G-BOOK 2: European Teens as Readers and Creators of Gender-positive Narratives

G-BOOK 2 aims at raising greater international awareness about the importance of providing positive gender models for younger generations through cultural works dedicated to them. More specifically, the project will take two main directions to contribute to this goal: - On the one hand, one objective is to continue promoting the transnational mobility of gender-positive works among the partner countries and beyond, thanks to the expansion of the already existing G-BOOK bibliography and website. These tools will be enriched with new books dedicated to 11-14 year-olds and including the German language; the expertise of the research centers involved in the project will make sure that the contents are fully appropriate for the target and will also provide useful extras to make the works more accessible and intelligible (summaries and info sheets in all consortium languages, thematic itineraries, further insight reading suggestions, etc.). This kind of work will be based on the successful methodology implemented in G-BOOK. Simultaneously, the focus will also be on the local sphere by expanding libraries’ concrete offer of gender-positive books on the basis of the bibliography evolution, providing them with brand new volumes for their teen literature sections. - On the other hand, G-BOOK 2 aims at sensitizing young teenagers (middle school students in particular) to contemporary gender issues by directly involving them in a creative curricular project. The idea is that they will not merely explore gender-related topics that are familiar to their age through frontal classes and poorly interactive activities; on the contrary, they will be able to concretely get in the game by exploring their own creative attitudes and contributing to the development of original material in the field of gender-positive literature. The expansion of the 11-14 bibliography will intertwine with educational activities in schools, providing them with a conceptual framework and reading materials. Besides these two main directives, G-BOOK 2 also aspires to involve teachers, parents and local communities in an indirect way. Thanks to the project activities in schools and with the help of a team of associated partners, partners will work on project promotion to reach various subjects both inside and outside the field of gender studies; the aim is that of fostering awareness about the urgency to address gender issues for the evolution of societies towards more fair and inclusive dynamics. Given that socio-cultural changes pass through cultural mindsets, the project’s mission is to highlight the crucial role of positive models in reading and education in building tomorrow’s citizens and artists. In the light of this framework, G-BOOK 2 foresees to put in place the following activities: - thematic expansion of the online bibliography with new works dedicated to 11-14 year-olds; - linguistic extension of the bibliography with works from German authors. This will promote greater internationality and more effective transnational circulation on a EU level; - a set of educational meetings in 6 middle schools (one per each partner) aimed at letting students get familiar with gender-related issues and consolidating fundamentals for their active involvement in the contest; - an artistic school contest to be developed in two phases: during the first one, students will work on the writing of a short story on a gender-positive theme, taking inspiration from the contents of the bibliography; the second phase is dedicated to the visual/multimedial transposition of the awarded story, which will engage students in a variety of artistic expressions; - participation in local, national and international events involving relevant associations in the field, as well as the publishing industry (the best known are the BCBF-Bologna Children’s Book Fair and The European Children’s Book Fair in Saarbrücken).