International children's book fair held in central China

WUHAN, March 18 (Xinhua) -- The 2024 Wuhan International Children's Book Fair was held from Friday to Sunday in Wuhan, capital city of central China's Hubei Province.

Nearly 200 publishers from across the country took part in the event bringing approximately 30,000 different children's publications in areas such as literature, science and education, attracting flocks of children and their families.

The book fair saw the release of a series of results from the application of the standards regarding the classified reading for children aged 3 to 8, which were issued by the Books and Periodicals Distribution Association of China in February last year.

Based on the standards, a panel has come up with a set of courses for teachers to guide children's reading, and has developed an online tool for assessing children's reading capabilities, all in a bid to build a sound set of standards for Chinese juvenile's classified reading, said Ai Limin, president of the association.

Children's reading in the "internet plus" era was a hot topic among practitioners at the event. For writer Cao Wenxuan, paper reading has not been replaced, as text-reading is significant to children's cognitive system.

"Paper-book reading has become a culture, and reading a delicately designed paper book usually gives readers an aesthetic experience," Cao told Xinhua at the book fair.