Festival celebrates reading in new formats

Hundreds of students from primary school, ESO and secondary school actively participated and showed their passion for reading at the second annual Ibero-American Festival of Children’s and Youth Literature, held in Valladolid on November 22 and 23.

Primary school students from third through sixth grade enjoyed the anecdotes of the Ecuadorian writer María Fernanda Heredia, laughed at the jokes of the Spanish author Rafael Ordóñez and took up the invitation to get their hands dirty from the illustrator Violeta Monreal. The children’s active contribution showed their eagerness to cooperate and interact, said Mariano Jabonero, Director of Education of the Santillana Foundation, co-organizer of the event together along with the Castilla y León regional authority, "which greatly enriches" the festival and made it clear that “you can’t hold an event on children's and youth literature without children and without youth."

The first such festival took place in Colombia in May this year, and the Santillana Foundation is committed to making the festival one of the most important events in Ibero-America in terms of social impact and its contribution to fostering reading in early childhood.

This latest event in Valladolid continues the work of the previous festival in Colombia and has also served to guage Spanish readers: "We’ve learned a lot about what children are interested in," says Jabonero, referring to new formats such as channels on YouTube that engage young people today. "Ignoring that is ignoring reality," said the director, and the Valladolid event dedicated much of its program to digital reading and new technologies.

Regardless of format, the participating writers agreed that what is important is reading and that events such as this festival, which next year will have editions in Argentina and Madrid, excite the curiosity of children and young people. Around 2,000 children, young people, experts, writers, illustrators, teachers and librarians attended this event in Valladolid.

SOURCE: elpais.com