Looking for your next book? Lizzy Lyons, Rural Grant- Children’s Advocacy Coordinator, reviews this year’s Vermont Reads pick

You undid me.

Write the two teen boys to each other in the book We Contain Multitudes, by Sarah Henstra.

This year, the Vermont Humanities picked this book for its Vermont Reads program and is encouraging all Vermonters across the state to read and then discuss together. We Contain Multitudes is a book that leans into some difficult and important topics. The reader moves through the book not by chapters but by easy to read back-and-forth letters from one boy to the other. Tucked within these letters are deep and difficult topics like bullying, homophobia, relationship consent, substance use, and grief.

It takes me a full two, maybe three minutes to get ahold of myself. Then I sort of just sit there on the floor with my back to the wall, wiping away tears and shaking all over.

There is also so much joy and excitement within these pages:

We laughed anyhow, both of us helpless with it. That swift secret. That joy.

Ultimately this book reminds us of the vastness that is the human experience. We are large, remember? We contain multitudes.

The Vermont Humanities has partnered with Outright Vermont, the Vermont Network, and Vermont’s Domestic and Sexual Violence Community Organizations to host community book discussions. You can find more information about the Vermont Humanities’ Vermont Reads programming and these community events on their website at https://www.vermonthumanities.org/vermont-reads/