Books bring people together as readers share their discoveries from within a book’s pages, and to encourage that sense of community public libraries in Carroll, Coon Rapids, Glidden, and Manning have partnered together to hold a countywide reading initiative entitled Everybody on the Same Page – an All Carroll County Reads Project. Carroll Public Library Director Brandie Ledford says the idea is to get people from all generations doing the same thing and talking about the same themes.
The historical novel The Orphan Train by Cristina Baker Kline has been selected for the 2016 project. The book melds two stories together as one child from the 1920’s boards an orphan train headed to the Midwest while another faces challenges in a modern day foster care system. Ledford says the book also has a lot of local appeal and connections as well.
Various library programs will bolster the book’s themes as each participating library will hold book discussions, host various special guest speakers, and also screen a documentary providing an in depth look at the orphan trains.
Copies of the book are available at all library locations in multiple formats including eBooks and large print. A youth companion book, A Family Apart by Joan Lowry Nixon, has also been selected for younger readers. The countywide reading initiative kicks off today, March 1, and runs through May 1. For a full schedule of event times click on the image below, or visit the Everybody on the Same Page Facebook page. The 2016 Everybody on the Same Page reading project is supported by an awarded $2,500 DE-CAT grant [Decategorization Project’s Community Partnership for Protecting Children Neighborhood Networking Grant] along with contributions from Carroll County State Bank and Humanities Iowa.
