On 21 March 2024, in the Public Forum of the State Hermitage’s General Staff building, a formal ceremony was held to mark the opening of the Week of Books for Children and Young People. The ceremony was followed by the launch of the interactive game-journey for children entitled “Tales of a Petersburg Courtyard” – a central event of the All-Russian Children’s Book Week in Saint Petersburg.
The State Hermitage’s General Staff building has long been a laboratory for museum practices. Since the new facility opened, it has been the venue for many experimental projects with a public significance: the Intellectual Marathon, art mediations, the “Sacred Spring” museum-theatre project, and more. This is not the first time that the forum has hosted Children’s Book Week.
“Our Public Forum is a sort of extension of Palace Square, where everyone is accustomed to stroll, and we are very pleased that today you have come to view our game and, perhaps, to go up into the halls and remember the splendid works of art that are kept in our museum.” Svetlana Borisovna Adaksina, Deputy General Director of the State Hermitage, stated at the launch.
Children’s Book Week is an annual event aimed at popularizing literature for young readers that is held during the spring school holidays. Libraries, schools, publishing houses, book shops, theatres, museums and other educational and cultural institutions across Russia take part in it. In 2024, which has been declared the Year of the Family, the theme for Children’s Dook Week has been formulated as “The family reads – the country reads”. For the first time the opening of Children’s Book Week included the performance of an anthem written by the well-known children’s poet and writer Andrei Usachev.
In Saint Petersburg, a central event of Children’s Book Week will be the interactive game-journey “Tales of a Petersburg Courtyard” intended to mark the 225th anniversary of the birth of Alexander Pushkin. The great poet’s legacy is passed down from generation to generation through books. The Saint Petersburg Special Central Children’s Library named after Pushkin is home to a unique assemblage of Pushkiniana. That collection is the pride of the library which in 2024 is marking the centennial of its own activities under the poet’s name.
The game is based on the plots of works by Pushkin known and loved by Russians from childhood: the Tale of the Golden Cockerel, Tale of the Fisherman and the Fish, Tale of the Dead Princess and Seven Bogatyrs, Tale of Tsars Saltan…, Ruslan and Liudmila.
The choice of topic for the game was no coincidence. It is with fairy tales that a youngster’s acquaintance with the world of books begins. Reading fairy tales brings a great deal to both children and parents: it unites a family, welding them together.
In the plot of the game, players find themselves in one of Saint Petersburg’s courtyards. This is no ordinary courtyard, however, but an enchanted place where the names of the adjoining streets point to Pushkin’s fairy tales, where children and adults can feel like real explorers. Participants are plunged into the magical world of a game that combines a quest with puzzles and creative tasks.
This large-scale project has been prepared by the State Hermitage Museum and the Saint Petersburg Special Central Children’s Library named after Pushkin with the support of Saint Petersburg’s Culture Committee.
Duration of each game session: 45–90 minutes
Target audience: children aged 7–12
Venue: the Public Forum of the State Hermitage’s General Staff building
Times: Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Sunday: 11:30 – 6:00; Tuesday, Friday, Saturday: 11:30 – 8:00
Entry is free of charge with advance registration: https://pushkinlib.spb.ru/
During Children’s Book Week, various venues in the city will be holding launches and readings of new books, exhibitions, master classes, encounters with favourite authors and much else besides. Details of the programme of events can be found on the library’s website: https://pushkinlib.spb.ru/
