Through reading, we can expand our horizons, stimulate our imagination, promote knowledge, and provide access to different cultures and realities. However, we currently face low reading rates, especially among children, young people, and those in socioeconomically vulnerable populations. To address this issue, the Flamengo Museum's Social Responsibility and Education departments created the "Come read, come read, come read!" project, where Flamengo visits community libraries and cultural facilities in peripheral areas, offering storytelling activities, quizzes, and book donations for children and adolescents. The goal is to awaken a love of reading, foster greater connection between children and books, and contribute to the transformation of community libraries into spaces for culture, learning, and leisure.

Thus, last Friday (21), the project “Come read, come read, come read” was in Morro da Mangueira, North Zone of Rio de Janeiro, at the headquarters of the Girls and Women of Morro da Mangueira Association, created in 1995, which through the initiative “Atelier das Palavras”, works to encourage reading, enabling the development of creative capacity and the pleasure of reading. The action brought together around 100 children and young people from the region and also had the presence of Zil Ribas, teacher, screenwriter and author of the children's book series “Bento and the Weird Animals”, who presented her work and talked with the children.

"It was a wonderful experience. The "Come Read!" project is fantastic because, in addition to encouraging reading, it brings children closer to Flamengo, as many of these children don't have the opportunity to go to a game at Maracanã. So, bringing Flamengo closer to them is incredibly moving and brings happiness to their hearts. Congratulations to the Flamengo team for this wonderful and completely necessary initiative to encourage reading!" said Letícia Figueiredo Garcia, Social Worker at Atelier das Palavras.

"A team doesn't survive on its own greatness or strong fan bases. A team survives on initiatives like Flamengo's, which brings reading to communities in a pleasant way," added Kelly Maria Louzada Machado Silva, founder of the Association.

During the event, the children and young people present received backpacks, cups and copies of the books “Mengão do Meu Coração” and “Me Arrebata – Epopeias Rubro-negras Volume 1”, both from the publisher Onze Cultural, a supporter of the project.

Over the next few months, the "Come read, come read, come read!" project will be available in other community libraries in the city.