ON THE SAME PAGE
2025-2026 CLAREMONT COMMUNITY READ
West With Giraffes is our 2025-2026 Claremont Community Read. Author Lynda Rutledge has re-imagined the remarkable story of how the first two giraffes arrived at the San Diego Zoo from New York City in the late 1930’s, and has artfully woven fact with fiction.
The Friends of the Claremont Library will offer three events to explore this remarkable historical novel, a 2021 Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Historical Fiction.
Inspiring a Passion for Nature through Books
The Friends of the Claremont Library will offer three events to explore this remarkable historical novel, a 2021 Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Historical Fiction.
Inspiring a Passion for Nature through Books
Georgeanne Irvine, author and Director of Historical Affairs and Children's Book Author at San Diego Wildlife Alliance, has worked for nearly 48 years for the San Diego Zoo, the destination of the giraffes in our community read, West with Giraffes. She will talk a bit about their story.
In addition, she is the author of more than 30 books about wildlife - her most recent books have focused on connecting children with animals that live, or have lived, at the San Diego Zoo or Safari Park. She will speak about her aim to inspire children to relate to these animals and to care about their species, other wildlife, and animal conservation. She will not be bringing books to sell, but you can order books at ShopZoo and bring them along for signing.
• Saturday, March 21, 2026, at 2:00 PM in the Padua Room, Alexander Hughes Community Center (1700 Danbury Road, Claremont)
PAST Claremont West With Giraffes EVENTS
Learning from American Road Trip Stories (With or Without Giraffes)
Susan McWilliams Barndt, a professor of Politics at Pomona College, is an expert on The Road Trip and teaches a popular course on the subject. She is the author of The American Road Trip and American Political Thought. Since West with Giraffes is a very special road trip with two young giraffes, this will be an especially entertaining and enlightening presentation.
Saturday, February 21, 2026, at 10:00 AM in the Claremont Helen Renick Library Meeting Room.
Let's Talk: Community Discussion
In West with Giraffes, Lynda Rutledge has re-imagined the remarkable story of how the first two giraffes arrived at the San Diego Zoo from New York City in the late 1930’s. Our first event is a discussion of this book, full of travel, adventure, and plucky luck! And a tale showcasing the power of storytelling - both by our author, but also by her storyteller, whose words are feverishly penciled on paper during the last days of his life.
There’s lots to talk about here: how the author has woven fact with fiction, and how the story is driven by the characters, by the plot; and how the author uses suspense, local color, urgency, and so much more. Join us in a conversation about this special book, facilitated by Marie Carr.
Saturday, January 17, 2026, at 10:00 AM in the Claremont Helen Renick Library Meeting Room (208 Harvard Ave., Claremont)
In addition, she is the author of more than 30 books about wildlife - her most recent books have focused on connecting children with animals that live, or have lived, at the San Diego Zoo or Safari Park. She will speak about her aim to inspire children to relate to these animals and to care about their species, other wildlife, and animal conservation. She will not be bringing books to sell, but you can order books at ShopZoo and bring them along for signing.
• Saturday, March 21, 2026, at 2:00 PM in the Padua Room, Alexander Hughes Community Center (1700 Danbury Road, Claremont)
PAST Claremont West With Giraffes EVENTS
Learning from American Road Trip Stories (With or Without Giraffes)
Susan McWilliams Barndt, a professor of Politics at Pomona College, is an expert on The Road Trip and teaches a popular course on the subject. She is the author of The American Road Trip and American Political Thought. Since West with Giraffes is a very special road trip with two young giraffes, this will be an especially entertaining and enlightening presentation.
Saturday, February 21, 2026, at 10:00 AM in the Claremont Helen Renick Library Meeting Room.
Let's Talk: Community Discussion
In West with Giraffes, Lynda Rutledge has re-imagined the remarkable story of how the first two giraffes arrived at the San Diego Zoo from New York City in the late 1930’s. Our first event is a discussion of this book, full of travel, adventure, and plucky luck! And a tale showcasing the power of storytelling - both by our author, but also by her storyteller, whose words are feverishly penciled on paper during the last days of his life.
