BibliObservatory - Episode 1 (English)

In this first episode of BibliObservatory, Caroline Smith, Inclusive Services Consultant, interviews co-host of this series, Ivette Villarreal, who searches the connection between people’s favorite books or stories heard in childhood and how those stories define their lives.

Her earliest memories take her to the stories of Uncle Tiger & Uncle Rabbit retold by her father. These traditional tales from her homeland Venezuela amused her as an infant and also played an important role later when she came across the legacy of Rafael Rivero Oramas, a Venezuelan storyteller and filmmaker, who dedicated his life to children’s literacy efforts in his country.

Encouraged by those joyful remembrances, she created BibliObservatory, a multimedia platform to promote children’s and teens literacy through storytelling by engaging them in active listening and mindful conversations; In BibliObservatory the magnificence of the universe seen from a child’s eye converge with a poem by Rubén Darío (Nicaragua) in which the book is a telescope to explore oral stories that creates awareness of each individual´s uniqueness. 

Links:

• Uncle Rabbit, Tío Conejo Venezuelan trickster tales
• Video Clip, Rafael Rivero Oramas (Tío Nicolás)
• El Universo de los Cuentos. Mato, Sol. April 29, 2015
• Darío, Rubén. Selected Writings. New York: Penguin Books, 2005

BibliObservatory Episode 1: English Transcript