Forsyth Reads Together
featuring The Help by Kathryn Stockett

Forsyth Reads Together is a county-wide annual event that encourages the entire community to read, discuss, and participate in programs associated with the same book. 

This year's selection is The Help by Kathryn Stockett.
ABOUT THE BOOK
The Help
by Kathryn Stockett

Limited and persecuted by racial divides in 1962 Jackson, Mississippi, three women, including an African-American maid, her sassy and chronically unemployed friend, and a recently graduated white woman, team up for a clandestine project against a backdrop of the budding civil rights era. 
PRAISE FOR THE HELP
"With pitch-perfect tone and an unerring facility for character and setting, Stockett’s richly accomplished debut novel inventively explores the unspoken ways in which the nascent civil rights and feminist movements threatened the southern status quo."
Booklist
 
"In writing about such a troubled time in American history, Southern-born Stockett takes a big risk, one that paid off enormously...The Help is a compassionate, original story, as well as an excellent choice for book groups."
Bookmarks
 
"Powerful...[Stockett's] attention to historical detail, dialect and characterization create a beautiful portrait of a fragmenting world...This heartbreaking story is a stunning debut from a gifted talent."
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
 
"Thought-provoking...[Stockett's] pitch-perfect depiction of a country's gradual path toward integration will pull readers into a compelling story that doubles as a portrait of a country struggling with racial issues."
Entertainment Weekly
AN EVENING WITH KATHRYN STOCKETT
An Evening with Kathryn Stockett
Tuesday, September 15, 2015 at 7:00 p.m.

Lanier Technical College
Forsyth Conference Center
3410 Ronald Reagan Blvd.
Cumming, Georgia 30041

Ms. Stockett will speak at 7:00 p.m. about The Help.
She will follow her author talk with a book signing.

Register here to attend!

An Evening with Kathryn Stockett is sponsored by The Forsyth County Arts Alliance Fund at the North Georgia Community Foundation, BookLogix, Literacy Forsyth and the Forsyth County Public Library Friends and Advocates.

OTHER FORSYTH READS TOGETHER PROGRAMS
Book Discussions
Join us to discuss The Help by Kathryn Stockett in preparation for
An Evening with Kathryn Stockett on Tuesday, September 15.
Cumming Library
Coffee Talk Book Club
Thursday, September 10 at 1:30 p.m.
Registration not required.
Hampton Park Library
Forsyth Reads Together Book Discussion
Tuesday, September 8 at 2:00 p.m.
Registration not required.
Post Road Library
Lit Chicks Book Club
Wednesday, August 12 at 10:15 a.m.
Please register here to attend, as childcare will be provided.
 Sharon Forks Library
Literazzi Book Club
Wednesday, September 9 at 2:00 p.m.
Registration not required.
FCPL Cinema
FCPL Cinema presents The Help
 
Rated PG-13,  Running time:  146 minutes
Registration not required.
 
Cumming Library
Sunday, September 13 at 2:00 p.m.
 
Hampton Park Library
Monday, September 14 at 5:00 p.m.
  
Sharon Forks Library
Tuesday, September 8 at 5:00 p.m.
African American Genealogy Research: 
“Breaking Through the 1870 Brick Wall”
Sharon Forks Library
Saturday, September 12 at 11:00 a.m.
 
One of the biggest challenges for African American genealogy researchers is finding formerly enslaved persons before the 1870 U.S. federal census.  This was the first census following emancipation and the first census that recorded former slaves by name.  This presentation will provide guidance, tips, and records which can help turn this research challenge into a fulfilling adventure.
 
Presented by Elyse Hill with the Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society, Inc. (AAHGS).
 
Please register here to attend.
Charles Black Remembers:
Reflections from an Atlanta Civil Rights Figure
Sharon Forks Library
Sunday, September 13 at 2:00 p.m.
 
Charles Black is a professional actor on stage, screen, radio, video and television, a Special Correspondent for The Atlanta Inquirer newspaper, and a community activist. 
 
While attending Morehouse College, Black was one of only eight students taught by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. 
 
Mr. Black served as chairman of the Atlanta Student Movement, where he implemented the desegregation plan for lunch counters in Atlanta, negotiated desegregation of all theaters and movie houses in Atlanta and negotiated desegregation of Grady Hospital. 
 
