The Book On! international children's literature festival is set to return to Luxembourg for its second edition in October 2024.
This year's festival is taking place in Merl (Home St. Gengoul cultural centre) on Saturday 5 and Sunday 6 October and in Strassen (Paul Barblé cultural centre) from Friday 11 to Sunday 13 October 2024.
On the agenda are two weekends filled with readings, storytelling, illustration workshops, clown shows, theatre performances and other literary fun. The programme is crafted especially for children up to the age of twelve. The festival will feature authors from Luxembourg, Lithuania, Poland, Germany, Italy and Catalonia (Spain) and will present works in various literary forms and art styles.
Highlights include performances by theatre crews Pea Green Boat from Barcelona and Pradžia from Vilnius, literary performances by the winner of the Andersen Prize, Italian author Luigi Dal Cin, as well as workshops by the Polish book author and illustrator Piotr Karksi, winner of Special Mention at the 2024 BolognaRagazzi Awards. Jura Vilė, winner of the Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis 2021 (Lithuania), will host a workshop, and various writers, illustrators and performers from Luxembourg (Marc Weydert, winner of the Lëtzebuerger Buchpräis 2022, Mireille Weiten-de-Waha, Dany Gales, Marielle Piccolo and others) will also offer readings and workshops.
On Friday 11 October from 17:00 to 19:00, the festival will host a colloquium moderated by Jérome Jaminet entitled "Children's literature is not a flight of fancy: the impact of stories and reading on children’s linguistic and emotional development", with the participation of Pascale M. J. Engel de Abreu (Professor at the University of Luxembourg and founder of LUMI Better Learning SIS), Simone Thill (President of Trauerwee asbl) and Viktorija Bulyginaitė (chief manager of the cultural projects department of children's and youth literature at the National Martynas Mažvydas Library of Lithuania).
"Book On! is a unique literature event in Luxembourg whose aim is to promote children's literature, foster a reading culture and provide Luxembourg families with high quality cultural events. We aim to get children engaged with books through creative, interactive, dynamic activities," said one of the founders of the festival and leader of the Lithuanian Community in Luxembourg, Jolanta Švedkauskaitė.
The detailed programme is available online at https://vaikuzeme.lt/projektai/childrens-literature-festival-book-on/.
