International Children's and Youth Book Fair opened

Hundreds of children from all over Moldova came to the opening of the 15th International Children's and Youth Book Fair on April 7, Info-Prim Neo reports. Claudia Balaban, director of “Ion Creanga” Library that organizes the event, said she associates the arrival of spring with the opening of the Book Fair. Every year, this event becomes richer in books and participants. The first fair held in 1997 brought together only 27 publishing houses with 500 books. This year, there are over 130 publishing houses that displayed about 15,000 books, 130 of which are new. Attending the opening, Acting President Marian Lupu said the International Children's and Youth Book Fair is the visiting card of the Moldovan intellectuality. “The book was and will remain a source of knowledge and information even if we live in in the era of ICT technologies,” he stated. Writer Spiridon Vangheli said the fair was like an Easter of books for the Moldovan children, while poet Iulian Filip stressed that the atmosphere at the fair was unique. The visitors looked at the exhibited books enthusiastically. Fourth grader Alin Diacenco said the books look very interesting to him. He stated he bought a dictionary with proverbs as he will need it at school. Corina Ustica, also a fourth grader, said she was glad that there were so many books and she could choose those that she wanted. All the children who came to the opening of the fair received the surprise-book “Star Brothers” by Nicolae Rusu, which was named the Book of the Year in the previous fair.