Be careful when making books for children

A few days before Vietnam Book and Reading Culture Day, April 21, 2025, a parent expressed his indignation when he discovered errors in knowledge in the book Insects. Specifically, in the book, the topic is about insects, but the author Hue An "calmly" added animals such as bats, mice, lizards, millipedes...

The publication Insects is part of the Puzzles for Preschoolers series, published by SBooks in association with Literature Publishing House, including 6 books corresponding to the topics: Insects; Household items 1, 2; Kitchen; Baby items; Means of transport. In addition to Insects, errors in knowledge also appear in some other books such as Household items 1, Means of transport. Specifically, in Household items 1, author Hue An "transformed" the house into household items. In Means of transport, the author also classified the road into the category of means of transport.

Not only is the book series Puzzles for Preschool Children incorrect in terms of knowledge, it also makes another mistake by violating the Publishing Law. In Clause a, Article 26 of the Publishing Law on Information on Publications, it states: For books and documents in the form of books, information recording is carried out according to the following regulations: Cover one records the book title, author's name, publisher or agency, organization authorized to publish, and the serial number of the volume. However, on cover 1 of the Puzzles for Preschool Children series, all 6 books only have the book title and author's name without information about the publisher or the publishing unit.

In fact, this is not the first case of a children’s book being carelessly made and containing incorrect information. Previously, many children’s books were discovered by the press and readers to contain incorrect, absurd, and offensive information such as Vietnamese Dictionary for Students, Quick Questions and Answers, etc., causing public outrage.

Making books always requires caution, because the book will last for many years, even many generations. Especially with books for children, that caution must be put first. If children receive wrong knowledge from books, the consequences will be unpredictable!

QUYNH YEN

Source: https://www.sggp.org.vn/can-trong-khi-lam-sach-cho-tre-nho-post791824.html