During the span of the the Big Read initiative some 250 paperback copies of the book "To Kill A Mockingbird" will be distributed in numerous locations throught the county. They will have a sticker pasted to the front saying "Set Me FREE. Open the cage and look inside". The book is there for you to pick up and read at your leisure and then to leave at another location for someone else to pick up the book and read.

On the first page inside the book is a small form for you to fill in. It comprises your name, date picked up, date left off and the location you picked the book up at. There are also details about how to enter the weekly draw for prize packages.

We would appreciate it if you filled the form iun and then go to the weekly prize draw page where you can enter the draw for prize packages. Wed also very much appreciate it if you were to go to our blog page and leave your comments about the book and Big Read in general. You have to login to enable you to do that, but it's an easy process and you should be up and running in no time.

The Big Read's intent is to further encourage reluctant readers to give a book a chance. There is a world of imagination, the imagination within the reader's head, that is unique to the single reader and the the book they read. No other person on earth can have that experience in the way that they can. What each reader sees, the faces, the scenery, the characters will be totally different.

The great thing about reading is that it is not mandatory; You don't have to read it if you don't want to. Why is that great? Because if you do decide to give the book a chance, the words that were written, in this case, so long ago, travel through time to you. When Harper Lee wrote the book some 50 odd years ago, she was thinking of you. She wanted you to read it.

If you believe in magic and the possibility that unexpected events and moments can change your life, then it may be that opening "To Kill A Mockingbird" and reading the words..."When he was nearly thirteen, my brother Jem got his arm badly broken at the elbow..." will be one of those moments.