Children’s book fairs in Bucharest

children’s book fairs in bucharest A series of private initiatives aimed at encouraging children to read books have appeared in Romania.

A series of private initiatives aimed at encouraging children to read books have recently appeared in Romania. One such initiative is a book fair for children entitled BOOKerini. For a whole weekend, the children who visited the Carturesti Bookstore in the centre of Bucharest had access to low-priced books as well as to a series of book and reading-related activities. Valentina Bacu, one of the organisers, tells us more:


"We lay emphasis here on quality books and we help children get acquainted with book characters. For this reason the way we have staged this fair is very important. We have built these stands especially for children, not very tall so that they may easily reach the books. They can sit down on the floor, on pillows or chairs. We are also running a series of activities here at the Carturesti Bookstore. In the attic we have an exhibition made by children for children a month before the fair. Also in the attic there are workshops for children and book launches."


The huge number of visitors the fair saw during its three days could invalidate the impression that young people no longer read nowadays. Here is Valentina Bacu at the microphone again:


"In spite of this opinion, children read a lot without being obliged by the school curricula. I have noticed this while working with them and I believe that teachers and parents should understand that children don't like to be obliged to read certain books; they don't read the books recommended by parents or teachers as being masterpieces. We should let them discover the pleasure of reading for themselves and that's why we have staged this fair, which is different than any other event of its kind. We have created unconventional reading spaces, in a tent, for instance. We have story workshops where children can create illustrations for the stories they have read. My conclusion is that children do ead and this first edition of BOOKerini confirms that. In the first day of the fair we had over 700 children attending our events."


Children not only read, they also write, says Delia Calancia, "the youngest Humanitas writer", as she introduces herself. This 9-years old girl is the author of an illustrated volume entitled A Day in the Life of Delia. She started drawing at the age of 3 and after she learnt how to read, her drawings have mainly been inspired from books. This is what she told us:


"The books I like the most are fantasy books as well as those by Roald Dahl, such as Matilda or Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. In fact I like all his books and read every day. No day passes without me reading something."


Another young author is ten-year old Petru Buzea. Petru and his baby sister Smaranda wrote and illustrated the book Short but Funny Stories. Petru tells us how he got the idea:


"One evening, when I had nothing to do, I thought to write a story. I started writing it, then I read it and showed it to my mum, who said she liked it. My style is that of fairy-tales which I like reading. However, a short while ago, I got the idea to write stories inspired from my life."


11-year old Petra has also tried her hand at writing, the girl being an addicted book reader:


"I started writing a book this very day, but I also like to illustrate books. My parents used to read to me. Then I learnt to read, and because grandma would fall asleep reading to me, one day I made up my mind to read books all by myself."


The parents' role in stimulating their children's thirst for reading is decisive, just like in education as a whole. That is why, the Narrative children's reading festival equally targets parents. Ana, the mother of a little boy and a little girl, told us why she had brought her kids to the festival:


"I want them to be attracted to reading more, given that nowadays, children are tempted more by TVs, tablets, the Internet and mobile phones. They don't seem to be attracted to books any more. My ten-year old boy started reading all by himself, but now and then, he needs my stimulus. I still read to my daughter; actually we read together because she is in the first grade and has just started to learn how to read. We read together but we don't have much time to do that. So that is why I started coming to the Narrative festival, to make my children read by themselves."


The Narrative Festival, which is in its third year, is organised by the Curtea Veche Association and gives over 3,000 children the opportunity to attend various workshops for free meant to stimulate their interest in reading. Miruna Meirosu, the vice-president of the Curtea Veche Association, explains:


"We run workshops with various themes showing children that reading can be fun. Moreover, we try to develop their creativity, critical mind and ability to reason by blending reading with various techniques specific to visual arts, shadow theatre and architecture. There are also workshops for story-telling in various foreign languages. We also run workshops for the visually and hearing-impaired children. In addition to these events, we also hold conferences for parents. For three years now, we've been trying to promote the 'parenting for reading' concept, to teach parents modern techniques to stimulate their children's interest in reading."


Parents and teachers should join their efforts in this respect because according to a survey by the Curtea Veche Association, only 8% of schoolchildren in Bucharest read for pleasure.



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Publicat: 2017-10-11 13:02:00
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