Wheaton Reads 2015 aims to celebrate diversity

Organizers of Wheaton Public Library's third annual communitywide reading event are hopeful the book they selected will appeal to residents of many different cultural backgrounds.

Anyone is welcome to participate in the program, called Wheaton Reads, during September by picking up "The Book of Unknown Americans," a story about two immigrant families from Latin America.

Last year's program focused on "Sherlock Holmes," and the first year was tailored around Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice."

"This year we wanted to go contemporary - kind of move away from the classics," Programming Librarian Courtney Tedrick said. "We're just trying to do something different, to include more of the community,"

The theme for this year's program prompted organizers to also partner with the city's community relations commission to host Wheaton World Tour - a free festival celebrating the city's diversity - from 1 to 4 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 13.

The festival previously was held in Memorial Park, but this year it will move to Adams Park and the west plaza of the library.

"It seemed like a perfect partnership," Tedrick said, adding that the commission saw it as "an opportunity to join forces with us to make this event the best it could be."

Tedrick said the other event library officials are especially excited for is a visit by the book's Chicago-based author, Christina Henríquez, at 7 p.m. on Sept. 17. Henríquez will discuss the concept of "the overlooked immigrant" and sign copies of her book.

"It's really nice to have the author come so people can ask her questions," Tedrick said.

Other Wheaton Reads programs taking place at the library include:

• Chinese cooking demo, 6:30 p.m. on Sept. 10: Asian cooking instructor Ying Stoller will demonstrate how to cook fried rice and chicken and vegetable stir fry. Her Asian sauces and cookbooks will be available to buy.

• Turkish paper marbling, 7 p.m. on Sept. 15: Paper marbling artist Sevim Surucu will discuss the art of Ebru and demonstrates its techniques.

• India's Holiest Cities, 7 p.m. on Sept. 22: Travel expert Bill Helmuth will share information about India's holy cities of Varanasi and Bodh Gaya.

All three programs are free and open to anyone, including people living outside Wheaton, but they require registration.

A drop-in origami class and screening of a Swedish film will be offered for teens, and three adult book discussions on "The Book of Unknown Americans" are also being planned for the month.

"We're pretty much bringing everyone from the community in on this," Tedrick said. "The goal is to have people walk away from this and talk about it among themselves,"

Tedrick said it is hard to determine how many people participate in Wheaton Reads each year, but she knows many have been asking when it was starting again. In addition, in an effort to draw more people in, organizers decided to move most of the Wheaton Reads programs from Sundays to weeknights.

"We're not really that focused on the numbers; we're just really more focused on providing great programs for people," Tedrick said.