The 2015 Kids Reading Across Rhode Island Book is Flora & Ulysses by Kate DiCamillo!
Kids Reading Across Rhode Island, the ‘one book, one state’ initiative for students in grades 3-6, kicks off its 6th year with the 2014 Newbery Award winning book, Flora & Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures by Kate DiCamillo. A May 9th kickoff event with DiCamillo at the State House includes a public program, activities and games presented by Rhode Island libraries and children’s organizations. Every family in attendance receives a copy of the book (while supplies last). 92 ProFM’s, Kim Zandy, of “Giovanni and Kim in the Morning”, is the 2015 Chair of Kids Reading Across Rhode Island.
About This Year’s Book
Flora & Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures is a laugh-out-loud story filled with eccentric, endearing characters and featuring an exciting new format—a novel interspersed with comic-style graphic sequences and full-page illustrations, rendered in black-and-white by artist K. G. Campbell. It was a 2014 Newbery Award Winner, a 2013 Parents’ Choice Gold Award Winner, a New York Times bestseller, and was chosen by Amazon, Publishers Weekly, Kirkus Reviews, and Common Sense Media as a Best Book of the Year.
About the Author
DiCamillo is already well known and beloved for her many other books, including Because of Winn Dixie, The Tale of Despereaux, and The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane. Kids Reading Across Rhode Island has a special opportunity for outreach this year, because DiCamillo is the 2014-2015 National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature. She will visit Rhode Island to speak at the Kick-Off Event and at a special RI PBS Inside the Authors Studio event for librarians, teachers, and children’s book enthusiasts. Sponsored by The Center for the Book at the Library of Congress, the Children’s Book Council, and Every Child a Reader, the National Ambassador position was created to raise awareness of the importance of young people’s literature as it relates to lifelong literacy, education, and the development and betterment of the lives of young people.
About Kids About Reading Across Rhode Island
Kids Reading Across Rhode Island is a partnership between the RI Office of Library and Information Services and the RI Center for the Book, made possible through a vibrant collaboration of librarians, teachers, and student readers from across the state. The State House event serves as a kickoff for the annual statewide library summer reading program, which has a 2015 theme of “Every Hero Has a Story.” All summer, public and other libraries statewide will offer free programs inspired by Flora & Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventure.
A partnership between the RI Office of Library and Information Services and the RI Center for the Book, Kids Reading Across Rhode Island receives major funding from TD Bank and TD Charitable Foundation and the Institute of Museum and Library Services.
Sets of books are available for loan to schools and public libraries for discussion groups by contacting kate@ribook.org. Further reading lists, book discussion guides, the author’s website, audio interviews and other supplementary material may be found on the websites of Rhode Island Center for the Book (www.ribook.org) and the Office of Library and Information Services (www.olis.ri.gov).