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Community
Responses:
What
you told us about the project |
These are the written responses the Library
has received about the project and the programs. Responses were
collected on the evaluation form included in the Resource Guide.
Answers may have been edited for clarity and some duplicate answers
were combined.
How did you hear about
the Reading: Bridge to a Wider World project?
- At our book club at the West Duluth Branch
Library
- Newspapers (Duluth News Tribune and Budgeteer)
- From my child's teacher at Marshall School.
- Friends
Click here for the complete list of responses
What caused you to participate?
- Love book discussions and wanted to read
To Kill a Mockingbird.
- Because I think it's such a fantastic
idea for a whole city to read a book together.
- The tidal pull of so many people reading
the same book drew me in.
- Read it in school - thought it would be
fun to re-read.
- Liked Lee's story and wanted to learn
more about the author.
Click here for the complete list of responses
Where did you get your
copy of To Kill a Mockingbird?
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Library - 31 |
Bookstore - 46 |
Home - 21 |
Other - 11 |
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- Wal-Mart
- Video rental
- Friend
- Came with our home school curriculum
- School
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Did you read and discuss
the book with friends, in a book discussion group or just by yourself?
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By myself - 20 |
Other: |
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Book discussion group - 41 |
- With other teachers.
- I teach the book to 9th graders.
- At school
- Green Room lecture. Film.
- With a professional group
- Our church (First Unitarian) chose it
for our April Book Club discussion.
- Barnes and Noble comparison with Duluth
lynching.
- With student in a high school
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With family or friends - 19 |
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Were the materials
in the Resource Guide helpful in your reading and understanding
of the book?
How?
- Made me think about elements I did not
pay much thought to in initial reading.
- The questions were thought provoking.
I used them as I read the story. They expanded my knowledge and
appreciation of the novel.
- Gave the discussion background information
and focus.
- it helped me understand who Scout really
is.
- Timelines helped place the events in history.
Click here for the complete list of responses
How did the book affect
you?
- Riding home from the Ordway (and reading
it) I said to my daughter, "I'm coming to the courtroom
when Reverend Sykes said, 'Miss Jean Louise, stand up. Your father
is passin.' " We both teared up. A shared memory! Time did
not dull our memories of the book.
- It caused me to reflect on my Southern
heritage, and to confront the racism in my own family members
and myself.
- At the West Duluth Library group discussion
we found the story applies to our generation just as it did to
the 1930s
- It made me think of all its valuable life
lessons - specifically what one person can do to effect positive
community change.
- I love reading fiction. This is a favorite
novel. Reading allows me to get into someone else's shoes and
learn from them.
- I was saddened that society still has
so far to go to achieve justice and end racism!
Click here for the complete list of responses
Why was To Kill a
Mockingbird a good selection for this area-reading project?
The evaluation form asked
if this book was a good selection. No-one answered that
it was not.
- A universal book. Just the right length.
Appealing story that kept my attention. Timely and relevant.
- The Duluth lynchings, of current interest
to the community, strike a renewed interest in Mockingbird.
- Made me think about how I discriminate
against those who are different than me.
- Couldn't have been better! It appeals
to all ages. It is a storyteller's story. It teaches many lessons.
Appeals to men and women.
- Perfect. Such broad appeal and so many
eternally relevant themes
- Deals with important issues in the complex
way that they deserve but, especially in Duluth with its serious
lack of diversity.
Click here for the complete list of responses
Do you have a title
to suggest for another Reading: Bridge to a Wider World project?
- The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
- A Painted House
by John Grisham
- The Girl With a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier
- The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane
- Huckleberry Finn,
Tom Sawyer or Letters from the Earth by Mark Twain
- The Pilot's Wife
or The Weight of Water by Anita Shreve
- Cold Mountain
by Charles Frazier
- The Cape Ann
by Faith Sullivan
- Range of Motion
by Elizabeth Berg
- All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
- The Good Earth
by Pearl S. Buck
- Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
- The Executioner's Song by Norman Mailer
- An American Requiem - James Carroll
- Silent Spring
by Rachel Carson
- The Diary of Anne Frank
- Waiting
by Ha Jin
- perhaps a book dealing with Israel/Palestine
or Islam
- A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
- The Grapes of Wrath, Of Mice and Men or East of Eden
by John Steinbeck
- Night
by Elie Weisel
- Rubyfruit Jungle
by Rita Mae Brown
- The Gulag Archipelago by Alexander Solzhenitsyn
- Barbarians at the Gate by Bryan Burrough
- The Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury
- Stones from the River by Ursula Hegi
- My Antonia
by Willa Cather
- Love Medicine
or The Antelope Wife by Louise Erdrich
- Main Street
by Sinclair Lewis
- A biography of Beatrix Potter
- Rainbow Six
by Tom Clancy
Project
| Mayor Doty's
Message | Events
| Harper Lee's Letter | Lee
Bio | Civil Rights Era | Scottsboro Trials |
Discussion Questions | For
Younger Readers | More Books for
Kids & Teens | Acknowledgements
| Final Report
10/24/05
Duluth Public Library, 520 W. Superior St., Duluth, MN 55802
