Banco del Libro’s Marathon Readings

Maria Beatriz Medina Reading to children. Photo: Banco del Libro

During every Saturday in April, reading promotion organisation Banco del Libro (2007 ALMA Laureate) arranged marathon readings at the institution’s headquarter in Caracas, Venezuela. María Beatriz Medina, is Managing Director at Banco del Libro:

“It is a way to continue to build bridges thorough reading and provide a possible route for transit harmoniously amid differences and different world views. The goal is to read a selection of stories together, something that for many years has contributed to civic education and co-existence.

In April our annual exhibition “The Best Books for Children and Youth” opened, which I hope will be a new starting point for excursions into the world of literature. As Louise Rosenblatt pointed out: “through stories, poems and plays the child will develop an understanding of the personalities of different types of people”.

This year, touched by the political and social circumstances in our country, we have seen the need to facilitate these meetings to reaffirm the importance of reading to meet one another. The institution’s constant work with reading promoting questions is done in as multifaceted way as possible.
In the first session we arrange, we read books that focus on friends and community. In the second session we read books that focus on the issue of differences, books that deal with the problems that children are confronted with. The last part required the children to be actively involved in verbalizing and discussing the problems they experienced in the first sessions.

We have worked with children and youth, including children and young people with special needs. Through reading they have been able to co-operate and to find that books allow us to peek into the world, find a reflection of who we are and understand each other. This is an urgent and necessary exercise in Venezuela today to recover from the sense of many words that we no longer know how to live.”

María Beatriz Medina

Photo: Banco del Libro

Photo: Banco del Libro

Photo: Banco del Libro

 

Photo: Banco del Libro

Tags: Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, Banco del Libro, maria beatriz medina