Librarian Natalie McCall talks with Christina Hammonds Reed, author of the New York Times best-seller, The Black Kids. This extraordinary coming-of-age novel explores race, class, and violence through the eyes of a wealthy, black teenage girl in Los Angeles during the 1992 Rodney King Riots. Beautifully written and thoughtful, the novel also sheds light on modern day America and Black Lives Matter.

Natalie and Christina  met over the phone (Natalie in the Library’s purple-walled recording booth and Christina in Southern California) and chatted about how The Great Migration impacted generations of black families, the importance of reading both painful history and joyful stories, and how emotional they still get over Little Women.

 Christina’s Eight