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Ministry launches children's books on Indonesian culture
Two series of children's books about Indonesian culture and sites are now available in bookstores, taking their place alongside translated Japanese comic books and the Harry Potter series
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Two series of children's books about Indonesian culture and sites are now available in bookstores, taking their place alongside translated Japanese comic books and the Harry Potter series.
"We produced the books to give Indonesian children a source where they can learn about their own culture," the writer Aylawati Sarwono said Wednesday during the book launch, at the Culture and Tourism Ministry in Gambir, Central Jakarta.
"We want to improve younger people's awareness and love of our nation's culture," said Aylawati, who is also the director of the Jaya Suprana Institute (JSI).
The two series are Pustaka (literature) and Wisata (travel).
Produced by the Jaya Suprana Institute and Gramedia's Elex Media Komputindo publishing company, each of the two series contains nine books.
The last three books from each series have yet to be published.
The Pustaka series cover Indonesia's cultural treasures, such a batik, angklung (traditional bamboo musical instrument) and jamu (traditional herbal concoctions). The Wisata series introduces some of the country's remarkable sites, like Borobudur, Tana Toraja and Komodo National Park.
The JSI has donated copies of the two series to 100 elementary schools and mobile libraries in Jakarta.
Margaretha Ita Wenehen, a teacher at St. Theresia elementary school in Central Jakarta, said her students would find the books attractive.
"The way the knowledge is presented in simple language through comic stories will definitely attract my students," she said.
Ita said in her experience as an educator, children continued to be interested in reading.
She said finding affordable books was the main problem for parents and schools in providing children with good books.
"The government should make more of an effort to give children across the archipelago access to good educational books," she said. (JP/dre)
