Virtual Speaker Series: Illuminating Hope and Grace with Rex Ogle

Library : Brewster Ladies' Library

Location : Zoom

Start : Wednesday 23rd of July 2025 4:00 PM

End : Wednesday 23rd of July 2025 5:00 PM

Description :

5th-8th Graders. Youâre invited to join us online with award-winning author Rex Ogle as he talks to viewers about his struggles to navigate sixth grade as written about in his book Free Lunch. Instead of giving him lunch money, Rexâs 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 heâs on the free meal program. The lunch lady is hard of hearing, so Rex has to shout. Free Lunch is the story of Rexâs efforts to navigate his first semester of sixth gradeâwho 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 heâs troubleâall while wearing secondhand clothes and being hungry. His mom and her boyfriend are out of work, and life at home is punctuated by outbursts of violence. Halfway through the semester, his family is evicted and ends up in government-subsidized housing in view of the school. Rex lingers at the end of 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. Rexâs voice is compelling and authentic, and Free Lunch is a true, timely, and essential work that illuminates the lived experience of poverty in America. Register now to join the conversation! If you cannot watch the live session, a recording will be available. Register here: https://libraryc.org/brewsterladieslibrary/79169 About the Author: Rex Ogle is the author of Free Lunch, winner of the YALSA Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults Award; Punching Bag, a New York Public Library Best Book; Abuela Donât Forget Me, finalist for the YALSA Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults Award; and Road Home, which received a Printz Honor and a Stonewall Book Award Honor. He lives in Los Angeles, California. brewsterladieslibrary.assabetinteractive.com/calendar/virtual-speaker-series-illuminating-hope-and-grace-with-rex-ogle/