Arlington Heights school reads together in 'one book' program

Students at Patton Elementary School in Arlington Heights are joining their family members and school staff on a reading adventure this fall, through Patton's first One Book, Once School program.

The book, "The Wild Robot" by Peter Brown, has been distributed to each family, along with a reading schedule, optional activities and discussion questions for reading at home together, said Idelle Melamed, library media center director at Patton.

Melamed said this is the first time an Arlington Heights Elementary District 25 school has done a schoolwide reading program like this, so they are getting the whole community involved. Superintendent Lori Bein, Village President Tom Hayes, the children's librarian at the Arlington Heights Memorial Library and several others have recorded videos of themselves reading chapters aloud that students can watch. On Oct. 11, the school will video chat with the book's author to celebrate finishing the program.

"I chose this book because I believed it would engage all of our readers, and have enough depth for the intermediate students," Melamed said. "And, it aligns with a lot of curriculum at each grade level as well as having a theme of 'what makes a family.'"