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MEDIA ADVISORY
April 19, 2004

Contact:
Terry Hapney, Director of Communications
Phone: (740) 351-3112; FAX: (740) 351-3179; Cell: (740) 352-5566
E-mail: thapney@shawnee.edu

SSU/PPL To Unveil “One Book” Friday

What would happen if everyone in the area read the same book and then came together as a community to talk about it? Area residents are about to find out.

The Portsmouth Public Library (PPL) and Shawnee State University's (SSU) Clark Memorial Library, at the encouragement of SSU President Rita Rice Morris, are hosting south-central Ohio and northeast Kentucky's first "One Book, One Community" initiative. "One Book, One Community" is a community-wide reading and discussion program that encourages area residents to read the same book at the same time. The program will give everyone a common base for discussion of themes important to the region and serve as a community-building event. It will also foster closer ties between the community and the University. The “One Book” program promotes literacy as everyone joins together to read and talk about the same book. The program runs from March 2004 through April 2005, and will culminate with a program by the book's author.

The book selection committee released a list of five titles for consideration and the "One Book" was chosen by popular vote. Area residents were asked to cast their votes between March 17 and April 16. The following books were selected for consideration and voting:

· Best Christmas Pageant Ever, by Barbara Robinson--The Herdmans, terrors of the town, take over the annual Christmas pageant with surprising results for both the town and the Herdmans.

· Clay's Quilt, By Silas House--Clay Sizemore is a Kentucky coal miner in love with his town, but unsure of his place within it. He finds his family in the townspeople as they help him fashion a quilt from the treasured pieces that surround him.

· Rocket Boys, Homer Hickam--The true story of Homer "Sonny" Hickam, Jr., a boy from the mining town of Coalwood, WVa. Influenced by Sputnik, this is a story about one boy's desire to join the space race.

· She Walks These Hills, Sharyn McCrumb--Many lives and one afterlife of many not-so-simple southern folk are woven together in a way that keeps the reader on the edge and looking into shadowy corners for the source of unexplained noises and peripheral movements.

· Shoeless Joe, W.P. Kinsella--An Iowa farmer sets off on a baseball odyssey across the northeastern U.S. after building a ball diamond in his corn field where long deceased members of the Chicago "Black Sox" come out to play.

The "One Book" will be announced on April 23 at a press conference at 10 a.m. at the Portsmouth Public Library. Local, regional, and statewide officials will be in attendance (including legislators), in addition to area children from local school systems. SSU President Rita Rice Morris and State Representative Todd Book will read books to children beginning at 10:30 a.m.

For more information, call the SSU Office of Communications at (740) 351-3810.

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