Atchison library hosts Dragon Teeth program in regional reading series
Atchison’s June 24 stop in One Book, Many Neighbors tied Dragon Teeth to Kansas petroglyphs, a sticker passport and a regional library network.
Atchison Public Library turned its June 24 stop in One Book, Many Neighbors into a neighborhood gathering at 401 Kansas Ave, where the Petroglyphs of the Kansas Smokey Hills program ran from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. The hour gave residents a low-pressure way to drop in, hear a Kansas history presentation and take part in the regional reading series without needing to arrive as an expert on the book.
The 2026 selection for One Book, Many Neighbors is Dragon Teeth by Michael Crichton, a novel set in 1876 around the Bone Wars rivalry between paleontologists hunting dinosaur fossils in the American West. The program is a joint effort among seven area libraries: Atchison Public Library, Basehor Community Library, Bonner Springs City Library, Lansing Community Library, Leavenworth Public Library, Linwood Community Library and Tonganoxie Public Library.
The Atchison event fit that larger structure by linking the book to a presentation about petroglyphs in Kansas. The program description says Kansas history is often taught as beginning with Coronado’s trip through the state in 1541, but Native people lived on the plains for centuries before European arrival and left rock carvings on soft sandstone in what is now Kansas. That made the Atchison stop more than a book discussion. It connected readers to the landscape and the longer history already embedded in the region.
The series also built in a tangible incentive to move between libraries. Participants could attend at least one library event to qualify for the end-of-summer party, and the program materials used a sticker system to track attendance. People at the Atchison event were encouraged to bring their program guide so they could collect the next sticker.
Access remained part of the draw as well. Basehor Community Library’s registration kickoff offered free copies of Dragon Teeth while supplies lasted, keeping the series open to readers who wanted to join without buying the book first. For Atchison, the June 24 program gave the public library a practical role in a regional conversation that mixed literature, Kansas history and an easy evening out.
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