Library Watch
Would You Take Your Child to Enjoy the Most Popular Foreign Picture Books at Weekend?
Xiaoshan Library and Penguin Random House Joined Hands Opening the First Original Picture Book Experience Hall
http://hzdaily.hangzhou.com.cn/hzrb/html/2015-10/22/content_2098908.htm

Children’s money is easiest to earn. A simple Chinese picture book of more than 10 pages can cost over RMB10, not to mention an imported picture book. In spite of expensiveness, however, parents would buy such books. Picture book is one of the most popular books on the market.
 
On Oct. 21, a picture book experience hall was formally opened at Xiaoshan Library. The most striking feature of the experience hall is that Xiaoshan Library cooperated with world famous press Penguin Random House and spent RMB200,000 importing 3220 original picture books. Most of these books have never been seen in China. The hall is Penguin Random House’s first experience hall of its kind in China. On Floor 3 of Xiaoshan Library, a hall of more than 100m2 showcased more than 10 bookshelves in different sizes, and the most obvious is a Peter Rabbit sitting in a chair, as if waiting for children to play together with. As introduced, of the 3000 odd books, the most popular among the Chinese readers are Peter Rabbit series and DK series (a famous encyclopedia series). In fact, except for these popular series, any other book therein is so attractive, as one could feel. Space exploration series, dinosaur series, architectural analysis series, and others are all for teenagers; there are visual maze series and small animal series (to each small animal is attached a piece of imitation fur, so that children could have a basic knowledge of what the true animal is like); for children younger than 3 years, there are many tear-proof books, including touch books, children’s song books and 3-D toy books. It is reported that this is the first picture book experience hall in China, collecting many of the picture books that are popular in UK. Penguin Press is confident in their popularity in China. The year of 2015 is the 80th anniversary of Penguin Press and the Sino-UK Year of Cultural Exchange. The “home of little penguins” is the most direct cultural exchange between China and UK.