For the 8^th year running, the campaign the March of Books is entering schools and kindergartens and showing children that reading is easy and never out of fashion, as the organizers from the Bulgarian Book Association say. Apparently Bulgarian book publishing for children is thriving, and children’s books are needed in equal measure by kids in this country and abroad.

In 2004 Zornitsa Ivanova left for the US to follow her American dream – she earned a degree in business at the University of North Carolina, started work at the biggest American chocolate company, and, as she studied the market and ate chocolate, started a family with her American sweetheart. And though her two children were born into an English-speaking environment she raised them to know their native language and country.

“Any parent living abroad will tell you it is difficult to teach your child to speak Bulgarian,” says Zornitsa Ivanova. “If the mother tongue is spoken within the family children will learn it well, but once they grow up then the language used in the environment – at school, with friends - will inevitably predominate. When there is a mixed marriage it is even more difficult, and Bulgarian will often lose prominence.”

To make sure this would not happen in her own family, Zornitsa Ivanova started to look for Bulgarian books for children and read them to her young daughter, but finding such books overseas is no easy thing. That was when she goes the idea of importing children’s books from Bulgaria and offering them to Bulgarians living abroad, including to Bulgarian weekend schools. She created a blog, in which she writes on topics close to the hearts of Bulgarian parents living in other countries. But as she was increasingly feeling the tug of nostalgia, two years ago she returned to Bulgaria with her family to bring her children into the Bulgarian cultural environment and to continue her mission abroad, this time through her own books. That was how the fairy Little Rose (Rosichka) was born – the fairy godmother of Bulgarian children around the world, who lives in a magical town called Faerie, in a little house with a garden where Bulgarian herbs and flowers grow. Every day the little fairy opens a “News book” from which she reads the news to children from all over the world, and if any of them need support, she goes to see them.

“In the book “Maya and the talent concert” the fairy Little Rose goes to see Maya who lives in Chicago and has to take part in a school talent concert,” the writer says. “With the fairy’s help the girl takes faith in her strength and organizes her friends to dance a Bulgarian horo dance. So, the story of Maya is a story of believing in yourself, of courage, but it also helps children learn interesting things about Bulgarian folk dancing and traditional costumes. In “Ellie and the secret notebook” the fairy Little Rose goes to see Ellie who has moved to Bremen and does not have any friends yet at her new school. And though she speaks German well, the girl is too shy to put her thoughts into words and keeps asking herself if she is doing the right thing. As it turns out this is a situation familiar to children, but also to adults when they have to move to a different place. And as Ellie feels lonely and lacks self-confidence, with the help of the fairy Little Rose she manages to open up to her classmates, organizes a cooking party with Bulgarian dishes she has learnt how to cook from her grandmother. Ellie puts down all recipes in a secret notebook and her dream is, one day, to have a restaurant.”

The writer is often on the road to present her stories and her characters, and wherever she goes – in Bulgaria or in other countries – she always meets enthusiastic, smart kids full of curiosity and questions.

“It always surprises me to see how open children are and how easy it is for them to start a dialogue when the story has intrigued them,” she adds.

English version: Milena Daynova