Eight National Children’s Book Festival – Sliven, May 8-10, 2006

 The National Children’s Book Festival takes place in Sliven traditionally at the beginning of May. It is initiated by “Sava Dobroplodni” Regional Library, supported by the Ministry of culture, National book centre at the Ministry of culture, the State agency for Bulgarians abroad, Regional administration-Sliven, Sliven Municipality, Rotary club – Sliven, the biggest children books publishing houses, and other organizations.

The VIIIth festival took place for the third time under the aegis of the first lady of Bulgaria Mrs. Zorka Parvanova. It gathered together in Sliven guests and participants from Bulgaria and abroad: writers, publishers, illustrators, books distributors, library specialists – people, who contact the youngest readers and make the world of books more interesting and accessible. The festival became ones again a place for expressing the talents of all children, who express themselves by the magic of words and the beauty of dance and this way they message the world.

The National Children’s Book Festival was opened by a concert in 10:00 a.m. at the “Stefan Kirov” dramatic theatre on May 8, 2006. The anthem of the festival /lyrics Petya Alexandrova, music Haigashod Agassian/ rang out for the first time during the concert. There were some accents in the festival’s program in the first day: the expected and so much desired from pupils literary competition “An adventure in the European literary treasure house”, in which took part  pupils from different schools in the two festival days, meetings with the writers Rumen Shomov, Rositsa Chernokojeva, Maya Dulgucheva, Todor Lozanov, opening an exhibition of illustrations of associated professor Regina Dalkulucheva /National Art Academy-Sofia/, a performance „Where is the land of fairy-tales” of “Marieta and Marioneta” theatre and a premiere „Sun Sunflower” of children theatre „Rogue”.

A round table on topic: “Modern novel for children – samples, tendencies, challenges” was opened in “May” hall of Sliven Municipality at the same time in 11.00 a.m. It was dedicated to the 100 years from the birth of the writer and the literary critic Petar Dimitrov-Rudar, who was born in Sliven. Many official guest read their reports on the round table: the poetess Elizabeta Georgieva /Serbia and Monte Negro/, associated professor Svetlana Stoicheva /Sofia University/, Vihren Chernokojev /Bulgarian Academy of Sciences/, Rositsa Chernokojeva /Bulgarian Academy of Sciences/, Maria Gareva /State agency of Bulgarian abroad/, Petya Alexandrova /a poetess/, Stefania Tsankova /Veliko Tarnovo University/, Georgi Konstantinov /a writer/, associated professor Margarita Terzieva /Bourgas University ”Asen Zlatarov”/, Sasha Vasilevich / Serbia and Monte Negro /, Josef Kerestury /Hungary/, associated professor Neli Ivanova /Sofia University/, associated professor Dobrinka Stojkova and associated professor Maria Nikolova /High school of library and informative sciences/, Dochka Petrova /a teacher/, library specialists, Konstantina Nedkova /”St. St. Cyril and Methodius” National Library/, Neli Malcheva /Targovishte regional library/, Radostina Vasileva /Bourgas regional library/. The symposium of reports, published by the help of the National book centre, was a nice surprise for guests and participants. It allowed the participants to have more time for discussing on the problems. The famous Serbian poet Dushan Djurdjev- a director of the international festival “Zmejeve dechie igre”-presented at the end of the forum an anthology of Serbian poetry for children “All that grows would like to sing”, translated into Bulgarian. One hundred issues of the anthology were gifted to the organizers of the National Children’s Book Festival and they will distribute them to the big libraries in Bulgaria and to Bulgarian children.

A project “My first book” for encouraging talents (sponsored by the Ministry of education of Finland), released by Gergana Yaneva /Helsinki, Finland/ and a children literary work-shop of the poetess Elizabeta Georgieva /Serbia and Monte Negro/ were presented in the first day of the festival’s program. Many teachers and directors of artistic organizations from Sliven and from the country attended the meeting. Experience and good practices were shared and discussed.

