Gorilla in the lecture hall: Primary school children choose their favorite book

There was a lot of excitement in the University of Siegen's Audimax: around 100 fourth-graders came to the largest lecture hall on Haardter Berg to find out which book had won the Siegen Children's Book Prize. The prize is a joint initiative of the Siegen Community Foundation, Siegener Zeitung newspaper and the University of Siegen and has now been awarded for the first time. The special feature: The children themselves decide on the winning book. However, the result of the vote initially remained top secret - and was only revealed at the reading in the university lecture hall. The pupils reacted with great jubilation when they recognized the first lines of the book "Help, my teacher is a gorilla": They had voted overwhelmingly in favor of the book.

"I am incredibly touched that my book won this prize. I write for the children and I want them to like it. The fact that it worked out like this and that the children gave it back like this is simply fantastic - I have to be careful not to shed a tear," said a delighted author Meike Haas, who had traveled from Munich to accept the award.

In her subsequent reading, Haas gave the children lots of fun and enjoyment with "her" winning book: The pupils were involved time and again and were allowed to make their own suggestions as to what twists and turns the story about 11-year-old Milo and his teacher, who turns into a gorilla from his computer game, could have taken. As a highlight, Haas brought the gorilla teacher to life on stage: In the form of a life-size ape puppet, equipped with all the accessories from the book, right down to the bright red teacher's glasses and a ukulele.

The jury for the Siegen Children's Book Prize - consisting of representatives from the community foundation, newspaper, university, school social work and schoolchildren - originally selected three current children's and young adult books for the children. In addition to the "Gorilla Book", these included "Ganz oben fliegt Lili" by author Julia Willmann and "Die wilden Pfifferlinge - dann retten wir eben die Welt" by Judith Allert. All three books were distributed as class sets to the participating school classes with the financial support of the community foundation and were then diligently read by the children. The pupils were then able to rate the books and vote for the winning book using a questionnaire.

"I found it very exciting and valuable to get to know the children's perspective and find out how they rate books," said Dr. Jana Mikota from the University of Siegen, an expert on children's books and one of the initiators of the Siegen Children's Book Prize. Vice Rector Dr. Barbara Müller-Naendrup emphasized that the children's book prize is part of the university's regional commitment: "We cooperate very closely with schools in the region, especially in the primary school teaching profession. If we can contribute to children engaging with literature through campaigns like this, that is of course wonderful." Promoting reading is also important to the Siegener Zeitung, said editor-in-chief Markus Vogt: "Reading is more than education, it is also participation. Anyone who reads understands connections, which is why it is important to promote projects that start early and make people want to read."

For the four participating classes in the first round, the project ended with the winning reading in the auditorium. But round two of the Siegen Children's Book Prize is already underway - and will be even bigger. Instead of four schools, there will then be nine schools from the region. After the summer vacation, the participating classes will receive three selected children's books in a class set free of charge so that the children can get started right away. This is once again being financed by the Siegen Community Foundation, for whom the Children's Book Prize is already a "project close to their hearts", as Dr. Gisela Labenz emphasized: "You can feel the children's great appreciation for the books and for being able to read them and have them read to them. We are also delighted that the pupils are involved right from the start and can decide for themselves which book receives the prize."