KC hosts The Big Read: Family Reading Night on October 21

As part of the national Big Read, Kishwaukee College is hosting Family Reading Night on October 21, beginning at 7:00p.m. in the Kishwaukee College Conference Center Dining Room. Participants should park in Lot A (south side of building) and enter through Doors #16 or 17. The event is free and open to the public.

The common text selected for this year’s Big Read is A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin. Published in 1968, Le Guin crafted the novel as work designed for older teens/young adults and explored where wizards come from by following the apprenticeship of a young mage (magician) named Ged. The result is a coming-of-age novel set in a richly textured fantasy world. The novel struck a chord in readers of all ages, prompting Le Guin to continue Ged’s story through four more novels and creating a fantasy classic in the process.

The Family Reading Night at Kishwaukee College will include a variety of family-friendly activities, including videos, music, and hands-on activities, as well as reading from the novel. In the past several years, The Big Read event at Kishwaukee College has focused on public readings from the selected literature. Because of the fantasy theme and cross-generational appeal of The Wizard of Earthsea, a broader offering of activities has been designed for this year’s event.

The Big Read is a program developed by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) to emphasize reading. Annually, participating local communities encourage reading by selecting a single work of American literature and then design events and activities that are held throughout the community over three – four weeks. DeKalb Public Library and Kishwaukee College have partnered in offering public readings of the selected text as well as other activities throughout the local community for several years.

This year, DeKalb is one of only 77 programs in the country to receive a Big Read Grant from the NEA and one of only three programs in the nation that has received the Big Read Grant for eight consecutive years.

For more information on the Family Reading Night on October 21, contact Carla Raynor at Kishwaukee College at 815-825-2086, ext. 2910.