The Cairo Child Book Fair has turned 21, but as Dina Ezzat reports, it still has not come of age "I love horror stories. I really enjoy them. But there aren't enough of them at the book fair. I only found this one," said 10-year-old Shahd Mohamed. Shahd attends a French nuns school. On her Sunday off this week she asked her mother to take her to the Cairo Child Book Fair (CCBF) in search of some rare horror books. The Ghost of the Mirror was the only book that Shahd decided to buy after a two-hour search in the 500 square-metre area dedicated this year by the Fair Grounds Authority. Shahd is slightly disappointed by what she found -- or rather failed to find. "I don't see many things I like. I love horror stories. Why do they think that children cannot read horror stories?" she complained. "And why don't they get horror stories in French or English. I'll look around again but I don't think I can find them." Shahd might not be the typical child at the CCBF. Her mother, Mushira, complains that she is very picky about what she reads and she likes to read "unusual books". "She is not like most other children who will settle for a fairy tale." But Mushira had a problem pleasing Shahd's younger sister Shorouq, an eight-year-old with a typical interest in colouring books. "We got some nice ones for around LE8 but there is not a good variety of colouring books for this age. And the imported ones are really expensive at LE35," she said. Despite the lack of horror books and the limited variety of colouring books, mother Mushira is still generally pleased with the CCBF, inaugurated Wednesday last week. "It offers me an opportunity to bring the children and get them to look at books and acquaint them with the world of books and reading. For me it is very important that my daughters get into the habit of reading," she said. And despite the "relatively expensive price of books, Mushira is happy with the discounts. "There is an average 20 per cent discount on all books. That's not bad at all," she said. She added, "and unlike the regular Cairo book fair, this one is not crowded so I can bring the children and get them to walk around me freely without having to worry about them getting lost in the crowds." Many of the parents escorting their children around the few corridors of the CCBF share Mushira's view: despite its shortcomings, the CCBF is still a good opportunity for children and parents to communicate with the world of books. This was exactly the message sent to the audience of this year's CCBF. Some of the fair goers expressed their gratitude for the support of Mrs Mubarak.�"We really want to thank Mrs Suzanne Mubarak for this book fair," Noha, mother of six-year-old Ali, said. "We feel that she is genuinely interested in promoting reading for children. I personally believe that her campaign 'Read for Your Child' has made a wide variety of books available at reasonable prices, from LE2 to LE10, which is not bad at all." According to Noha, however, it would be all the more useful if "Mrs Mubarak could pay a visit to the book fair a few days after its inauguration. An unexpected visit to see how things are going because I have a feeling that what we see on TV when she inaugurates the book fair is not exactly what we see when we visit the fair." Noha and Saniya, mother of nine-year-old Haniya plus Mohamed Hussein, the father of seven-year- old Lara, were not wholly impressed by the fair's organisation. "There are definitely some really nice books and many of them are affordable but look at this chaos," Saniya said. "I have to go through these piles looking for what I want. Why don't they arrange the books properly? Why aren't the books divided according to topics and age groups? Everything is mixed up with everything else," Saniya who used to work at a government publishing house, added. According to Saniya, the private publishing house did a better job of displaying the books but their books were more expensive. Chaos is a complaint that some book-sellers also make. "Look at this chaos," Faten George, general manager of the BETA Company which specialises in children's book, told Al-Ahram Weekly on Monday. "There is no organisation. Everywhere you look there is somebody who has a few toys for sale or someone who is playing children's songs loud to promote cassettes. This is supposed to be a fair for books, not toys and tapes," George said. "But the worst part is that we don't know how long we will have our books on display. When we came here they told us that the fair would run until 10 December but today [5 December] someone from the Fair Grounds Authority stopped by to say that we have to collect our books by 6 December because the pavilions will be rented to some other company," she said. The complaint about the duration of the fair is shared by almost ever seller. And it is of concern to renowned children's book authors, too. "I am supposed to be speaking at a seminar on the last day and now I don't know what will happen," said Yaaqoub El-Sharouni, one of Egypt's most established children's writers. El-Sharouni tried to contact the Grounds Fair Authority but received no reply. He contacted the Ministry of Culture and was told the fair would continue as scheduled. Some school teachers were also on hand at the CCBF inquiring about how long it will last. The teachers were planning a day at the fair for some of their students but were uncertain as whether they could proceed with the plans. "We were supposed to bring the kids on Friday but now we don't know what to tell the parents because there is nobody who is telling us for certain whether this fair will still be open or not. We cannot just cancel the plan but we really cannot confirm it either. What should we do?" asked one teacher. However long it lasts, the CCBF is applauded by fans who say they enjoy it but would like it better if opened some other time. "Why not have it on the fringe of the mid-term holiday, during the summer holidays or during one of the Eid holidays," said Murad Hussein. Hussein's three children attend a nuns school. "They take Sundays off which is why I can bring them. Otherwise it would have to be after school when they are very tired or on Friday when I assume it is very crowded." Many parents were also pleased with the drawing section established by the National Council for Children's Culture. Under the name "Draw pictures for Mom and Dad", the centre allocated children visiting the CCBF a 100 square-metre space. "I think this is a complementary