DISD Book Week 2023

Dangers on the Internet, apps and artificial intelligence (AI) were the central themes of DISD Book Week, which took place at DISD from March 20-24. Our librarians look back on successful online and live readings, book dinners and the popular book character day with full hearts. German media expert and educator Thomas Feibel was flown in. In readings followed by discussions on the books "Happy - der Hund im Handy", "like me. Every click counts" and "I know everything about you", he informed the student about cyberbullying, cybercrime and other dangers on the internet. In the readings, he addressed the student in a very personal, blunt and at the same time very calm manner as a friend and understanding person.

With a lot of wit and humor, he encouraged the student to reflect on the respective readings in his readings. Many scenes in his readings are taken from real life. The student learned about the author's personal preferences: he likes horror stories, wears headphones while working and prefers to write in a chicken coop in Brandenburg.

The student learned about his creative process, how he creates a psychological profile, a profile, a chapter overview and then executes the chapters. "For every new book, the first sentence is crucial, because I want to captivate the reader!" the author explained to the student.

After reading the book "like me. Every click counts", he addresses the question of guilt in the bullying case in the story with the student. Some found the consequences in the reading too harsh. He agreed with the student, as he remembers his own school days very well and can therefore empathize with the fact that young people at a certain age are not aware of many things and act naively.

In his books, Thomas Feibel always deliberately uses characters with different migration histories to reflect Germany's multicultural image. He clearly answered the question from a high school student as to whether he would also write an Arab story with: "Yes, if I could live in an Arab country for a certain period of time to get a real picture."

During the Q&A session with the third-grade classes, it emerged that Thomas Feibel loves pasta, would love to bathe in hummus and has eaten pasta with cherry peas before. "Do you have to eat a lot of kircher peas," asked a student. Thomas Feibel answers shrewdly: "No, but lots of peas!"

He concluded by recommending to the teachers that the older student should develop their own rules on media use for the younger ones. "Preferably with photos and videos. The internet is full of dangers and even adults don't have a solution for many of the problems," he says. With his guidebook "Jetzt pack doch mal das Handy weg!", which is available free of charge on our Onleihe app, he gives good advice for desperate parents who are also looking for advice.

It's best to read a book to your pet when mom and dad don't have time

Thomas Feibel's reading tip

Munich-based author Theresa Hannig presented an exciting online reading from her dystopian novel "Pantopia" for grades 10 to 12. With her books, she aims to awaken a desire for change in young adults. In the subsequent discussion, some student expressed a certain fear of the future with regard to the rapid development of artificial intelligence depicted in the book. However, Theresa Hanning creates a positive image of the future and tries to show the student that artificial intelligence can be programmed by humans. "It is therefore in our hands to program the future positively," she says. The likeable Munich native was enthusiastic about the student and the cultural togetherness that is lived at DISD.

The popular children's book author and illustrator Jörg Hilbert delighted the children of the first and second grades in an online reading with his funny stories of the brave knight Rost. He gave an insight into his work as a book author. He explained how texts are created, pictures are produced and how he finally turns it all into a book. The reading was rounded off with a musical interlude.

On the last day of Book Week, the primary school pupils were allowed to come to school dressed up as their favorite book character. Self-made and very creative costumes such as Elmar the Elephant, Honey Bee, Ritter Rost and Happy the Dog were particularly impressive. A perfect end to the DISD Book Week, during which the student were successfully motivated to read but also to think about media use, AI, the internet and cyberbullying.