Acting Director of the Groton Public Library Betty Anne Reiter recently announced that the Groton Library’s One Book, One Region 2008 program is underway, and this year’s book is Life Is So Good by Richard Glaubman.
The book is based on the life of George Dawson, who, according to Wikipedia, co-wrote his life story with Glaubman when he was 101 years old. Throughout the book, readers are able to tap into Dawson’s life.
Born in Marshall, Texas, as the first of five children, Dawson was a farmer’s son and the grandson and great-grandson of African-American slaves. After marrying and having seven children, Reiter said Dawson decided to reveal a secret: He was illiterate. He enrolled in a local adult basic education program near his home in Dallas at the age of 98. He continued to study for his GED at the age 103, gaining a lot of media attention in the process.
“[Dawson] had a very interesting life,” Reiter said.
According to Reiter, All 30 copies of the book at the library are gone, adding that it has been their No. 1 circulating book. Additional copies can be found at southeastern Connecticut libraries participating in the One Book, One Region program.
Activities surrounding Groton’s One Book, One Region program are loosely based on the themes of Life Is So Good. They will be held on Wednesday evenings throughout the summer, featuring special speakers, films, book discussions, and a family program.
On July 23, the library will show the film Riding the Rails, which recounts the lives of teenage freight-train riders during the Great Depression. Reiter said the film relates to Dawson’s life because he worked as a porter on the railroads during the Great Depression.
“The filmmakers relay the experiences and painful recollections of these now-elderly survivors of the rails,” she noted in a recent statement. “On July 30, in collaboration with the award-winning [PBS] documentary series P.O.V., the film Traces of the Trade will be screened. When first-time filmmaker Katrina Browne discovers that her New England ancestors were the largest slave-trading family in U.S. history, she and nine fellow descendants set off to retrace the Triangle Trade from their old hometown in Rhode Island to slave forts in Ghana to sugar plantation ruins in Cuba. Step by step, they uncover the vast extent of Northern complicity in slavery while also stumbling through the minefield of contemporary race relations.”
A book discussion will be led by Instructor of Humanities at Three Rivers Community College Susan Topping on Aug. 13, and Reiter invites families to participate in a scrapbooking program that will meet on Aug. 20 at the library. She said families can depict a chapter of their lives using stubs, pictures, and additional materials and supplies provided by the library.
Altogether, Reiter said, the programs are educational, fun, and interesting. All events are free and open to the public.
For more information about the local One Book, One Region program, call the library at 441-6750.