The Prizewinners from Hudson, MA

Debbie Backman, Children’s Librarian and Melissa Caissie, interlibrary loan librarian from the Hudson Public Library incorporated the important goals of the Hudson Public Library into their One Book, One Community project. Some of these were to reach new patrons across the community including those in three elementary schools, one middle school, one high school and two catholic schools, one senior center, two over-55 housing communities and everyone else. One of the unique techniques that the Hudson Public Library used was to incorporate books on more than one reading level and to schedule most of the programs during the traditional summer reading calendar.

The author of The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio, Terry Ryan, died in May before their program began but two other siblings in the Ryan household were invited to attend a program to speak. Other programs were a Penny Pincher shopping talk and a Hannaford shopping spree. All aspects of the program fit in well with Terry Ryan's at-home-mom, cookies-and-milk, traditional family lifestyle.

The books on younger patrons' reading lists included children's books about bugs, including The Bugliest Bug (and a visit by the illustrator, Scott Nash) and programs included performances by Bugworks. Debbie and Melissa enlisted the support of the school librarians and were able to convince them to include the Westing Game on summer reading lists.

The Hudson Public Library will continue their One Book, One Community program again this year ... at another time besides summer reading!