THE BEST YOUNG READER IN THE WORLD IS ELEVEN YEARS OLD AND IS SPANISH

The award Odilo Young Readers 2019, which recognizes the best reading children from all over the world, between nine and eleven, fell to Sergio Sánchez, from Jerez de los Caballeros, after imposing four million students.

According to the organization, it is valued "his love for reading and his command of English". And this was demonstrated on February 6 in Brussels, in the Altiero Spinelli building of the European Parliament, when collecting his award, with a speech in English, worthy of praise.

An example for other children

According to María Teresa San Segundo, field marketing manager of Odilo, the Spanish company promoting the award, the recognition of the European Commission and Odilo went to Sergio "Because of his perseverance, because he reads absolutely every day, because he has been the one who has read the most and has improved his literacy and creative reading skills, as well as other skills such as English proficiency."

And these are some of the skills valued by the Odilo smart digital library and the European Parliament to select the best of young readers in the forty countries where their book platform operates:

The amount of titles read
The consistency of the reading habit
The diversity of the reading genre
The complexity of the content read
The improvement of reading comprehension
Creative writing skills

Around 120 million candidates were presented who for three months followed a system created by the Spanish company and Sergio was the winner.

Perhaps it is even more surprising that the winner is from Spain, if we take into account the data of the last PIRLS report, which analyzes the reading compression of students in 4th grade (9-10 years): our children returned 12 points below the OECD average. That is why Sergio can become an example for the rest of the Primary children and encourage them to enjoy the books, as he said in his speech.

"A prize for all children who like to read"

Precisely, after greeting the attendees of the European Parliament, Sergio began his three-minute speech, completely in English, thanking the honor of representing the reading children around the world: "My prize is the prize of all children who like to read."

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During the three minutes that his intervention lasted, this CEIP Rodeo de Jerez de los Caballeros (Extremadura) child, as he pointed out, said that he likes audiobooks in English and that "I usually listen to them before going to sleep because they allow me to practice reading, comprehension and pronunciation in English."

But reading in general gives him something else, as he acknowledges:

"Exercise my imagination, invent fantastic worlds and imagine impossible situations. Reading allows me to understand and expand the limits of my mind."

And after recognizing that reading helps him in his life and his studies, he named some of his favorite readings, action books and adventures: 'Erik Vogler and the crimes of the white king' by Beatriz Osés, is his number one book, although he also recommends the reading of the Harry Potter saga and, in particular 'Harry Potter and the philosopher's stone'.

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He ended his speech by ensuring that he does not consider himself the winner of this competition in the world, but "I represent all the children in the country who have found another way to use technology for educational purposes", and wanted to encourage the rest of the young people to enjoy and learn with books because "Reading can be a perfect game for a child", his only words in Spanish.

Photos | Odilo