Children spent the night in the University Library

University Employees

The University Library prepared an unusual experience for the children of the University of West Bohemia employees. On the night of June 14-15, children spent the night in the library, exploring the world of herbs, baking cookies and reading from the book "Herbal Grandma".

This year's Night with Andersen was inspired by the fairy tale book "Herbal Grandma" by Lucie Havlinková and illustrations by Alžběta Gobelová. As every year, there was a great interest in the attractive event, 18 children came and were looked after by 8 librarians.

The children played introductory games and divided into groups according to herbs – linden, elder, holly and chamomile. Each team read their chapter in the book and learned interesting facts about one of the herbs.

Then the children were visited by the expert Mrs. Linda Koutová from the Faculty of Education from whom the children learned a lot of information about medicinal plants, learned to recognize individual species, had the opportunity to "smell" the currently growing herbs or make a leaf for the herbarium. After dinner, the children baked cookies and decorated them with herbs. This was followed by a night trail through the university campus, during which the children completed various tasks related to the theme of this year's Night with Andersen.

There was also a big surprise at night - the author of the book, Lucie Havlinková, joined the children via video call and gave them details about the creation of the book and what other titles she is planning. At bedtime around 11 o'clock there was a bedtime reading after which the children went to their sleeping bags between the shelves. In the morning, they still managed to have breakfast and then receive their diplomas, after which their parents came to pick them up.

The Night with Andersen is also organised annually by many other libraries in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. The event, which has a tradition of more than twenty years, aims to show children that reading is a great adventure. It takes place on the anniversary of the birth of the Danish fairy-tale writer, Hans Christian Andersen.

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University Library

Jakub Pokorný

17. 06. 2024