Annie Davis, Committee member of Milton Reads! 2012 sent this in. A little bit more of a positive note regarding Milton’s international exposure.
Greetings!
What a surprise today in the inbox of MiltonReads2012@gmail.com, the email address of Milton Reads!, the new town-wide read sponsored by the Milton Public Library, Milton, MA. Serendipity led a couple in South Africa to the Milton Reads! inaugural book selection, which is the beloved classic To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee.
“It is amazing to me how the web connected this family from South Africa with the Milton Library,” says Elysse Frick, one of the Milton Reads! committee members. “And we have discovered many many families with someone named Atticus, Harper, or Scout.” This is a testament to the lasting impact of To Kill a Mockingbird. We have previously referred to the Milton Reads! program as One Book, One Town; I think we really mean One Book, One World!”
And Milton Reads! will be sending out some “What Would Atticus Do?” bumper stickers all the way to South Africa.
Following is the letter:
Dear Milton Library
This is just a quick note to let you know that my husband and I are very impressed by your Milton Reads! campaign, and wish you all the best with it. I’d also like to share our story with you as we nearly fell on our backs when we stumbled (by complete accident) on your wordpress site.
On 1 July last year our son was born. We had many and long discussions about his name, not least because my husband and I have different surnames and had to decide how to combine them without burdening the poor child for life. One thing we did agree on however was his second name, which is Atticus. After Atticus Finch. We are avid readers and To Kill a Mockingbird has a special place in both our hearts. We can only hope to be the kind of parents that instil Mr Finch’s principles in our son.
So you will appreciate that, when we read about your drive to get your town to read Harper Lee’s book, we loved the idea. All the more because our son’s first name is Milton.
We wish you all the best
Liane Posthumus and Rob Rademeyer
Cape Town
PS: We’d love to get hold of some of your ‘What would Atticus do’-bumper stickers. Any chance you would you ship them to South Africa?