The Reading Connection, which has offices at 1501 Lee Highway near Rosslyn, will close its doors on Friday, August 11. It will hold its last “Read-Aloud,” where volunteers read to children at shelters and community centers, on Wednesday, August 9.
The nonprofit is dedicated to providing low-income children and their families with opportunities to read and be read to, as well as giving them free books when they might otherwise not have any.
At Arlington Public Library the library isn’t just for reading and summer reading events are not just for kids.
The library is holding two outdoor movie screenings (Aug. 6 and Aug. 13) as part of its Summer Reading 2015 for Adults event. Movies start roughly at 8:45 p.m. on the field next to Arlington Central Library (1515 N. Quincy Street).
The community-wide reading initiative focuses on race, according to a library press release, in two books: “Men We Reaped,” a memoir surrounding the deaths of five young black men close to author Jesmyn Ward, and “Americanah,” a novel about African emigrants struggling with race in Western civilization by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.
Arlington Reads is the library’s annual attempt to bring the community together around a single topic, to encourage reading and educated discussion. This year’s theme was selected because the #BlackLivesMatter hashtag was chosen as the American Dialect Society’s Word of the Year in 2014 after police-related shooting deaths in Ferguson, Mo., Cleveland, Ohio and elsewhere in the country.
Arlington Two-Year-Old Has ‘Read’ 1,000+ Books — A two-year-old Arlington girl has read — or, at least, had her parents read — 1,000 books so far. The girl is the poster child for Arlington Public Library’s new “1,000 Books Before Kindergarten” program, which encourages parents to help children build language skills by reading what amounts to about one book a day. [Washington Post]
Jose Andres Products Coming to Whole Foods — A new line of Spanish oils, vinegars, olives and “easy-to-make paella kits” from Chef Jose Andres, of Jaleo fame, will be coming to Whole Foods stores around the Washington area next month. [Washington Business Journal]
(Updated on 8/1/13)
The Arlington Public Library summer reading program has already broken its all-time participation record with more than three weeks remaining until registration ends.
Library May Set Summer Reading Record — Arlington Public Library is tantalizingly close to setting a new record for participation in its summer reading program. Last year a record 7,371 students participated in the program. This year the library is “just a handful away” from reaching that number. [Sun Gazette]
Road Closures for Buckingham Festival — The Arlington County Police Department will be assisting with traffic control for the Buckingham Festival this weekend. From about 10:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. on Sunday, Aug. 19, N. Pershing Drive will be closed between N. Glebe Road and N. Thomas Street. [Arlington County Police]
The book bus was launched this summer with the goal of providing enhanced reading opportunities for students at Abingdon, where nearly 53 percent of students qualify for a free or reduced-price lunch. Once a week for five weeks, the bus would make stops in the community around Arlington, giving students the chance to check out books right in their neighborhood.
The bus was staffed by Abingdon teachers and the school’s principal, all of whom volunteered their time. Inside the bus were about 2,000 books donated by local businesses, nonprofit organization, a local author, and several publishers. Much of the equipment used to check out books — including barcode scanners — were also donated.
Arlington was listed as #7 on the list, moving up 3 spots from last year’s #10 position. Alexandria also moved up the list from its spot at #2 last year. It has overtaken Cambridge, Mass. to become the #1 most well-read city in America.
Alexandria also has the distinction of liking spicy books. According to the press release, “Virginia is for lovers – Alexandria, Va., that is, which tops the charts in the Romance book category.”
The internet retailer compiled sales data of all book, magazine and newspaper sales since Jan. 1, 2011 — in both print and Kindle formats — to find out which areas read the most on a per capita basis. Only “cities” with a population over 100,000 were considered.
Arlington ranked #10 on the list. Next-door neighbor Alexandria ranked #2, while the District ranked #14. Alexandria also topped the list of the cities that order the most children’s books.
