Vermont Humanities

Vermont Reads Past Picks

Author Katherine Paterson with student
Vermont Reads

Choose from the links below to learn more about each recent book chosen for Vermont Reads, and to view selected supplemental materials.

Recent Vermont Reads Choices

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

Vermont Reads 2022: The Most Costly Journey

Vermont Reads is a statewide, one-book reading program. Communities host programs related to the book’s themes. “The Most Costly Journey” is the Vermont Reads book from July 2022 through June 2023. It’s an anthology of comics that depict the oral histories of migrant workers who traveled from southern Mexico and Central America to work on Vermont farms.

Boy on We Contain Multitudes cover

Vermont Reads 2021: We Contain Multitudes

This novel in letters tells the paired stories of two very different teenage boys who are initially reluctant to participate in a pen-pal assignment from their high school English teacher, but ultimately grow well beyond the boundaries of the school project to share earth-shattering revelations about themselves and their families.

Vermont Reads 2020: The Hate U Give

Angie Thomas’ bestselling YA novel about the Black Lives Matter movement is finding an even wider audience now than when it was first published in 2017. The powerful themes of The Hate U Give have been brought into sharper focus for millions of Americans by the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbury.

Image of March: Book One cover

Vermont Reads 2019: March: Book One

March: Book One is the first of a trilogy written by civil rights icon John Lewis, in collaboration with co-writer Andrew Aydin and award-winning graphic artist Nate Powell.

Image of children marching in NYC

Vermont Reads 2018: Bread and Roses, Too

Bread and Roses, Too by Katherine Paterson is a novel of historical fiction that tells the story of the 1912 “Bread and Roses” strike in the Lawrence, Massachusetts textile mills through the eyes of an Italian-American girl and a runaway boy.

Image of Brown Girl Dreaming cover

Vermont Reads 2017: Brown Girl Dreaming

This beautiful memoir of the author’s childhood, written in verse, tells the story of a young person finding her voice and examines the strength of family bonds.

Image of the Endurance in an ice floe

Vermont Reads 2016: Shackleton Expedition

In 1916, Sir Ernest Shackleton’s ship, the Endurance, was imprisoned and crushed by sea ice near Antarctica.  It nearly cost his crew their lives, but all twenty-eight of them would survive.  Theirs is one of the greatest adventure and survival stories of the twentieth century.

Haroun

Vermont Reads 2015: Haroun and the Sea of Stories

This funny and touching story of a father and son is, at its heart, a reflection on the importance of stories, imagination, and creativity.

Earlier Choices

2014: Wonder by R. J. Palacio

2013: Poetry 180 with Billy Collins

2012: Bull Run by Paul Fleischman and The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane

2011: To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

2010: The Day of the Pelican by Katherine Paterson

2009: When the Emperor Was Divine by Julie Otsuka

2008: A Restless Spirit: The Story of Robert Frost by Natalie Bober

2007: Counting on Grace by Elizabeth Winthrop

2006: As Long as There are Mountains by Natalie Kinsey Warnock

2005: Seedfolks by Paul Fleischman

2004: First They Killed My Father by Loung Ung

2003: Witness by Karen Hesse

Vermont Humanities*** December 9, 2014