|
For Immediate Release: June 15, 2006
Contact: Mayor’s Office of Communications (415) 554-6131
Mayor Newsom Announces 2006 One City One Book: San Francisco Reads Selection
Tale about a young girl with mystical healing powers chosen for citywide reading program
San Francisco, CA - Mayor Gavin Newsom and the San Francisco Public Library
invite San Franciscans to participate in this year’s One City One Book: San
Francisco Reads program by announcing the selection of The Hummingbird’s
Daughter, by Luis Alberto Urrea. Following a highly successful launch of
the citywide reading initiative in 2005, co-chaired by Diane Frankel and
Marilyn Waldman, this year’s program will again feature book discussions
and special events and programs associated with the work.
“San Francisco has an important literary history and, through programs
like One City One Book, is creating a strong literary present and future,”
Mayor Newsom said. “We must ensure that our young people, as well as our
adults, are supported and encouraged in their efforts to become passionate
and interested readers.”
Set in Mexico in the decades before the 1910 revolution, The Hummingbird’s
Daughter tells the story of Teresita, a young girl coming to terms with her
destiny as a healer who will grow into a revolution-inspiring Mexican “Joan
of Arc.” Author and Pulitzer Prize finalist Luis Alberto Urrea based the
novel on more than 20 years of research into the life of Teresita, who’s
based on the life of his great aunt. The book is a recent winner of the
2006 Kiriyama Prize for fiction and was selected as one of 2005’s best
books by the San Francisco Chronicle.
Urrea is also the author of many other books, including The Devil’s Highway,
a non-fiction title about illegal immigration across the U.S.-Mexico
border.
City Librarian Luis Herrera encourages all San Francisco adults and teens
to pick up a copy of The Hummingbird’s Daughter to read over the summer, in
preparation for Fall 2006 activities. “The Hummingbird’s Daughter is an
extraordinary novel that tells an important story about bravery and
strength in a revolutionary period of Mexico’s history; I know the book
will interest and inspire many San Franciscans,” Herrera said.
One City One Book: San Francisco Reads events and discussions will take
place in libraries, bookstores, and schools during September and October.
Program guides, bookmarks, and other materials will be available. For
complete program information, visit the San Francisco Public Library
website at www.sfpl.org.
In searching for a compelling title, the five-person selection committee
for One City One Book considered books that met as many as possible of the
following criteria: high literary quality; reflective of universal issues
facing San Franciscans; mirror the diversity of San Francisco; have
connections to San Francisco (either through the content or the author’s
relationship with the city); available in key languages; available in large
quantities; appealing to adults and teens; available in paperback; capable
of sparking provocative discussions; and lend themselves to engaging public
programs around the book.
One City One Book: San Francisco Reads is funded by Friends of the San
Francisco Public Library and AT&T.
For more information, please call (415) 557-4277.
|
