Contact: Susan ColemanVirginia Foundation for the Humanities
145 Ednam Drive Charlottesville, VA 22903
PH: 434-982-2983 FAX: 434-296-4714
Email: spcoleman@virgnia.edu
Contact: Susan Coleman
Virginia Foundation for the Humanities
145 Ednam Drive Charlottesville, VA 22903
PH: 434-982-2983 FAX: 434-296-4714
Email: spcoleman@virgnia.edu
www.virginiafoundation/bookcenter
For Immediate Release
All Virginians Invited to Read Harper Lee’s Classic Novel
To Kill A Mockingbird
The Virginia Center for the Book, a program of the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities, is one of 127 organizations around the nation to receive a Big Read grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.
Beginning in January 2008, all Virginians are invited to read - or re-read - Harper Lee’s classic novel To Kill A Mockingbird. The Center will be distributing across the state Reader’s Guides, Teacher’s Guides, CD’s with audio commentary, and other resources at no cost to the recipients. More information will be available soon at www.virginiafoundation.org/bookcenter.
This is the second Big Read the Virginia Center for the Book has received. Last year, Virginians read together The Great Gatsby.
In To Kill A Mockingbird, Lee tells two deftly paired stories set in a small Southern town: one focused on lawyer Atticus Finch's defense of an unjustly accused man, the other on his bright, bratty daughter's gradual discovery of her own goodness. For many young people this novel becomes their first big read, the grown-up story that all later books will be measured against.
The Big Read is an initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts, in partnership with the Institute of Museum and Library Services, and in cooperation with Arts Midwest. It is designed to revitalize the role of literary reading in American popular culture. Reading at Risk: A Survey of Literary Reading in America, a 2004 NEA report, identified a critical decline in reading for pleasure among American adults. The Big Read aims to address this issue directly by providing citizens with the opportunity to read and discuss a single book within their communities.
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