Madurai: Multimedia CDs attract children at book fair

Updated on: Thursday, September 08, 2011

Book fairs are not always for the aged and educated. For long, children have emerged as major customers at book fairs.

Not just comics and drawing books, but multimedia CDs that offer everything from animated Akbar-Birbal stories to multiplication tables, are attracting a number of children to the book fair organised by BAPASI at Tamukkam grounds in the city.

"Children have always been major customers of not just books, but almost everything. From influencing their parents to make a decision on a particular product, they are now given the freedom to decide on the products themselves," says B Ramachandran, a teacher with a leading school in Madurai.

There are about 13 stalls dedicated exclusively for multimedia products at the expo. The long list of products at these stalls range from educational CDs to those on animation stories, vocabulary building and spoken English. "We have priced the multimedia CDs from Rs 49 to Rs 1699 depending on the content," said a representative at the stall of School Rom Multimedia. CDs covering the entire syllabus from standard 6 to 12 in matriculation, as well as CBSE syllabus were put up for sale.

The stalls also sell CDs with Tamil multimedia content like 'Thirukural' besides spoken English lessons that are bilingual. The stalls have setup television sets and play the CDs in a bid to attract the children. And the effort was palpably paying.

"The transformation in teaching methods has also brought about a change in learning tools. Now, parents as well as teachers consider multimedia compact discs as one of the best self learning tools for children,'' says a BAPASI functionary.

Besides, multimedia content CDs for children, titles aimed at attracting youth and professionals like management lessons, public speaking, negotiation skills and preparing for an interview were also displayed.

For the more spiritually inclined, the Mahabaratha, astrology, reiki CD were also put up for sale.

Times of India

Madurai: Multimedia CDs attract children at book fair

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