A summer of green reading in Chicago

The Chicago Tribune reported earlier this month (and thanks to Treehugger for the update) that Chicago's Mayor Richard Daley announced on a summer reading program with a green focus, named "Read Green, Live Green" program.

The program, which will run until the beginning of August, includes, according to the Tribune, a series of discussion groups aimed at celebrating nature and the threats against it. The program will be offering books, reading tours and performances for adults and children on environmental issues including climate change, energy and farming.

Children and adults will be able to explore the environment with a good read during the summer at any of the 79 Chicago Public Library branches.

Participating children will read, report on books of their choosing and have fun with green programs and projects. Children will receive a sticker for their book log for each book read, win book prizes and earn a Read Green, Live Green t-shirt by reading lots of books!The list of events for children can be found here - http://www.chipublib.org/dir_documents/SRP08_Kidsa.pdf.

Adults and teens will enjoy a unique combination of great books, author appearances, tours, performances and fun “green” workshops and events designed especially for adults and teens. You can check out the full list of events on this link - http://www.chipublib.org/dir_documents/srpa_08a.pdf.

So it looks like this is going to be a (hot) summer of green reading in Chicago, and hopefully many adults and children will go to Lake Michigan with a green-themed book they picked at a nearby library under their arm (or in their reusable bag..). I must say this initiative is really cool and it's great to see the city and its public library working together for having more Chicagoans reading about nature, the environment and other relevant issues. Kudos to Mayor Daley for this one!

I definitely hope that mayors with green agenda, such as Mayor Newsom of San Francisco and others, to join him and make the summer of 2009 the summer of green reading (ain't sound too catchy like 'the summer of love', but we can work on the name..).

Yours,

Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: plant a tree for every book you read!