Mabel Segun calls for sustenance of children literature

Award-winning author, Mrs Mabel Segun has advocated the need for the sustenance of children literature, saying such will go a long way in preserving human history. Segun made the call while delivering the 2016 First Award Winners’ Lecture titled; “Towards Nation Building: The importance of Children’s Literature” at an event organized by the Nigerian National […]

Award-winning author, Mrs Mabel Segun has advocated the need for the sustenance of children literature, saying such will go a long way in preserving human history.
Segun made the call while delivering the 2016 First Award Winners’ Lecture titled; “Towards Nation Building: The importance of Children’s Literature” at an event organized by the Nigerian National Merit Award at the University of Lagos.
The Octogenarian author who is the 72nd awardee of the prestigious NNOM award said though some critics have stated that there was no specific body of literature termed “children” in traditional societies because adults and children participated in the storytelling, riddle, proverb sessions, the oral nature of the presentations made them easy for children to follow and enjoy.
According to Segun, literature for young people can be found in three types of books which include: factual presentation of history; biographies of great men and women of the past and historical fiction. All of these, she said, will enrich and extend their study of history. She added that children ages also has a role to play with different kinds of book available to them.
“Children’s books are classified not only by genre but sub-divided based on the age range which tends to vary from publisher to publisher. The general age range for different types of books are six months to age four; five to seven years for early readers; eight to twelve years for chapter books and 13 to 18 for young adult fiction,” Segun said.
The 86-year old author further stated that children’s literature must feature prominently in any discussion about multiculturalism and multilingualism in 21st century Nigerian literature. She thus listed a number of things to observe by both Nigerian writers and publishers while writing and publishing multicultural books for children.
“These include, picture books dealing with ethnic identity and interaction between children of different ethnic groups, beginning readers which include implicit reference to multi-ethnic playmates and multi-ethnic school classes, poems in English from different parts of the country covering Africa could serve as models, picture storybooks on cultural festivals written from a child’s point of view, novels and short stories for youth primarily or peripherically portraying the problems associated with minority culture as well as writing short stories on religious tolerance,” Segun said.