Night with Andersen. Plant the Andersen-tree with us!
An event of the Club of Children Libraries SKIP (Association of Library and Information Professionals of the Czech Republic).

In 2005, (not only) Czech libraries and their readers will celebrate for the fifth time International Children's Book Day. This year we will also celebrate the 200th anniversary of the birth of Hans Christian Andersen. To celebrate this occasion, many special events during the magic Night with Andersen will take place. Librarians from Slovakia and Poland will join the event, as usual. The four previous years (2001 - with 39 libraries, 2002 - 72 libraries, 2003 - 153 libraries, 2004 - 264 libraries) have demonstrated what the children are interested in - especially common reading and story telling, but also meeting with interesting people, competing, night courage testing, doing theatre, writing, painting, chatting or sharing e-mails with friends spending their night in other libraries. The interest of children and libraries to spend a night in the library grows every year; therefore the number of people preparing this event rises as well. Writers, actors, museum employees, policemen, firemen, majors, politics, and journalists have joined librarians, teachers and educators. Youngsters and adults alike realise that not all children have a happy and joyful childhood; so last year participants ("sleepers") took part in a common collection of money for children's hospice in Malejovice. The total amount collected was 24,137 Czech Crowns (800 euros).

During this jubilee fifth year of the Night with Andersen, we will again read, tell and play fairy tales, we will also sing, paint, dance, compete, chat, wonder at the Andersen's fairy tales, visit beautiful and mysterious places (look-out towers, castles, cages and cellars), we will bake fairy-cakes and cook anti ghost tea... Many places will be visited by various writers, illustrators, and prominent personalities. Most of the libraries will be also visited by H. CH. Andersen himself (last year, he was played by some majors, one of them was even talking with children seated on the roof!). A new part of this year's Night will be planting of an "Andersen-tree"- i. e. a tree, which will be planted by children in every participating town or village and which will recall the Danish author as well as this common event supporting children's´ reading. Participating children will draw pictures of those Andersen-trees, and their pictures will be send to the main organisers of the Andersen celebrations (to the Queen of Denmark, and to the main organiser of the world celebrations - H. CH. Andersen's Foundation, to the Danish Embassy in the Czech Republic and to Andersen's ambassador in the Czech Republic - to Václav Havel), as well as to the president of the Czech Republic and various other prominent personalities. We will not forget the kids, who cannot be with us that night; we will organise another charity collection to support children.
The Club of Children Libraries SKIP would also like to publish a set of postcards with Andersen's Night motives to recall this event as well as Andersen's anniversary. These postcards will be send to prominent personalities in the political and cultural life of the region as well as to partner libraries in Poland, Slovakia, etc. We would also like to use them as souvenirs for participants in the night: children and libraries.

The aim of this common library project event (with participating schools and institutes of social welfare, etc.) is to arouse children's interest in reading, to share with them the beauty of the spoken word, and the magic of common reading and sharing experiences.

The Club of Children Libraries SKIP calls on all the children libraries to participate in the common "Night with Andersen," or to plant their own "Andersen-tree" during the day or night of the 200th anniversary of the birth of H. Ch. Andersen. The Children can care for these trees, which will forever recall the magic world of Hans Christian Andersen.

28.12.2004