There’s lots to talk about here: how the author has woven fact with fiction, and how the story is driven by the characters, by the plot; and how the author uses suspense, local color, urgency, and so much more. Join us in a conversation about this special book, facilitated by Marie Carr.
Saturday, January 17, 2026, at 10:00 AM in the Claremont Helen Renick Library Meeting Room (208 Harvard Ave., Claremont)
As always, our library will offer copies of West With Giraffes for checkout. The library also has books for sale at $15 each.
Read more about West with Giraffes on the author's website:
https://www.lyndarutledge.com/WestwGiraffes.htm
To learn more about West With Giraffes, check out the author's 2022 lecture for Furman University's Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (1 hour) and her discussion of the book's selection as the 2023 Texas Great Read (3.5 minutes).
Watch The History Guy's informative Hurricane Giraffes: San Diego's First Giraffes video about those giraffes in 1938 below.
Digital fine artist Joel Cinnamon holding the lawn sign he designed for this year's Claremont Read.
What is On The Same Page?
The Friends of the Claremont Library sponsors the annual citywide reading program Claremont: On the Same Page. We engage as many people as possible in discussing one book as the basis for a shared experience. Local reading groups and educators are encouraged to read the book in their activities or curriculum. After the book is selected in September, various local events are offered to discuss it and related topics. All events are free and open to the public.
Past On The Same Page book selections*
2024: Hollywood Park by Mikel Jollett
2023:This Is How It Always Is by Laurie Frankel
2022: A Fire Story by Brian Fries
2021: Always a Song by Ellen Harper
2020: Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson
2019: The Library Book by Susan Orlean
2018:The Refugees by Viet Thanh Nguyen
2017:Tangled Vines: Greed, Murder, Obsession and an Arsonist in the Vineyards of California by Frances Dinkelspiel
2016: Funny in Farsi: A Memoir of Growing Up Iranian in America by Firoozeh Dumas
2015: Wonder by R.J. Palacio
2014: Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
2013: Take One Candle Light a Room: A Novel by Susan Straight
2012: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
2011: Into The Beautiful North: A Novel by Luis Alberto Urrea
2010: The God of War by Marisa Silver
2009: The Soloist: A Lost Dream, An Unlikely Friendship, and the Redemptive Power of Music by Steve Lopez
2008: The Distant Land of My Father by Bo Caldwell
2007: Cannery Row by John Steinbeck
*Click on the linked book titles to learn more about these past selections.
The Friends of the Claremont Library sponsors the annual citywide reading program Claremont: On the Same Page. We engage as many people as possible in discussing one book as the basis for a shared experience. Local reading groups and educators are encouraged to read the book in their activities or curriculum. After the book is selected in September, various local events are offered to discuss it and related topics. All events are free and open to the public.
Past On The Same Page book selections*
2024: Hollywood Park by Mikel Jollett
2023:This Is How It Always Is by Laurie Frankel
2022: A Fire Story by Brian Fries
2021: Always a Song by Ellen Harper
2020: Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson
2019: The Library Book by Susan Orlean
2018:The Refugees by Viet Thanh Nguyen
2017:Tangled Vines: Greed, Murder, Obsession and an Arsonist in the Vineyards of California by Frances Dinkelspiel
2016: Funny in Farsi: A Memoir of Growing Up Iranian in America by Firoozeh Dumas
2015: Wonder by R.J. Palacio
2014: Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
2013: Take One Candle Light a Room: A Novel by Susan Straight
2012: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
2011: Into The Beautiful North: A Novel by Luis Alberto Urrea
2010: The God of War by Marisa Silver
2009: The Soloist: A Lost Dream, An Unlikely Friendship, and the Redemptive Power of Music by Steve Lopez
2008: The Distant Land of My Father by Bo Caldwell
2007: Cannery Row by John Steinbeck
*Click on the linked book titles to learn more about these past selections.