All you need to create a book club is your library card
Our circulating book club kits contain 10 books, a discussion guide, and sometimes a few surprises. Kits are available to check out for free with your library card. Kits check out for over a month, providing ample time for a group to read and discuss the material. To find our book club kits just visit the Teen Department.
Advancing Racial Equity and Diverse Reads
Our circulating book club kit collection began with a grant from the Indiana Humanities with funds from the Lilly Endowment, Inc. Each title was selected by a list curated by an Indianapolis Public Library committee of librarians, humanists, and Indiana Humanities staff. According the the Indiana Humanities website, “The goal is to help Hoosier think, read and talk about racial injustice and systemic racism and support libraries as key public humanities organizations in this work” (www.indianahumanities.org). Most of the titles in our collection were read by FCPL library staff. Please feel free to contact Teen Services Manager, Rachel Milburn, if you have any questions about the books/kits.
Meet Our Book Club Kits
- Title: This is My America
- Author: Kim Johnson
- Genre: Mystery
- Reading Age: 13 +
- Length: 416 pages
- Grade Level: 7-up
- Lexile: HL640L
- Publisher: Random House Books for Young Readers
“Incredible and searing.” —Nic Stone, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Dear Martin
The Hate U Give meets Just Mercy in this unflinching yet uplifting first novel that explores the racist injustices in the American justice system.
Every week, seventeen-year-old Tracy Beaumont writes letters to Innocence X, asking the organization to help her father, an innocent Black man on death row. After seven years, Tracy is running out of time–her dad has only 267 days left. Then the unthinkable happens. The police arrive in the night, and Tracy’s older brother, Jamal, goes from being a bright, promising track star to a “thug” on the run, accused of killing a white girl. Determined to save her brother, Tracy investigates what really happened between Jamal and Angela down at the Pike. But will Tracy and her family survive the uncovering of the skeletons of their Texas town’s racist history that still haunt the present?
Fans of Nic Stone, Tiffany D. Jackson, and Jason Reynolds won’t want to miss this provocative and gripping debut. (penguinrandomhouse.com)
- Title: The 57 Bus
- Author: Dashka Slater
- Genre: Non-Fiction
- Reading Age: 12 +
- Length: 320 pages
- Grade Level: 7-up
- Lexile Level: 930L
- Publisher: Macmillan Publishers
A New York Times Bestseller
Stonewall Book Award Winner—Mike Morgan & Larry Romans Children’s & Young Adult Literature Award
YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults Finalist
One teenager in a skirt.
One teenager with a lighter.
One moment that changes both of their lives forever. If it weren’t for the 57 bus, Sasha and Richard never would have met. Both were high school students from Oakland, California, one of the most diverse cities in the country, but they inhabited different worlds. Sasha, a white teen, lived in the middle-class foothills and attended a small private school. Richard, a black teen, lived in the crime-plagued flatlands and attended a large public one. Each day, their paths overlapped for a mere eight minutes. But one afternoon on the bus ride home from school, a single reckless act left Sasha severely burned, and Richard charged with two hate crimes and facing life imprisonment. The case garnered international attention, thrusting both teenagers into the spotlight. (Macmillian.com)
- Title: The Downstairs Girl
- Author: Stacey Lee
- Genre: Historical Fiction
- Reading Age: 12 +
- Length: 384 pages
- Grade Level: 7-up
- Lexile Level: 810L
- Publisher: G.P. Putnum’s Sons Books for Young Readers
By day, seventeen-year-old Jo Kuan works as a lady’s maid for the cruel daughter of one of the wealthiest men in Atlanta. But by night, Jo moonlights as the pseudonymous author of a newspaper advice column for the genteel Southern lady, “Dear Miss Sweetie.” When her column becomes wildly popular, she uses the power of the pen to address some of society’s ills, but she’s not prepared for the backlash that foloow when her column challenges fixed ideas about race and gender. While her opponents clamor to uncover the secret identity of Miss Sweetie, a mysterious letter sets Jo off on a search for her own past and the parents who abandoned her as a baby. But when her efforts put her in the crosshairs of Atlanta’s most notorious criminal, Jo must decide whether she, a girl used to living in the shadows, is ready to step in to the light. With prose that is witty, insightful, and at time heartbreaking, Stacey Lee masterfully crafts an extraordinary social drama set in the New South.
Share this Post