Jean-Michel BLANQUER, Minister of National Education, Youth and Sports, and Roselyne BACHELOT-NARQUIN, Minister of Culture, have decided to extend the “Youth in Bookshops” program throughout the country as part of the Recovery Plan.

This arts and cultural education program will enable tens of thousands of young people to discover, from 2021, the local shops that are bookstores and their essential role in the promotion of literature and authors, 40 years after the Lang Act was passed.

The success of «Jeunes en librairie» in the regions of Nouvelle-Aquitaine and Hauts-de-France, where the program has existed for several years, justifies its extension to the rest of France. It will concern middle school students, high school students, apprentices, as well as young school students placed under the hand of justice.

The projects, designed by their teachers in connection with booksellers, will take the form of journeys including meetings with book actors (authors, publishers, printers, etc.), workshops (favorite essays, translations, cover design, etc.) or travel to literary festivals.

In practice, young people will visit a local bookstore and become familiar with this environment; for many, the experience will be new and will be the first opportunity to cross the threshold of a book business. Mediation and advice from booksellers will lead them to acquire the book of their choice, thanks to a voucher or cheque-read.

«Young people in bookshops» will thus contribute to the plan to relaunch activity in France and, in the longer term, to make young people aware of the challenges of books and reading, as well as the book object they can appropriate.

For Jean-Michel BLANQUER: Reading is the best door to others and to the world. I am therefore very pleased with the deployment of “Young people in bookshops”, which is a valuable tool at this time. It will allow thousands of students to discover the trades of books and acquire one or more books that have aroused their curiosity.”

Roselyne BACHELOT-NARQUIN said: The crisis has shown our fellow citizens' attachment to reading, books and bookstores. With the generalization of «Youth in bookshops», the State services, in association with the book professionals, will help to amplify this enthusiasm of the younger generations. »