The closing ceremony of the reading competition for young people

Technology has made images predominant over writing, confining texts and reading to a secondary function, especially for children.                                                             
In one of the latest reports, Save the Children arises that in Italy, about half of school-age children have not read even a book outside of school.                  
On the other hand, the impacts and potential of reading on cognitive development, especially of children, are known and demonstrated. Books and storytelling are the space to elaborate emotions, skills and conflicts, reading allows children to identify with the protagonists and their stories by developing empathy, creativity, command of language, logical skills, but also those relationships necessary to face everyday life. Reading is the fundamental component of learning in all its forms.                 
Stimulating children to read means contributing to their cognitive and relational development, which is why it must be encouraged with concrete actions capable of generating love for books.                                                                                 
Virtuous contexts are needed where schools, families and different social realities work together to create the conditions in which children can develop their reading, listening, conversation and creativity skills.

This is the case of the Libri per Sognare contest born from the partnership between the Librai and Cartolibrai Group of Ascom, Confcommercio Bergamo, the Territorial Scholastic Office of Bergamo and Intesa Sanpaolo and aimed at promoting a positive attitude towards books by educating to reflection and relationship with the others.
Children can become great readers if approached to reading correctly, with this idea the partnership Libri per Sognare from 2017 has involved children between the ages of 8 and 12 in the province of Bergamo, stimulating them to become attentive, curious and interested readers.

The sixth edition of the competition also involved the fifth grades of primary schools and the first grades of 1st grade secondary schools of the state and equal schools of Bergamo and its province: a total of 34 schools, 92 classes and about 2000 pupils.
All participants were invited to read - in class and / or individually - the books indicated to vote for their favorite book and freely express reviews.

The organizing committee has selected five books for the competition:

•  - Viola e il Blu by Matteo Bussola (Salani editore, 2021)
•  - Un sogno sull’oceano by Luigi Ballerini (San Paolo Edizioni, 2019)
•  - La traversata by Francesco D’Adamo (Il Castoro, 2021)
•  - Volovia by Antonio Ferrara (Einaudi Ragazzi, 2021)
•  - Viola Giramondo by Teresa Radice e Stefano Turconi (Ed. Bao Publishing 2020).

In December 2021, participating classes received a copy for each qualification. The teachers of the classes took care of the organization of specific moments of individual and collective reading in the classroom and, subsequently, moderated sessions of discussion between the students. During the months of February and March, with online meetings, the children were able to meet each of the authors of the selected books. Since April, the students have been able to cast their votes and their reviews on the portal dedicated to the award, the latter in text form or even with self-produced drawings and videos. Subsequently, the votes and reviews were counted and evaluated by the organizing committee.

The final event was held on May 31 at 10.00 am, which saw the authors and organizers in attendance at Studio Le Park in Milan and the approximately 2000 young people connected online. After the opening speeches, there will be the awarding of the author and the winning book and of the students who wrote the best reviews selected for creativity and originality. The following spoke at the meeting:

•  - Oscar Fusini, Director of ASCOM of Bergamo
•  - Cristian Botti, President of the Librai e Cartolibrai Group ofi Ascom Confcommercio Bergamo
• - Roberto Spinucci, Intesa Sanpaolo Northern Lombardy Retail Sales Director
• - Luigi Ballerini, Matteo Bussola, Francesco D’Adamo, Antonio Ferrara, Teresa Radice e Stefano Turconi, authors of the 5 selected books

After the introductory speeches, the author and the winning book and the student authors of the best reviews selected for creativity and originality were awarded.
Among the five in competition, the most voted book was Volovia by Antonio Ferrara (Einaudi Ragazzi, 2021).

Reading is an educational priority. Reading education is the first step to make educational inclusion concrete. For these reasons we want to take care of our readers, accompanying them in the moment most likely to give birth to passion. Poor reading ability and competence is reflected in writing and in the entire academic achievement, increasing the risk of dropping out with the consequent impacts on the personal sphere and on the possibilities of socio-economic growth.             
Reading education is a challenge that schools, families and civil society must face together to ensure the citizens of tomorrow the possibility of improving their skills in living everyday life.
Libri per Sognare is arousing passion and pleasure to read, which are the keystones of the undertaken collaboration. We still want to offer children books that intrigue, create emotions and generate reflections, with the confidence that this will help them to become good readers for life.