A Party In The Library
A tale about a fun morning at a public library in Brazil and how literature can help our communities
My mom is a math teacher in Brazil. She was responsible for the library in a large public school she was working in. In 2016, I had just came back home from finishing University so I spent a lot of time helping her out in the school. The school is located in a poor neighborhood in Angra dos Reis city, in Rio de Janeiro State.
Angra dos Reis is well known internationally for it’s 365 islands, paradisiac deserted beaches and preserved Atlantic Forest. However, like anywhere in Brazil, the city deals with social inequality. Neighborhoods near and far from the city center lack basic infrastructure and social services. Money for education is not a priority and students and teachers have to deal with problems every day.
During the school year in 2016, my mother and other teachers tried to increase the number of students in the library. The attendance is very low, students are not very interested in reading on their own
They did projects like storytelling, art projects, and literature clubs and so on. I also volunteered myself to help out, decorating and helping with the projects.
The school has a Literature project called FELIT — Feira de Literatura and each year the teachers bring themes and famous authors to the school to talk and interact with the students, trying to teach them the importance of reading.
Despite all the efforts, the library continues to be a foreigner concept to the majority of the students. Of course, we are talking about children and teenagers from a very needing community. This is not at all an excuse, but we do have many issues to deal with on the day-to-day basis like violence, drugs, abuse…
At the end of that school year, we thought about doing something fun for the few students who actively used the library during the year. So, after a few thoughts, we decided that a party would be the best option.
The main goal of this party was simple: to attract more students to the library on the following year.
We made popcorn and hot dogs. We spent the night before making Brigadeiros (a famous Brazilian sweet you find in every kid’s party). We bought some soda and someone brought a cake.
My sister volunteered to do some face painting during the party. That was a success, with giant lines of children waiting to paint their faces.
We made Little Prince bookmarks theme party favors forthe students at home. Everything was homemade and even thought we worked hard on it was totally worthy it.
In the end, the party was a hit. The “student-readers” were very happy and those who didn’t attend the library that year were very kin to do so the next year. We even had some students who had never set foot in the library filling in library application forms for the next year.
Our community has many problems and we have to take on some responsibility and do something about it. I hope to do that soon again. Education is the key to our problems. All power to the future readers.
For the portuguese version of this article please go here
Written by: Ana Luíza Azevedo, graduated in International Relations, reading enthusiast, ESL teacher and freelance writer/translator.
