KOSCIUSKO COUNTY — With financial support from The Dekko Foundation and Indiana Humanities, Kosciusko Literacy Services has launched Plant the Seed, READ! Community Book Read.  If everyone in Kosciusko County reads the same book at the same time, members of the community would find new friends and neighbors with whom to share a good book and stimulating discussion.  The goals of Plant the Seed, Read! are to cultivate a love of reading, promote a sense of community, encourage reading for pleasure and knowledge and illustrate the 40 Developmental Assets® as defined by the Search Institute.

Placed in yellow bins at convenient locations throughout the county, 450 copies of A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway are available to residents of Kosciusko County.  Each of the six area libraries hosts a bin.  Residents are encouraged to read the selection, pass it on to a friend, or return it to a bin and to discuss the book and the 40 Developmental Assets® with friends and discussion groups.  K

Kosciusko Literacy Services Executive Director Cynthia Cates states, “A Farewell to Arms was selected to highlight Hemingway’s contributions to American Literature.  Hemingway’s stories and novels remain classics.” 

Both the Plant the Seed, Read! website and the Kosciusko Literacy Services website have more details on the selection including the bin locations. 

Professor Elliot Engel will be lecturing on the Importance of Being Ernest Hemingway at Warsaw High School, Wawasee High School, Lakeland Christian High School and at The Author Dinner on April 20.  For tickets to The Author Dinner call (574) 267-5380.  In addition to the availability of A Farewell to Arms, copies of The Old Man and the Sea are available to classrooms upon request.  Each third grade student in the county will receive a book with a patriotic or historical theme.  Preschoolers enrolled in Kosciusko Literacy Services’ Read to Grow Children’s Book Club will each receive age-appropriate books. 

Children and adults may also enter the Graphic Novel Contest, Book Cover Contest, and the Essay Contest.  Rules are available online.  Book discussions are planned at the Martin’s Side Door Deli at 9 a.m. on March 22, the Milford Public Library at 1 p.m. on April 10, the Syracuse Public Library at 1 p.m. on April 12, and the Warsaw Community Public Library at 6:30 p.m. on April 24. 

Kosciusko Literacy Services invites adults and teens to read A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway, to discuss Hemingway’s works and to read to and with younger children.