Virtual Tween Book Group

This month we are discussing Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky by Kwame Mbalia.

Please register below. Those who register more than 10 days before the book discussion date will have a copy automatically sent to their chosen branch to be picked up. You will get a phone call when it is ready for you. The books are yours to keep and generously donated by Friends of the Library groups from throughout FVRLibraries.

To join this online program, you will need a computer, tablet or phone with a camera and microphone. The link to join the event will be emailed to registrants.  A phone number will be included to allow you to use a phone as speaker and microphone, if necessary.

Book Summary

Seventh grader Tristan Strong feels anything but strong ever since he failed to save his best friend when they were in a bus accident together. All he has left of Eddie is the journal his friend wrote stories in. Tristan is dreading the month he's going to spend on his grandparents' farm in Alabama, where he's being sent to heal from the tragedy.

But on his first night there, a sticky creature shows up in his bedroom and steals Eddie's notebook. Tristan chases after it--is that a doll?--and a tug-of-war ensues between them underneath a Bottle Tree. In a last attempt to wrestle the journal out of the creature's hands, Tristan punches the tree, accidentally ripping open a chasm into the MidPass, a volatile place with a burning sea, haunted bone ships, and iron monsters that are hunting the inhabitants of this world.

Tristan finds himself in the middle of a battle that has left black American folk heroes John Henry and Brer Rabbit exhausted. In order to get back home, Tristan and these new allies will need to entice the god Anansi, the Weaver, to come out of hiding and seal the hole in the sky. But bartering with the trickster Anansi always comes at a price.