TELL US WHAT YOU THINK

As The 2006 Community Reading Program wraps up for the year, we seek your help. Your comments on the series of events around The Land Breakers serve great value to our planning a successful 2007 event. Please give us feedback on your favorite event during the 2006 series. What did you think of this year's book selection? Do you have a book recommendation for the next "On the Same Page" program?
There is also a survey on our main website if you will fill it out.




The goal of "On the Same Page" is to encourage the entire community to get involved in reading. Thank you for making the fifth annual event one of our best !

A WEEKEND NOT TO MISS

This weekend two of the highlights for "On the Same Page" reading program will take place. The dress rehersal of "Page to Stage" on Saturday night and the unprecedented multi-media, dramatic staged reading of John Ehle's novel, “The Land Breakers,” performed at the North Carolina School of the Arts (NCSA) on Sunday is a grande finale of exciting proportions. This "Page to Stage" event culminates the Forsyth County Public Library's 2006 community reading program.

"Page to Stage" will bring to stage John Ehle's great gift of storytelling. "Page to Stage" will showcase the talents of numerous actors and artists from the Winston-Salem community and NCSA . Daniel McKinny will direct an ensemble cast in Laura Hart McKinny's adaptation of “The Land Breakers.”

Contributing their professional support and talent are Altair, a local casting agency; North Carolina School of the Arts NCSA faculty members Burton Rencher, David Yewdall, David McHugh, John Le Blanc, Richard Clabaugh, John Toia, David Smith, and Norman Coates as well as deans Joseph P. Tilford and Gerald Freedman.

Two NCSA seniors, Matt Sherman and Nick Kunstle, are also part of the team.

"On the Same Page" celebrates Winston-Salem author John Ehle and his life's work by featuring “The Land Breakers,” We've all enjoyed Ehle's riveting chronicle of the harsh realities of early Appalachian settlement. Sunday's performance will be at 7:00 PM on Sunday, October 15, in the Proscenium Thrust Theatre of Performance Place on the NCSA campus, 1533 South Main St., Winston-Salem. Sunday's performance is free, but tickets need to be reserved through the NCSA Box Office at (336) 721-1945.
No tickets are necessary to attend the dress rehersal Saturday night.


This Friday night, October 13, a juried exhibit of The American Landscape will be held at the Associated Artists Gallery from 5-7 pm. John Ehle will be a special guest at this reception of visual art perceptions of early American landscape.The Associated Artist Gallery is located at 301 West Fourth Street Winston-Salem, NC 27101
Parking is available behind AAWS on Cherry St.
All in all, a great weekend of events to celebrate
a well read community.

WHO'S FOLLOWING YOU

Let's talk about our role in leading the way. In what ways have you been a land breaker, leading the way for others to follow?

APPRECIATION OF OUR ANCESTORS

Let's talk about our ancestors. Does your understanding of this novel make you appreciate our forebearers more? Does it make you appreciate the way we live now more or less?

THEN/NOW?

Let's discuss the value of existing in a particular era. Were times better then or now?

LIVING CONDITIONS

Let's talk about the living conditions described in The Land breakers. Could you have lived and done what these characters did? What would be the most difficult aspect of living in those conditions?

YOUR FAVORITE SCENE

Let's talk about what is your favorite scene in the book?

WHAT BECOMES OF MINA?

Let's talk about what happens to Mina. Are you satisfied with what becomes of her?

MOONEY & HIS MATE

Let's talk about why Mooney chooses the mate he chooses? Did he make the right choice?

TINKLER & BELLE

Let's talk about your opinion of Tinkler and Belle's relationship.
What do you think of it? Who is most at fault?

THE POWER OF BARGAINING

Let's talk about the role of bargaining. Late in the novel, Lorry Harrison tells her father, who has challenged her way of life: “I made the best bargain I could.” There are many important trades or bargains in this novel. Analyze several of them and define why you think “trading” or “bargaining” was so important.

THE CONNECTION

Let's talk about why Ernest complains about his daughters? Why does Mooney value Lorry’s sons so much?

SPINNING A YARN

Let's talk about: Who the storytellers are in the novel?

MOONEY & THE GRAVE

Let's talk about Mooney's connection to the past. Why does Mooney speak to the grave so often? Does he know that Fate is standing nearby when he’s telling Imy about the boy? Is this an effective way for Mooney to communicate his feelings?

RELIGION, SPIRITUALITY & SUPERSTITION

Let's talk about religion. Would you say the characters are more religious, spiritual or superstitious? Why?

HUMOR IN THE LANDBREAKERS

Let's talk about humor. Which characters are the funniest? Discuss humor in the novel.

NATURE AS A SINGLE ENTITY

Let's talk about the ways in which the mountain/the forest/nature is described as being one single entity.

IMMIGRATION

Let's talk about the use of immigrants. How many of the characters are immigrants? Where are they from? Why are the Germans singled out as being most foreign?

BEAR HUNT

Let's talk about the bear hunt. What did you think of the great bear hunt scene? Were you glad it ended the way it did? Did Mina respond the way you thought she would?

WHAT ABOUT MINA

Let's talk about why Mina is described once as an "angel child" and then another time as a "witch child"? Is there something supernatural about her? Is she charmed? Why?

HEROISM

Let's talk about some of the more heroic acts in the novel? Which characters are the most heroic?

ANIMAL PERSONIFICATION

Let's talk about the ways in which animals are personified in the novel. In what ways are dogs different today than they were in the late 1700s? Why does Mooney say again and again that one mustn’t pity animals?

PARENT CHILD RELATIONSHIPS

Let's talk about the parent/child relationships in the novel. How is the father/daughter relationship between Lorry and Tinkler similar to or different from that of Mina and Ernest? What about Mooney and Fate vs. Mooney and Verlin or Lorry and Fate? Tinkler and Grover?

LUCK AT WORK

Let's talk about the role of luck in "The Land Breakers." Which characters are lucky? Which are unlucky? What, if anything, does this suggest? How does luck at work in the story change the characters?

PRIDE MANIFEST ITSELF

Let's Talk about Pride. Which characters seem to possess the most pride? In what ways does pride manifest itself?

CHARACTERIZATION

Let's talk about the strengths and weaknesses of Ernest Plover, Tinkler Harrison, Mina Plover, Lorry Harrison, Lacey Pollard, Mooney Wright, or any of your favorite characters in the book.

WHAT ABOUT FAMILY

Let's talk about how important the notion of family is to Mooney Wright? Different characters seek to either break or form family ties for different reasons. Define the nature of family in "The Land Breakers." Why do you think some of the characters seek and/or seek to escape family ties?

WORK

Let's talk about how is work treated in John Ehle's, "The Land Breakers"? How does work differ between men and women? Why does the author go into such detail describing work? What kind of work is valued in the novel? What kind of work is not valued?