Community Corner
Patch Picks: Read Across America
Want to participate in today's Read Across America initiative? Stop by the library or your local book store and pick up some good reads for adults, kids and the whole family.
Patch Picks: Read Across America
1. Green Eggs and Ham, Dr. Seuss. This children's classic is especially appropriate because Read Across America Day is celebrated on Dr. Seuss' birthday. Featuring a story enjoyed by all ages and a vocabulary of around 50 words, Green Eggs and Ham is a perfect book to share with aspiring readers and is widely available.
2. Where the Wild Things Are, Maurice Sendak. The story of Max and the monstrous realm of the Wild Things is at once complex and simple, featuring a kid's fantasy and a child learning to handle his emotions. The thoughtful story and exceptional illustrations have a broad appeal that reaches across generations.
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3. The Giver, Louis Lowry. This science fiction story for young adults presents a seemingly idyllic society with flaws beneath the surface. The dichotomy between individualism, emotion and personal freedoms and the greater good is highlighted in this Newbery Medal winner. The Giver is 179 pages long, so don't expect your child to finish it in one sitting. Watch them get a good start and keep reading after Read Across America Day ends.
4. Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea, Barbara Demick. This novelization of interviews with North Korean citizens, written by Los Angeles Times journalist Barbara Demick, is featured as a staff pick at the Mansfield Public Library. The book provides a look at the lives of average citizens in the usually-secretive country. It won th BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction in 2010.
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5. The Help, Kathryn Stockett. The Help is the monthly selection for the Thursday Readers at Suffield's Kent Memorial Library. This novel focuses on segregation and civil rights in 1960s America, telling the tales of black maids working for affluent white families in Mississippi. The strengths, strains and stresses of the relationships between the maids and families, as well as the inequality simmering beneath the surface, are eloquently displayed in this Los Angeles Times bestseller.
