”It was difficult for me to learn how to read and write. I did not understand letters, and I was too afraid to ask for help. In the second grade, I was diagnosed with dyslexia. In the third grade, I was moved to a special class that had also other children with dyslexia. They called the class ’a reading class’. My teacher was a very dedicated pedagog who used modern ways of teaching. She had us do fun things like plays, and I noticed that I was great at making stories. That is how I eventually learned to write, and I remember thinking ’This is what I want to do.”

Later I studied to be an elementary school teacher, and my inspiration was my teacher. My classroom was so cozy! As a teacher, I was fascinated by the process of learning to read. I saw my own struggles on many children. Now that I work as an author, I have met a lot of kids on different visits. I always tell them how difficult reading was for me. It is important for the kids to know that adults have struggled, too. It helps them keep going.

Reading and literature should be a part of everybody’s life since early days. Parents should understand how they can help their child’s ability to read. At school, we emphasised to them that children need a large vocabulary in the future, and that vocabulary grows by reading out loud to children. As a parent, you cannot just assume that advancing reading is the school’s priority. Parents have an important role in that, too.

It is important to notice that you are a reader! If you feel like you can read, you will grab yet another book. Reading is something that needs practicing, and you need to read a lot to become fluent. If you are eager and interested in reading, the practice does not feel like work. Therefore, stories must happen in an environment that a child knows and can relate to. That makes reading more fun and understandable. As a writer, you should not focus on writing easy language. Instead, you should focus on writing an appealing story.

Literacy is a lens to different worlds and a way to learn about other people’s realities. If you read books, you can learn about different ideas in present days and in history. Reading allows you to travel to countries you would not have otherwise visited. It allows you to find people who struggle with the same problems that you do.

A crucial part of democracy is that anyone can be a part of news, knowledge, and culture. By reading, you can get your voice heard.”

Helena’s most memorable reading moment:

When I was young, I read Per Anders Folgeström’s Stadserie, ‘City Series’, that takes place in Stockholm. It was a great experience. The story reminded me of my grandmother’s family that lived in the same neighborhood that the series takes place in. They were poor and lived the same kind of life that in the books, so they were fascinating to read.

Helena’s tip for Read Hour:

Create a calm space for reading. Make yourself a cozy corner that has a pleasant light and not much noise. If you have children, read them out loud. You can take turns if you are reading with a beginner; a child will read one page, the adult the next page and so on. This makes the child feel that they are not struggling alone, and you are there to help. With older children, you can both read a section of the same book and then discuss what you read. There is no way you can discuss too much about books.

“There is a strong culture around reading in Estonia. I believe that it actually strengthened when Estonia was a part of the Soviet Union because books were so cheap. Books were a cultural product that was supported and by reading you could advance your own language. Authors even hid different messages about the Estonian language and people in their books.

Also, children in Estonia read a lot. The school system is based on the fact that children know how to read before they start in school. In primary school, children read four to six short books a year but already in the upper comprehensive school they read eight books a year.

What the children read depends a lot on the teacher. Books vary from Robinson Crusoe to Tolkien. In high school, you move on to Shakespeare and Puškin. They really start reading classics at a young age in Estonia.

Libraries in Estonia are active in organising different reading-inspired happenings and reading challenges. And for example, a local school here in Tartu organises a competition where the pupils compete against each other on who can write the best review for a novel.

The Finnish Institute in Estonia collaborates with Finnish teachers and we organise for example workshops at schools. We also run a hybrid book club and a reading diploma programme for children, as well as organise book raffles and quizzes to present Finnish literature.

Literature in many forms has been a big part of my life for a long time. This autumn, I am publishing my first poetry collection, called ‘The serial lover of Tartu’. It is a love letter for Tartu which is an old, lively, and bohemian city with a rich culture. The whole city has a warm heart, people who are interested in the culture know each other well, and especially spoken word and poetry slams are popular. The experience I have gotten when performing on a stage, and all the enthusiastic feedback from the audience, encouraged me to write my own poetry collection.

However, I have not always been into literature. Especially during high school, I felt I had to find myself. My good friend introduced me to Russian classics, and I instantly fell for them. That led me to German and French literature. I did not know much about current Finnish literature until I started to study literature at Tampere University.

After I graduated, I have had different jobs from studying cultural history to working as a translator. It was an accident that I ended up in Estonia. First, I participated in a Finnish-Estonian literature seminar, and a bit later, I ended up as an exchange student at the University of Tartu. There I had to manage all courses in Estonian. 

I am still on that road. I have been in Tartu for 15 years now.”

Heidi’s most memorable reading moment:

“For me, the most memorable moments are those when you realize that you are not alone. Not alone with your thoughts and not alone with your problems. People have been struggling with the same issues for hundreds of years. Fiction can be a great comforter in difficult and uncertain times. Literature entertains us, works as a therapy, and helps us understand the world. Through literature, it is possible to feel different emotions and have experiences without risking anything in the real world.”

Heidi’s tip for Read Hour:

“Lucia Berlin’s (1936–2004) short stories have been translated a lot recently, and they are brilliant! Her A Manual for Cleaning Women is a modern classic that is full of events. Berlin’s texts are at the same time tragicomic and wild, but also very comforting.”

