Hello, Patrons!

Banned books week has become a flagship event for LCPL and every year we look forward to bringing it to our community. It is with great excitement that we announce Jason Reynolds has been selected as our featured author for our 2025 Banned Books Week Author Talk. 

Born in Washington, D.C. and raised in Maryland, Jason began writing poetry at the young age of 9. He has become an author on a mission to enrich the lives of his readers by ensuring that children of color see themselves represented in literature. He masterfully provides young adult readers with stories that help make complex topics like race and society more accessible. 

Jason has received many honors for his writing. His first novel, When I Was the Greatest, won the Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe Award for New Talent. He is a National Book Award Finalist, Carnegie Medal winner, and won one of NPR’s Best Books of 2019 for Look Both Ways. He received a Caldecott Honor for There Was a Party for Langston, and was the Caldecott Honor Winner for Ain’t Burned All The Bright. His novels include All American Boys, the Track series, Patina, Sunny, For Everyone, Miles Morales-Spiderman, and As Brave As You, which won the Kirkus Prize, an NAACP Image Award, and the Schneider Family Book Award. His novel,  Long Way Down, was named a Newberry Honor book, a Printz Honor Book, and best young adult work by the Mystery Writers of America’s Edgar Awards.
In 2020, Reynold’s, in collaboration with historian Dr. Ibram X. Kendi, wrote Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You. It is a reimagination of Dr. Kendi’s book, Stamped from the Beginning and Reynold’s retelling helps young adults understand many of the systemic and insidious forms of racism that exist in today’s society and offers tools to the reader to help them identify and abolish racist thoughts in their own lives. 

We invite you to mark your calendars for October 9, 2025 and join us in welcoming Jason to our community for our free Banned Books Week Author Talk event. He will be reading an excerpt from one of his books, sitting for a Q&A author talk, and signing books with us. The event will be in the evening at Freight and a free dinner will be provided. 

In celebration, we invite you to stop by the library to pick up a free copy of one of Jason’s many titles from the front desk. Please read it and pass it along to another community member before coming back for more. Our goal is to have Jason’s books circulating through our community so that everyone can read at least one title before coming to the event. If you prefer reading e-books, LCPL also has Jason’s titles on our Overdrive account so that Lake County residents can access e-book copies with their resident library card through the Libby app. (If you have any questions about accessing e-books, stop by or give us a call and we’ll be happy to help!) 

Mark your calendars now–we can’t wait to see you!

LCPL