My Ańtonia by Willa Cather is the Plant The Seed, Read! selection for Kosciusko County. The read and discussions are sponsored by Kosciusko Literacy Services. (Photo provided)

The Community Book Read is for residents of Kosciusko County from mid-December through March 2013. Free copies of My Ańtonia by Willa Cather are in bright yellow bins throughout the county. Please take, read and enjoy the book. Return the book to the bin so someone else may read the book. The books will be available through March.

Because a limited number of books are available, readers are encouraged to download free copies of the book to an e-reader or a computer. Amazon.com has free downloads. Readers may also read the entire book online.

For many reasons, Willa Cather’s My Ańtonia was chosen as the title for the Plant the Seed, Read! Community Book Read. Though Kosciusko Literacy Services did not receive funding from the National Endowment for the Arts this year, My Ańtonia, is a Big Read selection and Readers’ and Teachers’ Guides are available online at www.neabigread.org.

Amazon.com has free digital downloads of the book. Readers may use Kindle or the free Cloud Reader. The book may also be read online, www.online-literature.com/willa-cather/my-antonia or www.willacather.org/about-willa-cather/online-texts.

My Ańtonia continues the themes of Midwestern problems identified in last year’s book read, Hollowing Out the Middle – The Rural Brain Drain and What It Means for America in fictional form. My Ańtonia is about immigration, poverty and the difficulties of rural life.

Immigrants settle on the prairie frontier. Young women move to cities to earn a living. Young men, who went to college, never return to the farm because of opportunities in larger cities.

The public is invited to discuss the book. Book discussions are scheduled for 6 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 30, Warsaw Community Public Library and 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 19, Kosciusko Literacy Services office located in Room 3 of Gateway Education Center (the old Madison Elementary School). Light refreshments will be served. An additional discussion will take place 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 13, at Syracuse Public Library.