Area residents get jump-start on reading

0 Comments | Gazette, The (Colorado Springs), Aug 18, 2002 | by Leslie Weddell

Twenty-four of the Pikes Peak Library District's 25 videos of "To Kill a Mockingbird" are checked out.

Twenty-four of the 25 DVDs are checked out.

All 10 copies of the book on tape are out, as are the 10 copies of the book on CD.

Nearly a third of the 1,224 copies of the book are checked out, including versions in English, Spanish, Polish, large print and adult basic, an easy-reader version of the novel.

People - a lot of people - are getting ready for the first All Pikes Peak Reads event, which starts Sept. 9 and runs through Oct. 20.

Harper Lee's "To Kill a Mockingbird," the 1960 Pulitzer Prize- winning novel about a crisis of conscience that rocks a sleepy Southern town, is the centerpiece of the inaugural event.

The book, set in a small town in Alabama during the Depression, is a tough and tender story of race, class, justice and the pain of growing up.

The countywide reading program is intended to encourage community dialogue across racial, cultural and generational lines and to promote literacy.

The library isn't the only place running short on the book.

The Book Broker, a new and used bookstore at 119 E. Bijou St., recently sold out of the book.

A single copy came in, but clerk Jennifer Huggins didn't expect it to stay on the shelf long.

Dick Noyes, owner of The Chinook Bookshop, 210 N. Tejon St., recently sold 15 copies in a single day, including several $18 hardbound versions. "I think the people who bought the hardbound edition had read the book years ago, and liked it so much they wanted a permanent copy for their libraries."

Noyes said sales are reasonable, considering the project doesn't start for three weeks.

The reading program is modeled on last year's "One Book, One Chicago" venture in which Chicagoans read "To Kill a Mockingbird."

Colorado Springs Mayor Mary Lou Makepeace heard about the Chicago project and discussed the idea of a similar venture in the Springs with Pat Losinski, former director of the Pikes Peak Library District.

Losinski asked Calvin Otto, a Colorado Springs resident who founded the Virginia Festival of the Book, to be the community chairman.

Otto and his committee have been working on the project since last fall.

The program officially starts at 11:30 a.m Sept. 9 at Acacia Park, said Dee Vazquez, marketing coordinator for the library and project director for All Pikes Peak Reads.

The kickoff event will feature big-band music from the 1930s, characters in period costumes, a proclamation by Makepeace, food and drink.

Eight of the area's 11 school districts have signed on and will read and discuss the book this fall. The library has prepared a curriculum guide for various grade levels.

The six-week project includes a variety of events. A complete listing will be published in the Sept. 6 issue of Go! Here are a few highlights:

A panel discussion about the legal elements of the book and parallels to civil rights litigation in the 1930s, 7 p.m. Sept. 12 at the East Library and Information Center, 5550 N. Union Blvd. Panelists are Cleo Thomas, a noted Alabama civil rights attorney, J. Leonard Fleet, a groundbreaking civil rights judge from Florida, and Kenneth Pellow, an English professor at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs.

A re-enactment of the trial in the book will be performed by members of the El Paso County Bar Association, with legal commentary by judges and presentations by Court Appointed Special Advocates and the Court Care project, 6 p.m. Oct. 16 at the Colorado Springs City Auditorium, 221 E. Kiowa St.

Presentations by renowned "To Kill a Mockingbird" scholar Claudia Durst Johnson, former head of the English Department at the University of Alabama, 7 p.m. Oct. 17 at the East Library, and two presentations for young adult audiences, beginning at 9 a.m. Oct. 18 in the Carnegie Reading Room at Penrose Library, 20 N. Cascade Ave.

"To Kill a Mockingbird" trivia contest and dinner, 6:30 p.m. Oct. 19 at the East Library.

A TheatreWorks production of the play, Sept. 20-Oct. 13 at Dwire Theater on the CU-Springs campus.

Writing workshops, mentoring and contest, with cash prizes of $500, $250 and $100.

An autographed copy of the 35th anniversary edition of "To Kill a Mockingbird," donated by Mary Francis Ciletti, co-owner of Hooked on Books, will be awarded in a drawing. The recipient will be selected at random from all those who participate in the voting for the 2003 All Pikes Peak Reads selection.

The 2003 book and drawing winner will be announced at the program's conclusion at a Harvest Festival at 3 p.m. Oct. 20 in the Colorado Springs City Auditorium. Details concerning the 2003 All Pikes Peak Reads selection process will be announced in upcoming Book sections in The Gazette.

Readers' choices for leading roles in 'To Kill a Mockingbird'

We asked Gazette readers who they would cast in the leading roles in the movie version of "To Kill a Mockingbird" if it were being filmed today.

Although the original movie is 40 years old, the characters and what they represent remain constant.

Here are some of Colorado Springs' choices: