In the News

Encouraging Young Readers

The new Bookstart scheme, being organised by the public libraries association Bibliomedia and the Swiss Institute for Youth and Media, is aimed at giving children a lifelong appreciation of reading by providing two free children's books in German, French or Italian, instructions for parents and a library voucher. The aim is to get mothers and fathers to read to their children.

Bookstart wants to reach the around 73,000 children born in Switzerland each year. The packs will be distributed by children's doctors or in maternity wards, depending on the region.

"We want to raise awareness of language among parents and stress the importance of children coming into contact with books in the first years of their development," said Peter Wille, director of Bibliomedia and head of Bookstart Switzerland.