By now, it has become a lovely tradition at St. Kilian’s that the German Department gives a book to our 4th and 5th Class students around the time of the UNESCO World Book Day on April 23rd, 2025.
This year, the children can look forward to Cool wie Bolle by Thomas Winkler, with illustrations by Timo Grubing. The book is part of the nationwide German initiative Ich schenk dir eine Geschichte (“I’ll gift you a story”), which has been running since 1997 and is now the largest book-gifting campaign in Germany.
The goal of the initiative is to inspire a love of reading in children and to strengthen it in a lasting way.
Around World Book Day, a variety of related events take place. In interactive online sessions, our students listen to readings from the book, watch the illustrators draw live, and gain exciting insights into how the story was created. The children also get the opportunity to ask the authors questions and engage with them directly.
A very special thank you, as always, goes to our partner bookshop Hansen & Kröger, who generously support us every year and go the extra mile by sending the books all the way to Ireland for our students. Without their help, this wonderful tradition would not be possible – thank you very much!
We wish all the children lots of joy while reading!
Lena Otterbach
St. Kilian’s Primary School Teacher
