Saturday 28 January 2023 17:30
In January, the SNFCC is launching a new Children’s Reading Club for young booklovers aged 10 to 12, facilitated by author Angeliki Darlasi. Angeliki Darlasi is a writer of prose and theatrical plays, while she has also engaged with television and cinema. Among her awarded works are: The Boy in the Royal Box, Badboy, When We Hid an Angel, and Dream Guardians.
The book that will be discussed in this month's meeting is The George's Cosmic Treasure Hunt by Catherine Lucy Hawking.
On Saturday 28/01, our young readers will meet 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.
The book
George’s family, who believed science was responsible for much of the suffering in the world, had chosen to live without anything that has to do with science or the civilization, even without electricity, or a telephone! At some point, however, George’s pig luckily broke out and went over to their neighbors’ garden, so George got to meet his age-mate Annie and her scientist father, Eric, as well as Cosmos, the smartest computer on Earth, invented by Eric. Alongside them, George became acquainted with the wonderful world of physics and cosmology and, among other adventures, he was saved at the last minute from falling into a black hole. Unfortunately, Annie and her father move to America, where Eric has a new job working for the space program, looking for signs of life in the Universe. At some point, though, they send a letter to George’s parents, asking them to let him join them for his summer holidays in America. Annie herself emails George, inviting him to prepare his space suit because she needs him to join her in a new space mission.
When George arrives in America, he finds out that the rover that has landed on the surface of Mars to look for signs of life, is behaving very strangely. And on Eric’s supercomputer, the Cosmos, the two kids discover a strange message…
Can it be that it is a coded message from aliens? Is there life in outer space? As a result, George and Annie, along with the latter’s cousin Emmett, will get involved in an amazing treasure hunt to the far edges of the Galaxy, conveying messages and seeking indications or proof of alien life. Will this small group of friends be able to solve the cosmic riddles and reach a wondrous destination?
If you too like adventures with friends, if you have questions about the universe, or even if you don’t really like science, join us in this journey to the universe through the story of George and his friends! Together we will talk about friendships, and about the hidden secrets of the cosmos.
The author
Catherine Lucy Hawking was born in England (November 2, 1970). She is the daughter of theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking and writer Jane Hawking. As a child, she spent a few years in California, but grew up in Cambridge, and as a young adult she looked after her father as his health declined due to his illness. She studied French and Russian at the University of Oxford and in Moscow. She worked as a journalist for well-known UK newspapers, and as a radio journalist. She always aspired to become an author, so in 2004 and 2005 she published two novels, and in 2007 she transitioned to children’s literature, publishing George's Secret Key to the Universe, the first book in her “George” series, which she wrote together with her father and which was translated into 38 languages and published in 43 countries. In April 2008, she was a guest speaker at an event for NASA’s 50th birthday. In her lecture, drawing from her personal experience with the readership of her books, she stressed the need to engage children in science at an early age. She has received the Sapio Prize, an Italian award dedicated to innovative researchers, for popularizing science worldwide. In 2013, she gave a lecture at the “BrainSTEM: Your Future is Now” festival. In 2017, she was honored, along with two other women, by the Amsterdam News Educational Foundation, for their contribution in the dissemination of science.
Stephen Hawking (January 8, 1942 – March 14, 2018) was an English theoretical physicist, cosmologist and author, deemed one of the most brilliant theoretical physicists since Einstein. Between 1979 and 2009, he was the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge, widely viewed as one of the most prestigious academic posts in the world. He was a Fellow of the Royal Society, a lifetime member of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, and a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award in the United States. In 2002, Hawking ranked 25th in BBC’s list of the 100 Greatest Britons. He died in 2018, at the age of 76, having lived with a motor neuron disease for more than 50 years.
His book A Brief History of Time became a worldwide bestseller (with over 12 million copies sold internationally) and is available in more than 35 languages.
The facilitator
A writer of literature for children and young adults, playwright and teacher of creative writing and theater.
Works and books of hers have been translated into English, Turkish, Korean, Spanish, and French. Her books have been adapted for theater (most recently, The Boy in the Royal Box, by the National Theater of Greece, 2021-2022) and puppetry performances, while some are in the pre-production stage to be adapted into films (on screenplays by the author herself), in Greece and abroad.
She has participated as co-author in productions of the State Theaters of Karlsruhe and Uppsala and the National Theater of Luxembourg (2021 & 2022), and the Union des Théâtres del'Europe (2018). Several plays of hers have been staged in Athens: Lighthouse–SNFCC, Athens Concert Hall, Art Theatre Readers’ Theatre Festival, Olympia International Film Festival for Children and Young People, Alkmini Theater, Amore Theater–stage B, et al. She has been repeatedly awarded and distinguished for her work (both prose and theatre).
Since 2006, she has been teaching Creative Writing and/or Theater to adults and children-teenagers, working with both public and private organizations (e.g. The Department of Theatre Studies of the University of Peloponnese, public and private post-secondary vocational schools, Metaichmio Publications, etc.). She is a motivational speaker and facilitator of activities for children and adolescents (creative writing, theater, arts and education, love of reading, etc.).
She holds degrees from the Athens University Department of Theatre Studies and the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama (MA in Performance Studies).
Activities for children before the Reading Club meeting
A few things that you may want to think and take notes about before our meeting, so we can share and discuss them when we meet:
In one of her interviews, Lucy Hawking had said that she got the idea for her first book of the series “at a birthday party for my son, when a boy asked my father what would happen if he fell into a black hole! We thought this was a great question, so we decided to write a story together about a boy who saves someone from that exact predicament!” Is there a question that you would like to ask of a scientist given the chance? Something that you could probably use as a source of inspiration for writing a book?
Saturday 28/01 17.30 - 19.00
NLG KIDS LAB
Up to 22 participants | For children aged 10 to 12 Free admission with online pre-registration
Pre-registration starts on 04/01, at 12.00
To participate in the Reading Club, it is necessary for those who hold a position to have read the book of the month. (It is also useful to have it with them).
The children’s book “George's Cosmic Treasure Hunt” by Catherine Lucy Hawking is available (in Greek) by Anubis books.
Children should always be accompanied by parents or adult attendants who should not be away from the outdoor activity.
As part of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center's collaboration with the National Library of Greece, the book for the Reading Club has been chosen by NLG staff members.
