The format of the Tangente High School Students' Prize is now well established. Ten books vie for the students' votes. This year, twenty-nine schools in France and beyond took part in this wonderful adventure. They included several regular participants, such as the Lycée en Forêt in Montargis (Loiret), Lycée Albert-Camus in Fréjus (Var) and Lycée Jeanne-d'Arc in Bayeux (Calvados). They were joined by enthusiastic newcomers such as the École européenne de Bruxelles-I (Belgium) and Lycée Kastler in Talence (Gironde). The jury thus comprised more than three hundred students!
The contenders included novels, popular science books and graphic novels—providing a way to challenge the "science versus humanities" stereotypes and foster fruitful links between mathematics, literature and school libraries.
During the first round, each school divided its participants into two groups, each tasked with ranking five of the ten books. The organizers were free to choose whichever procedure suited them best to draw up their ranking. Mathematics teacher Johanne Brengue explains that one of the first meetings "took the form of a debate. It proved extremely rewarding, both in terms of the students' ideas for developing criteria to rank the books and in terms of their discussions about the content of the first set of books they had each read". Each school was able to organize meetings, debates, picnics or informal meals to discuss the books.
A second round under lockdown
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For the second round of the prize, each school ultimately had to choose its winning book from the two that had topped the rankings in the first round. Unfortunately, school closures disrupted the deliberations and discussions. But that did not stop them! The Tangente High School Students' Prize team was able to draw on the results of the first round. Many teaching teams then stayed in touch with their students, and very few groups ultimately withdrew. Debates took place remotely in various forms, with some participants even continuing to exchange the books by post! The teaching team at Lycée Kastler in Talence told us that "this project [was] particularly close to [their] hearts and [they had] seen it through using the CNED platform, which allowed [their] Tangente group to meet and bring the year to a close despite the school being shut".
Some participants already hope to take part in the next edition and expand the project to include other activities: hosting talks, recording interviews for the school's online radio station, publishing articles online, and giving presentations in class or at open days…
When the final rankings were drawn up, several books—almost half of them, in fact—were neck and neck, showing that they would all make worthy additions to personal and school libraries alike. The 2020 Tangente High School Students' Prize therefore goes to *Enigma, the first volume in the graphic-novel series Champignac*, illustrated by David Etien and written by Béka—a pseudonym that in fact conceals two authors, Caroline Roque and Bertrand Escaich—published by Éditions Dupuis (2019). The book explores the youth of the Count of Champignac, Spirou and Fantasio's famous scientist friend, and his adventures alongside Alan Turing during the Second World War.
Two special mentions were awarded to Le Théorème de Kropst by Emmanuel Arnaud (Métailié, 2012), a novel set in the world of French preparatory classes, and L'Enfant qui mesurait le monde by Metin Arditi (Grasset, 2017), a poetic story about the meeting between Yannis, an autistic child, and Eliote, an architect, against the idyllic backdrop of the Greek island of Kalamaki.
The next edition is under way!
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The next edition is already under way! The selection promises to be a treat, with plenty for teacher-librarians to add to their school library shelves. The first ten high schools to register will also receive a free copy of every book in the running, courtesy of the publishers. So why wait? Embark on this mathematical and literary adventure with your students! Get in touch at **prix\_tangente\_des\_lycé[email protected]**.
Literary gathering at Lycée La Mennais in Guérande (Loire-Atlantique).
