One Book One Region kicks off

For the fourth consecutive year, Connecticut College is partnering with One Book One Region of Eastern Connecticut to bring community members and the College community together to discuss the 2019 selection, Jarrett Krosoczka’s Hey, Kiddo.

A National Book Award finalist, Hey, Kiddo is a graphic memoir about growing up in a family plagued by addiction that details the author’s search for his absent father, his tumultuous relationship with his mother, his life with his outspoken grandparents, and his path to becoming an artist. 

Assistant Professor of Theater Virginia Anderson will introduce Hey, Kiddo at a kickoff event June 19 at 6 p.m. at BioCT Innovation Commons in Groton, Connecticut.

One Book One Region is based on the idea of expanding a small book club to an entire community in order to broaden an appreciation of reading and break down barriers among community members.

Hey, Kiddo is also the Summer Read selection for the College, and Krosoczka will visit campus and deliver a lecture Sept. 17 at 7 p.m. in Connecticut College’s Palmer Auditorium.

Krosoczka is a New York Times–bestselling author, a two-time winner of the Children’s Choice Book Award for the Third to Fourth Grade Book of the Year, an Eisner award nominee, and the author and/or illustrator of more than 30 books for young readers.

“As a community, we need to be talking about the issues that come up in Hey, Kiddo—issues like addiction, child welfare, the expressive and healing powers of the arts. And we need to be talking about them with compassion and an open mind,” said Anderson.

Anderson said the graphic novel is a perfect format for grappling with such difficult personal and societal issues.

“Images can express what words can’t touch, and that’s vitally important in Hey, Kiddo,” she said. “I believe that one of the most important functions of art is to prompt discussion and to enrich our shared understanding of the world.”

For a full schedule of events, visit onebookoneregion.org.