"If you don't like reading, it's because you haven't found your book"

Fantasy books, mystery books, dystopian stories, personal diaries and traditional tales in block letters, cursive letters or print letters. And sagas, many sagas. Students from the Institut Escola Sant Felip Neri in Barcelona, aged 4 to 15, have recommended their favorite books to us and also those that once opened the door to the enjoyment of reading for them. These are their recommendations for this Sant Jordi.

When Guillem is asked what his favorite book is, he doesn't hesitate: Els Gegants del Pi. The origin of the song. In fact, there isn't time to ask him why before he has already opened it and started explaining it out loud, isolating himself from any questions that might be asked. He proves he knows it by heart. “I like giants, my favorite is Mustafà because he has a pine tree,” he recounts. It's also the story he reads practically every night with his mother just before going to sleep. “The funniest thing about the giants is that they dance,” he says. But although it's clear that for Guillem this story has no competition, he brings another that occupies the second position in the ranking: My little bed, by J.S. Pinillos (Estrella Polar). “I like those with lots and lots of drawings,” he says. Again, he becomes absorbed by the story while everyone listens to him describe the illustrations with emotion.

“I’m a little nervous”, confesses Alex before talking to Criatures, a nervousness that he quickly forgets when he talks about books: “My favorite book is hardcover and it’s called The dark fly”. He admits he’s a “fan” of this story. “I really like reading, being told stories, and the things that stories tell”. Like Guillem, Alex also reads at night with his mother. “While she reads to me, I play games like “Where is the little star? Here or here?””, he explains. He likes stories so much that he even dares to tell the legend of Saint George. His version is quite similar to the original but he introduces some new nuances, like comparing the knight to Captain America when he tries to stop the flames thrown at him by the dragon. When asked what he does for Saint George’s Day, he replies: “Hugs, kisses, and roses, books, and things are given”.

Zainab really likes dogs, which is why the book she recommends has this animal as the protagonist, who shares adventures with a robot and a child. It is about En pispa, el lladregot. “Together they do very fun things and the pages also have windows to open”, she says. It is a short book –she explains– and written in block letters, which is easier for her to read than cursive. She remembers that the first stories in block letters they started reading in class were about a witch. She also read with a group of children and with the accompaniment of a teacher. “We have also brought stories in the traveling folder to read at home”. Zainab doesn't know yet how she will celebrate Saint George's Day nor is it clear which book she will choose, but at school they have already started the preparations. “We have started to make a rose and a bookmark, but we still need to create the stem of the rose and the red leaves [sic]”, she explains.

Like many children his age, Zack has already read more than one book from the Geronimo Stilton saga. “My favorite is Geronimo Stilton. Secret Agent Zero Zero Ka,” he says shyly. As he shows the cover, he assures that what catches him the most are the numerous and fun adventures that the famous mouse has. “I like it because he discovers things. In the case of this book, for example, the spy is in the same class as Geronimo,” he explains. The illustrations and the games included in the saga (from pages that have a specific smell to games with clues) are another of the things Zack likes the most. The series is also characterized by the mix of texts in block letters and others in cursive, which allows early readers to practice reading with both types of script.

The book that Etna recommends she discovered it at school. “It is School of Secret Powers and very exciting things happen there”. “It is about a boy –she explains– who arrives at the school and has the extraordinary power to move time and things”. Etna enjoys reading and what she likes most is the message that each book conveys. “My favorites are adventure books, because things happen that you don’t expect and they get worse and worse, until, in the end, everything falls into place and the book ends well”. Etna is already counting down the days until Sant Jordi and to go with her parents to the Abracadabra bookstore to choose a new story. Last year she remembers they gave her Stinky Dog in Paris.

Just like Zack, Guillem has also opted for a book series. In this case for The Mystery Hunters, which features three siblings as protagonists: Ulysses, Nora, and Bruno. Although he has read several, he has chosen to recommend the ninth book in the collection. “It's a very long series and the mystery always happens when the parents aren't home,” he recounts. Each issue, he adds, presents a mystery and as you read, you find various clues that help you discover, at the end of each story, who the culprit is. In The Case of the Secret Cave the reader has to find out who is behind the disappearance of one of the siblings from a pair of twins. Guillem will take advantage of Sant Jordi's Day to go for a walk and choose a book.

Martí has chosen the title that inaugurates the series Percy Jackson & the Olympians. Percy is a boy of about 12 years old who, when he discovers he is the son of a Greek god, has to fulfill a secret mission. “ I really liked it because it reminds me of reality”. He says that the whole saga has “hooked” him and he especially likes the fifth one, the one that closes the saga and in which there is a final war. He tried to read them when he was 9 years old but he didn't like them then, it wasn't the right time. He really enjoys reading comics and recommends another series: Cousins LLC, about five cousins who create a detective agency. Some books are recommendations from his brother, but he admits that he doesn't like many because his brother is more into mystery books. When he reads, he “disconnects from the world”: “They tell me half an hour and when I realize it, an hour has already passed”. His time to read is before going to sleep and what he likes most about Sant Jordi is that his father buys him “a candy rose”.

The book fell into her hands because she won it in a raffle at a school party. “I started reading it and I liked it a lot and since a friend of mine had won the second one, I asked her for it and I've kept going. Now I'm on the 8th!”, she explains. It's the diary of a girl who has started high school and has the problems of a girl her age: arguments with her sister and parents, with a girl who makes her life impossible, conflicts at school... Aina likes it because “it's an adventure book but at the same time it explains things about real life, about day-to-day life”. She likes graphic novels and personal diaries. In fact, she also keeps a diary. “Sometimes I sit on the sofa to read with my dad and my mum, and I also read at night to fully relax and be able to fall asleep”. For Sant Jordi, apart from looking at stalls, she will go to lunch with her family because it is her father's saint's day.

