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!”
Even though Zita the Spacegirl by Ben Hatke is a must-read on its own, there are other things, specifically what the reader can take away from it, that help to solidify it as a must-read. One of the first takeaways is leadership. Throughout the graphic novel, Zita must learn to become a leader and live …
Our third middle-grade book for this year’s NEA Big Read Lakeshore 2022 is Zita the Spacegirl by Ben Hatke. Zita the Spacegirl is a graphic novel series and can be considered our more traditional middle-grade heroes’ journey story. The story follows a girl named Zita Danielson. On Earth, Zita is a normal twelve-year-old girl middle …
In the last blog post, we discussed Miles Morales: Spider-Man by Jason Reynolds and gave a brief synopsis of the book. But what are some of the book’s main themes that you should know about, and what will be different if you decide to read the novel version and your friend chooses to read the …
If you are a fan of Marvel, then you should definitely pick up a copy of the second middle-grade read that the NEA Big Read Lakeshore has chosen, which is Miles Morales: Spider-Man by Jason Reynolds. At this point, Jason Reynolds should be a household name for anyone who attends NEA Big Read Lakeshore events. …
In the last blog post, we discussed why you should read Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds and even gave you some background information about the author and the book to entice you to pick it up and begin reading. This blog post will discuss the major themes that make Long Way Down a book …
In keeping with our 2022 NEA Big Read Lakeshore and Little Read theme that anyone can be a hero, our team decided to show that with our middle-grade books. These are books that are targeted at late elementary, middle school, and early high school students, but are perfect for any reader. The first middle-grade book …
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 …
