Click on the photo to watch the video in French!
Montreal, November 25, 2019 - The two wings of a bird, science and religion, was the theme of the Bahá'í booth this year! A popular presentation for young and old, the Bahá'í stand has attracted many visitors of all types! In a five-day book fair, over a thousand people stopped by booth # 143, asked questions, or bought books. Many were also schoolchildren who entered into a dialogue about our theme of "Science and Religion"! They have decorated the two wings of the bird which represented this principle with colored feathers by inscribing their ideas for the progress of humanity!
This year, a special place has been given for a variety of literary genres within the Book Fair program, such as poetry, imaginary literatures and essays. Major social themes such as the environment, diversity and technologies are also highlighted through various presentations.
Our guest author at the Bahá'í booth was Mrs. Heather Niderost who presented her book "The Light World". A book signing session was held on Sunday afternoon. The video of an interview about this book and others will be available to friends on this site soon.
Still popular, the Book Fair has hosted 20,000 elementary and high school students free of charge on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Mondays. Many of these young visitors stop by the Bahá'í booth and participated in our interactive science and religion project.
The 42nd edition of the Montreal Book Fair at Place Bonaventure was marked by a number of changes that greatly contributed to making this Book Fair a great success. From beginning to end, a positive and friendly atmosphere reigned, much to the delight of the craftsmen/ women of the writing profession and visitors, always so many at the rendezvous!
A warm and enthusiastic atmosphere, a refreshing and airy layout, welcoming and beautifully arranged animation scenes: this latest Fair at Place Bonaventure, was an unforgettable experience.
Bringing people together around the book in a festive and inclusive context, fostering authentic and warm encounters between readers, authors and publishers is the essence of the Fair.
With a colorful and original program, families and children were not left out! This is how the chapter of the history of the Montreal Book Fair at Place Bonaventure ends, after 42 years of encounters and discoveries in this mythical place! After this successful edition, the Salon team is looking confidently into the future and is already preparing the next unavoidable meeting of books and readers: the 43rd edition of the SLM from 25 to 30 November 2020 at the Palais des Congrès I, Montreal !
The highlights of the 2019 SLM !
- 2300 meetings between authors and readers during the signing sessions
- 750 publishing houses meet their readers
- The words and music of Ukrainian craftsmen/ women highlighted at the Look at Ukraine presentation
- An unparalleled crowd on a free Wednesday
- 315 dedicated volunteers who gave generously 1900 hours of their time
- 1300 books collected as part of the Literacy Foundation's Gift Lecture Program
- A first visit for the Mayor of Montreal Valérie Plante, a second visit for the Minister of the Family Mathieu Lacombe and a first public appearance as Minister of Canadian Heritage for Steven Guilbeault
- 1000 CPE and daycare children at the very first Children's Morning
- 20,000 students estimated as part of School Matinees
- The management of the SLM is not willing to measure the success in numbers, because of the large amount of imponderables that interpose the activity, such as the attendance of school matinees which continues to grow due to the free day on Wednesday and free admission for children under 12, among others.
- On 2018, about 120,000 people had made a dive to the big Montreal Book Fair.
The Montreal Book Fair Committee warmly thanks all the volunteers who have spent hours in the Bahá'í booth and created a pleasant atmosphere to welcome the public and schoolchildren to the Salon du livre.