By Cassidy Porter
It’s hard to believe that this year Albion’s Big Read is celebrating 10 years! As a participant in the first year of the program, it is even more difficult think that 10 amazing years of community togetherness, youth empowerment, and common reading have gone by. Created with a vision to have educational experiences beyond the classroom for Albion’s young people, Albion’s Big Read has grown over the 10 years.
You may be wondering, what is Albion’s Big Read?
2024
Albion’s Big Read brings the Albion community together throughout the month of October over a common reading. There are discussions about the common reading led by Albion 8th through 10th graders, known as the Big Read Leaders. But at its core, Albion’s Big Read is a program built for empowering and uplifting Albion’s youth by providing a safe space for everyone to show up and be their authentic, true self. Albion’s Big Read is a space for joy, for learning, for questions, for community.
As a previous Leader and now Ambassador, I know that this program helps develop and strengthen our youth’s confidence, communication skills, and love for reading. It brings Albion’s youth back together in their own community to feel the love that Albion’s community members hold.
Big Read Evolution
2015
Over the year’s Big Read Leaders have led book discussions based on Ursula Le Guin’s A Wizard of Earthsea, Charles Portis’ True Grit, Ibi Zoboi’s Pride, Jason Reynold’s Long Way Down, Lamar Giles’ Fake I.D., among others. The conversations start around the book but dive into real life. Albion youth and adults held conversations around real topics while perusing community togetherness. The program continued through a global pandemic and changes in the community.
Three year’s ago, the program started a spin off for elementary school students, the Little Big Read. As program Director, Jess Roberts shared, this program gets books by writers and illustrators of People of Color into the hands of every kid at Harrington Elementary and brings in the author or illustrator of one of those books.
Year 10 Excitement
This year the amazing Big Read Leaders will be leading discussions based on Rita Williams-Garcia’s One Crazy Summer. This novel is “about three sisters who fly across the country in 1968 to spend the summer with their mother in Oakland, CA.”* You can pick up your copy at one of five book hubs: City Hall, Albion District Library, Charles Snyder Center, Foundry Bakehouse & Deli, and the Cutler Center at Albion College’s Stockwell Library.
For more of Albion’s Big Read events check out the calendar on the back as well as albionbigread.org. And to hear from Albion’s Big Read Directors and College Volunteers, check out the Brick by Brick Podcast, new episodes with Big Read guests will be released this October.
*Quoted from Albion’s Big Read website – albionbigread.org