Casablanca international children’s and youth book fair seeks to promote reading among younger generations (minister) – Media7
Wednesday, November 1, 2023 at 5:30 p.m.
Casablanca – The international children’s and youth book fair in Casablanca (SILEJ) seeks to promote reading among younger generations, said Wednesday in Casablanca the Minister of Youth, Culture and Communication, Mohamed Mehdi Bensaid.
“This fair is part of a strategy defined by the ministry with a view to encouraging younger generations to read,” he underlined in a statement to the press following a conference dedicated to at the presentation of the very first edition of SILEJ, scheduled for November 15 to 22.
Referring to the challenges posed in the world in view of the incessant development of new technologies which represent “a threat to paper books”, he indicated that his department concluded an agreement with the Ministry of National Education, Preschool and Children. sports relating to the establishment of libraries for children in all schools in the Kingdom.
“If we want to encourage children and young people to read, it is first of all necessary to introduce them to books,” he said, before announcing the organization for this purpose of a national awareness campaign and to highlight the importance of this show in achieving this objective.
And to add that it is a question of encouraging the authors of this type of literature and of ensuring the promotion of the books published in order to allow children and young people to discover them.
He assured, in this regard, that his department seeks to promote the publishing of children’s books with Moroccan characters and typically Moroccan stories, with a view to strengthening the feeling of belonging to the party among young readers.
For his part, the president of the Council of the Casablanca-Settat region, Abdellatif Maâzouz declared to the press that the SILEJ thus succeeds the SIEL (International Publishing and Book Fair) now organized in Rabat, noting the specificity of this new fair which is aimed exclusively at children and young people with the aim of ensuring that the book meets their hearts.
Held under the High Patronage of HM King Mohammed VI, this very first edition of SILEJ is organized by the Ministry of Youth, Culture and Communication, in partnership with the Casablanca prefecture, the Casablanca City Council as well as the Council of the Casablanca-Settat region.
The show, which will take place at Park Anfa, includes five large exhibition rooms, in addition to spaces dedicated to cultural activities as well as a space reserved for drawings and paintings. The show will bring together no less than 255 exhibitors representing 33 countries for a total of more than 100,000 copies of books on display.
