EU Read

Stichting Lezen, Flanders (Flanders)

At Stichting Lezen, we adore stories and books of all kinds. We love to share our passion with everyone and in fact, we’d like to get the whole of Flanders, young and old, into reading.

Our golden rules

What you learn early in life stays with you
No one is ever too young for books, stories, rhymes and songs. Early familiarity with books is the best way to ensure a lifelong love of books and reading.

Children and adults live in the same world
Most children want to grow up as quickly as possible. They’re curious about the life of adults. Let’s cherish them and love them, but not wrap them up in cotton wool.

You learn from people you admire
Children admire their parents and teachers. Most booklovers remember an adult, a parent or a teacher familiarizing them with books. If adults talk about books with love and read with enthusiasm, children will be happy to follow the example they set.

There’s no such thing as the average reader
One is fascinated by atlases, another loves poetry. One wants reality, the other is a dreamer. We have to keep looking for the right book for the right reader at the right time.

The art of seduction
If you want to win someone over, you have to make an effort. If you are a parent or a teacher, you read aloud. In order to tempt children to read, you need to present them with fascinating stories and beautiful illustrations.

Children and adults live in the same world
Many reading promotion programs focus on children, which seems evident and which is useful. Still, if children never see an adult who enjoys reading, it looks as if reading is something for children, something you grow out of.

The projects we do
To get Flanders reading, we organise a Children’s Book Week (Jeugdboekenweek) in March which precedes Reading Aloud Week (Voorleesweek) in November. We join young reading enthusiasts in the Children’s Jury (Kinder- en Jeugdjury Vlaanderen) and developed Fahrenheit451 and a Book Bet (De Weddenschap) for young people in vocational and technical education. Together with the Belgian Railways we’ve set up Everybody Reads (Iedereen Leest), a website for adult readers to exchange book tips. We support hundreds of author’s readings for all ages. And in cooperation with the Flemish healthcare services we develop Book Babies (Boekbaby’s) for babies and toddlers.

The people we work with
Our dedication exceeds the possibilities of Stichting Lezen so we have joined hands with people in schools, libraries, day-care centres, the book profession, and the media. With them, we develop ideas and projects. To widen our scope and to keep track of trends we exchange ideas and expertise with our international partners and occasionally adapt some of their successful projects to the Flemish context. Together with specialists and researchers we organise conferences and workshops.

The Centre for Children’s Literature (Focuspunt Jeugdliteratuur)
Within Stichting Lezen the Centre for Children’s Literature focuses on children’s literature. This centre of expertise possesses a subject library of over six thousand titles. The centre also hosts a Book Quest site (http://www.boekenzoeker.org) for children and youngsters aged 8-18. The website http://www.villakakelbont.be publishes news from the world of children’s books and provides hundreds of author profiles. The Centre for Children’s Literature organises training for (aspiring) teachers, librarians and other children’s books aficionados, often in collaboration with the University of Antwerp.

Funding
All this is funded by the Ministry of Culture of the Flemish Government. However, the Flemish Literature Fund also provides for the Centre for Children’s Literature.

Address
Stichting Lezen
Frankrijklei 130/4
2000 Antwerpen
Belgium

t +32 (0)3 204 10 00
e .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

http://www.stichtinglezen.be