Living Literature for Young Readers

ended

Within the Circulation of European Literature grant, Phoenix Books and the project aims to publish contemporary European works on the underrepresented genre of children’s and adolescents’ literature, especially for readers aged 6/16. Our first objective is to promote values through qualitative but attractive books that tell fantastic tales about human values and the first decisions of growing up. The project balances Western European (German, Spanish, Finnish, and Italian) and Eastern European (Serbian, Bulgarian, Romania, Greek) authors and titles to Hungarian audiences. Our second objective is to bring contemporary literature to the children to the schools and libraries to make literature and culture something living and accessible for young people. Within the project, our main activity is to publish the books and run a program entitled Living Literature to facilitate the children’s access to the translated texts via school activities. In the program, Phoenix Books offers class exercises and different extracurricular activities. We focus on inclusion and equal opportunities making possible free access to literature in various places from Budapest to disadvantaged villages. It establishes a personal connection between the audience and literature itself that we consider particularly important after the isolation of the pandemic. Shared learning, mutual support, and community are values that have become of great importance in the last years, and the project connects these values with European children’s literature and reading. Consequently, young people at the age of 6 to 16 and pedagogues equally benefit from the new accessibility of contemporary European children’s literature. The planned output is the ten books accompanied by teaching materials and regular extracurricular activities based on the novels. The project’s result is making literature something living and available for young readers.