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ACL teen book club coming up

ALPENA — Readers ages 12 to 18 are invited to sign up for the upcoming April Teen Book Club featuring “The Weight of Our Sky,” by Hanna Alkaf.

Two to three weeks before the book club meeting, registered participants will be contacted via email to pick up their “The Weight of Our Sky” Book Club Kit. The discussion for this book will be held via Zoom at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, April 28. A link to join the chat will be sent out shortly before April 27.

Registered participants will receive a book club kit in advance of the meeting, which includes a copy of “The Weight of Our Sky,” a set of discussion questions, a bookmark, and an activity or craft.

Register at https://forms.gle/JY87LFZbb5eSE5Ju6!

About the book:

“A music-loving teen with OCD does everything she can to find her way back to her mother during the historic race riots in 1969 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in this heart-pounding literary debut.

“Melati Ahmad looks like your typical movie-going, Beatles-obsessed 16-year-old. Unlike most other 16-year-olds though, Mel also believes that she harbors a djinn inside her, one who threatens her with horrific images of her mother’s death unless she adheres to an elaborate ritual of counting and tapping to keep him satisfied.

“A trip to the movies after school turns into a nightmare when the city erupts into violent race riots between the Chinese and the Malay. When gangsters come into the theater and hold movie-goers hostage, Mel, a Malay, is saved by a Chinese woman but has to leave her best friend behind to die.

“On their journey through town, Mel sees for herself the devastation caused by the riots. In her village, a neighbor tells her that her mother, a nurse, was called in to help with the many bodies piling up at the hospital. Mel must survive on her own, with the help of a few kind strangers, until she finds her mother. But the djinn in her mind threatens her ability to cope.”

For more information visit www.alpenalibrary.org or the library’s Facebook page.

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