The little Morbihan girl is a regional reading champion. For the final which will be held in Paris at the end of June, she will have to seduce a jury by reading a 3-minute extract from the book Zorage. She will do this by reading in Braille since she has been blind since she was 2 years old. This Monday she met the author Manon Fargetton, from whom she will read an extract from her book.
“I published my first book very young at 18 but I didn’t imagine that I was going to make a career out of it.” 30 books and 20 years later, Manon Fargetton is sitting among the students of a CM1/CM2 class in the Notre Dame du Voeu school in Hennebont. A meeting and a reading workshop between the author and the children on the occasion of the Little Reading Champions 2024-2025 competition.
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This is the second year that the class of Emmanuelle Cattini, the teacher, has participated in the competition and this time… a student won the departmental final then the regional final. Jeanne Llano Alenso, a blind student, who was able to charm the successive jurors with the extract from the book Zorage by Manon Fargetton.
“I looked for a text where he had emotionsexplain Joan. A passage where you could understand what was happening in the book and a moment with dialogue.”
In his excerpt, Zorage enters the fairy library. A library without books with “only thoughts hanging from the ceiling”. In front of her classmates and the author of these lines, Jeanne slides her hands over the braille book and draws her audience in: “There were some impressive thoughts there, some average thoughts that should not be forgotten. Little fidgety and itchy thoughts and very little thoughts that were trivial but important too.”
Reading is one of Jeanne’s favorite pastimes. A real thumbs-up to destiny for her who has lost her sight since she was two years old. “I like to read all kinds of books, comic books, adventure books, fiction books and then cookbooks. But only when I’m bored!”
Zorage was chosen by Jeanne.
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© Isabelle Rettig, FTV
“She speaks well, she sets the tone and what’s more, her text is funny,” comments a classmate. “I voted for Jeanne because it was her text, explains Charlotte. She read it correctly. She did everything right!” Students delighted to have participated in the competition: “You learn to be less stressed, to speak out loud in front of people. Even if it’s in class, it’s impressive.”
“This competition is a great argument for reading for all, develops Emmanuelle Cattini, their teacher. The first session was in the classroom, in front of their classmates and the students evaluated each other. They had a grading grid with different criteria.”
A school teacher who does everything to encourage them to read: “We read regularly with the quarter of an hour of daily reading. I also practice free reading with them. I read complete stories or just the beginning. We can also read together with relay readings where each student reads a chapter .” This competition and the meeting with the author of Zorage are also part of these approaches.
Effort and learning to read are essential: According to a study, young people spend 10 times more time on screens than reading books. 19 minutes of daily reading versus 3h11 of screen time.
“It’s a generation that needs storytellers, says Manon Fargetton. They need teachers, librarians, booksellers and authors who visit classes and make people want to read.”
“Children love stories, continues the author. Sometimes they say to themselves that a book is not for them. My job when I go into classes is to show them that yes, the book is also for them. It’s just stories.”
The final of little reading champions will be held on June 26 at 2 p.m. at the Comédie Française (live on the organization’s website). Jeanne will go there with the author of Zorage. She will have to read her extract for 3 minutes.
(With Isabelle Rettig)
