Olle Nordberg: Berättelser som förändrar. Utvärdering och didaktisk diskussion kring ett nationellt läsprojekt för ungdomar. Svenska i utveckling nr 35. Uppsala universitet, Uppsala.

Narratives that change. Evaluation and pedagogical discussion on a national literary reading project for young people. During 2017, a comprehensive national project concentrating on literary reading was performed in secondary and upper secondary schools all over Sweden. Around 30,000 teenagers were involved, reading novels as whole classes with the literary discussion in the centre. This report is an evaluation of that project, made with the participant experiences in focus, and from a literary teaching point of view.

The project was initiated and designed by the foundation Läsrörelsen. The aim of the project was to highlight the discussion around the content of books, bookclub-style, not fixating on technical details, grades and tests, biographical details or similar. Accordingly, ten novels with rather “strong” or even poignant content were part of the project. Each school or teacher then made their own choice among the titles available.

The rich evaluation material submitted by the participating pupils, teachers, librarians and principals clearly shows that the project really had numerous beneficial effects. This was seen most of all among young readers who expressed the meaning by discussing, disagreeing, engaging, empathising, reflecting and making references to the world around them, all based on the current novel.

From a literary pedagogical perspective, the outcome of the project points out several opportunities for teaching literature in schools of today.