The month of March is closely connected every year with books. For people, books are not only a source of wisdom but also of encouraging stories.
What is the story of one ordinary book? Sometimes it is not enough just to write a book; its cover and contents also need to be decorated with beautiful illustrations and, last but not least, for it to reach the reader it is meant for, it has to be sold in a bookshop.
During the living library called The Story of One Book, the opportunity to learn how illustrations are made and how a bookshop works was offered to second-year pupils of our schools. This event with two interesting guests was prepared for them by the Pôjd Education Centre.
The children heard how illustrations in books are made from a young student and illustrator of children's books and magazines, Dávid Pogran. Dávid also brought remarkable samples of his work, which he drew on paper back then. Today he mostly illustrates on a tablet using a pen and an app. The tablet and pen could not be missing from this meeting, and the pupils also had the chance to draw something of their own on it.
The second guest was a worker at the Alter Ego bookshop in Kežmarok, Soňa Navrátilová. Sonička told the pupils the story of how this bookshop came about, which this year celebrates its 30th birthday. She brought samples of various book genres, from children's board books through textbooks, encyclopedias, dictionaries and children's prose to atlases of mushrooms and butterflies and books on home crafts. She assured the listeners that their bookshop would meet the needs of even the most demanding reader. She also told the children about her personal relationship with books and encouraged them to make sure that they, too, did not forget to read. Every pupil also took home a small gift in the form of a bookmark.
We believe this event was inspiring for the children and that it motivates them to think about books not only in March, but all year round, because books are like doors: when you open them, you step into a new, unknown story.
