The Big Read Makes Tracks in Reading Literacy

On April 18th, Council Bluffs, Iowa will join "The Big Read" a project designed to emphasize and improve reading literacy. Beginning with Jack London's novel TheCall of the Wild, and branching off into literature ranging from Fahrenheit 451 to The Grapes of Wrath. The Big Read has an impressive list of backers
starting with the National Endowment of the Arts , the Institute of Museum and Library Services as well as Arts Midwest,The Big Read is a project that aims to improve reading literacy through participation in communities within the program.

From it's launch in 2006, The Big Read is a project which involves a community for a one month time span. During this month, the community reads and engages in activities centered on books featured within the program. By the year 2009, approximately 400 communities in the U.S will have participated in the program, which has to date, traveled from coast to coast with the goal of reading literacy in the forefront. From Bainbridge Island, Washington in the uppermost western corner of the United States to Miami, Florida, and with St.Thomas, USVI thrown in for good measure, this project has spanned over 125 communities and shows no signs of slowing any time soon in regards to new communities making their mark on the project.

Inspired by the study, Reading at Risk: A Survey of Literary Reading in America, which discovered in 2004 that not only is reading literacy declining beginning with our youth but that the decline is reaching into older age groups as well. A complete and varied list of 20 books for The Big Read is one that is far from complete, with an assurance of more titles to be offered in the future. The list which displays a wealth of knowledge, range of topics and variety of subjects to read and discuss within the communities that are participating in this project can be found easily online for communities to access for their projects.

Not just limited to book discussions, The Big Read also encompasses and encourages additional events such as author readings, screening of films associated with the books, and even readings of a theatrical nature. There are many and varied ways these books can be used within a community. Participation and reading are the keys to this project and with virtually no boundaries, communities are encouraged to put their own mark on the project in any way they feel fits their area needs.

With the hope that this project will inspire and improve reading literacy, the communities involved I suspect are gaining more than mere literacy value from the project. For when individuals join forces in such a project, they gain not just advanced literary skills but they also gain something else that is rapidly declining in our country. That something is a "sense of community" and to this book lover and small town resident ,that may well be the best part of all.