Claudia Partole’s book “Tomcat with Seven Lives” that was illustrated by Violeta Zabulica-Diordiev this year reached about 1,500 children who visited the 23rd International Children’s and Youth Book Fair during April 11-14. “At the last year’s edition, I was among the awardees and thus felt I need to come with a new book for children,” confessed the author.

“The fair is important, first of all for children. They are impressed by so many books. They see authors, illustrators, editors and this makes them read. Built this is a challenge for writers too. Twenty-three years ago, we didn’t have so many writers of children’s books. We had Vieru and Vangheli. But now, the writers who never treated childhood write well and nicely and are present at each edition of the fair: Arcadie Suceveanu, Nicolae Popa, Irina Nechit. The well-known Titus Știrbu wrote and continues to write for children” Claudia Partole was quoted by IPN as saying.

Referring to new names, the writer mentioned Bianca Scurtu, a young author of novels. “The Prut publishing house wants to launch a series of books written by young people and for young people and Bianca Scurtu’s novel will be the first of this series. The novel derived from reading, from soaps, but not everyone can formulate the thoughts as Bianca did and we put great hope in her,” stated Claudia Partole.

Writer Nina-Soroceanu said the fair is important for readers and for writers. “Many now write for children and the participation in this fair makes us remain competitive and write better,” she noted.

Among those who visited the International Children’s and Youth Book Fair were first graders of a Chisinau lyceum, who were accompanied by their teacher Victorina Botnaru. She said it was a great joy for the children to meet writers and put them questions.

The current edition of the fair brought together about 100 publishing houses and book distributors from Moldova, Romania, France, Germany, China, Poland, Hungary, and Turkey. Book launches were held on each of the four days of the fair. The visitors could also see an exhibition entitled “Library: points of access to knowledge” that was mounted on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the foundation of the National Children’s Library “Ion Creangă”.