When
Once a month, the World Area Book Awards (Américas Award, Children's Africana Book Award, Freeman Book Award, Middle East Book Award, & South Asia Book Award) sponsor a free 60-minute webinar on a book recognized by one of the awards and facilitate a discussion with the author on how to incorporate the book into the classroom. We encourage educators to read the books with your colleagues, students, and community, and then join us to hear more from the author.
K12 Educators! You’re invited to an evening with Ari Tison, author of the 2024 Américas Award winning young adult novel, Saints of the Household.
Saints of the Household is a haunting contemporary YA about an act of violence in a small-town--beautifully told by a debut Indigenous Costa Rican-American writer--that will take your breath away.
Max and Jay have always depended on one another for their survival. Growing up with a physically abusive father, the two Bribri American brothers have learned that the only way to protect themselves and their mother is to stick to a schedule and keep their heads down.
But when they hear a classmate in trouble in the woods, instinct takes over and they intervene, breaking up a fight and beating their high school's star soccer player to a pulp. This act of violence threatens the brothers' dreams for the future and their beliefs about who they are. As the true details of that fateful afternoon unfold over the course of the novel, Max and Jay grapple with the weight of their actions, their shifting relationship as brothers, and the realization that they may be more like their father than they thought. They'll have to reach back to their Bribri roots to find their way forward.
Told in alternating points of view using vignettes and poems, debut author Ari Tison crafts an emotional, slow-burning drama about brotherhood, abuse, recovery, and doing the right thing.
- Pura Belpré Award Winner
- Walter Award Winner for Young Adult Literature
- A YALSA William C. Morris Award Finalist
- Amelia Elizabeth Walden Award Winner
- Américas Book Award Winner for Young Adult Literature
- A New York Public Library Best Book of the Year
- A Chicago Public Library Best of the Year
- A School Library Journal Best Book of the Year
- A Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the Year
- YALSA’s Best Fiction for Young Adults
Read more about the book in Medium’s Stories of Saints and the SLJ’s starred review.
Participants will have the opportunity to discuss the book with the author and consider classroom applications.
WHEN: Tuesday, March 25, 2025 at
7:00-8:00 pm Eastern
6:00-7:00 pm Central
5:00 - 6:00 pm Mountain
4:00-5:00 pm Pacific
WHERE: This event will take place on Zoom.
SPONSORS: This webinar is sponsored by the Américas Award through the Consortium of Latin American Studies Programs
REGISTRATION: Registration is required for this event. Register here: https://arizona.zoom.us/meeting/register/q8sIN5gxR7GKfYsDs31wNg
For more information, please email kedillon@arizona.edu