In Cendras, north of Alès, the book defends its place in the face of the fury of the screens

At Cendras, every year for 14 years, everything suggests that we do not organize a book fair like any other here. “We like to complicate our lives,” laughs its mayor, Sylvain André. At each edition, Lire delivers, of which its new edition will be held Friday November 29 and Saturday November 30, focuses its choice of guests and free activities on a specific theme.

Digital on the page

For this new edition, the public, who will have free access to the meetings offered (read below), will be challenged by the question of digital technology and artificial intelligence. About AI, we will talk about its arrival in journalism, with a debate (Saturday 30, 6 p.m.) in which Stéphane Barbier, journalist at the Alésien editorial team of Free Midday.

Digital technology will be discussed above all in the problem of screens, omnipresent to the point of sometimes anxiety, in homes and among children. This will be the subject, Saturday at 10:30 a.m. at the Lucie-Aubrac sociocultural center, of a conference led by Carine Blanc-Brude, educator of young children. “The exchange will not be guilt-inducingunderlines Sylvain André. We know many parents who sometimes use TV to keep their children occupied when they have emergencies to deal with. The important thing is to know how to balance the place of screens at home and the interest in reading to counterbalance.”

Reading, moreover, will be offered in parallel on the same day (10:15 a.m. – 11:45 a.m., Cendras media library) with stories for children given by storyteller Laetitia Boschet. The theme of screens will also return at the end of the day on Saturday (5:45 p.m., socio-cultural center) with the presentation of Touche pas à mon scène, a new brochure written by students from the Racine d'Alès college, supported by the history teacher- geography Gilles Roumieux, already coordinator of several brochures with his students, including one in tribute to Samuel Paty and Dominique Bernard.