Readers heading back to prairie

Aurora-area readers will escape this month to a place in time where life was more isolating, working the land was more difficult and friends and neighbors were the center of family life.

Prairie life will be the theme when this year's Fox Valley Reads, a community-wide reading campaign, begins Saturday and continues through Oct. 20.

The featured book is Willa Cather's "My Antonia," which tells the story of immigrant families who start new lives in rural Nebraska.

The event, a partnership with the national Big Read initiative, includes at least 10 book discussions and nearly 30 programs.

"Our goal this year is more a general push to make people aware of the joys of reading, particularly of classical literature," said Sandra Pointon, Aurora Public Library's main library coordinator.

Last year in its inaugural campaign, Fox Valley Reads attracted about 600 participants, which organizers hope to increase this year.

The program is a joint effort among the Aurora Public Library, Messenger Public Library of North Aurora and Oswego Public Library District.

This year, it was chosen for the first time to join 116 communities participating in The Big Read, an initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts to spotlight reading.

Library leaders could choose among 12 books, including "The Great Gatsby," "The Joy Luck Club" and "A Farewell to Arms." "My Antonia" was the best fit, they said.

"We felt it would speak most strongly to residents, because of the background of pioneer life in Illinois," Pointon said.

The book's strength is its language and the way Cather describes the beauty of the landscape and isolation of living there.

"It gives you a sense of how hard it was to move there and be a pioneer," she said. "It's not really about action; it's about sense of place and time."

Leaders received a $12,500 matching grant from Big Reads, with a total of $25,000 to spend on the campaign, including programs.

The free programs include a prairie walk, pioneer games, genealogy seminars, a square dance and an American Girl Tea and Fashion Show.

A historian playing Willa Cather will talk about the making of the book at 2 p.m. Sept. 29 in the auditorium of the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy, 1500 W. Sullivan Road.

For a complete list of events, visit www.foxvalleyreads.org.