Reading Club: Children’s Book | Prince Means Amir

The SNFCC’s Book Club for Children renews its appointment with young book lovers for April, facilitated by theater pedagogue Artemis Manou, and also available online!  

The read of this month is Prince Means Amir by Anna Kontoleon. 

On Saturday, April 30, young readers will meet at the Mediterranean Garden to share impressions, feelings and thoughts, as well as to embark on an imaginary journey, sparked by the book of the month, into the fascinating worlds emerging from its pages. 

In addition, this month’s meeting will also take place online via Zoom, on Friday, April 29. 

The book
Amir’s homeland was once a rich and prosperous place where everyone lived happily. The men worked in the mornings and hung out at coffee shops in the evenings. The children were running amok and playing in the alleys. And the women watched over them vigilantly and chased after them to feed them with plates brimming with food in their hands. Migratory beards flew overhead in the sky, only the rooster’s cock-a-doodle-do waking them up before dawn. But then came rude, irreverent men who loved weapons more than people and… everything changed. 

In this very moving and sadly relevant story, we will be following the adventures of Amir, who fled his beautiful homeland because of the war and managed to survive in a new and unwelcoming place, his only pillar of support being a stray dog. 

The author:
Anna Kontoleon was born in Athens in 1974. She studied Theatrology at the University of Athens Department of Theater Studies, and acting at the Athens Contemporary Theater School of Giorgos Kimoulis. She has attended seminars by Andreas Manolikakis and taken courses at the acting workshop of Akis Davis. She works in primary and secondary education as a theater pedagogue. At the same time, she designs and animates reading and teacher training programs. Since 1993, she has been writing and translating literary books. She writes fairy tales and novels for children and teenagers, and translates books from English, French and German. In 2012, she was honored with the “Fanis Apostolou” Prize for Greek Children’s Book Cycle for her book Οι εφτά ζωές του Κόμπου [The Seven Lives of the Knot], and in 2015, she was honored with the Children's Book Translation award by the Greek Society of Literary Translators. Since 2014, she has been living in Chania, Crete, where she created, together with her husband and son, a space for play and creative engagement for the entire family, called “Little Trianon”.
 

The facilitator:
Artemis Manou holds a BA in Greek Language and Literature (Linguistics major) from the University of Athens and an MA in Teaching Greek as a Foreign/Second Language. In addition, she has graduated from the Drama School of Vassilis Diamantopoulos. After working for a few years in private education and as an actress, since 2009 she has been combining her love of theater and children, working as a motivational speaker and a theater director. She has co-operated with Onassis Stegi at the Youth Theater Festival, where she wrote theatrical plays and directed performances for teenagers, and at the experiential learning program “Contemporary Art: First you live... then you understand” that Onassis Stegi carried out in primary schools, where she organized workshops for creative expression on contemporary art stimuli together with Tzeni Argyriou, Andreas Kasapis and Myrto Tikof. Since 2017, she has been working at the National Theatre, facilitating workshops for children, teenagers and educators. She has authored a total of 15 plays for teens. A special place in her heart belongs to the National Theatre's program “Theater in Greek," with the participation of Greek and refugee teenagers. The theatrical play The Journey, which she co-authored with Vangelis Kyriakou, was included in the repertoire of the National Theatre Young People's Stage in 2018. She was born and lives in Athens. But she dreams of living in many other places too – together with her family. 
 

Activities for children before the Book Club meeting:

1. I draw a set of comics featuring the four moments of the book that impressed me/touched me the most (after dividing my sheet of paper into four parts). I add a few words to each image, if I so wish.
2. Let's assume that Amir does not arrive at the city mentioned in the book, but at your city. Create a welcome backpack to offer him. Write, or draw, or actually prepare this backpack—who knows, you might actually need to give it to someone sometime. (Toiletries, school stuff, daily use objects, as well as a game, something funny, something beautiful, and perhaps a card, or something of value to you, might be very useful to Amir.) 
3. Interview a relative or a friend who has a story similar to Amir's, and come to our Club meeting and tell us what you learned.
    

Friday 29/04 | 17.00-18.15
ZOOM

Up to 25 participants | For children aged 7 to 10
Free participation by online pre-registration
 

Saturday 30/04 |17.00-18.15
MEDITERRANEAN GARDEN 
 

Up to 22 participants | For children aged 7 to 10
Free participation by online pre-registration

Pre-registration starts on Friday 01/04, at 12.00
 

Moderator: Artemis Manou

Anyone reserving a seat at the Book Club is required to have read the book of the month.

Anna Kontoleon’s book Prince Means Amir is available from Patakis Publishers.

For the entry of the public in the activity area, the minors from 4 to 17 years old can present, a statement of negative self test (24 hours), a certificate of diagnostic test PCR (72 hours) or rapid (48 hours), according to the latest provisions of the Joint Ministerial Decision.

The use of face mask and social distancing measures are mandatory in indoor and outdoor areas of the SNFCC, in accordance with Hellenic National Public Health Organization regulations. 

Due to public health measures, there may be changes regarding either the staging of the event, or the maximum number of participants.

Children should always be accompanied by parents or adult chaperones, who should stay outside the activity area for as long as the activity lasts.

As part of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center's collaboration with the National Library of Greece, the children's book for December's Reading Club has been chosen by NLG staff members