–Libraries, schools, or bookclub groups sign up for the kits for a three-month period (time to receive, distribute, discuss, and send the kit back)
–Kits include 10 copies of the book and discussion questions
–Contact Charlie Simpkins at 601-432-4498 or email him for more details.
View a searchable spreadsheet of all of our kits here!
Mississippi Titles
Aliens in the Prime of Their Lives by Brad Watson
Collected Stories by Eudora Welty
Coming of Age in Mississippi by Anne Moody
Crimes of the Heart by Beth Henley
Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter by Tom Franklin
Dispatches from Pluto by Richard Grant
Ever is a Long Time by W. Ralph Eubanks
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
The Healing by Jonathan Odell
The Help by Kathryn Stockett
The Last Resort: Taking the Mississippi Cure by Norma Watkins
My Dog Skip by Willie Morris
Native Guard by Natasha Trethewey
North Toward Home by Willie Morris
Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How it Changed America by John Barry
The Resurrectionist by Matthew Guinn
Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward
Sycamore Row by John Grisham
The Scribe by Matthew Guinn
The Secret History by Donna Tartt
The Story of Land and Sea by Katy Simpson Smith
A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams
The Tilted World by Tom Frankin and Beth Ann Fennelly
Wolf Whistle by Lewis Nordan
Yard War by Taylor Kitchings
Books from PBS’s The Great American Read List:
Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Beloved by Toni Morrison
The Color Purple by Alice Walker
A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
The Help by Kathryn Stockett
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
The Intuitionist by Colson Whitehead
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden
Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
Rebecca by Daphne DuMaurier
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
Other Titles of Note
Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania by Erik Larson (donation)
Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader by Anne Fadiman
Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee
On Writing by Stephen King
Unpacking the Boxes by Donald Hall
Graphic Novels
American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang
Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant? by Roz Chas
Nathan Hale’s Hazardous Tales: One Dead Spy by Nathan Hale
Nothing Can Possibly Go Wrong by Prudence Shen and Faith Erin Hicks
Smile by Raina Telgemeier
The Walking Dead, Vol.1: Days Gone Bye by Robert Kirkman
Young Adult Titles
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz
Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein
Divergent by Veronica Roth
The First Part Last by Angela Johnson
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
I Am J by Chris Beam
Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs (6 extra copies available in Spanish)
Monster by Walter Dean Myers
When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead
Yard War by Taylor Kitchings
Literary Landscapes
These kits feature works set all over the world. Most of the kits also include a film on a related topic that has public performance rights and can be shown in your library. Each title has also been made into a feature film; while the feature films are not part of the kits, book clubs can still host a screening (if they own the film with public performance rights) or encourage readers to watch the films on their own.
Australia: Follow the Rabbit Proof Fence by Doris Pilkington and the film Utopia
Sweden: Let the Right One In by John Ajvide Lindqvist and the film Secrets of the Dead: Vampire Legend
France: The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery and the film The Butterfly
Japan: Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden and the film Empires: Japan
India: The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel by Deborah Moggach and the film The Story of India
Iran: Persepolis by Marjane Satarapi and the film Googoosh: Iran’s Daughter
Dominican Republic: In the Time of Butterflies by Julia Alvarez
Colombia: Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Autism Awareness Kit
Carly’s Voice: Breaking Through Autism by Arthur Fleischmann and the film Horseboy
Art Forgery Kit
The Art Forger by B.A. Shapiro and the film Beltracchi: The Art of Forgery
*We also have a few paint by numbers kits to go along with this set so you can “forge” your own masterpiece! First come, first serve.
Created Equal Kits
Created with a grant from the Gilder-Lehrman Institute of American History, these kits can be customized for your library’s needs. Choose a book club kit and a film, just a film, or just a book club kit! All films have public performance rights.
Films:
Freedom Riders
The Loving Story
Slavery by Another Name
The Abolitionists
Books:
Freedom Riders: 1961 and the Struggle for Justice by Raymond Arsenault (nonfiction)
March: Book One by John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, Nate Powell (graphic novel)
March: Book Two by John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, Nate Powell (graphic novel)
Virginia Hasn’t Always Been for Lovers: Interracial Marriage Bans and the Case of Richard and Mildred Loving by Phyl Newbeck (nonfiction)
If You Come Softly by Jacqueline Woodson (young adult)
Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II by Douglas A. Blackmon (nonfiction)
The Good Lord Bird by James McBride (fiction)
Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of New America by Gilbert King (nonfiction)
Wolf Whistle by Lewis Nordan (fiction)
Mississippi Trial, 1955 by Chris Crowe (young adult)
The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson (nonfiction)
Dinner and Movie Kits
Dinner and a Movie Series — a partnership with the Mississippi Humanities Council’s FOOD: For Thought, For Life program — includes ten copies of one of the following food-themed books and five short documentaries on food (75 minutes total):
The Gastronomical Me by M.F.K. Fisher
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver
The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan
Valuing the Vote Kits
Valuing the Vote – A partnership with League of Women Voters of Mississippi. Completed with funding from the Mississippi Humanities Council.
Focus on Women: contains 10 copies of With Courage and Cloth by Ann Bausum, the film Iron-Jawed Angels, and a CD of voter interviews.
Focus on African-Americans: 10 copies of This Little Light of Mine: the Life of Fannie Lou Hamerby Kay Mills, the film Never Turn Back by Tracy Sugarman, and two episodes of “Eyes on the Prize” from the PBS series.