A series of private
\ninitiatives aimed at encouraging children to read books have recently appeared
\nin Romania. One such initiative is a book fair for children entitled BOOKerini.
\nFor a whole weekend, the children who visited the Carturesti Bookstore in the
\ncentre of Bucharest had access to low-priced books as well as to a series of
\nbook and reading-related activities. Valentina Bacu, one of the organisers,
\ntells us more:<\/p>\n
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We lay emphasis here on quality books and we
\nhelp children get acquainted with book characters. For this reason the way we
\nhave staged this fair is very important. We have built these stands especially
\nfor children, not very tall so that they may easily reach the books. They can
\nsit down on the floor, on pillows or chairs. We are also running a series of
\nactivities here at the Carturesti Bookstore. In the attic we have an exhibition
\nmade by children for children a month before the fair. Also in the attic there
\nare workshops for children and book launches.<\/p>\n
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The huge number of
\nvisitors the fair saw during its three days could invalidate the impression
\nthat young people no longer read nowadays. Here is Valentina Bacu at the
\nmicrophone again:<\/p>\n
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In spite of this opinion, children read a lot
\nwithout being obliged by the school curricula. I have noticed this while
\nworking with them and I believe that teachers and parents should understand
\nthat children don’t like to be obliged to read certain books; they don’t read
\nthe books recommended by parents or teachers as being masterpieces. We should
\nlet them discover the pleasure of reading for themselves and that’s why we have
\nstaged this fair, which is different than any other event of its kind. We have
\ncreated unconventional reading spaces, in a tent, for instance. We have story
\nworkshops where children can create illustrations for the stories they have
\nread. My conclusion is that children do ead and this first edition of BOOKerini
\nconfirms that. In the first day of the fair we had over 700 children attending
\nour events.<\/p>\n
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Children not only
\nread, they also write, says Delia Calancia, the youngest Humanitas writer, as
\nshe introduces herself. This 9-years old girl is the author of an illustrated
\nvolume entitled A Day in the Life of Delia. She started drawing at the
\nage of 3 and after she learnt how to read, her drawings have mainly been
\ninspired from books. This is what she told us:<\/p>\n
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The books I like the most are fantasy books as
\nwell as those by Roald Dahl, such as Matilda or Charlie and the
\nChocolate Factory. In fact I like all his books and read every day. No day
\npasses without me reading something.<\/p>\n
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Another young author
\nis ten-year old Petru Buzea. Petru and his baby sister Smaranda wrote and
\nillustrated the book Short but Funny Stories. Petru tells us how he got
\nthe idea:<\/p>\n
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One evening, when I had nothing to do, I
\nthought to write a story. I started writing it, then I read it and showed it to
\nmy mum, who said she liked it. My style is that of fairy-tales which I like
\nreading. However, a short while ago, I got the idea to write stories inspired
\nfrom my life.<\/p>\n
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11-year old Petra has also tried her hand at
\nwriting, the girl being an addicted book reader:<\/p>\n
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I started writing a book this very day, but I
\nalso like to illustrate books. My parents used to read to me. Then I learnt to
\nread, and because grandma would fall asleep reading to me, one day I made up my
\nmind to read books all by myself.<\/p>\n
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The parents’ role in stimulating their
\nchildren’s thirst for reading is decisive, just like in education as a whole.
\nThat is why, the Narrative children’s reading festival equally targets parents.
\nAna, the mother of a little boy and a little girl, told us why she had brought
\nher kids to the festival:<\/p>\n
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I want them to be attracted to reading more,
\ngiven that nowadays, children are tempted more by TVs, tablets, the Internet
\nand mobile phones. They don’t seem to be attracted to books any more. My
\nten-year old boy started reading all by himself, but now and then, he needs my
\nstimulus. I still read to my daughter; actually we read together because she is
\nin the first grade and has just started to learn how to read. We read together
\nbut we don’t have much time to do that. So that is why I started coming to the
\nNarrative festival, to make my children read by themselves.<\/p>\n
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The Narrative Festival, which is in its third
\nyear, is organised by the Curtea Veche Association and gives over 3,000
\nchildren the opportunity to attend various workshops for free meant to
\nstimulate their interest in reading. Miruna Meirosu, the vice-president of the
\nCurtea Veche Association, explains:<\/p>\n
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We run workshops with various themes showing
\nchildren that reading can be fun. Moreover, we try to develop their creativity,
\ncritical mind and ability to reason by blending reading with various techniques
\nspecific to visual arts, shadow theatre and architecture. There are also
\nworkshops for story-telling in various foreign languages. We also run workshops
\nfor the visually and hearing-impaired children. In addition to these events, we
\nalso hold conferences for parents. For three years now, we’ve been trying to
\npromote the ‘parenting for reading’ concept, to teach parents modern techniques
\nto stimulate their children’s interest in reading.<\/p>\n
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Parents and teachers should join their efforts
\nin this respect because according to a survey by the Curtea Veche Association,
\nonly 8% of schoolchildren in Bucharest read for pleasure.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A series of private initiatives aimed at encouraging children to read books have appeared in Romania.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":135936,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[42997],"tags":[43646,43648,43647],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-142450","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-society-today","tag-bookerini","tag-childrens-book-fair","tag-narativ"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n