the adarna house publishing

the adarna house publishing is the country's leading publisher for children's storybooks. they have helped inspire us and our kids by encouraging us to think big, be creative, and use our imaginations to the fullest extent. they have published about 400 book titles in a span of more than 30 years since they've started. in addition to their publishing, their advocacy is to give support to non-goverment organizations, groups, and volunteers that give books to less fortunate children.

ms. vanessa estares, marketing officer of adarna house was so nice in answering all our questions during our visit to their showroom in quezon city. she showed us their books, their ongoing children's workshop on story writing, and of course, their office. she said, "in 2007, cartoon network conducted a children's survey about kids' popular activities. it appeared in the survey that book reading was on top of the survey, then internet surfing only came second. but in 2009, internet became the most popular activity for kids.  so, it is saddening."

now that we're living in this digital age, everything can now be downloaded from the internet for free. music, movies, and literatures are becoming more and more expensive, and that could be one of the reasons why we're so tempted to just download them. how does adarna cope with this kind of ordeal and how do they get their money back to continue with their production? "we have loyal friends like unicef and other private groups regularly buying massive discounted books from us and they donate them to day care centers. also, i think even if there is this hype about digitization on our reading materials, i don't think that picture books would go to that direction, mainly because it is for kids. you don't give ipads or computers to children for reading. they use those mainly for gaming, but not for reading."

adarna house publishing got its name from a mythical bird but why is their mascot a mouse deer? "ang hirap kasing gawan ng costume ang ibon (laughs)," vanessa said. "we chose pilandok (the mascot's name) because he is one of the best-loved characters in adarna and also because of his fun and playful character. sometimes, people would mistake him as a dog or a rat but he is actually a mouse deer. (laughs again)"

vanessa said that the best way for us, bloggers, to help adarna is by simply doing a book review. "because it's what we do if we like to look for a good read.  if i like to look for a good book on dragons, then i'd look for a book review on books about dragons.  if the review's good, then i would really look for that and buy it from the store.  i'm not saying that you should only do book reviews of adarna house, but all filipino book reviews in general. kasi marami talagang maganda, hindi lang adarna," she humbly said.  i even thought of becoming a dealer for adarna books if possible to help them with their advocacy, but vanessa said doing book reviews will bring in better book sales than actually selling them. "yes, you can be a dealer, pero mas okay pa rin ang book review, mas malalaman ng mga readers na maganda ang book.  instead of hearing from someone say, 'this is a good book, come buy this,'  di ba?"

it is truly amazing how adarna house books have truly evolved through the years.  it's still vivid in my memory, i was only in my first grade in my primary school when i've read my first adarna book entitled "ang kamatis ni peles" about a lazy grasshopper.  the picture in the book cover was embedded in my head.  not only their books have evolved, but also their stories and their illustrations.  "we're known for developing books that have unique but meaningful themes.  kunyari, we have books on autism, parents seperation, child abuse, overpopulation, and even death" vanessa said. adarna books are not just for kids. they also publish books for the grown-ups, like me.  they have books on storytelling for pre-school teachers, toys and games for people that would like to make toys inside the classroom, and also about parenting.

our feature on adarna was inspired by our our wish to encourage our young people to read more books.  reading gives nourishment to our brains.   reading  exercises our imagination and also our emotions.  reading quenches our thirst for knowledge and clears our minds. it is because nothing beats the old fashion reading.  buy a book everyone.

adarna house publishing is located at the 2nd floor of fss bldg, 20 scout tuason cor. scout castor sts., bgry. laging handa, quezon city.