Good morning:

I hope you are having a good day. I’m Lola Gil, the author who visited the MYP1 students last Thursday.

Just wanted to write this email to thank ASB, and especially Olatz, for making this meeting possible. For me it is a dream to be able to chat with the students about the books, to hear how they have experienced history, to see their nervous smiles, their desire to continue reading or even to start writing their own adventures (like Valentina, among other students who they told me about their hobby). But most of all, I wanted to write because ASB students always move me with their enthusiasm.

I arrived and the first thing that caught my attention was the poster they had designed to announce my visit. I thought the adults had done it, but my surprise was that some students had commissioned it. Then I saw the decoration on the stairs, the walls, the door of MYP1 where they had drawn a logbook and each of the students had left me a message (amazing!). I entered the library, and everyone was already waiting for me with a smile and the books on the desk. They looked very excited. My second surprise was when Valentina and Nicolás began an interview they had done with questions prepared by the whole class. They asked me questions about the books, about me, about how I became a writer, how I write… Not superficial questions, but really interesting questions and as I answered I saw that they inspired more questions. Then we did a Kahoot with questions about the book and I was amazed at how well they had internalized it. The final touch was the gift that Alejandro gave me from the whole class and the photos I took with each one of them, since they all wanted a photo. It was very exciting to see the love and work with which Olatz and the students had prepared the meeting, I really want to thank all of them.

I have visited centers in La Rioja, the Basque Country, Madrid… and, although there have been schools that have also shown their enthusiasm by decorating the school or with drawings or gift crafts, none has been as impressive as the ASB.

The difference that I have seen that marks the illusion of the students is always the teacher, and Olatz has achieved the impossible two years in a row. It is very difficult for students to let go of asking questions or connecting with a book. I have gone to classes where no student has dared to raise their hand. On the other hand, in  ASB they do not stop asking, imagining, wanting to know more. I have received many messages from parents (by email or Instagram) who thank me for getting their children hooked on reading, but I know that the credit is not mine, it is Olatz’s, who infects them with the enthusiasm for reading.

Young people’s reading is what manages to create readers for life, and that’s why I am very excited to visit the ASB and see the magic that Olatz works. How funny it made me to meet last year’s students and that they told me that they missed Fridays at Meditemar. That is something they will always remember.

Lola Gil