Promoting love for books in a digital age!

The world of children’s literature is brimming with creativity and innovation. Here, we delve into the unique approaches, innovative strategies, and unwavering dedication involved in children book publishing, in conversation with Ramiro Villalba Garibaldi and Priyanka Agarwal Mehta.

Ramiro Villalba Garibaldi is Director at AZ Interntional, Argentina, an independent, award-winning publishing company based in Argentina, dedicated to children’s and young adult books, education, and general interest. They have been in business for nearly 50 years now. Currently, they export to different countries (both in copies or co-editions as well as selling rights or distribution deals), and are certified as an Argentine Country Brand company.

While, Priyanka Agarwal Mehta, Founder, Sam and Mi, which is a children’s publishing house founded on research and love. They create engaging books for 0-6 year olds in partnership with parents, teachers, learning experts and of course, children! Their books primarily focus on themes of empathy, problem-solving, and communication – skills that are key for a child’s overall development and future success.

Love of Reading through Engagement

To start we focused on the basics of readership and Priyanka feels its parent’s responsibility to introduce children to books and said, “At Sam and Mi, we currently focus on books for 0-6 year olds. This is the age group where children are still reading with an adult. A large part of our messaging is to make sure that parents understand how important it is to read together at this age. That is how reading stops being academic and becomes a language of love. Additionally, we frequently conduct book readings. We have created interactive, activity-based readings and have a great system to do these virtually too. For many children this is the first time they are meeting an author. Lastly, we are in the midst of opening a reading lab in our new office. The purpose is to simply invite children to come and read together.”

Ramiro, on the other hand, shared a well researched and result driven strategies to make kids read and shared, “From a publishing side perspective, we first try to incorporate different forms of resources into our books that encourage a child’s initial encounter with a text or invite them to explore it further. For instance, for early readings, oral accompaniment is essential (many of us became readers thanks to the stories our parents told us aloud every night, with the strong emotional attachment and hearing experiences that brought). That’s why, to boost those experiences, most of our books feature a QR code to access the audio story narrated in the authors’ voices —this is also an excellent tool for readers with different kind of challenges, such as dyslexia to read along.

Furthermore, because our willingness to do our part in the importance of promote reading, we find it a key issue to go out of the usual channels readers encounter books and stories (such as bookstores or libraries…we need to get the kids and families that still don’t usually read). This took us to creating reading spots in various locations, such as airports, restaurants, waiting rooms and even highways, among others.

In our Ticket Series, which is widely read in schools, we also include interviews with the authors and illustrators where they discuss the creation process of each story. It’s an invitation to imagine what lies behind, to keep digging until reaching a new reading experience. And bringing authors and readers closer. We need to show children that authors and artists are “closer” than they appear, and they too, could become one if they liked to.”

Turning the page: what’s fueling the rise (or fall) of young readers?

“Parents are the earliest role models for children and we really do need to prioritize reading with them if that is what we want to teach them,” said Priyanka.

“Also, until recently, most parents were bringing home only those books for children that would aid the child’s academic success. As new ways of working and new professions are emerging, parents are realising that reading is not for the class toppers alone. Reading is the backbone of continuous learning. Reading is what satiates a child’s curiosity about the world around them. Reading is what allows them to discover new concepts, acquire new skills and pursue new thoughts. Reading should leave them awestruck, sad, angry, motivated or simply in splits of laughter. By making reading academic, we take away the natural joy that a child derives from it. I think now that parents are starting to shift their interest from raising a child who is getting an A to raising a child that is a curious and continuous learner, we are seeing a surge of early readers,” she added.

While Ramiro shared, “In a world overflooded with information and short-term changing content, it is indeed hard to keep children and young adults focus and engaged. But as said before, we do have the potential and responsibility to present them with alternative options. And if we do so, with the tools and resources they do appeal to, we definitely stand a better chance. And those same resources and technology come with a huge advantage. It is not expensive and hard to do so, with good ideas and a competent team, any publishers (with any size) can do it, and we do believe there is no limit for it and feel very confident to go out and compete with every single outlet of distraction. Once you present a parent and kid with the experience of reading together, they do feel the difference. The issue, for us, is not so much to “tell” them the great things about reading, but rather “present” them with the opportunity to experience it by themselves. And we have to acknowledge that not everybody has been as lucky as we were, to be close to books and social circles that presented us with that experiences.”

