The book LÆK is out: A publishing party at Thorsplan

The release party for the book LÆK!

Close to 3000 young people attended the publishing party for the book, LÆK, in Hafnarfjörður at Thorsplan yesterday morning, first middle school students and then high school students from Hafnarfjörður´s primary schools. They celebrated the book they were a part of writing and danced with the VÆB boys. The release party is one of the largest ever held in this country. The young people received the books at their schools yesterday, but the book will be released in all of Hafnarfjörður Primary schools in May.

“They’re crazy. The ideas you had were awesome. It’s not something you would think of yourself,” says author Gunnar Helgason who, like Bergrún Íris Sævarsdóttir, wrote short stories for the book LÆK along with Hafnarfjörðurs primary school students. He worked on the ideas with the middle- and high school levels of primary school students, nine stories each. “Indeed,” said Bergrún. “They are limitless and think greatly outside the box.” Bergrún has written and illustrated dozens of books. “It was a challenge, to work with all the diverse ideas, but still making a story with a soul, heart and in your own voice.” Bergrún and Gunni led the book launch yesterdat morning.

18 stories from 2600 ideas

The book consists of 18 short stories based on proposals from close to 2,600 students. They were chosen during a live stream and Gunni says that the work has been done in very close collaboration with the young people. “It’s crazy as a writer to get into this conversation, because they’re not just a collaborative group, they’re also the readership, so it’s great to hear what they want.” And what was that? “The storylines mainly consisted of; Fantasy and love.”

Bergrún says that in many ways it’s easier to connect with the creative minds of kids with ADHD. “A lot of people straightened up, knowing they were now allowed take up space when I met them at the schools, told them and worked on the characterization with them.” One short story consists of, for example, a thousand monkeys on an airplane, a Chinese circus and a mechanic shop. “I learned a lot from it. Nothing is impossible.”

An encouragement to read

LÆK is a collaborative project between Hafnarfjörður´s Department of Education and Public Health and the two authors. The book is intended to strengthen reading comprehension, vocabulary, literacy and reading interest of students at middle and higher grade levels in Hafnarfjörður´s primary schools. The short stories relate to each school and two stories were written in each. When publishing LÆK, the emphasis was placed on careful text layout, good typography and font size suitable for students with reading problems. The book will be released simultaneously as an audiobook by the Audio Library (Hljóðbókasafnið). In addition to the short stories, there is a brief discussion in the book aimed at parents and teachers on how to deepen students’ reading comprehension.

However, the book LÆK is not only for Hafnarfjörður´s inhabitants but will also be available in all stores that carry books. But will the book be read? “Yes, I don’t doubt it for a second, because now the competition starts,” Gunni says. “An award will be handed out for the best story, so everyone must vote for their favorite one. No voting for your own school though. We’ll find out at the end of May which school will receive the award. The school´s honor is at stake.”

Congratulations to you all. It´s truly amazing, just like you guys!