District 212 Launches One Book, One Leyden

After months of planning, District 212 recently launched One Book, One Leyden, a community-wide reading project designed to encourage reading for pleasure as part of daily life.

To that end a committee took on the project, and by the beginning of the current school year, had selected The Distance Between Us, a memoir by Mexican-born author Reyna Grande.

The book is an inspiring account of Grande's life - first as a child living with an indifferent grandmother in an impoverished town in Mexico; while her parents live and work in America, hoping to one day reunite the family stateside.

At the age of nine, Grande crosses the border as an undocumented immigrant with an uncertain future. She finds that life in America is a constant struggle as she deals with unstable family relationships, abandonment issues, prejudice and poverty. Yet in spite of the challenges, Grande remains focused, seeking her true identity and fulfilling her potential.

This November the committee launched the One Book, One Leyden project by distributing copies of the book to all Leyden faculty and staff members as well as village administrators and community members. The goal is to prompt a community read: participants read the book, pass it on to other people and then join in the discussions and other activities relevant to the book and Grande's journey.

"This book bears a powerful message of hope," says Janine Asmus, One Book, One Leyden committee chairperson and the librarian at the West campus. "Those who read it will be inspired by Reyna's perseverance and determination. It's a profound, identifiable and readable story."

The project continues through February of 2016 when Grande will visit with students at the East and West campuses on Thursday and Friday, February 18 and 19. The author also will meet with community members at a reception to be held from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. on February 18 in the auditorium at West Leyden.

"I think a community read will bring us closer together and create a dialogue not only across our physical and virtual curriculum, but also across the lunch table and across town," Asmus says. "It allows the Leyden community to connect on a common theme and a powerful topic with many threads."