The Big Read, A Big Deal in Attleboro

A book has been chosen for this fall's The Big Read, a program of the National Endowment for the Arts that provides communities throughout the nation with a chance to read, talk about and celebrate books from U.S. and world literature. 

Joan Pilkington-Smyth, assistant director at the, presented the kick-off of "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" as the next potential Big Read program.

"This title will not only allow for some fun activities, but will also allow us to consider some of the issues which are current hot topics in our community, including bullying, civility, raising children in today's society, democratic public discourse, and childhood memories," she said. 

Attleboro's 1 ABC (1 Adventure, 1 Book, 1 Community), was one of 76 non-profit organizations that received a grant to host a Big Read. The grants range from $2,500 to $17,000 and Attleboro's Big Read total is $11,800.

Attleboro's 1 ABC, which encourages the community to unite in reading the same book and participate in cultural activities, hopes to provide more than 1,000 copies of the book to more than 60 businesses and agencies in Attleboro. A total of 50 copies will be on loan at the Attleboro Public Library.  

Pilkingtong-Smyth hopes The Big Read attracts a new group of readers: Attleboro's parents of young children. New parents or parents with young children have difficulty finding the time to read and are not as involved in the Big Read as other groups, according to Pilkington-Smyth. 

She, however, hopes to change that and has already made contact with all of Attleboro's Parent Teachers Organizations (PTOs) in hopes that the groups will work together and participate. 

In fact, the committee is adding a technology component to the Big Read through electronic books (e-books). The e-books will be made available through the library databases. 

"We will apply for a grant to provide e-readers for use at the library, but will plan to introduce individuals to e-books on our public computers as a backup," she told the Council. "It is our intent to entice reluctant readers (ages 20-30) with this format for reading."

Each year, Attleboro's 1 ABC committee plans activities with other local agencies according to the chosen book and this year is no different. 

Agencies such as the , and the and , will help contribute to the kickoff, school involvement, literacy programming and finale.