IBBY-Yamada 2014: Ecuador

Girandula-IBBY Ecuador has been involved for several years in the organization of reading marathons that have taken place in several Ecuadorian cities. This project has grown into a national event and is sponsored by the Ecuadorian Ministry of Culture and UNICEF, among others. In 2014 the event took place in Quito, Cuenca, Azogues and Guayaquil and included seminars and workshops, story and poetry readings by authors, exhibitions of works of national illustrators and book fairs in each city.

As part of this event, IBBY Ecuador organized meetings held in Quito and Cuenca to bring together Ecuadorian and international specialists in children’s literature theory, writing and illustration to speak and work with teachers, librarians, illustrators and authors from Ecuador.

In Quito, specialists from Venezuela, Ecuador, Colombia, Chile and Spain spoke on the topics of storytelling, the role of creativity and emotion in reading promotion and reading beyond classroom walls. This was followed by a workshop on guidelines for reading aloud and reading promotion. The events in Quito were attended by 80 people and were held just before the official reading marathon, “Marathon del Cuento”, Quito una ciudad que lee”.

As part of the “reading marathon” in Cuenca, Ecuadorian specialists presented papers and led workshops on a variety of topics including guidelines for reading aloud, reading promotion as well as creativity and writing. 250 participants attended the seminars and workshops in Cuenca.