Children’s Writers Need To Master Their Craft, Experts Say

Stakeholders in Children’s Literature have said Nigerian children need more stories that reflect their lives, cultures and experiences, but writers must go beyond good intentions to develop the skills required to create compelling books. They made this known at the second edition of the ReadBug Literary Festival, held in Abuja with the theme, ‘Stories That Build Worlds’.

Children’s authors, Ayo Oyeku and Ugo Anidi, alongside festival founder Aysha Abdullahi, highlighted the role of literature in shaping children’s understanding of themselves and the world around them. Abdullahi said her experience as a young reader, when books exposed her to possibilities beyond her immediate environment, inspired the festival.

She opined that reading could help children encounter different cultures, develop empathy and challenge stereotypes.

“One of Nigeria’s problems is that a large number of our population do not read. We rarely travel or see much of the world or understand the cultures around us,” she said, adding that limited exposure could encourage narrow perceptions of other people.

However, the relatively small number of locally authored children’s books displayed at the festival, compared with foreign titles, raised questions about the availability of stories that reflect Nigerian children’s experiences.

For Anidi, an author, lawyer and publisher, addressing the gap requires writers to take their craft seriously. Anidi, who left a two-decade legal career to pursue writing, said she obtained a Master of Fine Arts degree in Creative Writing and established Books for Umu Nti (BUN), a children’s publishing and writing coaching initiative. She said she had trained about 160 children and adults in writing, noting that the quality of children’s literature depended partly on writers’ willingness to master the craft of the genre.

“People tend to look down on children’s literature. People spend years studying medicine and law, but when it comes to writing for children, they say, ‘It’s children’s books; anyone can write for children,’” she said. Oyeku, author of ‘My Jalabiya’, ‘What Happened on Thursday’ and ‘The First Among Equals’, agreed that many Nigerian writers began creating children’s books because they could not find enough stories reflecting their own backgrounds and experiences.

The festival also featured a Spelling Bee competition involving schools across the Federal Capital Territory, with six finalists from Years 4 to 9 receiving prizes of ₦500,000 each, according to the organisers. The winners included Chinonso Ezenwata Anthony of Aduvie International School, Amarachi Achonu and Rihanna of Olumawu School, and Okpo Success of Government Secondary School, Garki, Area 10. Naomi Elvis of Olumawu School was also listed among the winners, while two contestants in Year 9, Kamsi of Government Secondary School, Area 10, and Bili of Model Junior Secondary School, Maitama, reportedly tied. Abdullahi said the decision to award the prizes to the students rather than their schools was intended to recognise individual effort and encourage them to continue developing their skills.