BEIJING (Kyodo) When people look through "Little Brother Mouse's Waistcoat" at the Poplar Kid's Republic Picture Book Shop in Beijing, they often ask why the pages have so much blank space.
Store manager Ikuko Ishikawa, a Tokyo native who has lived in China since 1989, tells Chinese parents that foreign authors intentionally leave the space because children cannot absorb too much information at once.
In China, where the children's book market only sprang up about 12 years ago, the bookstore, opened in October by Tokyo-based Poplar Publishing Corp., is trying to sell picture books to parents who have had little or no exposure to them. Chinese usually buy books jammed with information that will help their kids pass exams and get an edge on their peers.