Friends, Not Food! (Read-Aloud)

Event date:
Saturday, May 30
Event time:
1:30pm-2:00pm
Location:
Berkeley Public Library, Children's Nonfiction Area
Audiences:
Themes:
Booksales:
Medicine for Nightmares, on the 4th floor, near the stage
Access:
FREE

Laugh out loud with these humorous, unexpected picture books that make us question how we treat different species: who are our friends, and who do we eat? Stephanie Lucianovic’s Zombie and Brain Are Friends follows Zeb, a young zombie from a family of brain farmers who suddenly comes across the tiniest, pinkest, squishiest brain he ever did see! Will Zeb successfully convince his parents that his brainy bestie is better off as a member of the family than family dinner? Eight-year-old Beatrice of New York City’s Chinatown feels the same way about Lillie, a tic-tac-toe-playing chicken living in a dark arcade. Based on the true story of Lillie, Tic-Tac-Toe Chicken by Kimberly Tso follows Beatrice’s clever plan to give Lillie a better environment to live in. Emceed by Cinnamongirls Claire and Devin, this empowering panel showcases the natural empathy that drives us to stand up for all living beings.

Dan Alter

Dan Alter’s poems, reviews and translations have been published in journals including Field, Fourteen Hills, and Zyzzyva; his first collection My Little Book of Exiles won the 2022 Cowan Poetry Prize. A volume of translations Take a Breath, You’re Getting Excited, from the Hebrew of Yakir Ben-Moshe, was published by Ben Yehuda Press in September 2024, and Hills Full of Holes, a second collection of poems, by Fernwood Press in March 2025. He lives with his wife and daughter in Berkeley. He works at the Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life at UC Berkeley.

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