The Great Reading Competition is growing and thriving – 29 finals this spring

The final of the Grand Reading Competition in Hafnarfjörður was held at Hafnarborg yesterday for the 23rd time. All of Hafnarfjörður's primary schools send representatives to the competition; two from each school, making 14 contestants in total this year. At the event, the pupils performed an extract from a work of fiction and a poem, and at the end, a judging panel selected the three best readers and presented them with special awards. This year, the awards went to Ingunn Lind Pétursdóttir from Hvaleyrarskóli (1st place), Katla Stefánsdóttir from Hraunvallaskóli (2nd place), and Ester Amíra Ægisdóttir from Áslandsskóli (3rd place). The judging panel consisted of Anna Þorbjörg Ingólfsdóttir, chair of the panel, Árni Sverrir Bjarnason, Ásta Margrét Eiríksdóttir and Birgir Örn Guðjónsson. The results of the short story competition for years 8–10 were also announced, and prizes were awarded for the best illustration for the poster of the final festival. This year's competition judges are the author duo Ævar Þór Benediktsson and Anna Sigrún Snorradóttir. Anna Sigrún's descendants attended the celebration. Rósa Guðbjartsdóttir, the mayor, and Kristín Thoroddsen, chair of the education committee, presented the prizes and awards.

The cheerful sounds of the pupils in the Víðistaðaskóli brass band welcomed guests at the start of the celebration, truly adding a festive touch to the occasion. Pupils from the Hafnarfjörður Music School also took to the stage. The guitarists Sóley Anna Arnarsdóttir and Valgerður Bára Baldvinsdóttir played MILONGA by T. Tissserand in a guitar duet, and the flautists Kolbrún Garðarsdóttir, Kamilla Gísladóttir, Sunneva Þöll Gísladóttir and Hjördís Ylfa Arnarsdóttir who played Norwegian Dance No. 2, Op. 35 by Edvard Grieg. The talk choir of the Year 4 pupils at Hraunvallaskóli performed three poems; "Ungæði" by Sigurður Pálsson, "Allir eiga drauma" by Ólafur Haukur Símonarson and "ORÐ" by Þórarinn Eldjárn. These pupils, along with other pupils in the 4th year classes of Hafnarfjörður's primary schools, have this winter taken part in the Little Reading Competition, along with just over 3,000 other pupils across the country. The Little Reading Competition, a growing spin-off from the Big Reading Competition, is thriving. The competition is based on the same philosophy as the Big Reading Competition, but in this one, pupils read a lot in talk groups and approach the project in a slightly different way. In the end, all participants in the Big and Little Reading Competitions are winners.

Prizes in a short story competition

A short story competition for pupils in years 8 to 10 of the state schools was launched on the Day of the Icelandic Language, and pupils could choose to write either a fantasy story or a story that dealt in some way with health. The judging panel received 15 stories, and its members were Ingibjörg Einarsdóttir, Jóhanna Guðríður Ólafsson and Gunnhildur Jónatansdóttir. Two stories came in third place. The other story is called HÁSKAFÖR, a fantasy story about the siblings Eldlilja and Fenris. The author is Júlía Heiður Guðmundsdóttir, who is in Year 10 at Öldutúnsskóli. The other story to take third place is called Flóki. It is about a boy who was born with a cleft lip and is known as „the boy with the ugly lip“. The story was considered exceptionally well-structured, well-written and capable of evoking all sorts of emotions in its readers. The author is Andrea Marý Sigurjónsdóttir, a pupil at Víðistaðaskóli. Second place was awarded to the story THE STORY of HAFSTEIN. It is about the couple, Hafstein and Sigrún, who were poor cottagers and could not afford to send their children to school. The author is Urður Vala Guðmundsdóttir, a pupil in 10.SR at Víðistaðaskóli. The story that came first is called GALDRASTEINN and is set in New Delhi. The story is about strength, perseverance and is very well-structured, the subject matter interesting, and the author has a good command of the language. The author is Aníta Ósk Hilmarsdóttir in 10.MJ at Hraunvallaskóli.

Competition for invitation

It is a tradition to hold a competition for invitation cards among the pupils in the sixth form. Many fun suggestions were received and the judging panel had a difficult time choosing, but the winning design was used on this year's final festival invitation and adorns the printed festival programme. The picture shows a substantial stack of books, presumably ones the person has finished reading. The young artist behind the winning design is Þórhildur Kristjónsdóttir, a Year 6 pupil at Áslandsskóli.

About the Grand Reading Competition

The Great Reading Competition originated in Hafnarfjörður, but other municipalities soon joined, and for 19 years, almost all Year 7 pupils in the country have taken part in the competition. The aim of the competition is always the same: to take care in the delivery of the mother tongue, for the enjoyment of oneself and others. The competition is divided into two parts: a cultivation phase, which always begins on the Day of the Icelandic Language in November, and a festival phase where the schools' representatives come together. These representatives have been selected at grand festivals in their schools. The project is run nationwide and is organised by the association Raddir, a society for quality reading and presentation.