Black also led a major voter registration campaign registering thousands of new voters and convinced Ivan Allen to publicly commit to desegregation of city facilities and nontraditional employment of “Negroes.” 
 
Join Mr. Black as he shares his experiences as a civil rights figure in Atlanta.
 
Please register here to attend.
PROGRAMS FOR KIDS AND TEENS
Since The Help addresses important civil rights themes, students are also encouraged to focus on these themes during Forsyth Reads Together.  Programs for kids and teens are listed below.
Storytellers Crafternoon
featuring Coretta Scott King Honor Award Illustrator R. Gregory Christie 
Post Road Library
Tuesday, September 8 at 4:30 p.m.
 
Join us for a special Storytellers Crafternoon featuring award-winning illustrator R. Gregory Christie as he leads an illustration workshop and a kid-friendly book making workshop with a civil rights theme. 
 
R. Gregory Christie has been working as an illustrator for over twenty years and has illustrated over fifty books for young adults and children. Christie has collaborated with clients such as The New Yorker, Rolling Stone, Vibe, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Kennedy Center, Marlo Thomas, Pete Seeger, Chris Rock, Queen Latifah, and Karyn Parsons on a variety of projects.
 
Mr. Christie is a recipient of the New York Times 10 Best Illustrated Children’s Books of the Year Award. He is also a three time winner of the Coretta Scott King Honor Award in Illustration, The NAACP’s Image Award, The Boston Globe’s Horn Book Award, American Library Associations’ Theodore Seuss Geisel Award, 2013 Ashley Bryan Illustrated Africana Children’s Literature Award, and a 10 Books All Young Georgians Should Read Award in both 2014 and 2015.  His illustrations have been featured on HBO Kids, PBS’ Between the Lions, on New York City’s subway cars for a year, on the 2013 Congo Square New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival poster, and on the 2013 United States Post Office Stamp entitled, “Kwanzaa Forever.”
 
Please register here to attend this special program.
 
Brown Girl Dreaming
Forsyth Reads Together Selection for Tweens & Teens 
Brown Girl Dreaming
by Jacqueline Woodson

In vivid poems that reflect the joy of finding her voice through writing stories, an award-winning author shares what it was like to grow up in the 1960s and 1970s in both the North and the South.
 
Brown Girl Dreaming is the Forsyth Reads Together book selection for tweens and teens.
Programs featuring Brown Girl Dreaming
 
Book Discussion & Poetry
Sharon Forks Library
Wednesday, September 9 at 6:30 p.m.
Did you love Brown Girl Dreaming? Join us for a conversation about this award-winning book and the historical events surrounding it. We will be discussing the poetry in the book, watch an author interview, and try composing some poetry of your own. 
 
This program is for ages 11 and up.
Please register here to attend.
 
 
W3 - Wednesday Writer's Workshop 
Teen Writer's Group
Post Road Library
Wednesday, September 9 at 6:30 p.m.
Are you a writer? Join us to share what you have written and find inspiration, constructive critiques and learn more about how you can share your writing today!  We'll draw inspiration from Brown Girl Dreaming.  
 
For middle and high school students.  
No registration required to attend.
 
 
Book Discussion, Games, and Poetry 
Hampton Park Library
Thursday, September 10 at 4:30 p.m.
If you wrote your own biography, what would you write? Where you were born, how you got your name, your favorite foods? When Jacqueline Woodson wrote the poems that make up Brown Girl Dreaming, she remembered slurping down lemon chiffon ice cream on a scorching hot day, how all her teachers expected her to be "brilliant" just like her older sister, living in the two worlds of South Carolina and New York City, and hearing about Freedom Riders, Martin Luther King Jr., and Malcolm X.
 
Come for a special book discussion about this winner of the Newbery Honor and the Coretta Scott King Award. Play games from Woodson's childhood, make your family tree, and try writing some poetic memories of your own.
 
Suggested for ages 9 and older.
Please register here to attend.
 
 
Book Discussion
Cumming Library
Bookmarks Book Club (Grades 7 and up)
Thursday, September 24 at 1:00 p.m.
Click here for more information.
Forsyth County Public Library
585 Dahlonega Road
Cumming, Georgia 30040
770-781-9840

http://www.forsythpl.org/