Congratulations to Noor!
The 19-year-old newcomer recently won a $1,000 grant from Awesome Ottawa for his idea called Newcomer Reads, a project to encourage young newcomers to read.
Noor said the idea came to him when he realized there were many in the newcomer community who did not have good reading skills. That contrasted with what he saw every day during his travels around the city. Whether it was on a bus, in a park or at a community centre, he often saw someone with a book.
As a keen fan of literature, Noor has also considered following in the footsteps of his favourite booktubers and wants to create his own YouTube channel dedicated to recommending and reviewing novels. In case you were not already aware, BookTube is a subsection of YouTube dedicated to discussing books.
Feeling inspired, Noor decided it was time for newcomers to appreciate the joy of reading a good book. Noor will work with the Ottawa Public Library and Capital Welcomes to draw up a list of books aimed at young newcomers aged 10 to 15. The list will accommodate the different English language skills in the newcomer community. He wants the books to be easy to read and short. As the readers progress and improve their English, more challenging books will be introduced.
Prizes will be awarded to youth who read a certain number of books and a grand prize will be given to the youth who reads the most.
Noor says the goal is to develop a list of 200 books and to register 100 youth for the book club.
Noor is a member of our youth program.