We read a variety of diverse contemporary and classic fiction and meet once a month for a thought-provoking conversa tion. Register for in-person or virtual. Copies of the book are available for check out at the West Branch reference desk. \;Contact discussion facilitator Becky Clark at rclark@aurorapubliclibrary.org \;for more information.
\nBo ok description:
\nA novel about a mother&rsquo\;s unbreakable lo ve in a world consumed by fear.
\nTwelve-year-old Bird Gardner lives a quiet existence with his loving but broken father\, a former lingu ist who now shelves books in a university library. Bird knows to not ask t oo many questions\, stand out too much\, or stray too far. For a decade\, their lives have been governed by laws written to preserve &ldquo\;America n culture&rdquo\; in the wake of years of economic instability and violenc e. To keep the peace and restore prosperity\, the authorities are now allo wed to relocate children of dissidents\, especially those of Asian origin\ , and libraries have been forced to remove books seen as unpatriotic&mdash \;including the work of Bird&rsquo\;s mother\, Margaret\, a Chinese Americ an poet who left the family when he was nine years old.
\nBird has g rown up disavowing his mother and her poems\; he doesn&rsquo\;t know her w ork or what happened to her\, and he knows he shouldn&rsquo\;t wonder. But when he receives a mysterious letter containing only a cryptic drawing\, he is pulled into a quest to find her. His journey will take him back to t he many folktales she poured into his head as a child\, through the ranks of an underground network of librarians\, into the lives of the children w ho have been taken\, and finally to New York City\, where a new act of def iance may be the beginning of much-needed change.
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