In its fifth year, the Upper Grand Reads program is a literacy initiative where students across the Upper Grand District School Board are encouraged to read the same novel – The Lotterys Plus One (elementary panel novel) and Room (secondary panel novel) both by London author, Emma Donoghue.
Donoghue is an internationally renowned author, who has won many awards for her writing.
The international bestseller, Room, was nominated for countless literary awards, and won the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize.
Room was also turned into an Oscar and Golden Globe nominated film, with Emma Donoghue writing the screenplay and receiving an Oscar nomination.
The goal of the program is to engage students in reading, and to get them talking about books and sharing ideas – all while improving their literacy skills. The initiative includes a website, and the program will culminate in a series of visits by the author at several schools in the district from May 15 to 16.
This year’s elementary panel novel, The Lotterys Plus One, is the first in a series of novels aimed at readers aged eight to 12. The Lotterys Plus One introduces readers to nine-year-old Sumac Lottery and her six siblings, four parents and five pets. This chaotic, happy household is disrupted when a grandfather with dementia suddenly has to move in.
This year’s secondary panel novel, Room, is the story of a five-year-old called Jack, who lives in a single room with his mother and has never been outside. When he turns five, he starts to ask questions, and his mother reveals to him that there is a world beyond the walls.
Told entirely in Jack’s voice, Room is no horror story or tearjerker, but a celebration of resilience and the love between parent and child.
The Upper Grand Reads program has expanded this year to include author visits at two elementary schools: J.D. Hogarth Public School in Fergus (May 15), and Rickson Ridge Public School in Guelph (May 16).
Donoghue also will be visiting Wellington Heights Secondary School in Mount Forest on May 15, where students from Norwell District Secondary School will be attending as well.
At John F. Ross Collegiate Vocational Institute on May 16 in Guelph, students from Guelph Collegiate Institute will be joining the presentation in the John F. Ross school library to hear Donoghue’s presentation.
The hour-long visits at the host schools will include author readings, discussions about the novels, question-and-answer sessions, and book signings.
