On Thursday, February 15, the Young Adult Diverse Books Book Club took Last Night at the Telegraph Club to Boston! Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo is this year's Vermont Reads book. It is a queer love story that takes place in the 1950s in San Francisco's Chinatown. The Young Adult Diverse Books Book Club wanted to learn more about Lily's Chinese American cultural identity and the group experienced that through a food walking tour in Chinatown and the Lunar New Year celebration at the Museum of Fine Arts.

In response to a question about her favorite part of the trip, Sequoia Barbour stated, "While I enjoyed everything on the trip, my favorite part was probably the walking tour. I really enjoyed being able to try a lot of new things that I wouldn't normally get the chance to. My favorite foods we got to try were the egg custard tarts, the barbeque pork bao buns, the noodle dish at dim sum, and the scallion pancake." As we walked the winding streets of Chinatown, we were led by expert tour guide and food critic, Jacqueline Church. She taught us the history of Boston's Chinatown and shared the Chinese American experience in Chinatown with us through Chinese food, art and culture.

Commenting on connections they made between the book and the food walking tour, Luca Morris stated, "Walking into one of the shops--I think it was either the Chinese medicine shop or the Chinese barbeque shop--I saw a poster for a candidate in a Chinatown pageant, which reminded me of Shirley from the book and her campaign for Miss Chinatown. Also, I saw some foods in the shops or at the dim sum lunch that I remembered reading about in the book. For example, BBQ pork filled steamed buns."

After the food walking tour of Chinatown, we went to the Museum of Fine Arts for the Lunar New Year celebration where we saw a dragon dance for the Year of the Dragon, a Tai Chi demonstration, students participated in Chinese brush painting of bamboo and we saw a lion dance. Pivotal scenes in Last Night at the Telegraph Club take place during the Lunar New Year Celebration and these demonstrations and activities gave students the opportunity to be immersed in those traditions.

The Young Adult Diverse Books Book Club would like to thank the Vermont Humanities Council for the Project Grant that made this trip possible.

On the second day of our trip on February 16, the YADB Book Club went to the Boston Public Library. After touring around the Central Library designed by Charles McKim in 1895 and seeing the John Singer Sargent murals, half of the group went to Teen Central to read and the other half of the group went to the business library's education room to compete in our school's Poetry Out Loud competition via google meets.

In response to the question about her favorite part of the trip, Ada Mahood wrote, "I honestly loved all of it. The Boston Library was so so cool though. I honestly could've just spent hours and hours sitting in there and reading. It was a very calming atmosphere and I appreciated the staff being so kind and helpful to us!" She continued, "I loved the Boston Public Library, it was so much fun seeing such an expanse of books from every genre. I loved that they roped off a safe space for teens too, it was nice and quiet and I was so lost in my book that an hour had passed before I knew it! Thank you so much to the BPL for letting us be there and check out their teen section!"

While half the group was enjoying quiet reading time in Teen Central, the other half of the group was competing in the Poetry Out Loud competition organized by Ms. Perkins via google meets. Luca Morris recited "Oranges" by Roisin Kelly. Schuyler Hagge recited "Harold and the Purple Crayon" by D. Gilson. Priscilla Richardson recited "The Road Not Taken" by Robert Frost. And, Mimi Kanda-Olmstead recited "If I Must Die" by Refaat Alareer.

After the poetry recitations, the group convened for an excellent book talk by Tali, who is the Young Adult Librarian at Teen Central. Some titles that Tali presented that we also have in our library that feature Asian and Asian American characters are A Scatter of Light, the companion book to Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo, Frankly in Love by David Yoon, Six Crimson Cranes by Elizabeth Lim and Outrun the Moon by Stacey Lee.

The Young Adult Diverse Books Book Club would like to thank Chris and Tolley at Teen Central and the staff at the Kirstein Business Library and Innovation Center for facilitating our visit so seamlessly.