Reading Leaders Book Club
As lifelong readers and leaders, we all know the importance of reading and literacy…well beyond the pre-k12 classroom where it is often assigned. AESA Executive Director Dr. Joan Wade and Janelle Bailey, State Director of the Wisconsin Academic Decathlon first met at the United States Academic Decathlon (USAD) National Competition in Frisco, Texas, in 2018. They reconnected a year ago at the USAD National Competition in Bloomington, Minnesota, and escaped at the end of dinner to explore a Barnes and Noble bookstore together. Their friendship was sealed among the rows of books as they talked about their favorite books and suggested new ones to take home. Out of this friendship, the AESA/CESA 7 Reading Leaders Book Club was created! Joan and Janelle invite you to join this brand new virtual book club.
Next Book Club Date: May 20, 2021 @ 7:00 pm Eastern (6:00 pm Central; 5:00 pm Mountain; 4:00 pm Pacific; 3:00 pm Alaska)
 May Book Choice: Infinite Country by Patricia Engel
Talia is being held at a correctional facility for adolescent girls in the forested mountains of Colombia after committing an impulsive act of violence that may or may not have been warranted. She urgently needs to get out and get back home to Bogotá, where her father and a plane ticket to the United States are waiting for her. If she misses her flight, she might also miss her chance to finally be reunited with her family in the north.
How this family came to occupy two different countries, two different worlds, comes into focus like twists of a kaleidoscope. We see Talia’s parents, Mauro and Elena, fall in love in a market stall as teenagers against a backdrop of civil war and social unrest. We see them leave Bogotá with their firstborn, Karina, in pursuit of safety and opportunity in the United States on a temporary visa, and we see the births of two more children, Nando and Talia, on American soil. We witness the decisions and indecisions that lead to Mauro’s deportation and the family’s splintering—the costs they’ve all been living with ever since.
If you haven't participated in the book club before, CLICK HERE to join the group.
Previous Book Club Titles:
- April 15, 2021: Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer
- March 18, 2021: The Lions of Fifth Avenue by Fiona Davis
- February 18, 2021: Homeland Elegies by Ayad Akhtar
- January 21, 2021: The Girl with the Louding Voice by Abi Dare
- December 17, 2020: The Yellow House by Sarah M. Broom
- November 19, 2020: Anxious People by Fredrick Backman
- October 15, 2020: The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
- September 17, 2020: Washington Black by Esi Edugyan
- August 20, 2020: All Adults Here by Emma Straub
- July 16, 2020: The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America by Richard Rothstein
- June 18, 2020: American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins
Janelle instituted a program at her ESA in Wisconsin called “CESA 7 READS” to bring people who love to read together to get ideas for what to read next and/or to share their ideas about books. Visit the CESA 7 Reads website for more information.
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