Politics & Government

Library Director: Community Reading Program a Success

As Westborough Reads Together ends its five-month run, organizers are inspired to do it again.

 

On Tuesday afternoon, April 10, excitedly came into the first floor library reading room, took a seat at a table and, with a big sigh, smiled. She said the day had been a huge success so far. Ambrosino had just come from lunch with Amy King, author of Please Ignore Vera Dietz, the featured book in Westborough’s first community-wide reading program.

“She spent the morning speaking at high school assemblies. She spoke to ninth and eleventh graders, then to tenth and twelfth grades. She was wonderful,” said Ambrosino. “After lunch, she went to speak at a high school business class.” King ended the day with a book signing at

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The author was in town as part of Westborough’s first community reading program. Ambrosino, together with high school librarian Anita Cellucci and John Badenhausen and a team of others, started planning Westborough Reads Together in 2010. The program launched on November 29, featuring King’s book. The goal, said Ambrosino, was to provide a forum on social issues for Westborough youth and their families by bringing them together through a reading experience.

The book is the edgy, contemporary story of Vera Dietz, a high school student whose best friend dies in dark circumstances. It touches on a number of issues, including death, teen drinking and troubled relationships.

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“The original title was Ignore Vera Dietz,” King said. “A lot of times when teens have problems, adults tend to ignore it…leaving teens to figure it out for themselves.” She said that her publisher added "please" to the title.

The book idea came to her as she was driving through her hometown years ago. “I was listening to OKGo, thinking about a friend that I lost,” she recalled. As she drove by the pizza place where — like the character Vera Dietz — King worked in high school delivering pizzas, the story idea became clear.

“I pulled over into a church parking lot and started writing things down,” she said, “I wrote the book in just 40 days.”

King was stunned to hear that her book was chosen as the topic for an entire town, Ambrosino recalled. More impressive to her than the selection of her book, however, was the idea of a community wide reading program.

King, the mother of two young daughters, lives in Bucks County, Pennsylvania where she is a local library trustee.

"When I see programs like [Westborough Reads Together], run by dedicated and enthusiastic librarians, I get a huge feeling in my chest. Not because they're using my book, but because they have found a way to get their community to read together. That's pretty amazing, isn't it?” wrote King in a recent blog.

Ambrosino said readers of all ages rallied around the book. “I was surprised by the whole project,” she said. “We have no idea how many actually read the book. I hear a lot of people talking about how it was used in book clubs in town. We bought 200 books at cost from Tatnuck and distributed them. But it’s hard to know how many really read them or passed them along to be read.”

As far as she is concerned, the inaugural year was a success. “We’ve done it, and we’ve done it well,” she said, adding that she looks forward to doing it again.

She said the lesson she learned about planning a program like this is to secure funding before beginning. “We started the program without all of the funding in place, and that is stressful.”

The program cost $5,500, money raised through private donations and civic group donations. “I thought it would cost more…We could have done additional activities, but it’s expensive. The next time, we hope to get more grant funding.”

To close out Westborough Reads Together, organizers will hold a video festival on April 30. It will feature videos submitted in a video contest being sponsored by A number of cash prizes will be awarded at the festival on April 30 at . Complete rules can be found on the Westborough Public Library website.

“It’s all been great,” Ambrosino said. “I’m so happy to be part of this program.”

“It’s a strong comment that your town is reading together,” King said. “A town that reads together will become more engaged with other things in the community.”

 

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