We are delighted to hear about what’s happening between the book fairies of Switzerland and Bergli Books! Here is the full story from the fairies over there.

Exploring Basel with Bergli Books

The Mini Book Fairy Ellie, from Switzerland, was invited to spend the day with Bergli Books, a publishing house based in Basel and part of the larger publishing group, SCHWABE Books. Bergli books were one of the first supporters of the Book Fairies when we arrived in Switzerland in 2018 and we were delighted to be invited to come and speak with them and learn more about their amazing books.

Ellie was super excited to meet Kali again, an intern at Bergli, who we had met briefly before when last visiting the city and who gave us a copy of Basel’s Hidden Stories to take home and have a look at before we planned a return trip to meet the rest of the team.

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We were really happy that Kali was keen to do a little book fairying with us whilst we had a look for a few of the trails featured in the book. We showed her how we wrap our books in ribbon, where the best place was to pop a sticker and of course, where the best hiding spots were around the city!

Discovering Basel’s hidden stories

Basel’s Hidden Stories is a great book. The book features the stories of 6 myths and legends about ghosts and monsters within the city. Each story ends with an activity and walking tour to encourage you to find the places mentioned within the tales and take a closer look at the city. It’s a great way to get kids to interact with their surroundings and be interested in local history.

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Ellie meets Bergli Books’ executive editor

We were extremely lucky to find that Richard, the executive editor, had put some time aside for Ellie to interview him about the work Bergli does and what goes into a great book… and most importantly, for her, to ask them if she can come and work for them when she finishes school! I’m pleased to say she was happy with their answer.

Richard also gave us the opportunity to take a look at some of the older books in the building. Being a part of SCHWABE, the worlds oldest book publishers, founded in 1488 (yes that means it IS older than Cambridge University Press!), they had some amazingly old books for us to take a look at.

Carefully examining an ancient book

We were carefully shown a beautiful Latin/German dictionary from 1579, the cover was made from pigs hide, as was common at the time and beautifully patterned. Ellie was given a pair of white gloves to take a closer look at the inside of the book and see if she could work out how many pages it had. Sadly, there were far too many to count! This was an extremely wonderful opportunity to be trusted to handle something that was so unique and a privilege Ellie was really touched to be offered.The oldest book in their display was a Bible from the late 1400’s, but that one stayed safely in the case.

A little about Bergli Books

Bergli focuses on books that have a Swiss theme, introducing readers to the rich history, culture and traditions in the country. Their books are aimed at children and adults and available in English and German, a few books also are offered in French and Italian, the other spoken languages within Switzerland.

Whether you are looking for monsters within The Monster  Book of Switzerland, wanting to find the best lakes, vineyards or gardens to visit, a spot of colouring-in inspired by Swiss flora and fauna or topping up your language skills with their helpful dialect guides, there is something for everyone.

Ellie was quite surprised (and shocked) to discover one of her favourite drinks, Rivella (a popular Swiss carbonated soft drink) was actually made from Milk Whey, which after a little Googling we discovered to be leftover cheese milk!

We would like to say a big thank you to the team at Bergli for their continued support of our book fairy work and we hope to work with them again in the future.

This is wonderful to read, what a great adventure for Ellie! Do you have a story to share? Email Book Fairies HQ on bookfairyemail@gmail.com as we would love to read it!

Join The Book Fairies!

If you would love adventures like Ellie, or like any of the 10,000 book fairies around the world, start your journey with a pack of stickers! Pop them on the books you’d like to hide, maybe wrap in pretty ribbon, and set loose in your local neighbourhood – to spread the magic of giving! Trust us, you’ll love it. We can’t wait to see which books you hide.