March- the Month of books in the Czech Republic

Our two sectretaries Krista/ on the left/ and Hanka/ on the right/ are the people who like culture, music and especially reading books. Hanka is helping our librarian Renata with the eTwinning project called Who is afraid of books. They write some of the topics together and they are always happy when we get a reply from Greece. Here is a letter which they have written to our partner school.

Czech children and books.
Czech children have started reading Harry Potter books like other children and it is interesting that also the children who do not read much. When I was a child my favourite books were by Jules Verne, Jaroslav Foglar, { who wrote about scouts and nature}, The Jungle book, Children from Bullerbyne by Astrid Lindgren, novels for girls and some Czech writers.
Today, children can choose from a large number of books from abroad. At present, books which are very popular are fantasy books by J.R.R. Tolkien, Terry Pratchett...} and they like reading biographies of famous sportsmen{ Lance Armstrong, Jaromir Jagr, Dominik Hasek, David Beckham....}or singers like Robbie Williams, Bono Vox, actors and actresses.
They also like reading books about some teenagers’ stories which they have seen as films at the cinema.

In our library they usually borrow books written by classics like Karel Capek, William Shakespeare, A.P. Cechov, Dostojevski, Victor Hugo and Alexander Dumas....


The other part of my letter was written by my friend Hanka, a secretary who is a keen reader.

I feel sorry for today’s children. When I remember my childhood, I remember that reading books was our pleasure not our duty. There was nothing on TV and we had no mobiles, computers, play stations which would lead us away from reading books .The book has always been my best present. I loved the aroma of the new book and I loved to hear the crack of the first opening. I still love it and I have saved my children’s books. I have two children and I know their friends and so I can say that there are still keen readers among them, who go to the library and who are excited when they see a book under the Christmas tree. But nowadays children prefer different presents. The children get a list of compulsory books for school at the beginning of the school year. In the past we liked to read them but today the kids go to the internet and they copy the content of the book from there in several minutes.

I remember when I used to read under the duvet with a torch not to be seen by my parents .It was something. But I have to confess that my daughter is the same. She switches off the lamp when I go to the toilet during the night very quickly. Then she tells me the next day that the book had been so interesting that she couldn’t stop reading.

Nothing is better than a book which is so interesting that you do not want to finish it. You forget about the outside life and you really want to prolong the last page. I hope that some of the today’s children know this feeling too.


I think that we can pass the reading passion onto the children ourselves, too. First , when they can’t read themselves we should read them regularly and later they should see us with a book in our hands. I used to love the moment when they went to bed and I started reading a story for them. When they were older, I still wanted to read them but they used to say mum, we can do it ourselves, leave us alone. I could see that they were growing so fast. But now when they are ill, and lie with the temperature in bed, I still read them.

I do not know, but I hope that there are still more young mothers who read the books than those who place the children in front of the TV and instead of books they buy expensive toys for them. Those toys usually do not support their fantasy. People without fantasy are boring. Reading books is very important for enlarging our fantasy. And what you do not learn when you are young, you will not learn when you are old. Then it is too late.