A discussion “Integrating Europe to children” and a presentation of the results of the trans-national competition “Europe in a tale” on the international project LITTLE, managed and carried out in Bulgaria by “Sava Dobroplodni” Regional library were held in a European spirit on the second festival’s day– May 9. The members of the national jury of the competition Georgi Konstantinov and Petya Alexandrova, the member of the international jury Igor Chipev, and the winners of the first three places in each age group and many guests took part in the discussion. Iliana Yankova, 16 years old, an author of the “True tale”, who took the second place in competition with the best German and Italian tales in the international ranking attended the meeting too. A medley of the Bulgarian tales, winners in the competition was presented.

There were meetings with the writes Julia Spiridonova and Georgi Mishev in the same day, which were very interested for the children. A premiere of the book of Dafina Georgieva-Ronya “I am a dream” and a meeting with    Dafi’s mother – Katia Georgieva were held with the participation of the director of “Egmont” publishing house Mr. Georgi Alexandrov. The winners in the national competition for drawings and the literary competition “An adventure in the world of fairy secrets and magic” were awarded on a special ceremony. More than 3000 children from Bulgarian and the Bulgarian communities abroad took part in the competition. More than 50 prizes were awarded. The actors from “Jolly” theatre, Nencho Ilchev and Miroslava Gogovska entertained children and adults by funny show.

Konstantin Konstantinov’s book “Tales for you”, published by “Hermes” publishing house, dedicated to the VIIIth National Children’s Book Festival was presented on a special meeting. “Hermes” publishing house is the winner of the national ”Konstantin Konstantinov” prize for achievements in book publishing for children for the last year in the “Publishing house” section. Mr. Stojo Vartolomeev, the owner of the publishing house, attended the meeting and donated special issues of the book to big school libraries. More than 1 000 issues of the book were given to participants in different events of the festival’s program

A jolly carnival procession walked along the main street in 4.30 p.m. with the participation of pupils from different Sliven schools, accompanied by “Sea sounds” brass bend /Bourgas/ and majorettes from Karnobat.

The official concert-show was the culmination of the festival’s program. It started in 5.30 p.m. in the Sliven dramatic theatre. The national “Konstantin Konstantinov” prize was awarded for the third year during the concert. It was established in 2004 by the Ministry of culture, National book centre, “Sava Dobroplodni” Regional Library, Sliven Municipality and Rotary club - Sliven. It is awarded yearly during the days of the festival for achievements in the book publishing for children in the previous year and it consists of a sculpture, a diploma and money. Author of the sculpture is the young Sliven sculptor Seifetin Shekerov. The prize for “Lifelong achievements” was awarded to Katia Vodenicharova, who dedicated almost all her work - 7 radio-plays, 6 puppets and 8 theatrical plays, 8 screen play for TV films and 9 books to the complicated and not always understandable world of teenagers and children. In the “Author” section the prize was awarded to Sevda Sevan for her book “Tales for Nile, Pagan and Biyajna”, published in 2005. In the “Illustrator” section the prize was awarded to the young painter Spas Spasov, who illustrated the books from the “jolly tales” series of “Hermes” publishing house. The newly established prize of the Bulgarian Writers’ Union for a new children’s book /manuscript/ was awarded for the first time to the young writer Julia Spiridonova. The show “With the book all over the world”, with the special participation of the actors Ivan Laskin, Nencho Ilchev and Miroslava Gogovska was performed after the official ceremony.

There were premieres of Georgi Konstantinov’s book “The adventures of Tufo-the red-haired pirate”, Irina Batkova’s book “The moon ink-pot” and Aneta Doucheva Fermann’s book “The pocket dwarf”/Munich, Germany/, during the third day of the festival’s program.

The winners of the national “Konstantin Konstantinov” prize for 2006 and the winner of the prize of the Bulgarian Writers’ Union were introduced on a special press-conference. The festival was closed by the concert of Haigashod Agassian and the children vocal group “Bees”.

There were many presents and surprises, supplied by the organizers and “Hermes”, “Fjut”, “Janet-45” and “Egmont Bulgaria” publishing houses for all the children who attended the events of the festival’s program.

On the book bazaar, books were sold with big discounts.

The National Children’s Book Festival is a unique event in Bulgarian cultural life, which each year is an incredible experience with its exciting meetings, creative devotion, new ideas and sincere children love and excitement. Let us wish ourselves to be this way this year too.