#FridayReads: Dixon, Descending by Karen Outen

Dixon was once an Olympic-level runner. But he missed the team by two-tenths of a second, and ever since that pain decades ago, he hasn’t allowed a goal to consume him. But when his charming older brother, Nate, suggests that they attempt to be the first Black American men to summit Mount Everest, Dixon can’t refuse. The brothers are determined to prove something—to themselves and to each other.

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Dear Librarians: A Letter from Devorah Heitner, Author of Growing Up in Public

Parents and caregivers are eager for research-based support on raising kids and teens in the digital age. There are a lot of gloom and doom books out there that basically tell us that “smartphones have destroyed a generation.” My book, Growing Up in Public: Coming of Age in a Digital World, offers a different perspective.

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Dear Librarians: A Letter from K. T. Nguyen, Author of You Know What You Did

“I felt a sense of belonging in the stacks that I didn’t find elsewhere in my almost entirely white school and town. I spent free periods happily volunteering in my high school library. The summer before college, the school librarian mailed me a check for fifty dollars. Despite my embarrassment that she knew how little we had, I was touched that she believed in me enough to invest in my success… librarians were angels on earth.”

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