Vermont Humanities

Vermont Reads in Schools

Author Katherine Paterson with student
Vermont Reads

Since 2003, Vermont Humanities has invited students, adults, and seniors across the state to read the same book and participate in a wide variety of community activities related to the book’s themes.

Learn more about Vermont Reads

Black and white cartoon drawing of a farmer in rubber boots with cows in a Vermont barn yard

Much of the work on Vermont dairy farms is done by people from Latin America. Over a thousand migrant laborers from Mexico and other countries milk cows, fix tractors, shovel manure, and take care of calves in our state.

Our Vermont Reads 2022 choice, The Most Costly Journey (El Viaje Más Caro), tells the stories of 19 of these workers in their own words. Illustrated by New England cartoonists in a variety of styles, each short chapter describes aspects of life as an immigrant farm worker in Vermont: crossing the southern border, struggling with English, adapting to winter, growing gardens, raising children, dealing with health crises, and working long hours.

We invite Vermont communities to take part in Vermont Reads 2022 by planning projects centered around The Most Costly Journey and its themes of migration, farming, mental health, cartooning, family, labor movements, and the Latinx experience, among others.

We’re constantly impressed by the creativity and dedication shown by middle and high school teachers who build curriculum around our Vermont Reads choices. Their projects have included cartooning lessons, author visits, creative writing seminars, protest marches, special luncheons, and even a trip to a local cemetery!

Librarians Carole Renca (left) and Amy Cudney gathered books about the Civil Rights Movement and the Great Migration to help Edmunds Middle School teachers lead Brown Girl Dreaming projects in 2017. A quilt inspired by Jacqueline Woodson’s memoir was raffled to help Edmunds purchase more library materials about diversity.

Librarians Carole Renca (left) and Amy Cudney gathered books about the Civil Rights Movement and the Great Migration to help edmunds Middle School teachers lead Brown Girl Dreaming projects

As part of two virtual Vermont Reads events held in 2020—including one for students across the state—former Vermont State Librarian Jason Broughton asked Angie Thomas, the author of The Hate U Give, about the first book she could never put down. Her answer: “Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry” by Mildred D. Taylor. “It was about a Black girl in Mississippi, and I was a Black girl in Mississippi,” Thomas said.

Vermont Humanities*** December 8, 2021