Summer Family Reading
The Two Rivers PTO Family Engagement Committee is happy to announce a Summer Family Read-with-Your-Child program using the book Just Mercy: A True Story of the Fight for Justice by Bryan Stevenson. This is the teen/ young adult edition of Stevenson's best-selling book, and the Appalachian State Common Reading Program has purchased copies of it for us! You can read more about the book and the author, and even read an excerpt from this book, below.
The idea is that at least one parent, guardian, or grandparent agrees to read the book together with the child. We'll offer a couple of opportunities this summer to gather to discuss the book's themes and also provide, over email, a discussion guide to help you discuss it with your child.
Because the regular edition of Just Mercy is Appalachian's Common Reading Book selection for 2019-20, author Bryan Stevenson will be speaking on Appalachian's campus Tues, Sept 17 at 7pm. His talk will be free and open to the public so families can plan to attend if you wish.
If you would like to participate in this family reads project with your middle schooler, just sign up at this link below and we'll arrange to get you a copy of the book before summer vacation starts.
Sign up here:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1f-P1N9OdwiTS4Dzr6d6uM5dzehafGHBie7_Ij-KTHW0/edit?usp=sharing
(Please note: the book is a hardbound copy and is for loan only--it must be returned to Two Rivers at the start of the fall semester.)
About the book:
A powerful true story about the potential for mercy to redeem us, and a clarion call to fix our broken system of justice, Just Mercy is a New York Times Best Seller by Bryan Stevenson.
Bryan Stevenson was a young lawyer when he founded the Equal Justice Initiative, a legal practice dedicated to defending those most desperate and in need: the poor, the wrongly condemned, and women and children trapped in the farthest reaches of our criminal justice system. One of his first cases was that of Walter McMillian, a young man who was sentenced to die for a notorious murder he insisted he didn’t commit. The case drew Bryan into a tangle of conspiracy, political machinations, and legal brinksmanship—and transformed his understanding of mercy and justice forever.
Just Mercy is an unforgettable account of an idealistic, gifted young lawyer’s coming of age, a moving window into the lives of those he has defended, and an inspiring argument for compassion in the pursuit of justice.
Praise for Just Mercy:
Bryan Stevenson won the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence and an NAACP Image Award for Just Mercy, which New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof called “searing” and “moving.” Just Mercy is the 2015 recipient of the Dayton Literary Peace Prize for nonfiction.
It has been named a New York Times Notable Book of 2014, TIME Magazine Top 10 Nonfiction of 2014, Esquire Top 5 Most Important Books of 2014, Washington Post Notable Work of Nonfiction, and an American Library Association Notable Book. A finalist for the Los Angeles Book Prize and Kirkus Reviews Prize, Just Mercy is also one of the Boston Globe Best Books of the Year and the Seattle Times Best Books of the Year.
Ted Conover wrote for The New York Times Book Review: “The message of the book . . . is that evil can be overcome, a difference can be made.” The Washington Post Book Review says Bryan Stevenson is “a gifted writer and storyteller” and calls Just Mercy a “work of style, substance and clarity.”
Read an excerpt from the teen/young adult edition of Just Mercy here:
About the author, Bryan Stevenson:
https://eji.org/bryan-stevenson
For more information, please contact Martha McCaughey at mccaugheym@appstate.edu.