Sterling Library Joins the Big Read

April 23, 2009

Baytown ’s Sterling Municipal Library will join other libraries and literary groups in the Harris County Metro Area and throughout the country, to participate in “The Big Read.” The Big Read is a community-wide reading program taking place throughout May. Participants are encouraged to read Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird and talk about it with friends, neighbors and family. Book clubs across the county will be meeting to discuss the novel throughout the month.

The Big Read is an initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts and is designed to restore reading to the center of American culture. A 2004 report by the National Endowment for the Arts, found that not only is literary reading in America declining rapidly among all groups, but that the rate of decline has accelerated, especially among the young. The Big Read aims to address this crisis squarely and effectively. It provides citizens with the opportunity to read and discuss a single book within their communities.

Sterling Municipal Library will host its Big Read discussion on Tuesday, May 12 at 6:30 pm.

“I thought it would be fun to join with neighboring communities and read To Kill a Mockingbird,” explains librarian Jamie Eustace. “It is a book many of us have read before, but it is certainly worth revisiting. I think it will make for a great discussion.”

The library has many copies of To Kill a Mockingbird available for checkout. For more information on the Big Read, contact Jamie Eustace at 281-427-7331, ext 230 or via email at Jamie.Eustace@baytownlibrary.org.