, we know the necessity of eating but we don’t worry about how to order books. Satirically speaking, the dining table cost higher and demands more than the reading table as most homemakers take it as leisure to consume the latter.
For this reason, this piece will investigate the societal culture of appetizing a momentum of reading.
The books we read in our junior days were the first and lasting impression to reshape our gut and trajectory of reading in our lifetime. Sadly enough, against this backdrop, there is no such contemplative effort among the stakeholders to address the issue of how to bring kids the right book at such a critical epoch.
After the Ethiopian 2010 New Year, the Ethiopia government heralded 2010 the year of excellence. By then, to our relief, the Premier – Hailemariam Desalegn was scheduled to read fables for kids. However, peoples are not few who found the expedition couldn’t as such meaningfully unearth reading culture. Many found the exercise was off – cuff whose sentiment didn’t take root of a lifetime appetizer.
Many of us have a nostalgic memory when our language subject teacher read for us books in classes. Provided that the fact that schools are agents of socialization, such old school exercise highly impacts one’s life for all. Some one who starts sporting may end up tovisit a gymnasium in his life time as opposed to one who did not. Similarly, a kid who attends a model reading has the higher likelihood to be a good reader, since the exercise re-orients the kid’s temperament.
How often schools pay a tribute for narrating books for their student population? How often do schools run mini-media and extra-curricular engagements so as to read the best pages of books? The answer is: Had we tried a bit, undoubtedly we would reap the fruit. Had we had none of the trial, we will collectively pay the price at the societal level of a lukewarm generation for reading.
Once a Scottish parent shared his touching experience, he said: “I want my kids to associate reading with all the good things in life. I want the arrival of a new book in our home, or the prospect of some time to read, to excite and enthuse my kids. Creating a special place to read does just that by bringing some pizzazz and added wow factor to story time” .What’s is the standard for responsible parenthood? Is that through fulfilling food and shelter of the kid as many third world parents get stuck to fulfill?
How often do Ethiopian parents commit to schedule themselves for their kid’s bed time stories. Debatably, a parent who relieved himself from reading bedtime stories for his kids, he has to be an irresponsible parent. The debt of not reading stories in their earlier age; will let us, perhaps at a societal level, to bear the cost of having an ‘irrational society’.
Prior to August 2017 HoHe award notification, finalists of Children literature (Asres Bekele and Talegeta Yimer) read selected chapters for kids at an orphanage. Reminiscing their final candidacy, Asres read ‘Yebeza Buchila’-(to mean ‘Beza’s puppy’) and ‘Wanategnawa Soliyana’–(to mean ‘the swimmer Soliyana’). Likewise,Talegeta read his own ‘ Ye ayitochena ye dimetochSerg’ – (to mean ‘Wedding ceremony of Cats and Rats). Also, this exercise of reading special pages was also broadcasted for millions of kids who follow from their homes. To the best of crediting the endeavor, one can imagine the moral foot print it left after those authors of children literature missed the compound right away finishing the assignment of reading. For kids it is an immense, to present them the book along with its own author.
For HoHE awards, it is not leisure exercise also to include the category of ‘literature for children’. Rather, it is a pragmatic necessity to promote the best appetizer for generational reading culture.
