Vermont Reads Past Picks

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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