Get Caught Reading-Sakartvelo Awards Eager Readers

On Saturday 29 September, a ceremony was held in the National Library of Georgia in Tbilisi to award young readers who had participated in the Summer 2018 Get Caught Reading-Sakartvelo campaign. The campaign is meant to encourage and popularize reading and to support the new generation in literacy.

Maya Sulava and Carolyn Rice are the co-founders of Get Caught Reading- Sakartvelo. Carolyn has lived in Georgia for 10 years working as an English teacher, while Maya is the director of the Integrated School of English Language.

To participate in the campaign, children had to read an English book relevant to their age/level and make a short video describing the book, take a photo of themselves reading in an interesting place, take a photo of their favorite quote from a book, and send all materials to be uploaded onto the campaign’s facebook page.

45 pupils participated, the majority of whom came from Adjara, followed by Samtskhe-Javakheti and Tbilisi, then other regions of Georgia. The best were selected by an international jury made up of Georgian and American teachers and librarians, who followed strict criteria in their selection, seeing them award points based on performance and presentation. The points were then added up to reveal first- and second-place winners in each age category.

The winners were:

6-8 years: 1st place Alina Shainidze, 2nd place Mariam Tsetskhladze.

9-12 years: 1st place Giorgi Turmanidze, 2nd place Mariam Beridze.

13-15 years: 1st place Keti Tsintsadze, 2nd place Guga Mamiseishvili / Tornike Abashidze.

16-18 years: 1st place Nini Kukhalashvili, 2nd place Giorgi Muzashvili.

“We were overwhelmed with the number of entrants this year and want to congratulate everyone who took part,” said Carolyn Rice. “We hope to run a second campaign after the New Year, ideally with Georgian books and with the support of Georgian publishers. Keep an eye on our facebook page for more details.”

“I’m really happy to be a part of this project,” said Alexandre Lortkipanidze, well-known presenter of TV show ‘Wignebis Taro’ (Bookshelf), which actively encourages children to read and for school teams from around the country to compete. “The children are great! The fact that they read and made an effort to review those books this summer sets them as examples to their generation. I always emphasize the importance of reading to expand knowledge, awareness of the world and imagination. I’ll be happy to support the campaign in future.”

An issue that was raised by the teachers present, including Maia Shainidze, teacher and owner of New English School Meskheti, was that there are so few English books adapted for a variety of ages beyond the classics like Tom Sawyer and Jane Eyre. “It is difficult to find books that children can and want to read; good books that they can understand. It would be nice for the government and publishers to take note and broaden the range available to young Georgians.”

Get Caught Reading is a global campaign to promote the fun of reading books for all ages. First launched in the US in 1999 by the Association of American Publishers and now managed there by Every Child a Reader with support from the Lois Lenski Covey Foundation, Get Caught Reading encourages youth to pick up a book and talk about it… again and again. The campaign also aims to promote reading in schools and provides support to teachers and librarians.

By Katie Ruth Davies