For the third time, the Children and Youth Foundation’s Read Hour Literacy Campaign challenges everyone in Finland to read for an hour on 8 September, the UN International Literacy Day. This year, the campaign will also take place in Sweden, Estonia and the United Kingdom.

Through books, new worlds are opened up to us. We may become acquainted with different cultures and ways of thinking. Moreover, literature shows that people around the world are ultimately rather similar. There are many things that connect us.

Reading can also be communal experience. While we often think that reading happens alone, it can also be done together with others. The reading experience can be shared with a friend or in a group. The same book evokes as many experiences as there are readers.

I encourage everyone to join the Read Hour campaign and read for an hour on 8 September. Let’s take a break and enjoy good books together!

Sauli Niinistö
President of the Republic of Finland Patron of the Read Hour Literacy Campaign 2021

“I ended up being a bookseller by accident, really. I was always fascinated by books because my family encouraged reading a lot. At one point in my life, I needed a job very quickly, and I went into Blackwells that I used to visit, and knew the store by heart. I asked for a job, and they had a Christmas job for three months, and eventually selling books became a full-time career for me.

When I first moved to London then, that was to open a children’s bookshop in South London. I ran that for three years and then moved to my current job at the London Review Bookshop.

I know there is this fear that children will only learn to use tablets, and will never hold a book in their hands. But we see all the time how parents come in and buy books for their kids. Already when I was working in the children’s bookshop, I had great faith that parents would come back and get the books. The parents who grew up with books will pass that on.

During the years I have worked with books, reading has definitely changed. In the last five years or so, there has been a change in reading more about real life: reading about simple, human interaction and the difficulties of relationships. I think this trend has opened doors for a lot of different writers, mostly young female writers. They write about what it is like to be young, what it is like to build relationships and try to find yourself.

Lately, there has also been a lot of talk about diversity and finding ‘the other’ in the books, not only finding the story of white people. And we have seen a lot of people looking for diverse authors, and we try to give them that. We try to find writers from all over the world and promote them.

I am now trying to read more Latin-American writers that I read as a young woman and have already forgotten. I try to find those books in Spanish. Nowadays, I find it a bit difficult to read in Spanish, though. I’m Costa Rican, and I moved to the UK in 1991, so my reading Spanish is a bit rusty.

I absolutely think that literature can make a change. It is vital that children from all backgrounds can see themselves in the literature, in the books that they are reading, and in those stories.

Learning to read and paying attention to what you read will teach you so much about life. It will open creativity to find what young people want to do and how they will cope. I think the most important thing about reading is that it opens your mind. You don’t have to be a Reader, but you can be anything you want by reading.”

Natalia’s most memorable reading moment:
“I was probably around 25 at the time I read Thomas Mann’s the Magic Mountain, and that for some reason stayed with me. I don’t think there was anything particular going on at that time but the beauty of the language stayed with me. I remember I did not want to stop reading. My first big book was Three musketeers when I was 12. It was huge! I remember loving it.”

Natalia’s tip for Read Hour:
“Tomi Adeyemi’s two books: Children of Blood and Bone and Children of Virtue and Vengeance. The third book of the series should come out at the end of this year. I keep chasing the representative of the publicist, and he keeps telling me he can’t send me the book because there is an embargo, and I keep asking for a proof copy. The books are that good!”

“Literacy is celebrated in Finland at the turn of August-September. We are still one of the nations where people read a lot, but the latest PISA survey again raised concerns. As many as one in eight young people graduate from primary school without adequate reading skills and over 60 per cent of boys said they only read if forced. The result has deteriorated from the previous measurement,” notes Olli Alanen, Director of the Children and Youth Foundation. 

The Children and Youth Foundation is organising Finland’s largest literacy campaign, Read Hour, for the second time. This year, the main partners in the campaign are the bioforestry company UPM, Moomin Characters and Pikkujätti Medical centre for children and youth. Municipalities and cities in particular have also been challenged to join. Third sector organisations and a large number of media companies are also involved. 

Sauli Niinistö, President of Finland is the patron of the campaign as last year. 

Only one in four young people consider reading “cool” 

The Children and Youth Foundation asked 1,500 young people about their reading habits to support the preparation of the campaign. The views on reading vary a lot. Only a quarter of respondents considered reading “cool”. In addition, they said they would read more if they found more interesting topics to read. 

“Fortunately, about half of the young people who responded to our survey thought reading was useful and more than a third thought it was a good pastime. We hope that the Read Hour campaign will strengthen these notions,” says Alanen. 

Read Hour campaign between 31 August and 8 September 

The partners and many cities and municipalities will organise various events during the campaign. For example, a library bridge is illuminated in Turku and the Finn Family Moomintroll is read multilingual in Vantaa. All kindergartens, schools and upper secondary schools will also hold a reading class on 8 September in Vantaa.  

UPM volunteers will lead a discussion about their meaningful books in virtual lessons in secondary schools all over Finland. The campaign culminates in a national reading hour on 8 September at 14:00. 

For further information: 

Enni Sahlman, Communications manager, The Children and Youth Foundation,  

tel. +358 40 760 2541, enni.sahlman@nuori.fi     

UPM’s concept for employee volunteering:  

Kaisa Vainikka, Manager, Social responsibility, UPM, tel. +358 400 382 843, kaisa.vainikka@upm.com