"Spelling Bee"

Read to Succeed's "Spelling Bee" is about two-weeks from now. Macaronni Grill creates the 6:00 o'clock "Celebrity buzz" dinner on Tuesday night, November 13th, in the Patterson Community Center, and the Spelling Bee is at 7:00PM. Tickets are available on-line at www.ReadtoSucceed.org or by calling 615-738-READ (7323).

Sarah Porterfield was on WGNS' Action Line Monday morning (10/29/2012) to tell about the local non-profit that promotes individual as well as family literacy. She said, "44 per cent of Rutherford Countians read at the fourth grade level or below." Porterfield also noted that studies show a child's reading habits are usually in place by the time they reach the third grade, and the success of their reading skills and habits is usually proportional to whether adults read to them.

"One Book"

Read to Succeed Volunteer and One Book Co-chair Michelle Palmer announced that this year's book is The Fault in Our Stars by John Green.

Palmer described it as an uplifting romantic story of two teens. They meet in a support group where 16-year old Hazel has cancer and 17-year old former basketball player, Augustus, faces challenges as an amputee. Palmer confides, "I sat down to read a paragraph or two, and could not put the book down." 

Committee Co-chair and MTSU English Professor Laura Beth Payne says that, in the end, Read To Succeed chose a book for 2012-13 that could “stir up meaningful conversations.”

“The characters are definitely complex as well as relatable,” Payne says, “but the questions they ask about life, faith, literature, pain, and relationships are intrinsically part of the human experience, and we really valued that in the book.”

The Fault in Our Stars revolves around 16-year-old Hazel, who’s dealing with terminal cancer when she meets another cancer-effected teen at her support group. The book follows their evolving relationship as they both face universal questions of life, death, and meaning.

One Book Committee Co-chair Michelle Palmer calls the book “funny and poignant, and easily readable.”

“It’s a good choice for everyone from high schoolers through adults,” Palmer says. “It has been a bestseller since it's publication in January, and has gotten praise from everyone from The New York Times to Entertainment Weekly.”

This program is in podcast form (click below)