The Big Read Lakeshore

2018 Book:

NEA Big Read Lakeshore creates and fosters a culture where reading matters.

It is to bring the community together around one book and use this shared experience of reading, discussing and exploring the themes of the book as a springboard to learn from and listen to each other. The programming draws diverse participation within the community, generating conversations and discussion groups across generational, cultural, racial and socioeconomic divides and experiences. These events take place in a variety of spaces and locations.

The main events are planned to approach a book and its topics from a variety of perspectives, experiences and angles, organizing events that include interesting lectures by great speakers as well as using film, food, music and art to explore and celebrate the topics under discussion.

This month-long community-wide reading program takes place every November.

Find out more about The Big Read Lakeshore and all the great events going on during this program at:

https://hope.edu/offices/big-read/

About the Books:

BIG READ LAKESHORE - Station Eleven - Emily St. John Mandel

Set in the Great Lakes region 20 years after a flu pandemic wiped out 99 percent of the world’s population, “Station Eleven” centers on a traveling troupe that performs Shakespeare’s plays to the communities that have arisen in North America in the event’s aftermath. The narrative visits both the story’s post-apocalyptic present and the world before the pandemic, not only exploring the collapse of  society and its aftermath but emphasizing the connections between people and the efforts of those seeking to do more than merely exist.

LITTLE READ LAKESHORE (Middle School) - The Giver - Lois Lowry

This 1994 Newbery Medal winner, has become one of the most influential novels of our time. The haunting story centers on twelve-year-old Jonas, who lives in a seemingly ideal, if colorless, world of conformity and contentment. Not until he is given his life assignment as the Receiver of Memory does he begin to understand the dark, complex secrets behind his fragile community.

LITTLE READ LAKESHORE (Elementary School) - Blackout - John Rocco

One hot summer night in the city, all the power goes out. The TV shuts off and a boy wails, "Mommm!" His sister can no longer use the phone, Mom can't work on her computer, and Dad can't finish cooking dinner. What's a family to do? When they go up to the roof to escape the heat, they find the lights--in stars that can be seen for a change--and so many neighbors it's like a block party in the sky! On the street below, people are having just as much fun--talking, rollerblading, and eating ice cream before it melts. The boy and his family enjoy being not so busy for once. They even have time to play a board game together. When the electricity is restored, everything can go back to normal . . . but not everyone likes normal. The boy switches off the lights, and out comes the board game again.  Using a combination of panels and full bleed illustrations that move from color to black-and-white and back to color, John Rocco shows that if we are willing to put our cares aside for a while, there is party potential in a summer blackout.