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Competition time As the school year draws to a close in San Jacinto there have been some welcome distractions from the end of year exams. During the last two months of the Libro Amigo library project, Nuevas Esperanzas has organised two competitions. The first was a poster competition. The themes were, of course, books and reading. Each class prepared a poster about the importance of reading and the posters were displayed in the library for everyone to see. Prizes were awarded to first and second place for secondary and primary age groups. The winning classes in secondary were the 3^rd and 4^th grades (15 and 16 year olds) and in primary the 3^rd and 6^th grades (8 and 11 year olds). Only a couple of weeks later, more prizes were on offer, this time for a reading competition. Three age groups were included this time, primary, secondary and teachers as the aim of our project has been to inspire a love of reading amongst all ages, and this way we can encourage the teachers to set a good example! Some participants had read over forty books in the 6 weeks of the competition. The titles ranged from novels by Isabel Allende to books of the Bible and even reference books. Prizes were awarded taking into account both the number of books read and the standard of the reviews written for each book. Prizes went to first, second and third place and were a rucksack and notebooks and pens for the new school year. At primary level book reviews are not so easy to write so the children recounted a favourite story they had read instead, and a member of each class received a prize. As for the teachers, it was perhaps no surprise that the school librarian won that category! Although the end of the school year will also mark the official end of the library project Nuevas Esperanzas is already planning more reading competitions for next year to ensure that the enthusiasm for reading amongst students in San Jacinto will not be lost. 12/11/07