In fall 2022, the Back to the Books reading club started at the IYL under the direction of Valeria Giaquinto. 17 German-Italian-speaking young people from Munich met regularly to work on a literary project together with pupils from the Mittelschule an der Alfonsstraße. The project focused on books by Italian author Davide Morosinotto, who was a guest at the IYL for the final presentation in June 2023.
The young people presented a colorful stage program to the author and invited school classes in the audience. The short plays, videos and a self-written song were inspired by the books “Mississipi Gang”, “Lost in Ice and Snow”, “The Hunter's Dark Hour” and “Shiyu”.
After the successful final presentation with star guest Davide Morosinotto, Back to the Books turned its attention to another exciting question: What are we actually reading right now? Which new books for young people are inspiring us? And what topics are moving us?
The reading club had been invited to a very special format at the Munich Book Fair (Münchner Bücherschau): the Literary Youth Quartet with the Munich-based author and moderator duo Silke Schlichtmann and Nils Freytag. Four reading clubs from the state capital had read through all of last year's new releases and each selected a favorite, which they presented on the podium. For Back to the Books, Ettore presented the book "Halber Löwe" by Johannes Herwig, which fascinated the whole group. For the preperation it was even possible to have a personal Zoom interview with the author!
Ettore presented his reading club's favorite new release in a passionate appeal and quickly won over his fellow panelists and the audience. He mastered the ensuing discussion confidently and with great charm. Thank you very much and we are already looking forward to 2024!
With the kind support of the AKJ, the Waldemar Bonsels Foundation and the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth.
Literanauten is a nationwide reading promotion project of the Arbeitskreis für Jugendliteratur e.V. (AKJ - The Association for Children's and Youth Literature) that invites young people to actively participate. The program focuses on the peer-to-peer approach: young people with an affinity for reading who are organized in reading clubs, literature juries or writing groups are first trained and then become active in motivating themselves. Their goal is to get even more children and young people excited about books. For them and with them, the Literanauts develop regional events and formats that focus on books.