Bookworms: The ninth biannual HCM City Book Expo aims to promote reading habits, especially among children. - Photo st.gnnxxx.net

HCM CITY – The ninth biannual HCM City Book Expo that opens at District 1’s Lê Văn Tám Park today will seek to promote reading habits, especially among children.

The weeklong event, entitled Book, Culture, Integration and Development, has attracted 172 local publishers and book distributors, and 36 others from the UK, the US, France, Japan, South Korea, China, Germany, and Spain.

It will have 500 stalls displaying nearly 30,000 titles in fields like politics, economy, history, science, technology, foreign languages and literature.

Among the prominent books on display will be best-selling Vietnamese writer Nguyễn Nhật Ánh’s new literature book for children, Con Chó Nhỏ Mang Giỏ Hoa Hồng (Puppy Brings a Rose Basket), about the life of five dogs raised by a three-member family through the eyes of one of the dogs, Batô.

The book is published by the Youth Publishing House, which decided for the first time to print 100,000 copies of a literature book for children right in its first edition.

The Hà Nội-based MCBooks Joint Stock Company will bring six editions of an English-Vietnamese dictionary compiled by Vietnamese experts and scholars.

It also has illustrations by painters like Thành Chương, Phạm An Hải, Đặng Xuân Hòa, Phan Cẩm Thượng and Phạm Bình Chương.

Workshops will be held to discuss new publications while exchanges and discussions will be held between local and foreign writers and translators and readers.

Several activities to promote reading habits among children and students will also be held.

Photos and books on Việt Nam’s seas and islands and the development and integration of HCM City will be on display.

Lê Thái Hỷ, director of the city Department of Information and Communication and deputy head of the expo organising committee, said: “The book expo is a playground for book lovers in the city and neighbouring provinces.”

The fair is also a chance for local and foreign publishers to meet and share experiences in publishing and distribution, he added.

All exhibitors will offer a 10-20 per cent discount, and up to 80 per cent off on the last three days.

The event is expected to attract 900,000 to one million visitors. – VNS