Salon Du Livre D'Alger

For the past 18 years, I haven't missed the opportunity of visiting the International Books Fair in Algiers. During the first decade, my interests have been changing from one year to another. I remember that the first things I bought were some books and CD's about computer science, I was keen on reading about everything related to this great machine especially those tutorials about programming and scripting languages;

  After two years, I found myself  giving more importance to literary works; especially Arabic poetry. Diwan El Luzumiat by Abu Alalaa Almaari was the best poetry book I have ever bought. This blind man was not just a poet, but he was a great philosopher. Some scholars said that Dante's Divine Comedy was based on Almaari's Epistle of Forgiveness. I have bought and read countless numbers of works and I can memorize a lot of poems and thousands of verses.During the next years, I did not completely neglect this field just I became addicted to Novels. First, I started with English literature, reading the popular works by Dickens; Hardy, Bronte, Shakespeare, Blake .... Then I moved to Russian, South American and French literature. I was lucky to start with Hugo's masterpiece. This great novel pushed me to read to Flaubert, Balzac, Zola and Stendhal whom I was never been able to finish his novel Le Rouge et le Noir. The Books fair was not always the best place to find what I was looking for especially when it comes to African literature,  Ebooks  were great resource of knowledge for a lot of people.

Since 2010, I felt nostalgic for my childhood and I became much interested in children's books. each new year is worst than its previous one. The books I could see in my visit to the books fair, yesterday, were of less value. no real artworks; texts are more trivial; and the size of books does not suit the young learners. I guess that publishers are no longer interested in producing valuable books. Their only interest is getting money. I have talked to a lot of sellers. Most of them act as if they are selling fruits and vegetables. They have a lack of knowledge about their series. If you compare the old books with the modern ones; you can easily find that the old ones were beautifully illustrated by great artists and have texts rich of information. The modern ones are horribly illustrated and they do not give enough information that attracts inquiring minds and stimulates young readers.




Being a member of this forum, made me learn a lot  about French artists. I consulted the Books Fair Android App to find popular French children's books. I was happy to find on the App that a whole series by Alain Gree will be available. I spent 2 hours searching for the Lebanese publisher who sells this series but in vain. just a few minutes before I leave, I discovered that the publisher was there and I was misguided by its name on the App. I stared at the whole collection of books there but I could not find it. I asked a seller there, but it seems that he does not know anything about it.... feeling quite embarrassed, he asked his friend who let me down when he said that he left it in Beirut. 


The application let me also know that Martine series will be available. I headed to the right place and of course I found it.... but it was not as I was expecting .... not like the vintage one at all. The books are getting smaller in size and having less text and less drawings. instead of  having hard covers, the books were having paperbacks. even the illustration were not so bright as the ones in early editions. The price was very high and you could not dare to buy more than 2 titles. 

Not far from Casterman's books there was a very big space for Hachette group. I was so eager to check their recent works for children. To my surprise; there were only academic books. I did not spend much time there. I headed to an Egyptian Publisher; I bought some great books that I have been looking for since 2012. I did not forget to buy some games and books for my 3 years old son who found it a great opportunity to play and run in that large space.

Hey, Youcef,

I'm glad to see that you had, and still have, the opportunity to get books in French, through the "Salon international du livre d'Alger" !    And I'm surprised to see that you have read French literature, often more than what the average French person has read (Hugo, Balzac, Stendhal...). Good for you !! 
I'm not sure this fair will be the ideal place to find the books you wish to find. I am still intending to send you books I have, but I seem not to have the time for that... I'll try to do it as soon as I can.

Thank you so much Cedrix for your kind reply.

Gallimard Jeunesse is one of my favorite publishers. I have seen a lot of its works for Kids online. Most of them were translated into into English. On my second visit to the Books Fair, I could find one of its non-fiction series translated into Arabic by an Algerian Publisher. I did not hesitate to buy it. 
Here are some pictures