Courtesy Image The cover of “Dread Nation,” by Justina Ireland.

August Teen Book Club announced

The Alpena County Library has announced that its August Teen Book Club will feature the book “Dread Nation,” by Justina Ireland.

Those ages 12 through 18 are invited to participate by registering online at forms.gle/1Uc3swwtB6qp7HCH6.

The book club meets via Zoom at 6 p.m. Aug. 25.

Those who register will get a book club kit that includes:

∫ a copy of “Dread Nation”

∫ a set of discussion questions

∫ a bookmark

∫ an activity or craft

Supplies are limited and offered on a first-come, first-served basis.

One to two weeks after registering, participants will be contacted via email to pick up their kit and receive a link to join the chat.

About the book:

“Jane McKeene was born two days before the dead began to walk the battlefields of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania–derailing the War between the States and changing the nation forever.

In this new America, safety for all depends on the work of a few, and laws like the Native and Negro Education Act require certain children attend combat schools to learn to put down the dead.

But there are also opportunities–and Jane is studying to become an Attendant, trained in both weaponry and etiquette to protect the well-to-do. It’s a chance for a better life for Negro girls like Jane. After all, not even being the daughter of a wealthy white Southern woman could save her from society’s expectations.

But that’s not a life Jane wants. Almost finished with her education at Miss Preston’s School of Combat in Baltimore, Jane is set on returning to her Kentucky home and doesn’t pay much mind to the politics of the eastern cities with their talk of returning America to the glory of its days before the dead rose.

But when families around Baltimore County begin to go missing, Jane is caught in the middle of a conspiracy, one that finds her in a desperate fight for her life against some powerful enemies.

And the restless dead, it would seem, are the least of her problems.”

Questions can be directed to book club leader Sara at sgrochowski@alpenalibrary.org.

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