Books of the Year panel on affordable childcare for the working poor in Alaska, Oct. 6

Thursday, Oct. 6, 7 p.m.
UAA/APU Consortium Library, Room 307

Wall Street salaries. The housing bubble. Decline of the middle class.

We live in interesting financial times, and the UAA/APU Books of the Year program  local reading progam aims  to engage Alaskans in examining where we've been and where we're going. financially.

The theme for 2011-13 is Money and Morality, and the two books are Michael Lewis' The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine and David K. Shipler's The Working Poor: Invisible in America. Readers guides to both books are available at the Books of the Year website.

Together these books capture people in the economic extremes of our society - the rich and the poor. In America, where "everything has its price," money and morality define our incomes, lifestyles and personal responsibilities. These Books of the Year help us understand our assumptions, and the role money plays in the decisions each of us make.

Books of the Year plans a variety of free public programs to engage readers in discussions prompted by both books.

On Thursday, Oct. 6 at 7 p.m. in the UAA/APU Consortium Library, a panel of experts will tackle the topic of "Challenges of Affordable Childcare for the Working Poor in Alaska." Bonny Headley of UAA Early Childhood Education faculty, will moderate the panel, including:

• Stephanie Berglund, CEO of Thread
• Samantha Farmer, UAA student and parent
• Connie Wirz, Executive Director of Cook Inlet Native Head Start
• Virgene Hanna, UAA Institute of Social and Economic Research

The event is free and open to the public.