For the third year in a row, the POP Project participated in the international event, World Book Night. Held annually on Shakespeare’s birthday (April 23), the program celebrates reading by allowing book giver volunteers to hand out 20 specially printed copies of a given books to low income individuals or infrequent readers.
As you can imagine, this event is right up our alley! In fact, the POP Project has been fortunate to participate every year since the event came to the U.S.
For 2014, POP received 20 copies of the critically acclaimed middle-grade historical fiction novel, “Zora and Me,” a book that takes on themes well beyond its years. “Zora and Me” follows a fictionalized young Zora Neale Hurston, the Harlem Renaissance author, as she and her friends Carrie and Teddy try to solve the mystery of the Gator Man. The book takes place in Hurston’s real hometown of Eatonville, Florida – the first all-black town in America – around the turn of the last century. As they uncover the truth about the Gator Man and a gruesome death in the area, the three struggle with the transition from childhood innocence to the complexity of the adult world during the Jim Crow era, and provide a view of the time not often told.
We read the book upon learning that we were chosen to hand out “Zora and Me,” and were blown away by the intricate story and deep social message that was portrayed so simply and effectively through a child’s perspective. In fact, the book was so great, we couldn’t bear to hand out one copy at a time. Instead, POP decided to donate the entire set to Asheville Middle School for use in their media center and language arts classes.
Asheville Middle School currently has about 50 percent of students on free or reduced lunch. While the school currently has a great selection of books available for students, Media Center Specialist Jodie Mercier said she was excited to put this book set to use, as well. Last fall, the sixth grade students read a historical fiction novel for their language arts class and came to the media center to research noteworthy historical moments during that time period. They then created their own newspaper headlines and pages based on what they learned, and even aged the paper they used with tea and by stomping on them. Ms. Mercier thinks that “Zora and Me” could generate the same kind of project by allowing the students to study news and events from the turn of the century that could place this story in context with artistic, technological, and political movements of the time.
The POP Project hopes that the Asheville Middle School students enjoy “Zora and Me” as much as we did, and that the story inspires a love of reading for at least a few of the students.
About World Book Night
Held annually on April 23, World Book Night is a celebration of reading and books. The purpose of World Book Night is to spread the joy and love of reading to adults and children who don’t read often or who have a low access to books, and tens of thousands of people have been participating every year. Scheduled to coincide with UNESCO’s World Book Day, April 23 is significant among book lovers for being the anniversary of Cervantes’ death, as well as Shakespeare’s birth and death.
For more information about World Book Night, visit their website at http://www.us.worldbooknight.org.