Words & Pictures

Jasmine Warga

“I like other people’s words. They fill me up.”

JASMINE WARGA, MY HEART AND OTHER BLACK HOLES

The One and Only Ivan meets The Wild Robot in this unique and deeply moving middle grade novel about the journey of a fictional Mars rover, from the Newbery Honor-winning author of Other Words for Home.

Meet Resilience, a Mars rover determined to live up to his name.

Res was built to explore Mars. He was not built to have human emotions. But as he learns new things from the NASA scientists who assemble him, he begins to develop human-like feelings. Maybe there’s a problem with his programming…

Human emotions or not, launch day comes, and Res blasts off to Mars, accompanied by a friendly drone helicopter named Fly. Res quickly discovers that Mars is a dangerous place filled with dust storms and giant cliffs. As he navigates Mars’s difficult landscape, Res is tested in ways that go beyond space exploration.

As millions of people back on Earth follow his progress, will Res have the determination, courage–and resilience–to succeed…and survive?

Jasmine Warga is the New York Times-bestselling author of middle grade novels Other Words For Home and The Shape of Thunder. Other Words For Home earned multiple awards, including a John Newbery Honor, a Walter Honor for Young Readers, and a Charlotte Huck Honor. The Shape of Thunder was a School Library Journal and Bank Street best book of the year, a finalist for the Barnes & Noble Children’s and YA Book Award and has been named to several state award reading lists. She is also the author of young adult books, My Heart and Other Black Holes and Here We Are Now, which have been translated into over twenty different languages.

Jasmine currently teaches in the MFA program at Vermont College of Fine Arts. Originally from Cincinnati, she now lives in the Chicago-area with her family in a house filled with books.

“Warga follows her cybernetic narrator from first awareness to final resting place—and stony indeed will be any readers who remain unmoved by the journey. The intelligences here may be (mostly) artificial, but the feelings are genuine and deep.”

KIRKUS REVIEWS

Books

A Rover’s Story is available for pre-order from City of Asylum Bookstore.

Partner

Words & Pictures is presented in partnership with Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh with support from EQT FoundationThe Grable Foundation, and J.B. Finley Charitable Trust through the PNC Charitable Trust Grant Review Committee

WHEN

Wednesday, October 12, 2022 at 6:00 p.m.

Masks are encouraged.

TICKETS

Free RADical Days Event
Cost shouldn’t be a barrier to a lifetime love of reading. Your donation supports Words & Pictures presentations and Authors to Schools virtual visits.
REGISTER TO ATTEND IN PERSONREGISTER TO WATCH ONLINE
The video link for the livestreamed event will be emailed to all registrants on the day of the lecture. The captioned video will be available to view for one week, expiring on October 20th, 2022.

TEACHERS

Do you want to sign up your entire classroom? Email us and let us know!
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WHERE

Carnegie Library Lecture Hall
4400 Forbes Avenue, Pittsburgh, 15213

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Upcoming Lectures

Kelly Starling Lyons

JAN 30

Pádraig Ó Tuama & Philip Metres

FEB 20

Cat Bohannon

Mar 3

Antonia Hylton

FEB 10