State Literary award winner felicitated

The State Literary Awards in Sri Lanka for 2012 was recently held at the BMICH, where many writers won awards for their contributions.

The Best Children's Literature Award in English was won by Neville Perera for his book 'Kitty and the Bell Necklace'.

Since Neville Perera was unable to come to Sri Lanka to receive the State Literary Awards in Sri Lanka due to illness, the Embassy of Sri Lanka in Germany and the Sri Lankan community organised an event to present the award and felicitate him.

Ambassador Sarath Kohongahage in his speech recollected memories of Neville Perera and reminded him of the days when they were engaged in student activities. In his review of the award winning book 'Kitty and the Bell Necklace', the ambassador said that the book had a catchy title, and the theme, plot, and the style of the story was innovative and emotional, giving a new path of thinking deviating from the conventional way of story telling.

The language used by Neville Perera for the narration was eloquent and understandable.

"The story teaches us how to make peace and harmony and lead an honest life. The illustration done by Shanth Herath adds a touch of reality to the characters of the story," the ambassador said.

Kohongahage called upon the Sri Lankan community to give importance to learn their mother tongue.

He said that he observed the Tamils living in Germany giving high priority to learn the Tamil language, which is admirable. The Embassy was also supporting their efforts by getting books from the Ministry of Education of Sri Lanka and distributing them, he said..

Lecturer at Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz, Germany, Rev. Ratmalane Punyarathna Thera reviewed the book and highlighted the effect of children's literature in the relationship between parents and children.

Neville Perera thanked the Embassy and the Sri Lankan community for arranging the event.