Local educators, librarians, Anderson’s Bookshop and HarperCollins Publishers will launch Naperville READS 2014, a community-wide reading initiative featuring 12 middle-grade authors from the Class Acts literacy program from February 3-6, 2014.
Author presentations and other activities tied to the city-wide program will provide opportunities for more than 9,000 local young readers to share their reading experiences and enhance their understanding of the featured books.
Naperville READS 2014 will celebrate the authors Peter Lerangis, Tim Green, Soman Chainani, Tom Watson, Christopher Krovatin, Caroline Carlson, Kevin Emerson, Nils Johnson-Shelton, Jeramey Kraatz, Jenny Lee, Chris Rylander, and John Kloepfer. Together as part of the Class Acts program, these 12 authors will visit fourth and fifth grade students in both Naperville School District 203 and Indian Prairie School District 204 for pep-rally style presentations promoting the love of reading. During the Class Acts presentation, classes will be matched with a particular author and assigned to that author’s team. The student participation fuels an interactive author vs. author competition and HarperCollins will supply a set of Class Acts books for each school.
Free ‘Meet & Greet’ events Feb. 5 & 6 at Pfeiffer Hall
In addition, two free public events will take place at 7PM on Wed., Feb. 5 and 7PM Thurs., Feb. 6 at Pfeiffer Hall, 310 E. Benton Ave., on the campus of North Central College, in Naperville. Community members will get an opportunity to meet the authors, hear more about their books and have their books signed.
As the event approaches, participants may keep up-to-date on Naperville READS events via the program’s website: www.napervillereads.org.
Did you know? Naperville READS 2014 is a partnership between Jumping Off the Page, HarperCollins Publishers, Anderson’s Bookshop, Naperville Public Library, Naperville Community Unit School District 203 and Indian Prairie School District 204. This project is partially supported by a grant from the City of Naperville.
Did you also know? Since the program’s inception in 2002, the goals of Naperville READS include promoting the pleasures of reading, engaging a wide age-range of readers, appealing across genders and a variety of reading tastes and promoting reading as a family and community activity. Previous authors have included Gary Paulsen, Pete Hamill, Jerry Spinelli, Kevin Henkes, Tracy Chevalier, Yann Martel, Katherine Hannigan, Kate DiCamillo, Joseph Bruchac, Greg Mortenson, Lisa See, Brian Selznick and Daniel Pink.
Submitted by Candy Purdom, Anderson’s Bookshop
