One Book, One Philadelphia Program Returns to Philly to Promote a Love of Reading and Community

Written By, Erica Brooke Fajge

PHILADELPHIA, USA [OnlyInPhiladelphia.com] — If you’ve taken a walk down Walnut Street lately, you can’t help but notice the signs at almost every block for “One Book, One Philadelphia,” a joint program between the Mayor’s office and the Free Library of Philadelphia that returns for the eighth year, taking place now through March 17.

The goal of the annual program is to promote a love of reading and build a sense of community to thousands of Philadelphians through the reading of a selected book. This year, the “One Book, One Philadelphia” Selection Committee has chosen The Complete Persepolis, a coming-of-age memoir by Marjane Satrapi, a sad and heart wrenching, emotional, but often humorous, journey and look at life growing up as a young girl in Iran during its years of political turmoil.

Companion books, also part of the project, include Peter Sis’s The Wall: Growing Up Behind the Iron Curtain and Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood, which consists of the first two volumes that make up The Complete Persepolis.

A number of sponsors has jumped on the bandwagon to support the “One Book, One Philadelphia” initiative. In addition to all 54 locations of the Free Library of Philadelphia, other sponsors include the Bryn Mawr Film Institute, the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia, Drexel University, the Gershman Y, the Greater Philadelphia Film Office, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the University of the Arts, and Zahav Restaurant, among others. Media sponsors include MiND Media Independence (MiND TV) and Philadelphia Weekly.

For more details on the project, including the book selection, author, additional reading materials, teacher resources and lesson plans, visit www.freelibrary.org/onebook. For additional information regarding the similar “One Film, One Philadelphia” program, running from Feb. 17 – March 17, with resources ranging from historical timelines, maps, discussion guides, and cast and director biographies, visit www.freelibrary.org/onefilm.

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