Frankfurt Joins European Network for Youth Reading Events

Frankfurt Book Fair joins new effort, opened during Bologna by the Montreuil Children’s Book Fair, of event producers to support reading in Europe.

At the 2010 Frankfurter Buchmesse, a session on books for young readers. Image: FBM, Alexander Heimann

By Porter Anderson, Editor-in-Chief | @Porter_Anderson

‘A Wide Range of Societal Concerns’

After years of observing some of the activities of Comic Art Europe, many Publishing Perspectives readers will be glad to hear about the new European Network of Children’s Literature and Comics Events and Festivals.

This is a collaboration of 15 international publishing and/or book event producers who have agreed to work together in forming “a collective aimed at enhancing their cooperation and effectively addressing the challenges and issues surrounding access to books and reading in Europe.”

Frankfurter Buchmesse‘s (October 16 to 20) involvement clearly aligns the world’s largest international trade publishing show with the group’s objectives, which “encompass a wide range of societal concerns including promoting access to reading;  supporting the ecological transition; and fostering inclusivity for people with disabilities.” Certainly on the national scale in Germany, the Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels, Germany’s publishers and booksellers association, has worked to stabilize a stubborn shortfall in reading among students, most recently with a well-received and highlighted survey.

“Additionally,” we read, the new European Network of Children’s Literature and Comics Events and Festivals “seeks to bolster collaborative artistic endeavors, facilitate the dissemination of children’s literature artists’ works, and invigorate the contemporary European literary scene.

Members of the Network

Updated as of Tuesday (April 30), the initial network members comprise:

• Book Arsenal Festival (Ukraine)
• Children’s Literature Festival, LUUP (Estonia)
• Create Festival (Denmark)
• Tabook Festival (Czech Republic)
• International Festival of Comics and Games (Poland)
• Flic Festival (Spain)
• Salon du livre de Genève (Switzerland)
• Frankfurter Buchmesse (Germany)
• Foire du livre de Bruxelles (Belgium)
• The Bologna Children’s Book Fair (Italy)
• Thessaloniki Book Fair (Greece)
• Madrid Book Fair (Spain)
• Boom ! et A occhi aperti / Hamelin, cultural organization (Italy)
• Montreuil Children’s Book Fair (France)
• Children Book Island (Lithuania)

“This network, besides its cultural dimension,” media messaging for today’s article here (May 2) says, “also aims to position itself as an influential actor with European institutions in order to submit cooperation projects within funding programs, such as Creative Europe. The initial discussions of the network have notably highlighted a shared interest in prioritizing action on accessibility issues with the goal of enabling an increasingly broader audience to experience the best of children’s literature and comics.”

Action Plans of the New Collective

• Promote reading, children’s literature and comics in their full diversity and quality
• Underscore the importance and strength of children’s literature as a means of understanding societal evolution and self-awareness
• Tackle the challenges of reading in intercultural and plurilingual environments
• Promote artist mobility and their creative works
• Develop action plans addressing social issues, including ecological transition, accessibility to works and events, gender equality promotion, and combating violence and discrimination
• Proactively engage diverse audiences—both children and adults—by exploring innovative mediation tools and drawing from proven initiatives and experiences
• Share, learn and exchange professional practices and experiences (promotion and mediation of reading, literary events, and book industry)
• Know better the funding opportunities, options and propositions in national and international scales

We’ll have more news of the collective and its work, as available.

More from Publishing Perspectives on Europe is here, more on Frankfurter Buchmesse is here, more on issues in youth reading is here, and more on trade shows and book fairs in world publishing is here.