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Seattle Launches "Let's All Read the Same Book" Program for Middle-Schoolers
Louis Sachar's HOLES! will be read by students in fifth through eighth grades
The Seattle Post-Intelligencer reports that Holes!, the quirky best-selling kids book is the first book chosen for the "What If All Kids?" program, a child-size version of the nationally known adult program created by Seattle Public Library's Washington Center for the Book. Every middle school, reading group and library in Seattle public schools will be celebrating Holes during the promotion.The program is a way to bring a love of reading to new levels for children; to introduce them to a new way of thinking and talking about literature, and to bridge differences between kids with different interests and experiences. Seattle Public Schools found that the plan fit perfectly with its mission of engaging all students as readers, and purchased 16,000 copies of the red-and-blue-covered paperback (they got a hefty discount for volume, assured schools spokeswoman Lynn Steinberg, paying $46,369 for 16,000 books and 100 audiobooks.).
Each sixth- through eighth-grader got a personal copy, and fifth-grade teachers got classroom sets. Classrooms and libraries also received 3,500 "Holes toolkits" with posters, bookmarks and study guides; they've scheduled a slew of activities and assignments based on the book. The Seattle Children's Theatre, which helped plan the concept, secured rights to produce the first stage adaptation of "Holes" in April and is staging drama workshops on the book around King County. The book is being translated into Hebrew and Chinese for the program, as well as converted into Braille by the Washington Talking Book and Braille Library. There's at least one discussion group in Spanish, and others are planned in Japanese and American Sign Language.
Author Louis Sachar is coming to town March 20, with more than 2,000 students already vying for the 1,000 seats available at his Town Hall appearance. He'll also speak that night at Ballard High School and the next night at Federal Way Regional Library. The book had already won the prestigious Newbery Medal, as well as the Young Readers Choice Award.
The book is the story of Stanley Yelnats (spell it backwards), an overweight, picked-on, middle-school kid who is wrongly railroaded for stealing a pair of sneakers. Stanley chooses to serve time in a juvenile boot camp rather than jail, and is sent to "Camp Green Lake," a Texas wasteland where inmates are forced to dig 5-foot-deep holes in the parched heat every day. Throughout the book, Stanley must deal with the power plays and pecking orders of adolescent misery, as well as exploring race and prejudice, illiteracy and friendship, loyalty and fairness.
The original "What If All Seattle Read the Same Book" program was aimed at making the city feel a little bit smaller, with neighbors and strangers alike talking about a given book. The program has since spread to more than 15 other states.