With the city's 199 child-friendly reading venues involved for the first time, the 2025 Shanghai Fairy Tale Festival opened on Wednesday. Over the course of the summer holiday, the festival, organized by the Shanghai Children’s Library, will provide more than 400 activities designed to spark a love of reading in minors.

Themed "reading without borders", the 13^thedition of the festival integrates culture, education, art and technology to create immersive and interactive experiences. Children can enjoy themed activities, lectures, story sessions, exhibitions, art education classes, and volunteer activities.

At the opening ceremony, the Shanghai Children's Art Theatre performed the picture book play One Hundred Rabbits Want to Sing, vividly bringing stories to life on stage.

To enrich children's summer learning, the Shanghai Children's Library has also launched the "colorful summer fun" reading program. Highlights include parent-child reading training that encourage families to share stories together, original picture book and illustration exhibitions, activities exploring the world of picture books by award-winning illustrator and writer Iwona Chmielewska, and interactive STEM sessions to inspire curiosity in science and technology. In addition, a digital reading challenge will be accessible through the library's online book borrowing platform called Mibao (Sweet Baby) Study.

Zhang Yifan contributed to this story.