We are kicking off the countdown to our Spark Reading initiative launching in 2021 by featuring a teen/young adult book that we are reading, interested in reading, or have recently read. While our initiative focuses on encouraging, engaging, and supporting all ages in reading for enjoyment, we will primarily focus on teen/young adult ages. Young adult (YA) is a category of fiction written for readers aged 12 to 18 years. Since this is also the teen years, we will refer to this category as teen/young adult. More about this detail later.

Our executive director, Toni Smith, had the pleasure of listening to Elizabeth Acevedo speak as a panelist at the 2019 Well-Read Black Girl Festival and is looking forward to reading Clap When You Land which is a novel-length narrative told through the medium of poetry rather than prose.