Snapshot: School Officials Ready for the 'Big Read'

Lakewood High English teacher Karen Ballash is trying to make a literary splash this summer with the city's first annual

Instead of just assigning Mark Haddon's best-seller “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time” to , she's asking the whole community to take part.  

The goal is to establish a large following of readers and faciliate a community-wide discussion this September. 

While students take quizzes and listen to presentations of the book during class, residents will have the opportunity to enter into discussion groups and participate in special literary events at

To get the pages turning, the Lakewood Board of Education has picked up their copies and will be ready by the late summer deadline.