One School, Many Books 2016 took place on September 1st. Now in its second year at Jackson Prep, One School Many Books was created by English teachers, including department chair Dr. Lisa Whitney.

Whitney said, “It is exciting for me to see the focus of the whole school to be on reading for a day out of the year.”

Dr. Luke Nealey’s goal for this year was to do a better job of managing group sizes. Nealy said, “hopefully everyone was in a group where they could express themselves.” He marks this year’s session as success in that regard because no groups were over 30-40 people.

During this summer, students went onto the Jackson Prep website in order to sign up for their book. The book groups were limited to fewer students this year, so each book was on a first-come-first-served basis. The books all dealt in one way or another with themes of community, diversity, exclusion, and inclusion.

The groups met in different rooms throughout the school to discuss the book they read with the teacher who chose it. After taking a short assessment quiz, the students and teachers/special guests began discussing the different aspects of the book they read. After the discussion, all the groups dismissed to Patriot Avenue for refreshments.

Junior Joseph Upton really enjoyed his book group, and added, “It was all worth it for the cookies.”

This year special guests included Mississippi State Athletic Director Scott Stricklin, former Ole Miss Chancellor Robert Khayat, and Dolphus Weary, author of I Ain’t Coming Back.

Ron Howard, author of Same Kind of Different as Me, was also in Jackson for the filming of his movie and left a special interview video for Jackson Prep students.