The slogan "It's in the books" has become more than just a catchphrase in Badajoz these days.It is the central theme of a school competition that has led hundreds of students to immerse themselves in literature and discover how a historical novel can resonate with their own recent experiences. The setting could not have been more fitting: the 45th City Book Fair, which has incorporated this competition as one of its flagship educational events.
In this edition, the spotlight has fallen on "The Plague Diary," by Espido freireA work that connects late 16th-century Toledo with concerns very much present in young people today. Based on this shared reading, schools and institutes have worked for weeks to present projects, reflections, and creative activities that demonstrate, through concrete examples, that much of what we experience, fear, and hope for is, indeed, found in books.
A school competition with literature as a meeting point
The "It's in the books" competition is part of the school program of the Badajoz Book FairWith the stated goal of strengthening the link between classrooms, libraries, and cultural spaces in the city, this initiative is far from being a simple essay contest. It aims to encourage students to actively engage with reading by analyzing characters, historical contexts, emotions, and parallels with current events.
On this occasion, The Santa Teresa school in the capital of Badajoz has been the big winnerIES Domingo Cáceres was a finalist. Both schools stood out for the quality of their proposals, which combined literary analysis with a wide variety of creative formats: from presentations and murals to short essays and classroom debates, always using Freire's novel as a guiding thread.
The awards ceremony has been held in the middle of the Book Fair, with the institutional support of the City CouncilThe event was attended by the mayor of Badajoz, Ignacio Gragera, and the councilor for Culture, José Antonio Casablanca, who emphasized the importance of new generations finding in books a space for reflection, knowledge, and coexistence.
Beyond the awards, the competition aims to consolidate a tradition of annual meetings between writers with the younger public, taking advantage of the pull of the fair so that reading is not only confined to the classroom, but also occupies squares, tents and signing booths.
Espido Freire, the author who started telling stories in the summer
One of the most anticipated moments of "It's in the books" was the direct encounter between Espido Freire and the students from the Santa Teresa school and the Domingo Cáceres High School. After the awards ceremony, the author sat down with students and teachers to talk, without too much formality, about how "The Plague Diary" came about and why she was always clear that it was a story intended for boys and girls.
In those early oral narratives, the writer asked the youngest children questions. what topics worried or attracted themAs she told the students, many of the answers surprised her: fears of losing their parents, of being left alone, of the world they knew suddenly changing. That mixture of fears and childlike curiosity gradually settled until it crystallized, years later, in the novel that boys and girls read in high schools today.
Freire confessed that, as a young man, he had already read works such as "Robinson Crusoe" or "A Journal of the Plague Year" She was fascinated by the great Black Death that ravaged Europe in the Middle Ages. From this historical preoccupation and those conversations with her cousins, she imagined the character of Elena, a teenager facing a world in crisis who, nevertheless, seeks a way to move forward.
"The Plague Diary": Toledo, epidemics and echoes of the present
The novel chosen to structure the competition It transports the reader to Toledo in 1598, in the midst of a plague outbreak.There, Elena Hurtado observes how her surroundings change at a dizzying pace: empty streets, fear of contagion, confusing news, and difficult decisions that affect her family and her community. The scenario, although distant in time, is not so foreign to a generation that has grown up with masks, quarantines, and remote learning.
During the meeting, The writer invited the students to identify parallels between that historical epidemic and the Covid-19 pandemic.Without resorting to simplistic comparisons, the conversation shifted towards how societies react to fear, the limitations of daily life, and the need to rely on others when everything seems to be falling apart.
The book, winner of the XXII Anaya Prize for Children's and Young Adult Literature 2025It has been conceived as a gateway to the past for young readers. Instead of an academic treatise, it offers an accessible narrative that allows them to understand how young people of another era experienced moments of uncertainty comparable to our own, with their own doubts, affections, and contradictions.
The "It's in the Books" competition has taken advantage of that connection to The reading should not be limited to following a plot, but should serve as a basis for classroom discussions. on history, science, public health or even ethics: what decisions are made in a crisis, who takes care of whom, what role the authorities play and what responsibilities each person assumes.
Reading together to build community
Espido Freire used her speech to go beyond the literary anecdote and Remind students that books do not only nurture individual intelligenceRather, they help us understand that we are part of a community. In her view, shared stories—those that are read and those that are told aloud—help to forge bonds in times of collective uncertainty.
During the conversation, the author recalled the recent experience of the Covid-19 pandemic and episodes such as fears of blackouts or unexpected crises. The aim was not to sow alarm, but to emphasize that literature can offer points of reference for thinking about these events with some perspective, without getting caught up in the immediate noise of social media or fleeting news stories.
In a context where much of the information arrives via notification, the "It's in the books" contest asserts a more leisurely type of reading, often associated with paper booksWithout getting into the debate between formats, the activities proposed in the participating centers have emphasized the importance of finding quiet moments to read, discuss and let a story sink in calmly.
The Badajoz Book Fair itself, with its booths, meetings and signings, offers a counterpoint to the culture of immediate content consumptionTeachers and organizers agree that taking students to the fair, introducing them to the authors, and giving them a real role in a competition with its own name is a very concrete way of telling them that their relationship with books matters.
When the stories continue to resonate after closing the last page
Beyond the chronicle of the event, the philosophy of "It's in the books" connects with a very simple idea: good books don't end when they are closed.Teachers and students who have participated in the competition point out that certain phrases, scenes or characters reappear later, sometimes in a family conversation, other times at the most unexpected moment.
In the classrooms, based on Espido Freire's novel, emotions as diverse as excitement, curiosity, nostalgia, or fearwhich the students themselves have learned to put into words. In some groups, the reading has been accompanied by small discussions in the style of a Sant Jordi's Day after-dinner conversation: each person commented on which part of the book had moved them the most and why.
For many teachers, these types of initiatives demonstrate that Shared reading continues to have a power that is not limited to mandatory activities.Some students have come to the fair simply intrigued to meet the author they imagined as children while reading other titles, and have left with signed copies, lists of new readings and the feeling that literature is not something distant or reserved for specialists.
An open invitation is also being extended from Badajoz: The conversation about books doesn't end with the contestAny reader can join in by sharing which book made a lasting impression on them, which opening line captivated them, or what emotion lingered when they received a book as a gift. Ultimately, if this edition of "It's in the Books" has made one thing clear, it's that when stories are shared, the reading experience is amplified and helps us better understand both the past and the present.
