By JOHN R. STANARD
Poplar Bluff's Municipal Library once more is planning a communitywide reading event to encourage people to read and discuss the same book in 2018. After the smashing success of "The Book in The Bluff" project during the library's centennial celebration last year, Sterling Bank again has agreed to sponsor the event.
Featured in 2018 will be News of the World, a historical fiction novel authored by Missouri native Paulette Jiles and published in 2016 by HarperCollins Publishers. Last year's "The Book in The Bluff" selection was The Boys in the Boat, the story of the U.S. rowing team that won the gold medal in the 1936 Berlin Olympics.
Scott Spencer, president and CEO of Sterling Bank, said, "We strongly value the role of our Municipal Library and the important part it plays in the lives of the citizens of our region. Our continuing sponsorship of this biennial reading event is evidence of our strong commitment to the literacy and culture of our community."
New York Times Best-Selling Author Paulette Jiles, who was born in the Missouri Ozarks, has several relatives and friends in the Poplar Bluff area. One of her previous novels, Enemy Women, a Civil War story set in the Cape Girardeau area, drew wide critical acclaim. News of the World was a National Book Award finalist and has garnered enthusiastic reviews in scores Ms. Jiles will lecture on News of the World at 7 p.m. on Thursday, March 8, at the Tinnin Fine Arts Center Auditorium on the Three Rivers College campus. Sterling's support will cover Ms. Jiles' speaking fee and travel expenses as well as the costs of marketing, publicity and related activities.
A steering committee for "The Book in The Bluff, comprised of library staff, trustees and other community members, has met monthly since June to plan for the upcoming event. Sue Crites Szostak, Municipal Library director, praised the committee for its work and thanked Sterling Bank for its ongoing support of the project. "Our partnerships with Sterling Bank and other community entities enable our library to expand opportunities for our patrons beyond what our budget normally will allow," she said.
"Communitywide reading events are increasingly popular across America these days," Ms. Szostak said. "These projects have been quite successful in promoting both literacy and community spirit."
Junior and senior high school students in all the schools in Butler County, as well as a book club at Three Rivers College, will be involved in reading News of the World, Ms. Szostak said. Other local book clubs also will be involved.
Kathy Sanders, co-chairman of the steering committee, described News of the World as "an excellent choice by our committee. It appeals to history buffs, lovers of Westerns, people of rural backgrounds, those who like 'coming of age' books and folks of all ages," Ms. Sanders said.
News of the World has little to do with international news but everything to do with 1870s frontier life in Texas, which was truly the "Wild West." The title comes from the book's central character, Capt. Jefferson Kyle Kidd. The former U.S. Army officer earns his living traveling the countryside of northern Texas giving live readings from newspapers to paying audiences hungry for news of the world. Many of his patrons were illiterate.
While "reading" in Wichita Falls, the captain is offered a $50 gold piece to safely escort a 10-year-old orphan girl back to her relatives near San Antonio. Four years earlier, a band of Kiowa Indian raiders killed then 6-year-old Johanna's parents and raised her as their own. She recently has been rescued by U.S. Army soldiers and torn away from the only life she can remember.
Capt. Kidd takes on the assignment, a 400-mile journey through unsettled territory and hazardous terrain occupied by raiding Indians and bandits. Johanna has forgotten the English language, throws away the shoes given her, refuses to act "civilized" and often tries to escape. Yet, as the miles pass, the young girl and the grizzled old Army veteran of two wars gradually begin to trust each other. They finally form a bond that helps both survive the treacherous trek.
Author Jiles, born in 1943 at Salem, Mo., and raised along with her 12 siblings in Salem and other south Missouri communities, now lives with her husband in a renovated ranch house at Utopia, a small town about 30 miles from Uvalde in the Texas Hill Country.