Not every house has a cupboard full of children’s books. It may be that parents themselves do not like to read or because there is simply no money to buy a book. In order to get children from these families to read, the project ‘wandering children’s books’ was devised three years ago. Today the ramble was completed in the provincial house in Drenthe.
Books that roamed the country were supposed to encourage children to read. The project was concluded by students from the Driemaster child center in Assen and the King’s Commissioner Jetta Klijnsma with a reading staff. Three years ago she passed on the first wandering book to another commissioner. “Because all children should be able to come into contact with reading and books,” says Klijnsma.
The Commissioner played an important role in the initiative. “I asked my fellow commissioners if they would like to join in and call on children to roam books.” And that has been successful, according to figures from the National Fund for Children’s Aid, of which the project is part. More than 2.5 million books have gone on to roam through the initiative.
When children have finished a book, they can leave it at one of the so-called ‘roaming stations’. The stray books can be taken for free at almost 5,000 places throughout the country.
Dozens of stations can also be found in Drenthe. This is also the case at the Driemaster child center in the Asser district of Pittelo. “Our students or their parents can take a book home. They can then pass the book on to a nephew or niece or return it to us at school,” explains director Heleen Drent.
View an impression of the reading relay in the provincial government (the article continues below the video):