Favorite books light the way
Call it an anecdote to the cold, dark days of winter.
Each year, in mid-February, the St. Anthony Park Branch Library Association stages a Luminary Walk, a winter tradition aimed at brightening people’s spirits. The festival, often spread over two evenings, showcases brightly lit luminaries dotting the pathways in Langford Park.
This year, the festival organizers added a new wrinkle to the event. “We decided that our theme this year would be centered around community,” said Chris Courtney, one of the festival organizers.
“We had a community choir lead the procession with lanterns from the library to the park, while singing resistance songs. Once there, Como High School’s choir greeted us by singing more resistance songs.
Courtney added, “This year, I also began what I hope will be an annual book-themed display, which we call the Book Garden. For the display, there were different book covers with luminaries near them that answer a question — such as “What is your favorite children’s book” or “What book changed your life?”
“This year, the question that we posed was ‘What is your favorite book about community’?”
Participants were asked to reflect on the garden of books, write on a piece of paper their favorite books about community, then share their book title for other people to see, discover and consider.
“Over the display, we hung twine with clothespins on it, and gave the attendees the option to participate by writing their own recommendations of ‘books about community’ (particularly in times of adversity).” Courtney said. “I collected all of the suggestions that were hung on the line.”
Altogether, the Luminary Festival amassed a list of almost 60 book titles for the book garden. Those suggestions are below:
In the end, I imagine festival participants felt a kinship with their neighbors, or at least opened up new avenues to connect with them.
Scott Carlson is the managing editor of the Bugle.
Elementary
“A Chair for My Mother” by Vera B. Williams
“A Different Pond” by Bao Phi (illustrated by Thi Bui)
“Be Kind” by Pat Zietlow Miller
“Big Orange Splot” by Daniel Pinkwater
“Can I Join Your Club?” by John Kelly and Steph Laberis
“Charlotte’s Web” by E.B. White
“Chicken Sunday” by Patricia Polacco
“Girls Can Do Anything!” by Caryl Hart and Ali Pye
“Goodnight, Gorilla” by Peggy Rathmann
“Last Stop on Market Street” by Matt de la Peña (illustrated by Christian Robinson)
“Something Happened to My Dad” by Ann Hazzard
“Stone Soup” by Marcia Brown
“Swimmy” by Leo Lionni
“The Bus Is for Us” by Michael Rosen and Gillian Tyler
“The Journey” by Francesca Sanna
“We March” by Shane W. Evans
Middle School
“A Series of Unfortunate Events” by Lemony Snicket (Daniel Handler)
“A Wrinkle in Time” by Madeleine L’Engle
“Because of Winn-Dixie” by Kate DiCamillo
“Counting by Sevens” by Holly Goldberg Sloan
“El Deafo” by Cece Bell
“In English, of Course” by Josephine Nobisso
The 100 Dresses” by Eleanor Estes
“The Hobbit” by J.R.R. Tolkien
“The Labors of Hercules Beal” by Gary D. Schmidt
“Twenty and Ten” by Claire Huchet Bishop
“When Stars Are Scattered” by Victoria Jamieson and Omar Mohamed
Young Adult
“A Face in Every Window” by Han Nolan
“Children of Blood and Bone” by Tomi Adeyemi
“Displacement” by Kiku Hughes
“Native Tongue” by Suzette Haden Elgin
“Parable of the Sower” by Octavia E. Butler
“The Hate U Give” by Angie Thomas
“The Incredibly True Diary of a Part-Time Indian” by Sherman Alexie
The City of Brass” by S.A. Chakraborty
“Entwined” by Alex Flinn
Adult
“A Man’s Search for Meaning” by Viktor E. Frankl
“Animal Farm” by George Orwell
“Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community” by Robert D. Putnam
“Braiding Sweetgrass” by Robin Wall Kimmerer
“Feed Your People: Big-Batch, Big-Hearted Cooking and Recipes to Gather Around” by Jenni Ferrari-Adler
“Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest” by Suzanne Simard
“How to Read a Book” by Mortimer J. Adler and Charles Van Doren
“It’s Not All Downhill from Here” by Terry McMillan
“Liberated to the Bone” by Susan Raffo
“Peace and Good: Through the Year with Francis of Assisi” by Murray Bodo
“Sand Talk: How Indigenous Thinking Can Save the World” by Tyson Yunkaporta
“St. John’s Lutheran Church Cookbook” by St. John’s Lutheran Church (Jamestown, ND)
“The Berry Pickers” by Amanda Peters
“The Hiding Place” by Corrie ten Boom (with John and Elizabeth Sherrill)
“The Island of Missing Trees” by Elif Shafak
“The Lord of the Rings” by J.R.R. Tolkien
“The Pillars of the Earth” by Ken Follett
“The Plague” by Albert Camus
“The Time of the Child” by Niall Williams
“Wuthering Heights” by Emily Brontë