This year’s Great Bend Reading Initiative will have elementary students and their families throughout Great Bend reading one book, “The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane.”

On Friday, Nov. 2, books will be passed out to children in grade 1-6 at the schools. Jefferson Elementary Principal Kip Wilson, this year’s Reading Initiative coordinator, said building representatives are being asked to double check their numbers to ensure that there are enough copies for each student, including Spanish versions for Spanish-speaking families.

“The actual reading will begin on Monday, Nov. 5th,” Wilson said. Teachers will read the first chapter out loud with their classes.

After the launch, students will be encouraged to take their books home and read them with a parent or other family member. 

“We are asking families to read two chapters per night on each Monday through Thursday that school is in session,” Wilson said. He noted that the chapters are pretty short and that they won’t be reading during Thanksgiving break.

Several community events are planned during the month. Each morning, students will be asked trivia questions about their nightly reading.

For three Saturdays, the Great Bend Public Library will host “Books n’ Breakfast” at 10 a.m. Each of Great Bend USD 428’s five elementary schools will host an evening Family Night at the library. There will also be an all-school Activity Night on Nov. 26 at the Kansas Wetlands Education Center.

Everyone will receive a calendar listing the chapter they should be on. Reading two chapters a day, four days a week, students should finish the book by the end of November.

“The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane,” by Kate DiCamillo, is the tale of a toy rabbit named Edward Tulane. His owner, a girl named Abilene, treated him with the utmost care and adored him completely. And then, one day, he was lost. The author takes readers on Edward Tulane’s extraordinary journey.

The book won the Boston Globe Horn Book Award for Fiction.