Current Press Release

TOMS RIVER – Award-winning author, editor and educator Ibi Zoboi, whose novel Pride is in development as a mini-series, makes a virtual appearance in the Ocean County Library’s “Dive Into YA: It’s Not Just for Teens” series, 6 PM Thursday, October 28.

The program aims to show how real issues, vivid writing, diverse characters and imaginative concepts propel Young Adult literature beyond traditional age categories.

Punching the Air, co-authored with prison reform activist Dr. Yusuf Salaam in 2020, won a Los Angeles Times Book Award and a Boston Globe / Horn Book Award. Zoboi’s 2017 Young Adult novel American Street became a National Book Award finalist.

Pride, her modern reworking of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, is being developed for television by Nastasha Rothwell and Aziza Barnes.

The Haitian-born New Jersey resident is writer-in-residence for the New York City school system, and has earned several grants in support of her community-based programs for girls in Brooklyn and Haiti.

The series is presented in partnership with Booktowne, Manasquan, NJ. Attendees will receive a 10% discount for Booktowne that can be used through their website.

Registration for this free program is required at www.theoceancountylibrary.org/events. Registrants will receive a link by email to join the program.

Keep up with Library events and programs at www.theoceancountylibrary.org, or visit the Library on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

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