HomeMy WebLinkAboutHuntington Beach Reads One Book Program - C-Item submitted bC, )Ur/ /I /,--j
From City Council Members Cathy Green & Gil Coerper, Liaisons to the
Human Relations Task Force
Date June 11, 2008
Subject C-ITEM FOR JUKE 16, 2008, CITY COUNCIL MEETING -
HIINTINGTON BEACH "LEADS ONE BOOK"PROGRAM
Last year the Human Relations Task Force inaugurated the"HB Reads One Book Program Given
the enthusiastic community support for this program the Task Force is proud to announce the
selection of the 2009 HB Reads One Book The book they have selected is The Kids From
Nowhere The Story Behind the Arctic Educational Miracle by George Guthndge
"The Kids from Nowhere is an inspiring true story of a teacher who moved to a small village on an
island in the Bering Sea off the coast of Alaska in 1982 to teach at a small school
Working with few resources and with a group of students who are bright but lack focus and
training Mr Guthndge adopts motivates and coaches He soon enters his students into a
national academic competition that stretches him and his students to the limits in the end they
prevail and become the only team of northern Native Americans in U S history to ever win a
national championship in academics
The Task Force believes the story captures the essence of its mission — to understand and learn
from cultures other than our own "The Kids from Nowhere" will be a great tool to spark
conversation and discussion groups regarding cultural diversity issues for both our local high
school students and community members The high schools are extremely supportive of the
program and they have already expressed an interest in participating in the program next year
Representatives from both the Library Board and the Friends of the Library also participated in the
selection of this book for the 2009 HB Reads One Book program
Background
Read One Book projects around the country first started in Seattle in 1998 Since then cities
across the nation have adopted the program and participated in community -wide efforts to share
fiction and non-fiction titles Books chosen are read by members of the community including
students and discussed in a variety of forums There are opportunities for a wide variety of related
activities such as lectures book clubs author visits exhibits arts programming and programs with
schools
This program began last year with the selection of Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and
David Oliver Relin The Human Relations Task Force developed a series of programs surrounding
Mr Mortenson s mission to build schools in Central Asia These included music food
photography as well as a number of book discussion groups Sets of books were purchased for
each of the seven high schools within the Huntington Beach Union High School District (HBUHSD)
and the program culminated with a presentation by Mr Mortenson to 600 high school students the
morning of February 21 2008 This was followed by a presentation that same evening to an
audience of over 1200 in the Huntington Beach High School gymnasium