In 2025, at a meeting under the session on our native Bulgarian language, NEF ‘13 Centuries of Bulgaria’ approved ‘Pranksters’ Kingdom’, a project of the Trebol Association of Bulgarians and Artists and the Azbukarcheta [Little Alphabeters] Bulgarian Sunday School in Madrid, the Kingdom of Spain.
The project, as an educational and cultural initiative, succeeded in strengthening the connection of children—pupils of the Azbukarcheta Bulgarian Sunday School, all from the Bulgarian diaspora in the capital of Spain—with the Bulgarian language, literature and the roots of their parents. Through various creative games and competitions, tales, presentations, and with the devoted involvement of parents, pupils aged between 6 and 18 years old were introduced to ‘Pranksters’ by Ran Bosilek, one of the emblematic works of Bulgarian classical literature for children.
The project activities were diverse: reading and linguistic work on ‘Pranksters’, which included classroom training with lexical and cultural content, drawing illustrations on the theme of ‘The Funniest Prankster’s Mischief’ based on scenes from the book; stage performance of theatrical miniatures; and composition of authorial texts.
The ‘Pranksters’ Kingdom’ project contributed to improving the pupils’ confidence and self-esteem while communicating in an informal environment, and at the same time, increased their interest in other works of Bulgarian literature infused with humour and dialectal expressions. This, in turn, encouraged the children’s visual imagination, improved their artistic expressiveness, and contributed to the enhancement of their creativity. They refined their reading and retelling skills in Bulgarian; buoyed up their confidence in performing and controlling their emotions in front of an audience. While the pupils made drawings of favourite episodes from the book and came up with scenes of mischief they had made themselves, they learned to work in a team and, together with their parents, prepared the final performance.
As a result, the booklet ‘Pranksters in Madrid’ was published, which included authorial texts and drawings by the pupils, and an exhibition was arranged at the Centro Cultural de las Fronteras.
On 14 December 2025, the theatrical performances ‘Outing’ and ‘During New Year’s Holidays’ were shown; and the winners were awarded diplomas and books.