The Big Read is a program of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with Arts Midwest.
Now that you have learned a little bit about all of our 2022 Big Read, Middle Read, and Little Read books we are excited that our 2022 events calendar is live. The Big Read and Little Read has 100 events taking place on the West Michigan Lakeshore with help from our partners and libraries. This …
Continue reading “The 2022 Big Read and Little Read Events are Live!”
This summer two Hope College students, Tatiana Beranand Luke Van Hout, have been working on an app for the Big Read and Little Read programs. The creators of the app were kind enough to answer a few questions about the process and what they learned along the way. The purpose of this app is to …
Continue reading “Q&A with the Big Read Synlesa App Creators”
Who is Homer? Homer is a Greek poet born between the 12th and 8th centuries BC. Scholars know very little about Homer other than the fact that he wrote both The Iliad and The Odyssey. What is an Epic Poem? Both The Iliad and The Odyssey are epic poems. This means that the texts are …
As you probably know, the Big Read’s 2022 book selection is Circe by Madeline Miller. Our program also selected several middle-grade books and a little grade book. One of our big-grade and middle-grade reads is a version of Homer’s The Odyssey. You may be wondering why our program selected this book. It is not exactly …
This year our Big Read Lakeshore selection is Circe by Madeline Miller. We have a number of middle read and little read books that incorporate the theme of the Hero’s Journey. We believe that it is important to read literature in order to learn about and from the experiences of others – our 2022 chosen …
We are so excited to have Lakeshore readers read our 2022 book (Circe by Madeline Miller) and start conversations about its topics and themes. This year we will be featuring many different books throughout the level that bring our themes together. Check out more about our various age group selections on our website. We made …
This year’s book selection and details about our upcoming programming will be announced in just two days. We are excited to share our chosen book and begin our conversations around this year’s themes. It will be the Big Read and Little Read’s ninth year headed by our director Dr. Deb Van Duinen and we’re honored …
Continue reading “Two More Days until our Book Announcement!”
The Hero’s Journey is one of the most popular ways to structure a story. There are oftentimes slight variations to the stories, but they have similar trends. Heroes and their feats have been used in storytelling since The Epic of Gilgamesh in the 12th century. Many of these older pieces of literature inspired popular books …
Continue reading “Why we should all read the Percy Jackson series”
The Big Read is a literacy program, so one would assume that our program only works within the English discipline. I learned in one of my classes this spring that was taught by Deb Van Duinen, our program’s director, that literacy is important in all of our disciplines. It means something different to be literate …
Gaining knowledge is one important reason why people read literature. Students (and some teachers and parents) often ask why school curriculum requires them to read things like Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare or epic poems like Beowulf. While this could lead to a much larger discussion, one reason for reading “classic” literature is that books …
