Alfie Atkins' adventures inspire future readers: New Nordic initiative aims to spark a love for reading among children in libraries and pre-schools

With the aim to encourage reading among children in pre-schools across the Nordics, a collaboration between Bok-Makaren, ILT Education and Rights&Brands has been launched.

Our goal is to inspire and support the commitment of pre-school teachers in the important activity of reading aloud. Therefore, we want to encourage them to discover the joy of reading by visiting the wonderful world of books at libraries. Each visit welcomes children's groups with a specially designated Alfie Atkins corner, designed for both reading and crafting activities.

In addition to being able to borrow books to take back to preschool, there will also be materials in the form of posters, crafts, and book discussion questions for the teachers to continue working with at the preschool. Alfie Atkin´s books can also be found in Polyglutt/Polylino/Lukulumo, in many languages!

Elisabet Granlund, COO at Bok-Makaren, says: “The books about Alfie Atkins have been on the top list of most borrowed books in the libraries for more than 45 years, and in preschools, themes from Gunilla Bergström's books are constantly worked with. This project is a brilliant way to combine both worlds and naturally encourages reading of all great children’s books.”

Fredrik Rahkka, COO at Rights & Brands, says: "This wonderful and immensely important initiative is at the heart of modern society. Reading and writing skills, language shortly, is the basis of our ability to express emotions and to interact with each other. We're very proud of being involved".

Jakob Skogholm, CEO at ILT Education, says: “We are happy to be part of this cooperation with the important mission of opening the world of reading for young children. To engage in reading, world class stories like Alfie Atkins are needed and will make all the difference!”

To recognize the fantastic efforts of the teachers, we also award an annual prize of 10,000 SEK to the teacher who has promoted reading among the children with the most dedication and enthusiasm. More details about this to follow.

Do you want to know more? Please contact Elisabet Granlund at elisabet.granlund@bokmakaren.se.

About ILT Education:

Education is the foundation for all democratic societies, and ILT Education, with our vision that all students should have access to equal education, is here to make sure it happens. With a presence in 7 markets we focus on building literacy skills from an early age, all over Europe.

About Bok-Makaren:

Bok-Makaren manages all the rights to the work of author and illustrator, Gunilla Bergström. The original books of the beloved little boy Alfie Atkins contain 26 titles, which have sold over 10 million copies throughout the world and translated in over 40 languages. The series is a classic among children, parents, and grandparents.

Together with all our engaged partners, we spread the stories to future generations, making the characters come to life through theatre, film, exhibitions, digital formats, and products.

About Rights & Brands:

Rights & Brands (R&B) is a 360 licensing and literary agency bringing Scandinavian rights and brands – within art, design, and literature – to a global arena. Rights & Brands operates a worldwide network of over 30 sub-agents and 800 clients.

Rights & Brands represent iconic Scandinavian brands, artists, and authors. R&B is the worldwide master agent on behalf of Moomin Characters and represents the likes of Stig Lindberg, Carl Larsson-gården Sundborn, Astrid Lindgren & Ilon Wikland, Maxi & Helium, The Beatles, The Smurfs, Tove Jansson, Sofie Sarenbrant and many more.

R&B is ranked #1 in Europe and #18 worldwide among licensing agencies, with an estimated retail value of 750M Euro. We develop and create collaborations and brand extensions with leading brands such as H&M, Uniqlo, Granit, Happy Socks, Fiskars, Rovio, Frever, adidas and Finnair.

Rights & Brands headquarters is in Stockholm, with local branches in Helsinki, Oslo, Hong Kong, London and Tokyo. R&B was founded in 2016 and has a yearly turnover of 270M SEK.