Madison County Reads 2016
This March, families are invited to participate in a county-wide read!
The Huntsville Madison County Public Library has its annual Madison County Reads event. This community reading program encourages the county to read a specific book or the works of a specific author and has a wide variety of events to correspond with it.
This Year’s Chosen Titles
This year, the Flavia de Luce mystery series by Alan Bradley has been chosen, specifically the first book in the series entitled The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie. This quirky series of mysteries takes place in the English town of Bishop’s Lacey in 1950’s England and centers around eleven year-old Flavia de Luce, a brilliant young girl with a passion for chemistry and an obsession with poisons. The first book unfolds with Flavia discovering a corpse in the family’s cucumber patch and she must help exonerate her father of the murder.
The Flavia series is great for teens and tweens: it’s classified as a ‘cozy’ mystery, which means there aren’t heavy mention of any gory details and there aren’t any serious language issues in terms of coarse dialog. For younger readers we are recommending The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Stewart and Carson Ellis and another teen offering is Etiquette and Espionage by Gail Carriger.
Madison County Read 2016 Activities
March will feature a number of mysterious activities relating to the community read including crafts, science clubs, movie showings for kids, games of life-sized Clue for teens, a tour at the historic Maple Hill Cemetery and more! The library will also be hosting Mystery Family Bashes at both the Bailey Cove and Madison branch locations.
A calendar of events can be found on the Madison County Reads Guide along with tons of cool links, a book playlist, pictures of the crafts and much more! There is also a Facebook Page for the event to keep you up to date, and a great list of kid’s programs too. The community had such a fun time last year with the Madison County Read scavenger hunt that this year will have a similar activity with our branch wide mystery. You can find the details here for a chance to win some great prizes!
Bradley’s books are one of my favorite mystery series; I enjoy the overall humor and quirky Addams Family vibe of Flavia’s adventures. Peppered throughout the books are references to classical literature (just look at the titles!) and historical and scientific facts spouted by the persnickety protagonist. Another thing I enjoy is that a large chunk of the series can be read out of order. Although there is an overarching story that builds throughout the series, you are still able to follow it if you pick up one of the books out of order.
With so much to offer in terms of things to do and books to read, it’s no mystery that March will be fun for the whole family!
For More Details
MadCo Reads on Facebook
View MadCo Reads Website
2016 Book Guides for all Ages
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Jon Schafle is from San Jose, California and works at the Huntsville Madison County Public Library where he co-chairs Madison County Reads, oversees the Adult Graphics and is a founding member of Rocket City NerdCon. He is obsessed with all things geeky and has a personal comic collection of over 17,000. He currently lives in Huntsville with his lovely wife Amanda, 8 year old son DeAngelo, and two Jack Russell terriers, Penelope and Leia.[/themify_box]
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