The 2017 Vermont Reads Book selected by the VT Humanities Council is Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson. The Jeudevine Library is partnering with teacher Peter Nichols at Hazen Union to get students and community people reading this book. The book won the 2014 National Book Award for Young People’s Literature. In addition, It was a Newbury Honor book and won the Coretta Scott King Award.

Copies of the book are now available at the Jeudevine Library for anyone who wants to read this eloquent narrative. The library is hosting a discussion of the book on Sunday, Dec. 3 at 3 PM at the library. The discussion leader will be Kerrin McCadden, a poet and teacher from Montpelier. The book is a memoir written in verse. Reflecting on her book, Ms. Woodson remarked, “Raised in South Carolina and New York, I always felt halfway home in each place. In [this book], I share what it was like to grow up as an African American in the 1960s and 1970s, living with the remnants of Jim Crow and my growing awareness of the Civil Rights movement. It also reflects the joy of finding my voice through writing stories, despite the fact that I struggled with reading as a child. My love of stories inspired and stayed with me, creating the first sparks of the writer that I was to become.”

There is so much to discuss in this book. You can find out more about the Vermont Humanities Council at https://www.vermonthumanities.org. Learn more about discussion leader McCadden at www.kerrinmccadden.com. There will be refreshments! For information call the Jeudevine Library at 472-5948.