What experiences and challenges have you had talking with the young people in your life about racism?

The Talk: Conversations About Race, Love & Truth is an anthology from notable middle-grade writers and illustrators reflecting on the conversations -- both from when they were kids and with their own kids -- about the way racism impacts their lives. Using this book as a starting point, we invite adults in the local community who are navigating how to have similar conversations with young people they know to read this book and join in conversation via Zoom on Thursday, October 21 from 7 pm. to 9pm Co-facilitation for this conversation will be provided by the Peace & Justice Center of Vermont.

This is a chance for adults in the community to come together and reflect on the book’s content: Which themes and essays mirrored your own experiences? Which brought up things you perhaps hadn’t thought about before, but are clearly the inescapable reality of many families? What obstacles are keeping you from having these kinds of honest conversations with young people in your life?

This conversation is part of Carpenter-Carse Library’s participation in Libraries Transforming Communities: Focus on Small and Rural Libraries, an American Library Association (ALA) initiative. Our hope is for this to be just one step in expanding our empathetic thinking and engagement in dialogue around racial injustice, and we also want to hear about the ways you feel the library can be a better resource in our community for continuing these important conversations in personal and public forums.

EMAIL MEG@CARPENTERCARSE.ORG TO REQUEST A COPY OF THE BOOK AND RECEIVE MORE DETAILS ABOUT THE UPCOMING VIRTUAL PROGRAM.

Libraries Transforming Communities: Focus on Small and Rural Libraries is an initiative of the American Library Association (ALA) in collaboration with the Association for Rural and Small Libraries (ARSL).

Book cover image courtesy of Penguin Random House; learn more about this anthology on the publisher’s website.