With over 200 books read, 10-year-old Simeon Gyurov became the most reading child in Ruse for 2025.

Wednesday, 14 January 2026

The Regional Library "Lyuben Karavelov" held its traditional award ceremony for the most reading children in Ruse. The tenth edition of the event was held in the Children's Department "Bibliotechko" and honored outstanding readers for the previous calendar year. Mayor Pencho Milkov awarded the most reading child - 10-year-old Simeon Gyurov, who read more than 200 books in 2025.

"Today we congratulate the most reading children in Ruse - not because they are "first", but because they are curious, persistent and loyal friends of reading. Each book read is a small victory - over boredom, over the fear of not understanding, over the laziness of not opening the first page. The Children's Department "Bibliotechko" is a launching pad for dreams, from which journeys without a suitcase begin. By choosing books, you choose to live thousands of lives, to ask questions and seek answers - this is the real super power,” the mayor addressed the attendees. He congratulated the director of the Library, Teodora Evtimova, and her team for raising readers every day, and to the parents of the youngest Ruse children, the mayor expressed special gratitude with the words “The best example always begins at home.”

“We turn off the phone, open the book and no longer look at the phone.” This advice was given to the attendees by Simeon Gyurov for the best experience with a book. The little Ruse resident shared that his favorite reading material is the adventure story “The Silver Arrow” by Lev Grossman. According to the tradition of the Regional Library, he left his mark in the Alley of Reading Children of Ruse.

Third in the “school age” category up to 14 years old was Radina Gancheva, aged 7, and second place was taken by Maria Damyanova. All awardees received prizes provided by the Ruse Library, the Ruse Municipality and the event sponsors.

During the ceremony, Eva Yosifova, a 4th grade full-time education teacher from the Otets Paisii Primary School, was awarded, who became the “Library Ambassador Teacher”. The teacher presented Teodora Evtimova with a paperweight with the image of Lyuben Karavelov, made by the artist and book illustrator Krasimira Balusheva, who is the mother of one of her students.

The youngest user of the “Bibliotechko” services was 4-month-old Ivayla Velikova, who was enrolled in the children’s department at only 40 days old. Her mother shared that her favorite book so far is “The Little Mermaid”.

In the first grade category, Adelina Dundarova, 6, came in third place, Vladimir Velchev, 3, who came to the ceremony as a law enforcement officer, came in second, and first place went to Maria Tsvetanova, who is not yet one year old.

The Regional Library "Lyuben Karavelov" also presented statistics on the most read books for the past year. Traditionally, Ruse children have taken up the most mandatory books from the summer lists. Favorites of the youngest are also the series "Harry Potter", "The Barbarians", the books by Julia Donaldson and "The Diary of a Wimpy Kid". The most read Bulgarian series for children is Katya Antonova's "The Sugar Plum Fairy". Other hit titles are the series "Anatol Poraziev" by Anne Didier and Olivier Muller and the series "Toto" by Serge Blok and Franck Girard.

Guests of the event were Kremena Dobrikova from the "Bukvarche" bookstore, Vanya Hinkova - manager of the "Helikon" bookstore, as well as numerous readers of the Children's Department and their parents.

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