A message from the author of HOW TO THINK

Across the political spectrum, people agree on one point and one point only: our public sphere is a great big mess. Mistrust of our neighbors, anger at their folly, inadvertent or deliberate misunderstanding of their views, attribution of the worst possible motives to those whose politics we despise: these are the dissonant notes we hear

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One Book, One Community: Spotlight on Medina, OH

We love nothing more than hearing about an entire community supporting and sharing the experience of reading one book together. Because One Book programs are so vital to supporting literacy and library systems as a whole, we think it is important and helpful to recognize the communities that excel at these kind of events. Today we’re focusing on Medina, Ohio

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Sister Helen Prejean and DEAD MAN WALKING teaching kit from DePaul University Library

DePaul University Library’s Special Collections and Archives recently created a teaching kit for Dead Man Walking: The Eyewitness Account of the Death Penalty That Sparked a National Debate by Sister Helen Prejean. The library houses Prejean’s papers and twenty primary sources were selected for the kit to deepen the reading experience.   Developed by members of DePaul’s College of Education, the

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Changing the World One Girl at a Time: Ideas for using Tanya Lee Stone’s GIRL RISING for school- or community-wide reading projects

Girl Rising, a global campaign for girls’ education, created a film that chronicled the stories of nine girls in the developing world, allowing viewers to witness how education can break the cycle of poverty.   Now, award-winning author Tanya Lee Stone deftly uses new research to illuminate the dramatic facts behind the film in a

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One School, One Book Celebration for APPLEBLOSSOM THE POSSUM

Saugatuck Elementary School in Westport, CT, kicked off their second annual One Book, One School initiative by choosing Holly Goldberg Sloan’s Appleblossom The Possum this Spring.  Sloan’s story follows a family of adorable marsupials as they make their way into the world, and learn life lessons that are applicable to all students along the way, serving as

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New Audiences for THE HANDMAID’S TALE

More than thirty years after its original publication, The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood’s dystopian novel set in a frightening America of the near future where women-function only in the strictly defined roles assigned to them by men, remains unnervingly resonant to our current cultural conversation. The book as a result has returned to the bestseller list. Atwood has written a new introduction to the

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Pulitzer Prize winners: THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD and EVICTED

For Fiction, the Pulitzer Prize Board called THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD, by Colson Whitehead “a smart melding of realism and allegory that combines the violence of slavery and the drama of escape in a myth that speaks to contemporary America.” The novel chronicles a young slave’s adventures as she makes a desperate bid for freedom in

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