creative element of the book fair. Children love it and so do parents. I believe we have to expand," said Mona Safwat, supervisor of the drawing section. Colours and papers are offered for free, naturally keeping children busy for hours. For some parents who cannot afford buying several items from the CCBF, the drawing section provided a satisfactory compromise. The range of prices at this year's CCBF varies greatly. At some pavilions there were story books in colour for nearly LE4. French, English and German story books were available from LE18 to LE60. Some books selling at over LE200 included French and English volumes on a wide range of issues, including photography, painting and cleanliness. There were inexpensive books and tapes selling for LE2 to LE5 and mostly dedicated to Muslim or Christian children: Habits of a Good Muslim Boy and a Good Muslim Girl and The Lessons of Jesus for Children are some of the titles. CCBF also offered a wide and loudly played variety of Qur'anic and Bible tapes. "I normally do not buy such books or tapes for my children because they learn their religion at school and attend their Sunday classes at church but I found that this year there is a modern simplification of the Bible so I am thinking of buying it for George and Mina. It is more like storytelling than preaching," Mary said. Teaching children about their religion in a simplified version was the motive behind Madiha buying her children a few tapes on how to recite the Qur'an properly. "I think it is very important for them to learn how to recite and these tapes are cheaper than getting them a tutor at home," she said. Also making decent sales were "Learn your English" and "Voulez vous parler le Français?" tapes and CDs on computer skills. Moreover, the CCBF displayed some books on the history of toppled Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, the history of Zionism and a wide range of books on problems in life. "We have these books for parents and teachers who come to look for books for their children, or students because usually those who come to the fair don't go to the regular book fair," said a sales assistant at the Shorouq pavilion. The hot themes of this year's CCBF were the translated encyclopedias and puzzles that were selling at anywhere from LE35 to LE115. "Children just love them. The encyclopedias that tell them everything they want to know. This is the best part of our sales for the first four days," said Nabil Abdel-Razeq a sales manager at Nahdet Misr. According to Abdel-Razeq the sales from encyclopedias and puzzles that are tailored for different age groups are an indication of what the children want to read today. "Some children might still want to read the Mickey Mouse stories but from what I've seen there are more and more children who want to learn about the cyber world, science and read science fiction than read the classics like Alice in Wonderland and Snow White," Abdel- Razeq said. For children's writers, however, there is much more that the CCBF and for that matter children's books offer Egyptian boys and girls. El-Sharouni is convinced that children, especially those above 10, need to be exposed to the modern international trends of children's writing. "I believe that the annually awarded child's book of the American Newbery prize should be introduced to children," he said. El-Sharouni is hopeful that the translation fund that Mrs Mubarak will launch will make good on its promise to dedicate part of its funds to translate children's literature. "This is good for the children and it is also good for the writers of children's books who do not read foreign languages." For his part, prominent children's writer Abdel- Tawwab Youssef is convinced that in today's world you cannot expect children not to take interest in politics. "Children are inundated with news stories every time they turn on their TV so it's only natural that they want to learn about politics. We have to address this," he said. Youssef has scripted a few texts that address the key political story of our world today: US hegemony. "I have a text called Donald Duck meets Donald Rumsfeld and Condoleezza meets the Mona Lisa. So far I haven't been able to sell them because the publishers I spoke with believe politics does not really interest children," he said. He added if Egyptian and Arab children's writers and publishers failed to address this issue at a quicker pace then they might lose a good part of their audience to an increasingly aggressive Western children's literature production. This concern was expressed by some sales assistants at this year's CCBF who were surprised that during the first four days of the fair most of the translated copies they had of Harry Potter were sold out. For intellectual children's writer Abdel-Wahab El-Messiri this is a disturbing sign. " Harry Potter is overstepping the moral bounds. It promotes a magical solution as opposed to the realistic approach towards life. It teaches children that they can succeed in life with a bit of trickery," El- Messiri said. According to El-Messiri it is very important for children to be exposed to foreign writing but it is equally important that children should not lose sight of the "concepts of imperialism" that the US is imposing on Arab culture. Bringing up his children in the US in the mid- 1960s, El-Messiri was disturbed by the cultural values they were picking up from the Tom and Jerry stories. To protect their children from what he called American intellectual hegemony, El-Messiri started to write his own books for his children. "I made their own creative world to capture their attention. I created Zarif the Camel and I wrote them their own stories." Today, El-Messiri's books are very popular for parents and teachers, but for some at the CCBF, El- Messiri is just a political writer who writes about "Israel and Zionism". The fact that few people are familiar with the many publications of Al-Shorouq Publishing House, and that the internationally recognised children publications of Youssef are not well-known to either parents or children are issues the CCBF should tackle. "I hope that when I bring Haniya and come next year I'll find the fair better organised and find guides who can take my daughter and other children around to help her pick up her own books," Saniya said. "I hope that when I come next year I will find many more horror stories," said Shahd. Many children, parents and teachers hope that Shahd's wish, as well as their own dreams, come true.
