Europe Reads
In November 2018, EURead launched its first pan-European reading campaign. During the Bundesweiter Vorlesetag (German Reading Aloud Day) the first entry in a Europe Reads Book was created. Over 25 entries in no less than three Europe Reads Books would follow, all across Europe. The travelling books have successfully raised awareness about the importance of reading promotion. The animation film that was produced for the campaign has been translated and/or subtitled into 7 languages.
Goal
The Europe Reads campaign raises awareness about the importance of reading promotion, first of all on the national level. Participating organisations have invited national or local politicians (or in some cases other professionals) to visit their reading promotion activity and co-sign the Europe Reads Book and petition, thus showing that reading is important. In many cases, journalists were present to report about the signing of the book. The organisation itself would document in the book not only how they promote reading, but also what is their greatest need and most important issue. Most book signings were also documented on the EURead website.
Petition
The petition in the Europe Reads books was signed by many organisations and their invitees. It is aimed at the European Commission, and reads: ‘We call out to the European Commission to support reading promotion.’ In Slovenia, the participating politicians and publishers chose to sign another text, which is about their ambition to promote reading in Slovenia.
Apart from these more official contents, the Europe Reads Books also had room for extra thoughts and notes. This open space has been filled in by children, authors and illustrators.