The text I propose for 2019 ECER ntw 19 is the continuation of the ethnographic exploration of the activity of reading (lettura) in early childhood education whose first part (devoted to the children attending the nido/nursery school) I presented at the 2018 American Anthropological Association conference. This time my presentation will be about the activity of reading in the classrooms of the Walltown scuola dell’infanzia (childhood school for children between 3 and 5 years of age) “Beyond the tracks”, and the library project/progetto biblioteca children are involved in, that I observed between 2017 and 2018.

At the pre-school level, the educational activity centered on books and reading has a relevant role and furthermore it provides a good example of educational continuity between asilo nido and scuola dell’infanzia: the goals of the progetto di lettura (reading project) are described in fine details in the schools’ annual educational plans and are also supportedby the rich school libraries teachers are very proud of, and that likewise they proudly show to parents during the “open school day” and the “open library day”. The educational and cultural relevance of such activity is the result of schools’ investment in “reading before reading”, an educational practice that began to be implemented in the late 1970s in some of the newly reformed nursery and childhood schools, and became the object of educational research and pedagogical directions. Initially, such investment primarily answered a civic concern, namely to motivate children-many of whom from families where books were scarce if at all present-to familiarize with books and, through them, acquire linguistic and socio-cultural competences as well as fight discrimination rooted in socio-economic and cultural disadvantage without however subscribing to any program of early “schoolification”. Soon, however, researchers and educators recognized how engaging little children in “reading” makes them communicative partners (Brice Heath 1983; Ochs, Schieffelin 1984) who are socialized through the language (and the pictures) of stories. Therefore, among the in-service training courses teachers are expected to attend during the school year, the Walltown Education Office promotes a meeting titled La Vetrina di Qualità (the Quality Showcase).

In the classrooms of the childhood school “Beyond the tracks” books are available on shelves or in boxes, and children can access them both during the free playing time, that is before and after the day’s structured routines, or have the teacher read the one they like, or that she suggested. While at the asilo nido (nursery school) children are encouraged to become acquainted with books that they first handle with curiosity, and later with increasing familiarity once they recognize the illustrated subjects and recollect the latter’s adventures, at the scuola dell’infanzia children browse through books with deftness and often discuss the images—usually of animals--that strike them, or negotiate the story they wish to listen to with the teacher.

In the the school library (biblioteca) the about 1500 books are ordered according to the genre, and once a week (starting in February) children can borrow a book and take it home with the recommendation to “treat” it well and bring it back the following week. As children do not read yet, listening to stories at school and in the family will promote-from an educational perspective-their socialization, knowledge, competence, and help construct their autonomy and personal identity. However, the schools’ reading activity and book borrowing invite the ethnographer to also consider books as cultural objects that are to be treated with respect-as the ritual of borrowing testifies-and whose messages have been received first by collective listening and later through a one-to-one relation with the written page.

Ethnographic fieldwork (participant observation, informal conversations)

Children participate emotionally and cognitively to the classroom readings, and negotiate with the teachers about which book they would like to listen to. They also learn how to relate to the books in the library, where their relation to those cultural artefacts is ritually organized, but still allows them room for a personal rapport with the chosen book.

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