The Books Without Borders Club hosted author Lois Lowry for a virtual talk with Upper School students on Dec. 1, which allowed students to hear directly from the writer of “The Giver” and “Number the Stars.”
The student-led club was founded last school year by sophomores Gitanjali Agastya and Lila Uster to advocate and learn about books that have been banned or challenged in the United States, according to Uster.
“The club was mainly started to bring awareness to a community that doesn’t deal with [book bans],” Uster said.
The club discusses books that have been banned in the past and present. They talk about specific books and authors who affect Texas readers and the Greenhill community.
“We talk about how [book bans] affect young adults and what [students] can do to use [their] voice,” Upper School librarian Abby Harrison said.
For this event, Agastya sent multiple emails to several different authors in hopes that one of them would be available to talk with Upper School. Lowry was the sole responder, so club leaders then scheduled a date and time for her to meet with students via the video conferencing platform Zoom.
Lowry’s book “The Giver” has been banned or challenged in many US states.
“We really were able to gain insight into what an author actually thinks when their books have been banned,” Agastya said.
Lowry’s meeting took place in the Lecture Hall. Over the call, she answered prepared questions from club members and students who had signed up for the event.
“It was a Q&A about her books and her writing process, but also about how she feels about her own books being banned,” Uster said.
Around 30 people attended the speaker event. Some club members are happy about the turnout, especially considering that this was the first event that the club hosted.
“I think yes it was great turnout, but we would really love more in the future,” Agastya said.
In the future, the club hopes to encourage more students to participate in similar events.
“We would always just shoot for more people, because we would want people to follow our initiative and educate themselves,” Uster said.
Books Without Borders plans to host a similar author event in the spring, giving students another opportunity to engage directly with modern literature.
Club leaders hope that students took away various messages from the call. Lowry encouraged students to speak up, engage and make a difference.
“What we say and do matters, even though we go to Greenhill School and we might feel very small, our voices can actually have a very big impact,” Agastya said.
