Croatian Book Night is an event launched in 2012 to celebrate the joy of reading books, if only for one day. The project aims to promote reading and foster a culture of reading. Throughout the week, from April 22nd to April 26th, we dedicated ourselves to books: we read them, discussed them, organized workshops, and storytelling sessions. 

Students from grade 4b, with their English teacher Bojana Palijan, participated in a workshop about emotions, worries and ways of dealing with them. They read and discussed a book called "Ruby Finds a Worry" by Tom Percival. Planned pre-reading activities aimed at building interest and preparing students for themes found in the book:

- identifying emotions and discussing different emotions students have experienced

- connecting feelings with the concept of worries

- discussing what worries children

- creating a list of their worries on the board

- predicting the story based on the title and illustrations

Activities after reading included:

- discussion about the picture book (characters, theme, problem, conclusion)

- drawing students’ versions of "worry" and explaining why they chose those specific features

- role-playing: acting out scenarios where characters help each other with their worries and give advice

- writing a letter to Ruby sharing their thoughts on the book, what they have learned, and how they could apply those lessons in their own lives

- performing simple breathing exercises to help students manage stress and worries together and discuss how they feel.

A student’s feedback: "We read the picture book in English, which I really liked. We talked about the picture book and talked about everything that bothers us even though we are 9 years old."