Vo Quang – Life of Verse and Prose, compiled by the author’s son, Chau Tan. — Photo courtesy of Kim Dong Publishing House

The collection comprises five books including selected works from the author’s career, including novel Quê Nội (Father’s Village) which was translated into French by writer Alice Kahn.

The highlight of the collection is the book Võ Quảng – Một Đời Thơ Văn (Vo Quang – Life of Verse and Prose), compiled by the author’s son, Chau Tan. The book includes some short stories that haven’t been released before, some writings of Quang on children’s literature and comments of critics, researchers and other writers about Quang.

“Readers in the Europe may be amazed with the diverse culture of Vietnamese people, the way people enjoy stage arts, how the wartime and poverty inspired folk songs,” said translator Kahn.

“For me, I just want to help French readers understand more about Vietnam through the stories of Cục and Cù Lao, two characters in Quê Nội (Le village paternel). I think it's a Tom Sawyer version in Vietnamese.”

Quang was born in 1920 in the central province of Quang Nam. He participated in the revolution since he was a student. He has been arrested and tortured many times.

He became the first editor-in-chief of Kim Dong Publishing House in 1957 and director of the Vietnam Animation Studio in 1964. He released the first book for children at the age of 38. Since then, he spent time creating stories, poems and cartoons for children.

Beautiful illustrations in the new book commemorating Vo Quang's 100th birthday.

His poems and short stories have been introduced in pre-school and primary education. The verse and prose of Quang are familiar to Vietnamese children in different periods.

Apart from writing, Quang is the first Vietnamese author who translated Don Quixote and Robin Hood of Sherwood Forest to Vietnamese.  VNS

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New novels and books on environmental studies for children from Vietnamese and international authors have been released to entertain young audiences during the summer.