“Education can instill in children a strong habit of reading to develop critical and analytical thinking,” Oleksandra Koval, Ukrainian Book Institute director on promoting reading

National Reading Week will run from 13 to 19 December 2021.

The main goals of the campaign are to make books and reading as a life strategy closer to those people who read little, as well as to stimulate the choice of books as the best gift for the holidays.

Various activities will take place during the reading week, in particular, the Ukrainian Book Institute will present a study on reading in Ukraine and will open a book exhibition in the Verkhovna Rada. In turn, publishers will prepare different sets of books that will be an appropriate gift for the New Year holidays. And bookstores and online store websites will make interesting lists of books for every taste. In addition, libraries will be able to hold, for example, a reading relay or a day of reading or a night of reading, various quests, public lectures and discussions on current books, discussions of novelties, new literary genres, etc.

We talked with the director of the Ukrainian Book Institute Oleksandra Koval about the situation with reading books in Ukraine, the main innovations of the Reading Development Strategy for 2021-2025, new approaches to reading promotion, as well as how to develop the habit of reading.