Rennes (AFP)

Dissociated for a few years from the official Goncourt awarded last week, Goncourt High School will be unveiled Thursday in Rennes after two months of hard work and lengthy deliberations, a price expected publishers because very prescribers to readers.

Late in the afternoon, in a Rennes restaurant with heavy velvet curtains, a young high school student published the list of eight titles selected after the six regional deliberations held the same day.

The 2019 Goncourt des Lycéens Prize will be proclaimed among the following authors "presented in alphabetical order", he said: Santiago H. Amigorena, for "The Inner Ghetto" (POL), Nathacha Appanah, for "The Sky by above the roof "(Gallimard), Louis-Philippe Dalembert, for" Mediterranean Wall "(Sabine Wespieser), Amélie Nothomb, for" Soif "(Albin Michel), Anne Pauly, for" Before I forget "(Verdier) , Abel Quentin, for "Sister" (The Observatory), Sébastien Spitzer, for "The beating heart of the world" (Albin Michel), Karine Tuil, for "The human things" (Gallimard).

Note that the young jurors have not retained in their final list the Goncourt 2019, awarded early November by the famous Academy to Jean-Paul Dubois for "All men do not live the world the same way", editions from L'Olivier.

About 2,000 high school students, belonging to about fifty schools throughout the country, including a high school in Fort-de-France (Martinique), were embarked at the beginning of September in the adventure by their teachers, under the leadership of Ministry of National Education and FNAC. Young people from a wide variety of backgrounds: from the Agricultural High School in Rodilhan (Gard) to prestigious Parisian high schools, from general and professional courses, from second-class to BTS, public and private education.

All worked for two months on the first selection of the Goncourt Academy, made public in early September. Either fourteen novels, some of which have already been rewarded in recent weeks with other prizes, or worn by authors with a large media coverage, while others, still confidential, can hope to reach the general public through the choice high school students.

- "We read a lot more!" -

After thirty years of existence - the prize was created in Rennes in 1988 - the formula is well established: a month of September devoted to reading, followed by seven regional meetings (Aix-en-Provence, Lille, Lyon, Nancy , Paris, Rennes and Toulouse), organized in the first half of October between the authors of the selection and the high school students.

Then, the Tuesday meeting of the regional juries before the big day, Thursday, always in Rennes where each of the regional juries will have sent two delegates, for the proclamation of the final result. The Goncourt high school students' prize will thus close the season of literary prizes.

For this very special prize, teachers have multiplied initiatives to bring young people sometimes reluctant to read. Room reserved for participants, in a prominent location in the school, sunbeds on the lawns for reading in the sun enjoying the beautiful autumn days, "literary cafes" or "challenges + reading +" in high school, etc ...

We even saw, according to the testimony of teachers, a documentalist conduct an operation Goncourt "Outside the walls" to All Saints, by going to several municipalities with a bookmobile so that books can continue to circulate during the holidays.

Last year, Louise Le Flahec, then in 1st L at Fulgence-Bienvenüe high school of Loudéac (Côtes-d'Armor), has already participated in the operation which she renews with pleasure this year in terminal: "it is the best experience of my schooling, "she says. "It brought us to do a lot of things together, to create events in high school (...) And now, we read a lot more!"

According to a recent GfK study conducted over the period 2014-2018 for the specialized journal "Livres Hebdo", the Goncourt high school students fled an average of 314,000 copies, a little behind the Goncourt price (367,100) but far ahead of other prices.

© 2019 AFP