On Friday 2 October, De Samenleesclub will host the fourteenth edition of the Nationale Voorleeslunch (National Read-Aloud Lunch), in collaboration with community centres, libraries, care institutions and Omroep MAX. Author Joke van Leeuwen has been commissioned to write the story for this year’s edition.
The story will be read aloud at hundreds of locations across the Netherlands to thousands of older people. Van Leeuwen will read her story at Omroep MAX, which will broadcast it on NPO 1 so people can listen at home as well. Passend Lezen will provide versions in braille and audio format. In collaboration with Afûk, a Frisian translation will be published. There will also be a Papiamento version and an adaptation in easy-to-read Dutch.
Joke van Leeuwen on the project: ‘Reading aloud and being read to is something beautiful that has no age limit. Once, when my mother was still alive and remembered a story she could no longer read herself because of her poor eyesight, I read the whole story to her over the phone. So yes, let’s never unlearn reading aloud and being read to.’
About Joke van Leeuwen
Joke van Leeuwen (1952) is a writer, poet, illustrator and performer, and one of the most acclaimed authors in the Netherlands. She writes for both children and adults. Her novel Feest van het begin won the AKO Literature Prize. For her oeuvre she received the Gouden Ganzenveer, the Constantijn Huygens Prize and the Tollens Prize, among others. Her new book Plooi u in tweeën was recently published.
More information: nationalevoorleeslunch.nl
