[Tasl] Jack Gantos to Visit Middle Tennessee

[Emily Masters]

On Thursday, October 11th Humanities Tennessee will have the privilege
of introducing students (7th-12th grade only, please) in the Middle
Tennessee area to author Jack Gantos.  Educators in the area are invited
to sign their students up for this program.  You will receive
complimentary copies of Gantos' memoir Hole in My Life for each student
you sign up (as well as curriculum guides to be used by your teachers),
and you may then bring your students to Gantos' presentation on October
11th at 9:00 a.m.  The presentation will take place at the downtown
Nashville public library, and a limited amount of bus money is
available, if needed.   

You may already be familiar with the work of author Jack Gantos, who is
known nationally for his educational creative writing and literature
presentations to students and teachers.  He has won a number of awards,
including the Newbery Honor, the Printz Honor, and the Sibert Honor from
the American Library Association, and he has been a finalist for the
National Book Award.  In his young-reader appropriate memoir Hole in My
Life, this acclaimed author of over thirty books for young people
confronts the period of struggle and confinement that marked the end of
his own youth.  Hole in My Life can be used to help students focus on a
variety of current events in the Social Studies classroom as well as to
discuss the saving power of books and reading in the Language Arts
classroom.   

Please let me know by September 28th if you are interested in bringing
your students to this event.  If you do decide to participate, you will
receive the books by October 4th, leaving a full week to begin
incorporating the book into your students' learning experience.  Mr.
Gantos is an engaging and interesting speaker, and he will remain after
the event to sign the students' books, so please don't miss out on
this wonderful opportunity for your students to interact with an author
of such outstanding merit and refreshing approachability.

Emily Booth Masters
Director of Tennessee Young Writers Programs 
Humanities Tennessee
306 Gay Street, Suite 306
Nashville, TN 37201
615-770-0006 (ext. 15)
615-770-0007 (FAX)
emily at humanitiestennessee.org 


Humanities Tennessee is the Tennessee affiliate of the National
Endowment for the Humanities and of the Center for the Book in the
Library of Congress. Among the opportunities offered statewide by
Humanities Tennessee are grants for humanities projects, technical
assistance for museum development, the Southern Festival of Books: A
Celebration of the Written Word, the Letters About Literature contest,
the Tennessee Young Writers' Workshop, and annual awards for
outstanding teaching of the humanities.  For more information about
Humanities
Tennessee and its programming, please visit
www.humanitiestennessee.org.