David is presented with number 18 in the collection of books Diary of a Wimpy Kid, which narrates in a humorous tone the life of young Greg Heffley through texts and drawings. He particularly likes this one and number 14. “But the whole series is very cool, and it’s about a kid who enters high school and experiences a new stage of life.” A bit like him, who has just started high school: “You feel identified with it, because of the new things and the new experiences he lives. And he’s a funny and mischievous character,” he assures. “There’s quite a bit of text but there are also pictures, and then it’s less boring to read, especially for people who don’t like it so much.” But he also likes to read books where there are no pictures so he can imagine what is explained. He usually reads in the afternoons, when he has time, on weekends, or at night. Now that Sant Jordi is coming, he recommends books “about things you like, to learn, and then, at the same time, you learn not to make spelling mistakes.” He already has one in mind about football, a sport he is fond of.

It's among the last books she's read and she says she connected with it a lot because of the way the writer writes. “She writes in a very profound way, but at the same time not too convoluted. And even though the story has nothing to do with me because it takes place in a dystopian future where humanity no longer lives but survives, the way the protagonist expresses her fears, what she feels, makes me feel reflected in it,” highlights Aina. Her friends recommended it to her and she admits it was a “good purchase”. She often exchanges books with friends and they give each other recommendations. She likes to read adventure, science fiction, fantasy, and criminology books. “Also, that there's a bit of a love story but not that it's all romantic, which I find too cloying.” And she admits that she also reads “to escape the world” and delve into new ones, so it doesn't matter to her if the protagonists are boys or girls, although she admits that she connects more with female characters. And while she explains that many people she knows “don't read,” her class is very bookish, especially the girls.

Lena recommends a book that, as she herself says, “has its years”. Reunion, which is the original title, was published in 1972 and tells the intense friendship between two 16-year-old boys, one Jewish and the other a Christian aristocrat, in 1932 Germany, during the rise of Nazism, and their subsequent reunion. “You can read it in a day because it’s very easy to read, it reads very quickly, but the way it’s written and the depth of the thoughts enchanted me and I cried with the ending,” she says. Lena grew up surrounded by books because her mother works in a publishing house, and it is she who recommends many titles to her, “especially those more classic books like this,” explains this young woman.

When choosing a book, she says that besides the story being well-constructed, she makes sure it is well-written: “The way an author writes is very important to me, because if it’s too simple you don’t delve into it as much.” The saga Harry Potter was her gateway to literature and since then she hasn’t stopped reading. She does it whenever she has a moment. “I had always read, but Harry Potter was the moment when I said: «Wow, I love reading!»”. She names Jules Verne, Rebecca Yarros, and Hannah Whitten among her favorite authors and whenever she can, she escapes to the library, although she admits that among the books she buys, the ones she borrows, and the ones she is given, titles pile up. Regarding mandatory high school readings, she assures that she doesn’t feel “identified” with some of them and doesn’t connect with them, and that she prefers when they make them read more current novels.

She explains that she loves Sant Jordi's Day: walking, roses, and, of course, buying books. But she admits it’s a danger: “Because I accumulate a lot of books and in the end, if I buy more, I’ll have to move out of the house, because we don’t have space!” And for those who don’t like reading, she has the following message: “If you don’t like reading, it’s because you haven’t found that point of reading. It’s not like watching a series that just passes you by. You have to concentrate, but you have to try, because once you manage to reach that point where you are totally immersed in the story, that’s when you’ll get hooked on the book. And I can assure you: you’ll love reading!”, she concludes.

This young adult science fiction saga is Iria's choice. The protagonist is 16-year-old Katniss Everdeen, who lives in the post-apocalyptic and dystopian country of Panem, where the Capitol has seized power and oppresses the rest of the territory, made up of 12 districts. The Hunger Games are a televised annual event in which 24 young people are forced to fight each other until only one survivor remains. “I like it because it blends fiction and action with social criticism that can be adapted to my life. And I also like it because the games are made as if they were a spectacle, and how it's explained, from the perspective of those in the Capitol and those in the districts,” says Iria.

Her older sister recommended the book to her. She has two and they are also avid readers. “She has the whole collection and I got hooked very quickly,” she admits. Although she has enjoyed the film adaptations, she recommends reading the books. She usually likes all the books her sister recommends to her – this was also the case with the Harry Potter saga – except for those “from the Victorian era.” She really likes dystopian stories, but also mystery books, like Agatha Christie's, but Harry Potter was the saga that got her hooked on reading.

She values a book for being well-written and for being able to connect with the character even if she isn't living the same experience. And she doesn't have a favorite genre. Regarding her classmates, she assures that there are very avid readers in her class but also others who “read very little, only the mandatory school books.” “I wish it were more evenly distributed and that everyone read a little,” she says. Among friends, they also recommend books to each other: “Sometimes we even read it at the same time and ask each other: what chapter are you on? And we comment on what's happening, and it's really cool.” She understands that people spend more hours on screens “because if you've been studying all day, in the end you want to disconnect and it's easier to do it with a movie, which doesn't require much effort.” She admits that sometimes she's tired and thinks: do I have to read now? “But I tell myself ‘Do it,’ because in the end I really enjoy reading.” For Sant Jordi, she will go for a walk and look at the book stalls, and she already has a few titles noted on her list.