Свободное время

Books are bought without fuss, and library purchases are a good way to sell them. "We have maybe one thousand, though probably not enough, buyers of books, and the rest go to the library," complains the writer and editor. Why aren't there one thousand children's book buyers per ten million inhabitants? Maybe a question about the quality of publications? Andrei Kharuzhka from the publishing house "Galiyafa" noted the high competition from imported books in Russian, regretted that we do not have...

A round table was held in Minsk under the auspices of the Union of Belarusian Writers. The round table was fully dedicated to children's literature, with the Swedish writer Yuya Wieslander as the guest of honor, who arrived in Belarus for her third visit. Representatives of two independent publishing houses "Logvinau" and "Galiyafs", publisher Zmitser Kolas, Belarusian children's writers and poets, journalists and observers and the creator of the puppet theater took part in the discussion. Honestly,...

The popular question "How to make a child love books?" has many answers. Search engines are happy to offer quick solutions. Those interested in getting off the ground will find popular and trendy articles entitled "Seven Steps to the Reading Child", "Ten Rules for Successful Reading" or "Eight Reasons to Teach Children to Read Classics". What is a sin to conceal, at a time when it seemed to me that, having read the Internet manuals, I have the right to give advice to all sides of the world, myself...

The term reading for pleasure means a situation when a child reads any texts outside of educational activities, school or out-of-school. 86% of children aged 6 to 17 agree that it is important for their future to become a good reader. At the same time, 58% of children like to read for pleasure. Many children find it difficult to find interesting books, and for parents this problem is not always obvious. 41% of children admit that they have difficulty finding good books, and only 29% of parents believe that their children need help with their choice...

1. Adults are reading more to children aloud and reading to children earlier. The number of parents of children aged 0 to 5 who started reading to a child before the age of three months was 40% in 2016 compared to 30% in 2014. The number of parents of children aged 3 to 5 reading aloud 5-7 days a week was 62% in 2016 compared to 55% in 2014. The percentage of parents reading aloud decreases significantly with the age of children: Children from 0 to 5 years old - 59% Children aged 6 to 8 years - 38% Children from 9 to 11 years old - 17% 2...

For the first time in eight years, I've been thoroughly reviewing books and finding publications that I've almost forgotten about. Looking at many finds, I see how many mistakes I made, while with the excitement of neophyte made up the library for their children. I can't say that now I'm not stepping on the old rake, but the stacks of books that children still haven't opened and aren't sure if they will open at all, will be sobering for a while. Everybody has their own experience, and I will categorically...

I am sincerely glad to see the Koska' publishing house and that it will be translating Swedish children's books into Belarusian. And anticipating the questions "why not Belarusian authors?", "Why do we need translation?", I would say that the experience of neighboring countries shows that first we get acquainted with the world context, and then, as if by magic, there appear their own authors who fit into this context. In this sense, the Swedish children's book school is one of the most intriguing examples to look up to...

A little bit about the festival. What impressed me from the first minute on the site - how the oldest and largest literary festival in the world can look so chamber and cozy and leave the impression that you've been on another planet, so the organization is not comparable to anything already seen. I don't have much experience of visiting big book events, and it's probably wrong to compare the festival, where everything revolves around informal communication between authors and readers, with exhibitions...

Not so long ago, a Belarusian portal asked to answer a couple of questions for a national article about reading to children and reading to children. As a result, none of my comments were included in the article. I still wonder why. Do the citizens of Minsk have a culture of reading from birth? First of all, we need to understand what we mean. Do today's parents read to their children from birth? Some read. Can we call it an established culture of reading? Partly. Reading to very young children is another way of communicating with them...

Writer Joanne Harris wrote in her blog a tedious post about how adults stole "Harry Potter". The children were stolen. At first, writes Harris, Harry Potter's universe did not look too much out from under the table, it was a place of pure and pure children's joy, you know, there - an area where you can smile with all your heart without ironic look at postmodernism. But, Harris continues, at some point she began to notice that all the children had disappeared from this universe. They left that your...