| Label | Information |
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| Dates & times |
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| Category | Special Event |
| Age Groups | Children |
| Location | Zoom |
McKinley Memorial Library is pleased to announce we are in partnership with the Library Speakers Consortium (LSC). The Consortium is a group of libraries that pool resources to hire well-known fiction and nonfiction adult, children's, and young adult authors to speak to their patrons. All programs are broadcast live (online) and recorded for later viewing. You can access our LSC webpage to see a list of upcoming speakers and view past recordings. You can also subscribe to monthly event email reminders about current and upcoming speakers from the Library Speakers Consortium!
Intended for grades 2–5.
Register for this online event. You do not need to have a library card to register.
Find the book in the online catalog.
Offering a unique glimpse into the heart of America’s history - the good, the bad, and the ugly - celebrated author G. Neri invites readers for a journey through the U.S. in his funny and heartfelt book, My Bicentennial Summer.
The year is 1976, and America is throwing its biggest birthday party ever: its bicentennial. What better way to celebrate than with an eight-thousand-mile road trip? In this vibrant follow-up to his travelogue, My Antarctica, author G. Neri recalls his family’s real-life journey in a station wagon crossing twenty-six states in seven weeks, from California to Washington, DC, with only the aid of paper maps and transistor radios rather than smartphones and GPS.
Young Greg is entranced by the variety of accents, strange foods, natural wonders, and historical attractions, from the Grand Canyon to the Statue of Liberty. He meets Civil War reenactors at Gettysburg, protesters in Philadelphia, pioneer wagon riders in Valley Forge, and his own rambunctious Texan cousins. And he glimpses the darker side of traveling as a family of color, pondering whether “We the People” includes people like him.
Register today to learn more about the book and G. Neri’s vision of a future “with freedoms and fairness for all.”
About the Author:
G. Neri is the bestselling author of books for young people, including such notable titles as My Bicentennial Summer, Yummy, Tru & Nelle, My Antarctica and Ghetto Cowboy, which was made into the Netflix movie, Concrete Cowboy, starring Idris Elba. His stories have garnered a Michael L. Printz award, a Coretta Scott King Honor Award, an ALA/SLJ Young Adult Literary Award, a Lee Bennett Hopkins Promising Poet Award, as well as being honored by the Simon Wiesenthal Center and the Museum of Tolerance. His books have been translated into multiple languages in over 25 countries. In 2017, he was awarded the first of two National Science Foundation grants that sent him to Antarctica; he is currently co-chair of the Antarctic Artists and Writers Collective. In 2023, he received an honorary doctorate degree from SUNY for his literary and science outreach. He writes full-time while living on the Gulf Coast of Florida with his wife. You can find him online at www.gneri.com.
The views expressed by presenters are their own and their appearance in a program does not imply an endorsement of them or any entity they represent. Reference to any specific product or entity does not constitute an endorsement or recommendation by McKinley Memorial Library.