•December 2, 2015•

By Mike Brothers

Sullivan Middle School students greeted the One Book, One Sullivan novel unveiling with a standing ovation Nov 25.

Michael Vey-The Prisoner of Cell 25 by Richard Paul Evans was announced to the schoolwide assembly following a trailer prepared by the One Book One Sullivan group for the second year in a row.

One Book One Sullivan volunteers then handed out copies of the book to students with the following instructions: Read it. Enjoy it. Talk about it. Share it.

Rikki Ray teaches Language Arts and has spent the past nine years as coordinator of the volunteer community/school based book selection group.

“Students who volunteer have to commit to reading a book a week during the summer,” Ray said of the yearlong One Book, One Sullivan program.

More than 20 kids have volunteered from the sixth, seventh and eighth grades. Ray explained that the students and staff read and discuss selections from the Rebecca Caudill list.

“We meet once a week to discuss the selections in order to determine what will best appeal to the community,” she continued, explaining everything from story content to the book cover is considered before a recommendation is made.

This year’s selection won by only one vote to not only indicate the competition among books but to help students understand the meaning of democracy.     Login or Subscribe to read the rest of this story.