Tour takes 16 children’s authors and illustrators to Romanian communities in eight European countries

The Cărturino Tour, organized by the Cărturești Foundation over the course of one month, will take eight male and female writers and eight children’s book illustrators to meet readers from Romanian communities in eight European countries.

The project was launched in response to the fact that more than 400,000 Romanian children were born outside Romania between 2009 and 2023 alone, the Cărturești Foundation said, quoting data from the National Institute of Statistics. “This means there is a generation at risk of growing up hearing Romanian without reading or writing it,” it explained.

The tour aims to keep Romanian-language literature alive among the diaspora communities. As such, the winning and finalist authors and illustrators of the Cărturino Awards will hold workshops in which they will read from their own books to children and draw the characters from their stories with them. At the same time, parents will be invited to discussions about the importance of reading in Romanian as part of children’s education.

“For children in the diaspora, a book written by a Romanian author and thoughtfully illustrated is also a way of maintaining a connection with their own identity. Through this tour, we want the Romanian language to take root in their imagination, carried by the voices of numerous talented writers who bring freshness to it and keep it alive and creative, so that children can discover stories that feed their imagination and bring them closer to the Romanian language and the joy of reading. Because every great reader starts, at some point, with a single book that makes them dream,” Roxana Tănăsachi, Corporate Affairs Manager at Cărturești, said.

The tour schedule is as follows:

Paris, September 12–13 Guests: Mihai Buzea and Ioana Pârvan

Amsterdam, September 19 Guests: Adina Rosetti and Adela Calistru

Brussels, September 19 Guests: Matei Vișniec and Joèla Visniec

Rome, September 19 Guests: Alex Moldovan and Ștefan Georgescu

Berlin, October 3 Guests: Victoria Pătrașcu and Agnes Keszeg

London, October 3 Guests: Teo Bobe and Dan Ungureanu

Madrid, October 10 Guests: Ionela Hadârcă and Veronica Neacșu

Chișinău, October 17 Guests: Carmen Tiderle and Vali Petridean