Bookmobile spreads joy to displaced Israeli children, page by page

The National Library of Israel (NLI) has come up with a novel way of cheering up hundreds of children from displaced communities — a brightly coloured bookmobile van, which will tour the country, visiting evacuees at 40 centres serving those moved from southern and northern border communities.

The bookmobile — easily identified by its giant ginger moggy, named “Ir-Meow-Hu the Library Cat” — has been launched in co-operation with the Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) and the Ministry of Education.

The van offers a play for children, a programme of games and puzzles, and the opportunity for the children to browse and read the books filling the van’s bookshelves. At the end of each session, every child will receive a book as a gift.

The books have been donated by several Israel book publishers.

Tsila Hayun, the NLI’s head of education and culture, said: “In these difficult days, we all need magic that can create stories, words, and spirit — and children need it more than anyone. We at the National Library are setting out to bring something of the magic of stories to these children”.

The launch event, held at the David Geffen auditorium at the new NLI building in Jerusalem, was attended by children from Kibbutz Or HaNer on the Gaza border, and children from their temporary host school in Jerusalem, the Zalman Aran School.