Summer Virtual Author Series: Illuminating Hope and Grace in the Face of Hardship with Rex Ogle

This is a virtual-only presentation. Please register to receive your link to watch it live at home or at a later time and to submit any questions for the author.

You're invited to join us online with award-winning author Rex Ogle as he talks to viewers about his struggles to navigate sixth grade, as described in his book Free Lunch.

Instead of giving him lunch money, Rex's mom has signed him up for free meals. As a poor kid in a wealthy school district, better-off kids crowd impatiently behind him as he tries to explain to the cashier that he's on the free meal program. The lunch lady is hard of hearing, so Rex has to shout.

Free Lunch is the story of Rex's efforts to navigate his first semester of sixth grade—who to sit with, not being able to join the football team, Halloween in a handmade costume, classmates and a teacher who take one look at him and decide he's trouble—all while wearing secondhand clothes and being hungry. His mom and her boyfriend are out of work, and outbursts of violence punctuate life at home. Halfway through the semester, his family is evicted and ends up in government-subsidized housing given the school. Rex lingers at the end of the last period every day until the buses have left so no one will see where he lives.

Unsparing and realistic, Free Lunch is a story of hardship threaded with hope and moments of grace. Rex's voice is compelling and authentic, and Free Lunch is an accurate, timely, and essential work that illuminates the lived experience of poverty in America. Register now to join the conversation!

You may also like the following events from Chippewa River District Library:

• This Thursday, 17th July, 08:00 pm, Summer Series Virtual Author Talk: Discerning the Truth with Marie Lu in Mount Pleasant, Michigan
• Next Monday, 21st July, 05:00 pm, Beat the Heat: Messy Art Night & Color Splash Obstacle Course in Mount Pleasant
• Next Thursday, 24th July, 06:00 pm, Teen Manga Drawing Workshop with Mark Crilley in Mount Pleasant

Also check out other Arts events in Ridgefield, Literary Art events in Ridgefield, Sports events in Ridgefield.