Griot African-American Book Discussion

Long Division by Kiese Laymon

We feature books by African-American authors and meet for discussion in person and virtually via Zoom on the third Tuesday of the month. April's selection: Long Division by Kiese Laymon.

Attend in person or virtually via Zoom. Print copies of the book are available for checkout at the Eola Road Branch Reference Desk or Santori Library, 3rd floor. Email group facilitator Becky Clark at rclark@aurorapubliclibrary.org for more information. Note: Griot Book Discussion will meet temporarily at Santori Library during Eola Road Branch renovations.

Join us virtually here.

Book description:

Long Division by Kiese Laymon

Written in a voice that’s alternately humorous, lacerating, and wise, Long Division features two interwoven stories. In the first, it’s 2013: after an on-stage meltdown during a nationally televised quiz contest, fourteen-year-old Citoyen “City” Coldson becomes an overnight YouTube celebrity. The next day, he’s sent to stay with his grandmother in the small coastal community of Melahatchie, where a young girl named Baize Shephard has recently disappeared. Before leaving, City is given a strange book without an author called Long Division. He learns that one of the book’s main characters is also named City Coldson—but Long Division is set in 1985. This 1985-version of City, along with his friend and love interest, Shalaya Crump, discovers a way to travel into the future, and steals a laptop and cellphone from an orphaned teenage rapper called...Baize Shephard. They ultimately take these items with them all the way back to 1964, to help another time-traveler they meet to protect his family from the Ku Klux Klan. City’s two stories ultimately converge in the work shed behind his grandmother’s house, where he discovers the key to Baize’s disappearance. (publisher description)

I acknowledge my participation (or my child’s participation) in this virtual program includes the recording of this program which may include my name as listed on my account, images and/or video footage. I grant the Aurora Public Library District my permission to use the photographs and/or video footage for any legal use, including but not limited to: publicity, copyright purposes, illustration, advertising, and web content.  
 
Furthermore, I understand that no royalty, fee or other compensation shall become payable to me by reason of such use.

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