Join the Library and Loyalty Bookstores fo r a pre-publication event celebrating the release of \;How the Wor d is Passed for Young Readers \;with author Clint Smith and adapt ing author Dr. Cherry-Paul in a conversation with the one and only Jason R eynolds led by Hannah Oliver Depp\, Loyalty founder and co-owner. We&rsquo \;ll discuss the attempts to erase this essential history\, how we pass ou r stories onward\, and the responsibility and joy of writing for young peo ple. \;
\nLoyalty will be selling copies of Clint Smith&rsquo\;s previous works as well as the brand new Young Reader&rsquo\;s Edition in advance of its publication on Tuesday 9/30! Huzzah! Dr. Cherry-Paul and Ja son Reynold&rsquo\;s books will be available as well. A limited number of copies will be available for free courtesy of the DC Public Library Founda tion.
\nThis event is free and open to the public! But please RSVP i n order to secure a seat and help us support the library!
\nAdapted from Clint Smith's #1 \;New York Times \;bestselling and universally acclaimed \;How the Word Is Passed\, \;this must-read narrative takes readers to historical sit es across America\, exploring the legacy of slavery to help readers make s ense of our nation's past and present\, and be better stewards of their ow n future.
\nBeginning in his own hometown of New Orleans\, Clint Smi th leads young readers through an unforgettable tour of monuments and land marks&mdash\;those that are honest about the past and those that are not&m dash\;offering an intergenerational story of how slavery has been central in shaping our nation&rsquo\;s collective history\, and ourselves.
\nHow the Word Is Passed \;illustrates how some of our country&rsquo\;s most essential stories are hidden in plain view&mdash\;whether in places we might drive by on our way to school\, holidays such as Juneteenth\, or entire neighborhoods (like downtown Manhattan) on which the brutal history of the trade in enslaved people has been deeply imprinted.
\nInform ed by scholarship and brought alive by the story of people living today\, this adaptation of Clint Smith&rsquo\;s #1 bestselling\, award-winning wor k of nonfiction offers kids a new understanding of the hopeful role that m emory and history can play in making sense of our country\, and shows how they can reckon with the past and present to become better stewards of the ir future.
\nCl int Smith \;is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of&nb sp\;How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning With the History of Slavery Across America\, which won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction and was named one of the \;New York Times \;10 Best Books of 2021 . He is also the author of the \;New York Times \;bestselling poet ry collection \;Above Ground \;and the award-winning poetry collec tion \;Counting Descent. He is a staff writer at \;The Atlantic.\n
Dr. Sonja Cherry-Paul \;is the founder of Red Clay Educators\, co-director ofthe Institute for Racial Equity in Literacy \, co-director of the Teach BlackHistory All Year Institute\, and executiv e producer and host of The BlackCreators Series. She is an educator with m ore than 20-years of classroomexperience who has written several books tha t support reading andwriting instruction including Antiracist Reading Revo lution: A Frameworkfor Teaching Beyond Representation Toward Liberation. S onja hasadapted the #1NYT Best Seller\, Stamped (For Kids): Racism\, Antir acismand You. Sonja leads professional development for schools andorganiza tions in equity and antiracism. For a full bio and additionalinformation v isit \;sonjacherrypaul.com.
\nJason Reynolds \;is th e #1 \;New York Times \;bestselling author of more than twenty boo ks for children and young adults. A 2024 MacArthur Fellow\, Jason is best known for his novels \;All American Boys \;(co-written with Brenda n Kiely)\, the Track series\, and \;Long Way Down\, which received New bery\, Printz\, and Coretta Scott King Honors. Among his many accolades\, Jason was named the National Ambassador for Young People&rsquo\;s Literatu re by the Library of Congress for 2020-2022. He is on faculty at Lesley Un iversity\, for the Writing for Young People MFA Program and lives in Washi ngton\, DC. You can find his ramblings at JasonWritesBooks.com.
\nHannah Oliver Depp \;is the co-owner of Loyalty Booksto
res in the Peworth neighborhood of DC. Loyalty serves all readers as a div
erse\, intersectional feminist bookstore. They hold a Masters in English f
rom American University and have had the privilege to serve as a judge for
the Kirkus Prize and the National Book Awards. Oliver Depp is a founding
member of the American Bookselling Association Committee on Diversity\, Eq
uity\, and Inclusion and serves on the boards of Bookshop.org and as the p
resident of the New Atlantic Independent Bookseller's Association (NAIBA).
\;