Award-Winning Author To Discuss Book With Eighth Graders
By The Post-Journal Staff
Newbery Award-winning youth author Jerry Spinelli will appear at the Robert H. Jackson Center on Wednesday to discuss his book, Milkweed, with 650 area eighth graders.
According to Anita Sanctuary, volunteer coordinator of the twoday event, the program had been offered to all eighth grade classes in Chautauqua County with schools were accepted on a ‘‘firstcome, first-served basis.’’ Mrs. Sanctuary said Spinelli’s programs will be videoconferenced over the BOCES Distance Learning Network and be available at Distance Learning Rooms in schools throughout the BOCES system.
Interested teachers should contact their Distance Learning specialists in their own school districts.
‘‘Jerry Spinelli comes to the Jackson Center to discuss his award-winning book, Milkweed,’’ said Greg Peterson, Jackson Center president. ‘‘This book is the basis for a state and countywide book review contest for eighth graders which we held with the New York Bar Law, Youth and Citizenship program.’’
The book is about the Holocaust in Poland from the viewpoint of a 12-year-old Warsaw street orphan, providing an excellent platform to teach about the Holocaust, World War II and the Nuremberg Trial that Jamestown native Robert H. Jackson organized and prosecuted.
Spinelli is a graduate of Gettysburg College and Johns Hopkins University. Most of his books are funny and true to life. He has written such books as Maniac McGee, Who Put that Hair in My Toothbrush and Space Station Seventh Grade. Milkweed, however, is a serious book about grave topics.
Book review contest winners will come to Jamestown from six regions of the state. The Northern Chautauqua Community Foundation also made possible a countywide book review contest. Winners will meet Spinelli, attend his programs and attend the speech set for 7 p.m. Tuesday, April 5, featuring Dr. Helen Fagin, Polish Holocaust survivor.
Dr. Fagin’s program is in the Jackson Center’s Carl Cappa Auditorium and is free to the public, thanks to sponsors Acu- Rite Incorporated, Brigiotta’s Farmland Stores, the Chautauqua Region Community Foundation, the Comfort Inn, Jamestown Savings Bank, Ronald McDonald House Charities of W.N.Y. Inc, the Northern Chautauqua Community Foundation, the New York Bar Foundation and the New York Bar Law, Youth and Citizenship Program.
A spaghetti dinner prior to Dr. Fagin’s appearance is set for 6 p.m. Tuesday, April 5, at a cost of $7 per person. Reservations may be made by calling the Jackson Center at 483-6646.