Attention Haltom City readers and surrounding neighborhood readers!  I have a challenge for you, myself included.  There are three parts to it but I guarantee they will all be easy.  The hard work has already been done by the Haltom City Public Library’s 50th Anniversary Committee, other volunteers, and the library staff. 

The first part:  Our reading assignment for the summer is only one book.  A timeless classic, Pulitzer Prize winning novel that has sold over 30 million copies worldwide.  To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee.  You’ve already read it?  So have I, years ago.  It’s a book worthy of reading again and I don’t know about you, but I know that my perspective and insight has changed over the years so I’m eager to read it again with wiser eyes.  The deadline for completing our reading assignment is August 4^th.  (Please note that the book covers serious and mature themes.)

The second part:  Show up at the Haltom City Public Library at 7:00 sharp on August 4^th for “The Songbird Still Sings: A Celebration of the 50^th Anniversary of the Pulitzer Prize Award for To Kill a Mockingbird".  Expect an evening of stimulating and exhilarating panel discussions and dramatic readings.  I can promise you that we will not be disappointed, not with the caliber of guest panelists that they have somehow managed to obtain and the actors/actresses from the Artisan Center Theater doing the readings. 

The third part:  Come back to the library on Saturday, August 6, at 2:00 p.m., sit back, relax and enjoy the academy-award-winning film of the book, To Kill a Mockingbird.  (Please note that the film covers serious and mature themes.)

All three parts sound like fun, don’t they?  Then why the challenge?  Because I know from personal experience what an enormous task it is to plan such an event.  I know how difficult it can be to find and select the just-right guest panelists, then beg or bribe them to agree to be on the panel, coordinate everyone’s time and schedule, and then do the same for the dramatic readings.  The timings of the discussions, the dramatic readings, questions and answers sessions, how to publicize the event, etc.  all have to be decided. And then there's those hundred or so other little things that were almost forgotten that have to be tended to.  It takes hard work, dedication, and soul to pull off this type of grand event.  These good folks have done more than their fair share. 

Now’s it our turn.  Let’s not let them down.

Fondly, your library blog mistress