The Paly library will host a local author as part of a citywide effort to increase reading during the lunch-time discussion of her book March 3.

Author Bo Caldwell is expected at the discussion for her book The Distant Land of My Father, the 2008 Silicon Valley Reads book. Silicon Valley Reads is a joint effort by Santa Clara’s County Office of Education, the County Library and the San Jose Public Library Foundation, according to the website. Its goal is to “promote reading and literacy, broaden exposure to and appreciation of good literature, and build community.”

The Palo Alto Public Library, which participates in the event, sponsors the Paly program. Caldwell, is a former Paly parent who also taught at Stanford, according to Paly librarian Rachel Kellerman

“The idea of a whole county and/or city reading one book and then exploring its themes in a lot of different ways is intended to bring communities together,” said Kellerman. “The month of February is dedicated to many activities related to this book and the Paly book club is one of them.”

Free copies of the book were given away, courtesy of the Friends of the Palo Alto Public Libraries, a non-profit association that supports the city libraries and their users. According to Kellerman, the Friends initially bought 40 books, 30 of which went to Paly readers.
The copies presented to the library have been dispensed, according to assistant librarian Debbie Henry.

“The reaction from students and staff has been great,” Kellerman said.

“Some of the teachers know the author because her children were Paly students. I wanted to give the books away before winter break so students and staff could have time to read them. There are about an equal number of staff and students participating from all different academic departments and class levels.”

Juniors Macy Stewart and Mariko Baba have chosen to participate in the book club. Both consider themselves readers and were motivated partly by the giveaway.

“It’s definitely nice that there were free books,” Stewart said.

Kellerman plans to have a pizza lunch during discussion of Caldwell’s book. In addition, she hopes this book club will be the first of many.

“I would love to sponsor a variety of books clubs–perhaps with different themes such as a fantasy book club or graphic novels,” said Kellerman. “All we need are interested students and some money to buy some books. I guess pizza might help too for a lunchtime discussion… I would encourage any students interested in starting a book club to come and see me. Maybe we could have a movie/book discussion as there are so many books made into movies these days.”

Kellerman believes that that the Paly community’s interest in the book club is a hopeful sign, because the national readership is declining.

“Paly is a community of readers so there is great support for reading and books,” said Kellerman. “This isn’t the case nationally, however, as a new study from the National Endowment for the Arts found that among 17 year olds, 19% said they were nonreaders and on average 15-24 percent of Americans spend an average of two hours a day watching TV and only 7 minutes reading for pleasure.”

The library book club meeting will be at lunch on Monday, March 3.

For more information on Silicon Valley Reads, visit http://siliconvalleyreads.org/2007-08/default.asp
The Palo Alto City Library website is http://www.city.palo-alto.ca.us/depts/lib/resources_online.asp