World Book Day at BHS

By the BHS Library Team

We sorely miss putting real books into children’s hands. It’s why we became Librarians, because if you get it right – it’s like magic and when children read, amazing and magical things do happen. But if changing over to e-books and other kinds of digital books is what we need to do – then we’re there for it, and ready to go! Because we know how important reading truly is, and we want to share that with you now, on World Book Day 2021.

World Book Day is a UNESCO day. UNESCO are clear that “Reading for pleasure is the single biggest indicator of a child’s future success, more than family circumstances, parents’ educational background or income.” OECD 2002.

Wow! This is astounding. Reading is a great leveller, and reading for pleasure is more important to our future success than the economic situation that we grow up with. This seems especially pertinent and helpful, given Lebanon’s current plight. Just imagine, if every BHS student left the school with a voracious reading habit – how bright the future would look. Our young people would be full of enquiry, empathy and knowledge for the future. Readers are more than this. They are agents of their own making, active learners who constantly grow. They seek and find new questions – and build new opinions and answers.

BHS has World Book Day Celebrations happening throughout every section of the school! In the Upper School Students can tune into the Upper School Library’s Instagram page @Brummana.High.School.Library for a week of daily quizzes, puzzles and challenges, starting today on World Book Day, Thursday 4^th of March.

Lisette El Hage, Head of Upper School English says, “I have always considered a book a loyal friend that never betrays me. Reading is piercing and its effect is incredible. You look around you and wonder if the writer’s soul is there, humbled by your deed. It is such a simple activity yet so potent. As you read, you win the battle or bite the dust, you melt in your sorrow or rise with pride. Reading transports you and makes you feel privileged that thousands of brilliant minds are now a part of your world.”

Liliane Alam, the English Co-ordinator in Elementary, promotes reading as much as possible. She runs a fun evening book club at 6pm on Thursdays for Upper Elementary students on Teams. On World Book Day, her classes are enjoying a range of interviews with famous authors, she hopes that “it will inspire students to read these books and maybe even start writing their own books!” In Grade 5 the children are celebrating the end of their month-long reading challenge by sharing their reviews to encourage other classmates to try out their favourite books. Ms Rola, their teacher, told us, “Some classes have read over 100 books! I’m very proud of their effort.” Ms Jennifer, our Librarian in Upper Elementary is celebrating one of the all-time favourite authors for children: Roald Dahl, “In Library time we’re watching the BFG and doing puzzles and games around that, to get the children involved with his stories.”

Infants and Lower Elementary children, are joining in the fun too: Some are dressing up as a favourite story character, while others will be sharing and reading aloud from their favourite stories in their classes. Grade 3’s will find out all about David Walliams – a perfect introduction to a fabulous and prolific author. Ms Tara, our Lower Elementary Librarian, has been holding story quizzes in library lessons, and has challenged the Lower Elementary children to send in photographs of their ‘Weird and Wonderful Ways to Read’, some of which are included here.

Reading is not all about raising achievements. Reading makes us healthier and happier! Many countries have embedded ‘reading for pleasure’ programmes into their health service provision, since it was discovered that reading can reduce stress rates by up to 68%! (University of Sussex 2009). Just six minutes of reading significantly lowers heart rate and blood pressure.

So, Mum and Dad – grab yourself a book too – and of course you can combine both, by reading aloud with your children! These simple pleasures of sharing stories with our children can make the best memories.

We know that getting access to books remains everyone’s biggest challenge at the current time. So, whilst we can’t put paper books into your children’s hands, here are three top picks for getting your children logged onto a digital library and finding books that they like online – for free! 

For more details about other great digital libraries, please visit this page: https://padlet.com/brummanahighschoole_library/n6ie5bqyyt5i3bmm

Happy World Book Day!