Last week we had the pleasure of welcoming two wonderful actors Věra Hollá and Lukáš Hejlík to Park Lane. They are both avid readers and love to share their passion with people through their program called Listování (Pageturner in English). Their repertoire includes around 100 books for children, youths, and adults, and the format of reading-dramatisation is incredibly entertaining, captivating and worlds apart from your typical ‘book presentation lecture’.

The two books they presented for our students, Jak být klukem and Jak být holkou (Being a Boy and Being a Girl by James Dawson and Hayley Long) were full of real life questions about growing up, changes, relationships, sex, how to be yourself and proud of it, and other important matters, The students visibly enjoyed the program, they were lively, responsive, laughing, curious and inquisitive.

In later discussions the children expressed their appreciation about the honesty, openness and the fun with which the books were presented. The Y6 students had a presentation on the book Šmodrcha (Jumble Cat by Archie Kimpton) and again, the hall was full of captivated children, interactive fun, laughter and suspense. All with 2 actors, 1 book and 1 toy cat. As one student put it:’ I expected it to be a boring lecture about a book and why it is important to read, blah, blah, blah… but I loved it! I didn’t know presenting a book could be so funny!’

The Czech Department