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Saipan public library gets Great Stories Club grant
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Posted on Sep 07 2018
The Joeten-Kiyu Public Library has been selected as one of 100 libraries nationwide to take part in the Great Stories Club, a reading and discussion program for underserved teens.
This competitive grant is offered by the American Library Association with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Staff from the Joeten-Kiyu Public Library will work with teens to read and discuss stories that explore the concept of empathy and what it means to be a hero.
The books—curated for the themes “Empathy: The Cost of Switching Sides” and “What Makes a Hero? Self, Society and Rising to the Occasion”—will include Flight by Sherman Alexie; Kindred: A Graphic Novel Adaptation by Octavia Butler, Damian Duffy and John Jennings; All American Boys by Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely; Stuck in Neutral by Terry Trueman; Black Panther: A Nation Under Our Feet, Book 1 by Ta-Nehisi Coates and Brian Stelfreeze; Maus II: A Survivor’s Tale: And Here My Troubles Began by Art Spiegelman; Binti by Nnedi Okorafor, and Code Talker: A Novel About the Navajo Marines of World War Two by Joseph Bruchac.
The titles were selected in consultation with humanities scholars and librarians to inspire teens—especially those facing difficult circumstances or challenges—to consider “big questions” about the world around them and their place in it, ultimately affecting how they view themselves as thinkers and creators.
As part of the grant, the Joeten-Kiyu Public Library will receive 11 copies of each of the selected books, which will be gifted to the book club participants. The library will also receive resources and training, including travel and accommodations for an orientation workshop in Chicago. The workshops will include dialogue facilitation training led by consultants to Everyday Democracy and program modeling led by national project scholars Maria Sachiko Cecire (Bard College) and Anna Mae Duane (University of Connecticut).
Gatherings of the Great Stories Club at the Joeten-Kiyu Public Library will begin in October. More information can be found at cnmilib.org or by contacting 235-READ or emailing emily.jkpl@gmail.com. (PR)
