Kansas City Public Library’s Kaite Stover and Crystal Faris talk to Susan Maguire about how they moved author events and youth programming online, how screen fatigue and the digital divide affected them, and what lessons they’re taking with them for post-COVID programs. Then Audio Editor Heather Booth talks to the Best Patrons Ever, aka her husband and kids, about their audiobook plans for the forty-plus hour drive to Yosemite.*

Here’s what we talked about:

18 Tiny Deaths: The Untold Story of Frances Glessner Lee and the Invention of Modern Forensics. By Bruce Goldfarb.

Midwestern Strange: Hunting Monsters, Martians, and the Weird in Flyover Country. By B.J. Hollars.

A Night Divided. By Jennifer A. Nielsen. Read by Kate Simses.

Stef Soto, Taco Queen. By Jennifer Torres. By Kyla García.

Song for a Whale. By Lynne Kelly. Read by Abigail Revasch.

Middle School's a Drag, You Better Werk! By Greg Howard. Read by Michael Crouch.

Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You. By Ibram X. Kendi and Jason Reynolds. Read by Jason Reynolds.

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie. By Alan Bradley. Read by Jayne Entwistle.

Pride and Prejudice. By Jane Austen. Read by Emilia Fox.

Sealand: The True Story of the World’s Most Stubborn Micronation. By Dylan Taylor-Lehman. Read by Patrick Lawlor.

Harry Potter series. By J. K. Rowling. Read by Jim Dale.

We're Not from Here. By Geoff Rodkey. Read by Dani Martineck.

Shoot for the Moon: The Space Race and the Extraordinary Voyage of Apollo 11. By James Donovan. Read by Allan Robertson.

Once Upon a Marigold. By Jean Ferris. Read by Carrington Macduffie.

Words on Fire. By Jennifer Nielsen. Read by Kathleen McInerney.

*Heather’s update on her family’s vacation listening: “We ended up listening to Song for a Whale, but still haven't finished it. I think I'm going to put it on during ‘remote learning’ breaktime since we never drive anywhere anymore.” Best laid plans, amirite?