Community book chosen

For its 20th anniversary, One Book Northland committee has selected "The Nickel Boys" by Colson Whitehead as the 2021 One Book Northland title.

The committee selection was influenced by the cancellation of the 2020 events for that year's selected title, "Just Mercy" by Bryan Stevenson, due to the pandemic. The topic of racial injustice presented in this nonfiction work still needs to be made available for community discussion, and so a coordinating fiction work was carefully researched and selected. Community engagement on these important topics is necessary and desired and the reason for One Book Northland.

American author Colson Whitehead has won many honors for his works, including two Pulitzer Prize awards for Fiction, for "The Underground Railroad" and "The Nickel Boys," the Orwell Prize for Political Fiction 2020, and the Kirkus Prize for Fiction 2019 for "The Nickel Boys," his seventh novel. He is also the author of two works of nonfiction, plus essays and short stories.

In "The Nickel Boys," Whitehead tells the devastating tale of two boys unjustly sentenced to a hellish reform school in Jim Crow-era Florida. The novel is based on the real story of a reform school that operated for 111 years and warped the lives of thousands of children.

The Duluth Public Library, along with the Cloquet Public Library, Superior Public Library, Two Harbors Public Library, Barnes & Noble, Bookstore at Fitger's, UMD Office of Diversity and Inclusion, UMD Kathryn A. Martin Library, and Zenith Bookstore will sponsor events.

The first event will be a Story Walk in Veterans Park featuring "Last Stop on Market Street" by Matt de la Peña 9 a.m.-4 p.m. April 10.

Next, a discussion of "The Nickel Boys" will take place at the Cloquet library 4-6 p.m. April 15. A signup sheet, discussion guide and a bibliography are available at the library. A limit of 30 people has been set.

The last local event is a showing of a movie with themes dealing with race and equity, 4-6 p.m. April 29. There is a signup sheet with a limit of 30 people.

Look for details and links to other One Book Northland virtual events online at http://www.duluthlibrary.org. Contact the Cloquet Public Library at 218-879-1531 with any questions.