How Do You Awake the Joy of Reading Among Children? The above question concerns many people as educators and administrators, because the low level of many young Europeans’ literacy skills has been repeatedly documented. The International Research Center CARDET in cooperation with partners from 6 countries have recently launched project “LiRe” (a Comenius Multilateral project) that aspires to bring positive changes, through a coordinated effort and collaboration at the European level in the field of reading promotion. The kickoff meeting of the project took place in Nicosia on December 8-9, 2011.

LiRe aims to provide teachers, school librarians, and administrators with a range of tools for encouraging children of ages 6-12 to develop lifelong reading habits. Surveys of reading habits identify large differences among member states. While some states have long since established successful policies and practices in reading promotion, others are lacking far behind. The LiRe project brings together reading promotion experience and expertise from across the EU, in order to build a portfolio of strategies and practices that have been proved successful at encouraging children to find pleasure in reading and form reading communities. The project is titled  Lifelong Readers (LiRe): A European Reading Promotion Framework for Primary School Librarians, Educators, and Administrators.

The portfolio, as the central product of the project, features: (i) Effective strategies for promoting the joy of reading, building reading communities, and sustaining reading cultures; (ii) Summary descriptions of successful reading promotion programs; (iii) An extensive collection of reading promotion actions, grouped under such categories such as Reading Promotion through Play/ ICT/ Volunteerism/ Awards/ the Arts, etc. Also important is the LiRe Training Pack, which includes three modules for training teachers, school librarians, and administrators, each module corresponding to one component of the portfolio. The material will be piloted and implemented by all partners, and results will be disseminated across Europe and the globe. For more information visit www.lifelongreaders.org.

This project (No 518250-LLP-1-2011-1-CY-COMENIUS-CMP) has been funded with the support of the Lifelong Learning Program of the European Union. This communication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible.