More than 85 book titles will be launched in this year’s International Children’s and Youth Book Fair that is taking place in Chisinau on April 14-17. During three days, the visitors of the exhibition can become acquainted with publishing houses from Moldova and abroad, can communicate with authors and can purchase books at lower prices. Contacted by IPN, director of the National Children’s Library “Ion Creanga” Claudia Balaban said that this year the fair attracted a lot of visitors who came to choose the preferred books out of the over 15,000 titles exhibited there.

The 20th exhibit of the kind presents the books of over 115 publishing houses from nine countries. According to Claudia Balaban, as in the previous events the children and young people can find valuable books that can develop their passion for reading for the whole life. The fair became in time a real competition between writers and publishing houses that want to furnish the children with the best books.

The books exhibited at the fair were published last year. Among the national book titles, the readers can find books by Aurelian Silvestru, Claudia Partole and Iulian Filip.

The children who will visit the exhibition will receive the surprise-book of the event as a present. This is the book of the author who won the Book of the Year award at the 2015 fair – “The sparrow from the bag” by Dumitru Crudu. The visitors can also take part in discussions and meetings with writers, in workshops and contests. The librarians from Moldova, Romania, Lithuania, Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, and Azerbaijan will meet to discuss the reading trends among children.

According to the organizers of the event, during the 20 editions of the fair eight writers, eight illustrators and four publishing houses from Moldova were put on the international list of the best writers, illustrators and publishing houses for children. The international fair aims to promote the books for children and youth and to support all those who contribute to the appearance of these books, including writers, illustrators, translators, editors and typographers.

The 2016 International Children’s and Youth Book Fair is dedicated to the 25th anniversary of the declaration of Moldova’s independence.