Reading Across Rhode Island kicks off its 16th year by inviting everyone to join in the reading of The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas. The kick-off event will be on January 27th from 2 - 4 pm at The Pavillion at Grace at 300 Westminster Street, Providence, RI. You can register for the kick-off event here. The spring programs will be held on April 12 and 13. You can contact Kate Lentz at the RI Center for the Book to inquire about sets of books for discussion groups.

The Reading Across RI website shares this information about the book:

"A brave, thought-provoking, conversation-enabling novel about what prejudice looks like in the 21st century. Sixteen-year-old Starr lives in two worlds: the poor neighborhood where she was born and raised and her private high school in the suburbs. The uneasy balance between them is shattered when Starr is the only witness to the fatal shooting of her unarmed best friend.

Angie Thomas was born, raised, and still resides in Jackson, Mississippi. She is a former teen rapper whose greatest accomplishment was having an article about her in Right On! Magazine. She holds a BFA in creative writing and can still rap if needed. The Hate U Give is her first novel.

'The Hate U Give has a universal appeal, with current themes of identity, family and
race. It’s an ideal selection to build upon last year’s discussions of Just Mercy” stated
Kate Lentz, Director of the Rhode Island Center for the Book. “Bryan Stevenson
challenged us to: get proximate, be hopeful, change the narrative, get uncomfortable and we will do that with The Hate U Give!'"

Who else besides a librarian would actually get paid to talk to people about books? What a great job! It combines two of my favorite things, talking with people and talking about books. Sometimes I can do both at the same time! Book groups are a great example – I’m involved in several book groups and really enjoy them. Lastly, I work with a great group of people and that makes it easy to come to work every day! (So that’s more than one favorite thing!)

Breakfast With Books, the program we will talk about on January 10, is very successful and has evolved over the years. Our book loving patrons start asking about it when they know it’s coming up. We do it twice a year and always get a crowd, so it seems to work.

It’s tough to recommend books to librarians, so I’ll stick with a couple of titles I read for our next program. One is Under the Harrow by Flynn Berry. This debut novel of suspense follows Nora, who travels by train to a village in the English countryside. Upon arriving at her sister’s house, she finds her sister Rachel, dead. Nora is a bit of an unreliable narrator, which I like – it keeps the reader on her toes!

Another is American War by Omar el Akkad. It takes place in the South in the year 2074, and follows the story of Sarat Chestnut, during America’s second Civil War. The South has broken away from the rest of the United States over a U.S ban on the use of fossil fuels. Sarat’s family and home are destroyed, which leads her down a path to war.

The application window for $10,000 American Dream grants through the Dollar General Literacy Foundation and the American Library Association is still open. Grants are awarded to expand services to adult English language learners and/or adults in need of basic education and workforce development.

To be eligible for funding, the applicant institution must be a public library within 20 miles of a Dollar General Store, distribution center or corporate office: Dollar General Store Locator

The application deadline is January 2, 2018. The program year will begin in February 2018.

• Webinar: Going Deeper with Social Media (WebJunction, December 19, 2pm)
• Webinar: Citations Needed: Build Your Wikipedia Skills While Building the World's Encyclopedia (WebJunction, January 10, 3pm)
  
• ALA Midwinter 2018 (Denver, CO February 9 - 13, 2018 - early bird closes October 18!)
• PLA 2018 Conference: Imagine the Possibilities (Philadelphia, PA, March 20 - 24 2018)
  

Email: nicolette.baffoni@olis.ri.gov
Website: www.olis.ri.gov
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