'Literary Salon For Children And Youth:' Bertelsmann Berlin Representative Office Opens Its Doors To Young Readers 

Bertelsmann's Berlin representative office Unter den Linden 1 is usually a place where adults meet and have discussions during conferences, come to readings or to watch films, and to network at receptions and parties. But the representative office opened its doors to young visitors for the fourth time this year. The house was in the hands of children for a few hours as authors presented their books to their young audience during the "Literary Salons for Children and Youth."

"With the readings for children and youth we are fulfilling our mission to be an open place of encounter for Berlin and the Berlin public," said Katrin Gaertner, Director of the Representative Office. At the same time, the readings represent an active contribution to promote reading. "Among the regular visitors to our readings are the members of the club 'Berlin Bookworms,' children from Berlin schools who regularly have an exchange about their reading experiences and who get the opportunity to experience exciting authors first hand at the Representative Office. But the newspaper "Berliner Morgenpost" also gives away tickets for the readings, and the children from the kindergartens of the Foreign Office and the Bundestag have also been among the guests."

The "Literary Salon for Children and Youth" was launched on July 27 with a reading by CBJ author Ingo Siegner, who read about the adventures of the small dragon Coconut. The second reading took place on August 21 with audio book speaker Rufus Beck, who read from the books of Lemony Snicket. Fantasy books have almost become a tradition at Unter den Linden 1 since then, because Jonathan Stroud visited on September 10 with his new Bartimeus book, and a few days ago Christopher Paolini read from the second volume of the "Inheritance" trilogy.

"Our readings aim to appeal to young children above the age of three just as much as to older children," Katrin Gaertner explained. She's especially proud of the readings by the two English-speaking authors: "With Jonathan Stroud and Christopher Paolini we were also able to communicate some of Bertelsmann's international alignment to our youngest visitors." And to avoid having things get too boring for the visitors who don't understand English, the readings were held bilingually.

On Thursday of last week, Christopher Paolini read two passages from his books in English, while audio book speaker Andreas Fröhlich, whose voice is well known as the third detective in the series "The Three ???" for more than 25 years, presented the same passages in German. And Katrin Gaertner translated the many curious questions posed by the listeners as well as Paolini's answers. "We noticed that even the children who do not speak English listened with fascination to the authors simply because they read from their books in such a very lively way," Gaertner added.

An autograph hour and a buffet—with French fries and hamburgers, small pizzas, gummy bears, chocolate cake, and strawberry milk shakes, of course— are always part of the "Literary Salon for Children and Youth". The fourth reading concluded the series for this year, but there will definitely be a second season next year. "At Bertelsmann, we have an incredible number of creative minds with great ideas for children. We want to continue offering a platform for them in the Representative Office," Katrin Gaertner said.