Books that Shape Us

Monthly Highlights

Charlotte's Web by E.B. White
Young Fern Arable saves a runt piglet from her father's ax who she names Wilbur.
The reality of farm life means that it may only be temporary, however, and Wilbur seems destined for the dinner table.
Until, that is, a true friend comes along in Charlotte A. Cavatica, an extraordinary grey barn spider

The Books that Shaped Us: February Highlight
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston

Fair-skinned Janie is caught kissing her shiftless neighbor at the age of 16, which prompts her Nanny to quickly marry her off into a life of security. It isn’t the love match Janie envisioned, something completely out of the imagination of her Nanny, a former slave.
Janie experiences two more marriages and perseveres through poverty, domestic abuse, and societal pressures on her journey to find a greater love and purpose in her life.

January Highlight: The Call of the Wild by Jack London

Jack London’s experiences during the Klondike gold rush in the Yukon were the inspiration for The Call of the Wild. He saw the way dogsled teams behaved and how their owners treated (and mistreated) them. In the book, the dog Buck’s comfortable life is upended when gold is discovered in the Klondike. From then on, survival of the fittest becomes Buck’s mantra as he learns to confront and survive the harsh realities of his new life as a sled dog.

2026

2026’s Read with Your Librarian theme “The Books that Shape Us” honors America’s 250th birthday by highlighting books influential in shaping America. Titles were chosen from the list featured in the Library of Congress’ 2012 “Books that Shaped America” exhibit.

January: Call of the Wild by Jack London
February: Their Eyes were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
March: Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White
April: Silent Spring by Rachel Carson
May: Riders of the Purple Sage by Zane Grey
June: Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman
July: The Federalist Papers by Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, & James Madison
August: Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
September: Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
October: Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein
November: Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Brown
December: Our Town by Thornton Wilder

Monthly Highlights

2026

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