The Vermont Humanities Council has selected the LGBTQ young adult novel “We Contain Multitudes” for its Vermont Reads program‘s book selection of 2021.
Partnering with schools, libraries and community organizations, Vermont Reads will provide some 4,000 free copies to groups that include Outright Vermont, Recovery Vermont, the Howard Center and the Vermont Network Against Domestic and Sexual Violence’s Youth Advocacy Task Force, reports VT Digger.
“It felt important to acknowledge that queer kids exist and in fairly large numbers in Vermont, and that mainstream organizations should support these young people,” said Council Executive Director Christopher Kaufman Ilstrup.
“It shouldn’t always have to be just the LGBTQ groups who are addressing LGBTQ issues. We can all talk about diversity in our communities,” said Ilstrup.
Reports VT Digger on Vermont Reads’ selection:
The two-decade-old program originally featured titles about past challenges, be it Montpelier author Katherine Paterson’s “Bread and Roses, Too” about turn-of-the-century labor strikes, Brattleboro writer Karen Hesse’s “Witness” about the Ku Klux Klan of the1920s or Saint Michael’s College graduate Loung Ung’s “First They Killed My Father” about her 1970s escape from war-torn Cambodia.
But recent picks have tackled the present. Last year’s Black Lives Matter-inspired “The Hate U Give” by Mississippi writer Angie Thomas will give way to the latest selection, “We Contain Multitudes,” a tale of two teenage boys by Canadian author Sarah Henstra.
“The novel contains many strands relevant to current community conversations, including economic disparities, how veterans return from war, domestic violence, opioid addiction, bullying and coming out,” the council wrote about the latter book. “But lest it sound too heavy, it is also a beautiful story of friendship, poetry, coming of age and aspiring to move beyond social expectations.”
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