The Leipzig Book Fair

Welcome back!  

In my last blog, I told you about another one of my unusual garden visitors, the Hoverfly! What makes it unusual? It is a fly that looks like a bee! If you missed this interesting story, you can read it here. Today, I will tell you about my visit to the Leipzig Book Fair. But before I tell you my story, let me share some interesting facts about Leipzig.  

General Information: Leipzig is located in Saxony, Eastern Germany. The city is known as the little Venice of Germany. Why? Because it is surrounded by three rivers: the Parthe, Pleisse, and the White Elster. It is also famous for its huge train station, festivals, outdoor activities, and the weather. It rains a lot, and the winters are cold. The weather was crazy the four days Mom and I were there. It was mostly cloudy and cool, except sunny and warm on Friday. Now I will tell you some facts about the fair!  

The Leipzig Book Fair is in March. This fair is very important for German publishers and authors! This year, two events took place at the fairgrounds: the Book Fair and the Manga Comic Convention. The fairground has only five halls, but there is plenty to do. The Manga Convention was in Halls 1 & 3. Hall 2 was for Specialist Books/Science, Religion, Travel Literature, Education, Music, and Audio. Hall 3 was my hall! There were publishers of children's, Young Adults, and family books. Hall 4 was exclusively for the Guest of Honor: Norway. Hall 5 was interesting. There was the Antiquarian Book Fair. Do you know what antiquarian books are? Those are very old or rare books. There were also Art & Graphics Books and the Non-Book corner. You can read more about the fair here. 

Now I will tell you about our adventures there. 

On Wednesday night, Mom and I searched the calendar of events and wrote down some activities. She also left some free time for us to explore the fairground. We were ready to rumble! On Thursday, I took my Author’s Backpack (psst, it is my Explorer’s Bag) and wore my Shooting Star Express T-Shirt. Mom brought snacks, water, the list of activities, something to write with, and, of course, the Fair Tickets! As we walked around, we saw Promotion Areas in each hall. We made a mental note to talk about it at night. Do you know what that is? “A mental note” is when you make an effort to remember something without writing it down. It is a great memory exercise! I do it often as it helps to train my brain to remember things easily. One of my favorites is trying to remember something new or unusual, like my garden visitor: Mr. Viridis, or weird words like "Amapraconvelous.”  It’s a lot of fun, you should do it, too.  

Back to the story. Our first stop was the Manga Convention. We listened to a concert of the Japanese Trio: “Tres Toni.”They played music from Japan and some anime films and series. 

After the concert, we walked around and saw many Colourful Cosplayers. Those are fans who dress up and imitate their favourite manga, anime, or game characters. Some of them even compete for the best customs and performance! We found Cosplayer mostly in Halls 1, 3, and the Glass Hall. All of them were friendly and allowed us to take pictures.  

On Friday, we went to the fair in “Promotion Mode.” Mom said: “Joey, authors should always have at hand information about their books.” Sooooh, in my “Author's Backpack”, I have business cards, my camera, a notebook, and a pencil. Mom brought two copies of my book: “Joey trifft die Zahnfee,” plenty of flyers, and tape. We taped the flyers near other children’s books. Today was sunny and warm. We wore the Tooth Fairy T-Shirt. Early afternoon, we sat outside, ate our lunch, and talked with other guests. On Saturday, talked to a 13-year-old author. He congratulated me and gave me some promotional tips. I learned a lot from him. In the afternoon, Mom and I learned how to make a Japanese Scrapbook! It was fun. On Sunday, I gifted a wheelchair-bound girl a copy of my book. Of course, with her parents’ permission. The girl smiled after she saw the Tooth Fairy. Afterward, we went to Hall 5. We visited the Antiquarian Book Fair and the Graphics Section. We talked with many artists and saw reading chairs made of dead trees!  

Uff good thing I wore comfortable shoes. We walked among the halls every day to attend workshops and listened to other authors’ interviews. Mom said it is important to learn from those with more experience. I took notes and asked many questions. We also handed out copies of our flyers. Always having fun and taking advantage of every opportunity to promote my book!  

The fair is a fun place for families and great for authors to promote their books. We will be back next year! Maybe we will see each other there. (wink) 

Now it's time to do homework before going to music class.  

In my next blog, I will tell you about our family visit to Portugal! 

Remember to brush your teeth and keep them clean for the Tooth Fairy.  

Joey Paco