Success Story: Antónia Estrela and the New Library at Rabo de Peixe

Antónia Estrela, linguist expert and professor at the Universidade NOVA de Lisboa and Escola Superior de Educação de Lisboa, established a new library in her former primary school after participating in the first edition of the Same Home Town programme in 2022.

Once upon a time, not so long ago, linguist and professor Antónia Estrela returned to her former primary school in the small town of Rabo de Peixe, Azores, to showcase her work to students now sitting in the chairs she once occupied. The workshop was significant for Antónia, not only because it marked her first return to the school where she studied, but also because, on that day, she noticed a troubling issue: the school did not have a library.

As a linguist expert, and with the workshop centred on her work, Antónia brought along books to share with the children, who quickly became fascinated by them. "It was a widespread issue: the classrooms were very poorly equipped and there were no books, not even a single shelf,” says Antónia.

Antónia was told by the director and the educators that there were not many funds available to purchase books for the school. At the workshop, a little boy, captivated by one book in particular, asked if they could have it. "I wasn’t prepared to give books to the children. I brought one copy to show and another to give to the teacher, and I can’t forget the voice of that boy saying he wished he could have that book,” recalls Antónia. This inspired her to come up with the idea of setting up a new library for the school.

The voice of that child stayed with Antónia for at least two years. When she returned in 2024 for another workshop, she began gathering books in February of this year, at Escola Superior de Educação de Lisboa, where she now works as an associate professor. “We left a box at the entrance, and each day, the box was full. In the end, we managed to collect around 640 books.” Everyone contributed to the cause — students, teachers, organisations like Heróis Com Capa, and even people associated with the Netflix Portuguese series Rabo de Peixe helped by contacting their publishers to bring more books to this project.

“We made use of all the books that were donated. Most of the books were literature, stories for children, some poetry books, some more technical books on science, science communication, a few dictionaries, and some textbooks, for example.” Many of the books were also part of the Plano Nacional de Leitura (National Reading Plan). 

Although she initially thought about making a symbolic delivery of 10 books, the challenge of transporting the remaining books to the Azores still had to be resolved. What seemed like a logistical obstacle was quickly solved by serendipity. "As it turns out, the world is very small. In a conversation with colleagues, I discovered a coworker who had a friend working at a shipping company that, coincidentally, regularly sent agricultural goods to São Miguel and, by chance, had a warehouse in Rabo de Peixe. A series of circumstances made the delivery very, very easy. They joined our mission and helped us without asking to contribute to the costs, and we are incredibly grateful," said Antónia.

Despite her work as a linguist, Antónia admits, "I wasn’t much of a reader until I was 15 years old. It may seem surprising, but it also shows us that it’s never too late to start. Today, we know that early exposure to books is crucial because it has many positive aspects and greatly influences the formal learning of reading and writing." She recalls a Portuguese teacher in high school, Fabíola Cardoso, who was instrumental in her journey. "The teacher was fundamental because she gave us many Portuguese and foreign authors to read, taught us grammar in a way other teachers didn’t, and did something that many teachers today either no longer do or don’t do as often: she got students to write". Upon realizing that young Antónia didn’t have many books herself, the same teacher gifted her one for her birthday — an act of kindness that Antónia would later repeat at her former primary school in Rabo de Peixe.

Returning to that workshop, Antónia aimed to make it more interactive by, for instance, presenting the longest word in the Portuguese language, with 46 letters. To demonstrate it, she wrote it down and gradually unrolled the paper until the entire word was revealed. "There’s so much fascinating stuff we can discover, and it can be a great way to captivate not just adults but also children," says Antónia Estrela.

"Above all, I want to thank Native for the opportunity to return to the school - an experience that will bring books to many children," says Antónia, reflecting on her experience with the Native Scientists programme. Besides the opportunity to return to the village where she grew up, it was a chance to show the children the importance of language. “Our language is our calling card — the way we speak and write. I would say that the use of our language must be flawless because we need our language — in this case, Portuguese — to talk about all other subjects,” she explains. “And those expectations were later met because it was a very rich, very interesting experience — not only for me as a person, linguist, and researcher but also, I believe, for the children and teachers who were present.”

“Soon it will be my third time participating in the programme, and I remain very optimistic. I’m eager to see how the books that have since arrived are being used and how they’ve been organised for the children to access and consult,” concludes Antónia Estrela.

*Quotes are extracted from a longer interview that Native Scientists Communication manager Bruno Silva did with Antonia Estrela. You can listen to the full interview here. We would like to thank Ciência Viva for providing us with a space in the Pavilhão do Conhecimento to conduct this interview. A big thank you to the Regional Government of the Azores for supporting some of these workshops. And finally, a special thanks to Antónia Estrela as well, for her dedicated work in these workshops and her thriving project that will bring knowledge to countless children.

About Native Scientists 

Founded in 2013, Native Scientists is a pan-European non-profit organisation connecting underserved children and scientists. It exists to broaden children's horizons, promoting scientific literacy and reducing inequalities through science outreach educational programmes.