Dear Editor,
The National Library’s Gillian Thompson Reading Challenge initiative is praiseworthy (SN 18 Oct).
However, I wonder why children from 10 years old were not included in the challenge. This is the age when children are introduced to the classics: Little Women, Anne of the Green Gables, Alice in Wonderland, Around the World in 80 days, Treasure Island and hundreds more titles.
Simple questions based on characters, setting, lessons learnt, descriptive details, and so on, may be asked by the jury. This group can be examined on two or three books. We see young children excelling in chess competitions, sport competitions, and displaying expertise with musical instruments, and more; why exclude them from reading competitions?
Early reading inculcates careful reading habits among young children. Good books are a reservoir for society’s beliefs and values. They are also a source of knowledge and self-knowledge. Reading a good book is like going on a voyage of self-discovery. If we wait until a child is 14 years before we start to notice them then we have lost a good many young people whose consciousness and perceptions might have been shaped by the good values such books impart.
I notice too that young men and women are asked to read four books in four weeks. This is during the school term with homework assignments etc. Basically a student must complete a book every weekend. Can a person enjoy a book, even go back and re-read certain sections within such a short space of time? This might be fine for the 19 plus age group if they are out of school. The whole idea of encouraging reading is for readers to experience the sheer enjoyment of reading (fiction and poetry).
Should the initiative have been planned for the long holidays?
Yours faithfully,
Ameena Gafoor
