Sixty books in six months flat.
Sounds like a lot? Well, that's the deal if you want to win this challenge.
The Neev Literature Festival is back with its fourth edition with a reading challenge specially curated for kids who are aged 10-13 years. The NLF Marathon Reading Challenge is now open and will conclude by the end of June 2021. The participants are expected to finish reading 60 books in six months while taking part in various activities that are aimed at stimulating their young minds. Book chats will be conducted on Zoom regularly where participants can discuss the books they have read with one another and have a discussion. They will be put in touch with readers across India and across the world.
The theme of this year's reading challenge is Imaginary Lines - The lines that connect and separate humanity. The main idea behind this theme is to make readers aware of the fine, imaginary lines (or boundaries) that separate and/or connect humanity such as the lines of gender, sexual identity, religion, colour of our skin, economic class and so on.
“Standing on opposite ends of the imaginary lines, the distance becomes too vast to traverse. But all that is needed is a gentle tug to unravel differences in opinions and bridge misunderstandings,” says Kavita Gupta Sabharwal, Co-founder of the Neev Literature Festival for Children. “All our events have been about this realisation,” she added.
The books listed under the challenge are specifically curated to reflect the theme of the Neev Literature Festival. The set of books written by authors from India as well as authors worldwide also tackle themes such as inclusion and racial sensitivity. For example, there are books such as Unfair by Rasil Kaur Ahuja, Stamped by Ibram Kendi and Genesis Begins Again by Alicia D Williams.
When asked if NLF was worried about being a little too woke for the age group they'd chosen, Kavita Gupta said “All the books on the challenge have been chosen for their critical acclaim as well as their reception." She added, “We feel that one of the aims of a reading challenge is to broaden a reader’s horizon, and hope to engage in a fruitful discussion and dialogue with the readers to clarify their ideas on the books that they have read.”
The reading difficulty of the books is rated at three levels — easy to read, just the right level and challenging to read. All participants can take part in activity prompts that link five to six books every two weeks. The activity prompts will be posted on the social media pages of Neev Literature Festival as well as mailed to the participants’ registered email addresses.
The Reading Challenge, which is a part of the festival, will be split into two tracks — competitive and non-competitive. The competitive track will require teams of four members to register and finish three books every week in order to participate in all the activities. At the end of the challenge, participants will have to take part in a quiz where teams will be tested on the books they read and three prize winners will be announced who will be awarded gold, silver, and bronze engraved trophies, certificates of achievement, and a set of great books, each.
“Greater online access has allowed us to make NLF beyond a once a year, two-day festival, to a year-round reading event. The response has been great from across the country, and some beyond too which we were not even aiming for,” shares Kavita about the response received for the challenge.
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