Sheboygan Reads 2009 will feature local author, Betsy Michael, who self-published her memoir of bicycle touring this year, “The Green Steed.”

Sheboygan Reads is presented by Mead Public Library with funding from the Mead Public Library Foundation, and is co-sponsored by The Sheboygan Press.

“Mead Public Library is very pleased to offer the work of  Betsy Michael for the 2009 Sheboygan Reads program,” said Library Director Sharon Winkle.  “We think her expression of her experiences will be familiar and, yet, informative to her fellow Sheboygan-area residents.  We appreciate the generosity of The Sheboygan Press as it participates for the third time as co-sponsor of Sheboygan Reads.  We celebrate with the Mead Public Library Foundation its 20th anniversary and its continuing financial sponsorship of Sheboygan Reads.”

Sheboygan Reads supports literacy by encouraging community members to read and talk about the same book. In this way, Sheboygan residents become part of a summer communitywide book club. The first Sheboygan Reads program, in 2005, featured “The Breakdown Lane” by Jacquelyn Mitchard. The second, in 2007, featured two books by Michael Perry, “Population 485” and “Truck.”

“We're pleased that this year's Sheboygan Reads program features a book by a Sheboygan author,” said Richard Roesgen, publisher of The Sheboygan Press. “Local readers will really be able to relate to the book.”

The title of the book, “The Green Steed,” refers to Betsy's bike, which took her on many memorable trips including the Yucatan, England, Puerto Rico, and throughout Wisconsin. Her book is the story of a middle-aged woman who decides to ride her way to an undiscovered part of her existence - one that requires physical stamina, discipline, and a sense of adventure and independence.

Copies of the paperback book will be available for checkout or for purchase (for $15) at Mead Public Library beginning in mid-May. Copies also will be sold by the Friends of Mead Public Library at various library and other events. All book sale proceeds will benefit Mead Library.

There is an opportunity for an online book discussion at the library web site.

Betsy Jones Michael graduated from the University of Washington, majoring in music, and earned a graduate degree from San Jose State College in Early Childhood Education. She has taken writing workshops and has published articles in national magazines, newspapers, and education textbooks as well as many reviews, article and profiles for The Sheboygan Press.

While living in California, she taught preschool classes and produced and performed children's programs for the educational television in San Francisco. She taught Head Start children in the summer and then became the first year-round Head Start teacher-director. She also taught Early Childhood Education at Lakeshore Technical College. In 1967, she was asked to establish and be the teacher for the first preschool class at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center (JMKAC).

Mrs. Michael also sang and acted in many local plays and choral production over the years and was a volunteer at the JMKAC.

She and her husband, James Michael, have five children. He retired as a physician to devote full-time to painting and teaching watercolor painting.