The fall Iola Reads book selection is A Night Divided by Jennifer Nielsen.
The upper elementary/middle school level book is about Gerta, a girl in East Berlin who finds her family suddenly divided by the Berlin Wall. Her father and middle brother, who had gone west in search of work, cannot return home.
Gerta knows it is dangerous to watch the wall, yet she cant help herself. She sees the East German soldiers with their guns trained on their own citizens; she, her family, her neighbors and friends are prisoners in their own city.
But one day on her way to school, Gerta spots her father on a viewing platform on the western side, pantomiming a peculiar dance. Gerta concludes that her father wants her and her brother Fritz to tunnel beneath the wall, out of East Berlin. If they are caught, the consequences will be deadly.
Books may be obtained at the Iola Public Library, USD 257 school libraries or in various locations around town. Readers are asked to pass on the book to other, return it to a library or another location where Iola Reads books are distributed.
Those who keep the books are asked to donate $2 to Iola Reads.
Donations may be sent to the Iola Public Library.
Two programs are planned in conjunction with the fall read. Nielsen will speak about her book to students at Iola Middle School and Lincoln Elementary Nov. 5. Then, she will present a program that evening at 7 oclock in the Creitz Recital Hall in the Bowlus Fine Arts Center.
On Nov. 12, Iolan Carl Slaugh will speak at Eyewitness to the Fall.
In A Night Divided, Gerta is there when the Berlin Wall goes up. In real life, Slaugh was there when it fell. He will tell about his familys experience. The program will be at Iola Public Library at 7 p.m.
Iola Reads is a cooperative project involving the library, USD 257 and the Bowlus Fine Arts Center. The project is funded by the Helen Gates Whitehead Testamentary Trust.
