Por Redaccion 
Public libraries under the Ministry of Culture have organized numerous activities to commemorate the Children’s and Youth Book Day, which is celebrated on April 2nd. The program includes workshops, storytelling, performances, and theatrical visits to promote reading among young children. This offering is complemented by the Andalusian Center for Letters (CAL) and the Andalusian Institute of Historical Heritage (IAPH).
The Minister of Culture and Sports, Patricia del Pozo, has highlighted «the crucial service provided by public libraries to society and culture, fostering and reinforcing that personalized relationship we have with books. Andalusian libraries are attracting more users every year, specifically one and a half million annually, and they carry out over 300,000 loans.»
Poetry and music are the tools used by the Francisco Villaespesa Provincial Library in Almería to join in the commemoration, with the presentation of the work ‘Animal Poems’ (SM Editions), by María del Carmen Quiles, accompanied by the music of Juan Muñoz and the participation of Ana María Romero Yebra. This illustrated book is a selection of 26 poems celebrating the diversity and characteristics of different species.
The Provincial Public Library of Cádiz will host a puppet theater on Wednesday, April 2nd, performed by the Marimba Marionettes company, presenting the play ‘Little Mummy’, a different fairy tale where the protagonist must distinguish between those who love her for who she is and those who do not.
The Provincial Library of Córdoba ‘Grupo Cántico’ has organized the ‘Fantasy Book-Game Workshop’, where participants will be divided into groups to embark on an adventure through reading. Each group will have to choose a path based on the story and how they want to resolve it.
The Provincial Public Library of Granada will celebrate the Children’s Book Day with a session of storytelling by the writer José Morales. This theatricalized narration of various stories is aimed at an audience aged between 3 and 9 years. The Andalusia Library, located in the same building, is offering a Disney music concert performed by students from the Victoria Eugenia Higher Conservatory of Music in the city.
The Provincial Library of Huelva has also planned a storytelling session and an artistic and literary creation workshop titled ‘The Forgetful Pirate’. In this activity, children will be encouraged to sculpt the pirate from the story with clay to enhance their creativity after the reading and see how they imagined him during the narration. This event is aimed at children aged 5 to 12 years.
The Provincial Library of Jaén will hold the commemoration on Friday, April 4th, with the storytelling session ‘Traveling Books, Adventurous Tales’. The oral narration will be conducted by Noelia Camacho and is suitable for all audiences. The following day, the Library of Málaga will host a children’s craft workshop by Culturama, focusing on creating a carousel book.
Lastly, the Provincial Library of Seville will celebrate the Children’s and Youth Book Day with Irene Reina, leading attendees in a creation workshop titled ‘Personages’. During the workshop, new characters and strange creatures will be invented and given form.
In addition to the library offerings, the Andalusian Center for Letters (CAL) has organized a meeting with the writer Carles Esquembre, a comic book author, illustrator, and musician. This event will take place at the CAL headquarters in Málaga on April 2nd at 11:30 am and is also part of the commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the birth of Antonio Machado. Concurrently, the Center will announce the winners of the slogan contest to promote reading, in which numerous high schools and public schools in the region participated.
Closing the program is the Andalusian Institute of Historical Heritage, which will present the materials created by the Cultural Science Unit of the institution for students and young audiences at all levels. These materials, designed in comic book aesthetics and language, educational games, or cutouts, aim to disseminate the restoration and underwater archaeology projects undertaken by this entity.