Big fish a part of Fridays programming day

Katie Curry, Staff Reporter

Friday will be a programming day. Click the following links to see the schedule for each grade level:  freshmen, sophomores, juniors, and seniors.

The annual Legacy read this year is quite a catch. Written by Daniel Wallace, Big Fish is “a novel of mythic proportions” and on Friday, sophomores and juniors will be meeting and hearing from the author of the book.

“I think the reason that we chose the book is because it is a good metaphor for modern day mythology,” English teacher Tamara Sakuda said. “I think students look at all the metaphors and myths from things like “The Odyssey” and they look like they’re from the past and there’s a lot that can be learned from that, but people don’t always want to learn from things in the past. So this is a more recent telling of myths and metaphors. Kind of like “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty.” We just thought students might relate to it better.”

The Legacy read is a book that is chosen each year by the district in the effort to support and improve literacy.

“The Legacy read is a way that we can get everybody in the community to be reading the same book, so we’re all hopefully talking about similar things,” Sakuda said.  “Adults in the community can read it, kids at school can read it, elementary school and the middle schools do a similar themed book, but we’re all talking about the same subject.”

Students have been told by their teachers about Big Fish and some teachers have been including it in class planning as well.

“The English teachers have the book and they are going to be incorporating some of the lessons from the book into their classes,” Sakuda said.

However Big Fish is more than a book.

“It is a really big deal,” Sakuda said. “They’re turning Big Fish into a broadway musical so the author is going to be talking about that so we will get to see and hear some things before the news media actually does.”

Not only have students at the high school been reading it, but the book will also be used to a certain degree at other district campuses.

“It’s the legacy book for the high school primarily,” Sakuda said. “The other campuses are doing some other things with Big Fish and some things that are on the same theme and genre as Big Fish.

“I’m sure our legacy read is the most fantastic pick and it will be an exhilarating read,” junior Greg Watson said.

All in all, the legacy read is about more than the book.

“I think it’s important to be a community of readers, to support each other with what we read, and to be talking about things that maybe aren’t always the easiest things to talk about but to recognize that,” Sakuda said. “The biggest thing I think is to be a community of readers to support each other in reading.”