Challenges faced: reimagining reading for the digital generation

Today books are competing with digital media for children’s attention, so, we asked them to comment. And Priyanka said, “For a child who is 0-6 years of age, I believe I am actually competing for the parent’s attention and awareness. You see, watching a video is a solitary activity for the child but if the parent reads with the child for even 10 minutes in a day, then when given a choice the child will always choose to read. Why? Because if you give the child a choice, they will always choose to do something WITH their parent. That being said, digital media cannot be ignored and we really do need to use it to our advantage to make reading cool, inclusive and fun to do together.”

Ramiro considers digital media as a need of the hour and added, “In AZ, we strongly believe that technology should not be treated as a threat, but it could become an ally to enhance the reading experience. AZ’s audiobooks to read along and the author interviews from the Ticket Series are some examples of this. Today’s children are digital natives, so we can show them that reading is also part of the digital world they are familiar with. As publishers, we need to be flexible and adventurous in that way. That’s why we have also developed books that incorporate video games and animations as a new layer of the story, multiplying the levels of interpretation. We also have short stories with songs and novels with special websites and extra material. Of course, a book can stand on its own and be enjoyed without any additional features, but those who appreciate this type of audiovisual language value it, and we offer it just to add that value in a publishing world overflowed with offer.”

Sharing anecdotes: diary of a children’s book publisher

Priyanka applauded parent’s involvement and shared, “I think I am always amazed by how shocked parents are by their child’s desire to sit and read at even one year of age. The minute they realise how much their child is enjoying it, you know the parent will always make time to read together. After all, all parents want to give their child exponentially more than they had.”

Ramiro shared his journey and explained, “Back some time, as we have been, for many years, mainly an educational publisher once we started focusing on children’s books it was indeed hard to get noticed (by booksellers, parents and teachers) in an overflooded market with many amazing offers made it even harder. So, those challenges made us think really hard, in order to come up with ideas on how we could add value to our own offers. We also worked and still do, very hard on digital marketing strategies to reach audiences through social media.Starting to export and adapt to different partners around the world was also challenging, but it is now part of the most exciting part of the work we do. Taking our authors, illustrators and stories as far as we can reach is one of the most rewarding feelings as publishers, I believe. And for sure, you must do that, considering all the formats, platforms and trends out there (or about to be develop).”

My childhood classic: a bookworm’s enduring favorite

Priyanka replied, “It would have to be ‘Oh, The Places You’ll Go!’ by Dr. Seuss. He didn’t name the child and just referred to him as “you” and that always made me feel like he was talking to me directly. [We adopted this strategy for our book, ‘What I Learnt’ where we didn’t want to assign a gender, age or race to the protagonist.] My favourite quote from the book:“And when things start to happen, don’t worry, don’t stew. Just go right along, you’ll start happening too!”

“And if you ask about my fav author, Roald Dahl will always be my one true love!” she added.

And Ramiro added, “I realize this question might be waiting for my experience as a kid, but to be honest, the first thing -and most powerful feeling- that comes to me is as a parent. I mean, my all-time favorite children’s books are those that I read as a parent with my three sons when they were younger, even babies (now Joaquín is 12, Facundo 10 and Benjamin 7 years old). There is one series of titles for first readers, that as a publisher and parent I enjoyed. And those are the titles of a series of board books we still develop (10 titles now) and it is called Pook the mouse and Pookie. It is an honest answer, although I believe it will sound quite commercial, it is not my intention though.”

And talking about author he added, “It is, almost, impossible to choose only one, in a world (more over as a publisher) filled with amazing and talented authors and artists. Graciela Montes is an author that arouses anyone’s admiration that comes to know her work. I also admire and enjoy with my kids many of the books from Pablo Medici (aka Brocha).”