The Lincoln Award: Illinois Teen Reader’s Choice and YALSA’S Teens’ Top Teen are two book awards in which teens choose the winners. Each month, read one of these nominated titles and discuss if you think it’s worthy of an award.

Register for the discussion, then pick-up a free copy of the book, while supplies last, along with some goodies which our librarians have put together. Once you register, you will receive a confirmation email with a link to the virtual book discussion and notification that a free copy of the book is available to be picked-up during the next Curbside Pick-up hours.

By day, 17-year-old Kiera Johnson is an honors student, a math tutor, and one of the only black kids at Jefferson Academy. But at home, she joins hundreds of thousands of black gamers who duel worldwide as Nubian personas in the secret multiplayer online role-playing card game Slay. No one knows Kiera is the game developer, not her friends, her family, not even her boyfriend, Malcolm, who believes video games are partially responsible for the “downfall of the black man”.

But when a teen in Kansas City is murdered over a dispute in the Slay world, news of the game reaches mainstream media, and Slay is labeled a racist, exclusionist, violent hub for thugs and criminals. Even worse, an anonymous troll infiltrates the game, threatening to sue Kiera for “anti-white discrimination”.

Driven to save the only world in which she can be herself, Kiera must preserve her secret identity and harness what it means to be unapologetically black in a world intimidated by blackness. But can she protect her game without losing herself in the process?

For additional program information or help with registration, please contact Susan at susang@dkpl.org or at (815) 756-9568 Ext. 3400.

Curbside Pick-Up Hours: Monday 4:00-7:00 p.m., Wednesday 9:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m., Thursday 4:00-7:00 p.m., and Saturday 1:00-4:00 p.m.