Our Summer 2026 Book Selections!
We carefully select books for our program to ensure they reflect the richness of Minnesota and rural life while also serving as “windows” into other places and perspectives. Each year, Kathrina and Danielle—both passionate book lovers—engage with numerous authors at conferences and workshops. They understand the value of author participation in book discussions, so the availability of authors is also an important consideration in our process.
Our Summer 2026 lineup is all about rural life! We begin in Belcourt, North Dakota, with Apple Starkington, who is spending the summer with her Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa relatives. Then we visit the Adirondak Mountains with Winnie and the Tuck family in a newly remade classic (illustrated by a Minnesotan!), and wrap up in Vermont with Ian and his secretly adopted dog, Gather.
June
Apple in the Middle
by Dawn Quiqley
Apple Starkington turned her back on her Native American heritage the moment she was called a racial slur. After her wealthy father gives her the boot one summer, Apple reluctantly agrees to visit her Native American relatives on the Turtle Mountain Indian Reservation in northern North Dakota for the first time. Apple learns to deal with the culture shock of Indian customs and the Native Michif language, while she tries to find a connection to her dead mother. She also has to deal with a vengeful Indian man who loved her mother in high school but now hates Apple because her mom married a white man. Bouncing in the middle of two cultures, Apple meets her Indian relatives, shatters Indian stereotypes, and learns what it means to find her place in a world divided by color.
June Meetings
June 9: Introduction to our summer program
June 16 : Apple in the Middle discussion
July
Tuck Everlasting: The Graphic Novel
Adapted and Illustrated by K. Woodman-Maynard
What if you could live forever?
In this timeless story about immortality, friendship, and growing up, young Winnie Foster learns of a hidden spring in a nearby wood and meets the Tuck family, whose members reveal their astonishing discovery of the spring’s life-changing power. Now Winnie must decide what to do with her newfound knowledge―and the Tucks must decide what to do with her.
Drawing closely from the original text, this classic story is now brought to visual life in K. Woodman-Maynard’s gorgeous watercolor artwork.
July Meetings
July 14 : Tuck Everlasting: The Graphic Novel discussion
July 21 : Discussion with Minnesota illustrator and author, K. Woodman-Maynard
August
Gather
by Kenneth Cadow
Ian Gray isn’t supposed to have a dog, but a lot of things that shouldn’t happen end up happening anyway. And Gather, Ian’s adopted pup, is good company now that Ian has to quit the basketball team, find a job, and take care of his mom as she tries to overcome her opioid addiction. Despite the obstacles thrown their way, Ian is determined to keep his family afloat no matter what it takes. And for a little while, things are looking up: Ian makes friends, and his fondness for the outdoors and for fixing things lands him work helping neighbors. But an unforeseen tragedy results in Ian and his dog taking off on the run, trying to evade a future that would mean leaving their house and their land. This 2023 National Book Award Finalist brings an emotional and ultimately hopeful story of one teen’s resilience in the face of unthinkable hardships.
August Meetings
August 11: Gather discussion, intro
August 18: Discussion with Ken Cadow, author of Gather
We don’t just read the books—we get to meet the amazing authors and illustrators who created them!
K. Woodman-Maynard is graphic novelist and comics coach whose work explores themes of acceptance and self-expression.
Her best-selling graphic novel adaptation of Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt received starred reviews from both Kirkus, who called it “as wise and wonderful as the original,” and School Library Journal, who described it as “a must for any graphic novel collection.”
Her debut, an adaptation of The Great Gatsby, was called "hugely rewarding" by the The Wall Street Journal and was featured in the The New York Times, The Guardian, and Times Literary Supplement.
She graduated magna cum laude with highest honors from Harvard University and worked as a designer and animator for clients such as Capital One, Nickelodeon, and TOMS Shoes. She writes a weekly Substack newsletter, Creating Comics, where she encourages artists to create more and feel less bad about themselves in the process.
Vermont author, Kenneth M. Cadow has spent a lot of time in the woods, in the wood shop, and working with young adults in schools as an art teacher, English Teacher, STEM teacher, wood shop teacher, and high school principal. He and his wife, Lisa, have three grown children, a border collie named Quinine, and a cat named Rosie.
Ken serves on the boards of Green Mountain Economic Development Corporation and Vermont Rural Education Collaborative. He presents frequently to teachers and educator training programs on rural education, general education and career preparedness, education and boys, and general education / community partnerships.
Listen to Ken provide a summary of Gather: Click here to hear Ken
Previous Years’ Selections
Summer 2024
June
Banned Book Club, by Kim Hyun Sook and Ryan Estrada. When the editor of the school newspaper invites Kim to his reading group, she expects to pop into the cafeteria to talk about Moby Dick or Hamlet. Instead she ends up hiding in a basement as the youngest member of an underground banned book club.
June
Summer 2025
Rez Ball, by Byron Graves, tells the story of Tre Brun, a young basketball player who is happiest when he is playing basketball on the Red Lake High School team while dealing with grief and memories of his big brother, Jaxon.
July
July
Hudson Bay Bound, by Natalie Warren. Paddling on a canoe from Minneapolis to Hudson Bay, following the 2,000-mile route, Natalie Warren and Ann Raiho faced unexpected trials and gained new insights about the communities they traveled through and themselves.
Ida in the Middle, by Nora Lester Murad, explores belonging and place through Ida, Palestinian-American girl, who eats a magic olive that takes her to the life she might have had in her parents’ village near Jerusalem.
August
Where Wolves Don’t Die, by Anton Treuer. Ezra's family sends him away to his family’s home on Nigigoonsiminikaaning First Nation to run traplines with his grandfather in a remote part of Canada, where he learns important lessons about family, community, and his heritage.
August
Where You See Yourself, by Claire Forrest, focuses on Effie’s senior year in high school as she navigates her way through a year of admissions visits, senior class traditions, internal and external ableism. She learns the meaning of self advocacy.