Vermont Humanities

Vermont Reads

A Statewide Community Reading Program
Painting of two girls in 1950s San Francisco in a corner under a streetlamp
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. In 2021, we shifted this annual program to start each year on July 1.

Over 200 different Vermont towns, cities, and villages have participated in Vermont Reads to date. Schools, libraries, service organizations, churches, businesses, or other community-based organizations can start by filling out a brief application.

Painting of two girls in 1950s San Francisco in a corner under a streetlamp

Vermont Reads 2023: Last Night at the Telegraph Club

We invite Vermont communities to plan projects centered around Last Night at The Telegraph Club and its themes of self-acceptance, familial and cultural ties, US/China relations, LGBTQ+ and Feminist history, McCarthyism and xenophobia, music of the 1940s and 1950s, and others.

Author Katherine Paterson with student

Vermont Reads Past Picks

A list of the books selected since 2003 for our state-wide community reading program.

Vermont Reads 2023

Last Night at the Telegraph Club

Teenager Lily Hu is fully immersed in the life and culture of San Francisco’s Chinatown, home to Chinese immigrant families like hers. But as she comes of age in the 1950s, her passion for rockets and space exploration is matched by her curiosity about the Telegraph Club, located in a neighboring part of the city her parents have asked her to avoid.

LEARN MORE ABOUT VERMONT READS 2023

Upcoming Vermont Reads Events

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Vermont Reads Supporters

Vermont Reads 2023 is presented with support from The Trout Lily Foundation and The Jack & Dorothy Byrne Foundation.

Vermont Humanities*** November 16, 2014