What do you say to publishers, authors, and educators of both local and international reknown? How do you connect with people 20 or so years your junior who have read twice, even thrice, the number of books that you have read?
I got the answers to those questions during the 2nd Filipino Reader Conference on Aug 18, at the Filipinas Heritage Library, Makati City. My free ticket to the event was my 10:40am 15-minute panel presentation on "Reading Programs That Work in Schools". I shared the panel with a Master Teacher from Ayala Foundation's Center for Excellence (CENTEX), and the Reading coordinator and program designer of the award-winning POWER Reading program of Kalayaan National High School in Caloocan. Two of my online friends and prolific book bloggers invited me to share our school's reading programs and activities, and of course I jumped at the chance to represent our little school and its big programs.
I am both happy and humbled by the experience. Happy? Nay, ecstatic! It has always been my dream to mingle with published writers of this generation. It was a pleasure talking books with enthusiasts and teachers. Humbled, as I listened to the trials of public school children, whose hunger for books are hardly filled by the education budget, prompting their own reading teachers to beg and source for books just to feed that hunger. I was so moved by that presentation that I promised the teacher, Ms Asuncion, that I will donate my personal copies of The Hunger Games trilogy to their POWER Book Club.
In the afternoon, I caught part of the book discussion on "Pacific Rims" by Rafe Bartholomew, who interacted with his "fans" live from the United States. If not for an emergency, the teachers and I would have stayed until the end (According to the program, A Readers' Choice awarding ceremony would cap the conference).
Kudos to the organizers and volunteers of the 2nd Filipino Reader Conference! Truly a heroic thing you are doing to propagate the love for books and reading in this country.:)
More on the ReaderCon:
http://filipinoreadercon.wordpress.com/
Millette! I missed seeing you. Hope you had a great time during the Filipino Readercon. See you soon! :D
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