'The power Lewis carried with his voice could be felt around the room, and it made me realize a bit how these events actually happened and it wasn't just a page in a textbook. Isaac, a sophomore at Rock Point, wrote about seeing Congressman Lewis at the Flynn: Lewis and Aydin talked about how Lewis’ memories of the civil rights movement can bring urgent new life to vital discussions about diversity, society, and active engagement in one's community, in ways that are not just historical, but directly relevant to today's world. On October 8th, students and staff were lucky enough to be able to hear Congressman John Lewis and his coauthor, Andrew Aydin, discuss Book One at the Flynn Theater in Burlington. The illustrations and visuals only serve to make it more powerful.' As one of our students, Sonja, said of the graphic novel, 'The book addresses issues still deeply seated within the American world, and brings the civil rights movement back into today’s spotlight, something that is often considered to be a very long time ago. Vermont Reads invites people across the state to read the same book and participate in a wide variety of community activities related to the book’s themes.īook One tells of Lewis’s childhood in rural Alabama, his youthful ambition to be a preacher, his inspiring interactions with Martin Luther King, Jr., and the nonviolent sit-ins he joined at lunch counters in Nashville to protest segregation. Teachers selected this book, not only because it is an inspiring and compelling historical narrative, but also because it was the Vermont Reads selection for 2019. This year our students started the year reading the graphic novel March: Book One by civil rights leader and congressman, John Lewis, in collaboration with co-writer Andrew Aydin and award-winning graphic artist Nate Powell.

March book 1