Off the Shelf: Trumbull County Reads 2023

Posted Oct. 10, 2023

Trumbull County Reads 2023 (formerly known as One Book/One Community) is an annual initiative that encourages everyone to celebrate reading through conversations and events related to a central book or topic.

This year, four books—selected for children through adults—that focus on the theme “Stand Up” are being featured:

Children’s Selection: Change Sings by Amanda Gorman; pictures by Loren Long

In this stirring, much-anticipated picture book by presidential inaugural poet and activist Amanda Gorman, anything is possible when our voices join together. As a young girl leads a cast of characters on a musical journey, they learn that they have the power to make changes—big or small—in the world, in their communities, and most importantly, in themselves.

 

Tween Selection: Anthem by Deborah Wiles

From two-time National Book Award finalist Deborah Wiles, the remarkable story of two cousins who must take a road trip across America in 1969 in order to let a teen know he’s been drafted to fight in Vietnam. Full of photos, music, and figures of the time, this is the masterful story of what it’s like to be young and American in troubled times.

 

Young Adult Selection: Kent State by Deborah Wiles

May 4, 1970. Kent State University. As protestors roil the campus, National Guardsmen are called in. In the chaos of what happens next, shots are fired and four students are killed. To this day, there is still argument of what happened and why.

 

Adult Selection: Kent State: Four Dead in Ohio by Derf Backderf

From author Derf Backderf comes the tragic and unforgettable story of the Kent State shootings, told in graphic novel form. Backderf takes us back to the age of the Vietnam War, Richard Nixon, Woodstock, and the Cold War and explores, in words and images, a scene of tragedy, the campus of Kent State University, where National Guard Troops attacked unarmed protestors and killed four students (Allison Beth Krause, age 19, Jeffrey Glenn Miller, age 20, Sandra Lee Scheuer, age 20, and William Knox Schroeder, age 19).

 

All four Trumbull County Reads 2023 books are available to borrow from the Warren-Trumbull County Public Library, in print, eBook, or eAudiobook format. Visit the library website at www.WTCPL.org for the digital library or check the free Libby and hoopla apps to instantly begin reading the Trumbull County Reads titles!

Book discussions and a unique series of films, guest speakers, and events related to aspects of the books will take place throughout October. For more information, visit https://wtcpl.org/trumbull-county-reads/.

Want to read more?

Use the library’s Novelist Plus online research resource and type in a keyword. It will offer up a list of similar books about your topic.