The Vermont Humanities Council (VHC) has chosen two books set during the Civil War for its Vermont Reads 2012 program.
Paul Fleischman's novella Bull Run and Stephen Crane's classic The Red Badge of Courage are the latest picks for VHC's statewide community reading program that began in 2003. The books were chosen in recognition of the 150th anniversary of the Civil War. Communities may apply for either or both books.
More than 60 towns and cities - and tens of thousands of people - take part in the annual program, which next year will let readers explore the Civil War and its implications through the eyes of both the soldier and the civilian.
Communities around the state will have the opportunity to bring people together to read, discuss, and build activities around the books.
Bull Run and The Red Badge of Courage explore themes that invite thought, discussion, and extension activities, such as investigating a town's Civil War history, researching the life of an individual soldier from the region, or reading about the life of his family on the home front, or holding a concert of Civil War era music.
Communities can also sign up for VHC's weekly email series, The Civil War Book of Days, which highlights what happened each week in the Civil War 150 years ago.
The program promotes community building, open dialogue, intergenerational exchange, a focus on the humanities, and literacy through activities that include book discussions, read-a-thons, staged dramatic readings, panel discussions, art projects and exhibits, community potlucks, oral history presentations, writing contests, field trips, and scrapbook making.
And Vermont Public Radio, the Vermont Reads media partner, airs Vermont Reads features that offer excellent opportunities for further discussion, said Mark Fitzsimmons, VHC's Vermont Reads director.
Fleischman's award-winning Bull Run is written in the first person from the point of view of 16 characters: eight Northerners and eight Southerners, male, female, black, and white; old, young, soldier, and civilian.
The book's format, which echoes Fleischman's enormously successful 2005 Vermont Reads book Seedfolks , brings the reader into the social context of the war, from the run-up to the first battle and through to its aftermath, conveying a composite picture of life in mid-19th-century America.
Fleischman is a Newbery Award–winning author of books for both children and young adults. Born in Monterey, Calif., in 1952, he is the son of well-known children's author Sid Fleischman. He is the United States' 2012 author nominee for the international Hans Christian Andersen Award.
Fleischman will travel to Vermont during the fall of 2012 to participate in several Vermont Reads events, as he did in 2005.
In addition to Bull Run, communities will have the option to read The Red Badge of Courage, Stephen Crane's 1895 novel of heroism and weakness in the face of war's indifference to the fate of individuals.
The book's emotionally compelling description of war, and of the internal struggles of soldier Henry Fleming, remains a classic depiction of war's turmoil from the perspective of an ordinary soldier.
Crane was born in 1871 in Newark, N.J., the son of a Methodist minister. Although he lived only 28 years, he wrote six novels, numerous short stories, two books of poetry, and a wide and varied collection of newspaper and magazine articles.
“Given the intense scrutiny that the Civil War is getting over the period of its 150th anniversary, we felt it was important to look at the war from the perspective of the average American citizen - how it affected the actual lives of soldiers, their families, enslaved people, and others,” said Fitzsimmons.
“Taken together, Bull Run and The Red Badge of Courage address a wide range of readers and offer insight into the personal motivations and responses of everyday people living through the war,” Fitzsimmons said.
Deadlines for applying are Nov. 16 and May 15. Communities will receive up to 75 books, based on the strength of their application, as well as multiple resource and publicity materials. To apply, visit the VHC website, or contact Fitzsimmons by email or phone (802-262-2626, ext. 306).