Fox Cities Reads 2017: Stella by Starlight

This year the Fox Cities Reads book and the Fox Cities Boo Festival are 6 months apart with the book festival being held in October while Fox Cities Reads is now. The book chosen this year is Stella by Starlight by Sharon Draper. We read it for book club in March.

Stella by Starlight is set in the 1930s in rural North Carolina. Stella, a young black girl, is struggling with writing in school as well as the KKK presence in her small community. Despite hard economic times, her neighbors and her family learn the true meaning of community as they gather together when the traveling salesman drops in and pitch in as one of their own homes is lit on fire by the KKK.

It is book for the middle grades... perfect to read as a family and discuss how what Stella faces is similar or different from our own world today. Many of the issues that were illustrated in the book are still common today and are important to address. Racism, community, struggles with school, helping at home, voting rights are all things we still see in 2017.

Part of the Fox Cities Reads Campaign was several author visits in the community with Sharon Draper. She visited several area schools and talked to students about the book and writing. However, she also had two community appearances. Even though I was not feeling well, I did go to UW-Fox Valley to hear her speak since that would be my only opportunity.

Sharon Draper was an amazing speaker. She didn't talk about the book or her writing too much because she wanted time for questions and didn't want to keep us there all night. Being a fiction writer, she calls herself a professional liar which if you think about it pretty much what she is. She writes fiction to talk about reality. It is much easier to talk about today's issues from someone's else view.

Besides talking about the writing process, how she became a writer (challenged by a student), and her books, Ms. Draper had two key takeaways:
   1. Find your gift or your joy -- don't do something you're not good at if it doesn't make you happy.
   2. Talk to your parents and get there story -- this seems to be a common theme among authors this year. Don't wait until it's too late to learn your family history, how your parents met, what was school like for your parents. Have a conversation with them and write it down or record it.

Despite trying not to hack up a lung and infect everyone sitting around me, it was a very pleasant evening. I am glad I went. I really enjoyed hearing Sharon speak. Fox Cities Reads is a great program that brings the community together and hopefully I will get to read the book next year too.