'€œAn inspiring way to improve literacy among children'€

WORDS AND PHOTOS LUH DE SURIYANI

Fostering a love of learning through reading books from an early age is a tough task, but some teachers in Bali have made a breakthrough in showing children that reading can be fun.

With a belief that learning is the very key to ensuring a child'€™s success in school and life, these teachers have tried to find a way to make children feel motivated and compelled to learn through reading.

Supported by the Indonesian Children'€™s Literacy Foundation, they have authored six books that feature attractive illustrations to stimulate the interest of young learners, which were launched on Dec. 11 at Taman Baca Kesiman in Denpasar.

One of the books, titled Lautkah Ini?, authored by Kusumadewi and illustrated by Anna Triana, narrates the cycle of water. This full-color book has been well received by students since it was distributed to several schools.

'€œThey were very enthusiastic to look at the pictures, and it helps them to better understand the topic,'€ said Kusumadewi, a teacher at Dyatmika School, citing one part of the book that explains how vapor turns into clouds before becoming raindrops.

Another interesting thing about the book is that the plants and the entire ecosystem are illustrated with lines in the batik style, thanks to an idea from Anna '€” a student of Visual Communication Design at Bandung Institute of Technology, whose art is inspired by batik.

The five other books are Raka Bangga by Ayu Sugati and Diani Apsari, Waktunya Cepuk Terbang by Debby Lukito and Jackson, Karang Gigi untuk Makiki by Aini Abdul and Fanny Santoso and Jana Tak Mau Tidur by Eka Yuliati and Chike Tania.

The launch event also featured an exhibition of other books created to stimulate an interest in reading, including some series for students still learning to read. Each of these books comes with more pictures than long sentences, thus the series is fun and easy to read.

To improve literacy in Indonesia, the Indonesian Children'€™s Literacy Foundation also works with Room to Read to publish children'€™s books in the Indonesian language.

The main goal is to teach children not only how to read but, more importantly, how to understand the essence of a book.

The foundation has published 50 books and is targeting 19 schools in Badung regency for its pilot project, which is part of the '€œ15 minutes'€™ Reading Everyday'€ program included in the school curriculum.