Join two of the authors of Calling All Future Voters! (2024) for a youth-focused book club that will appeal to young people and adults alike. Calling All Future Voters! details not only the importance of voting, but the ongoing fight for voting rights. The picture book (ages ~7+) is written by civil rights activists and attorneys Rev. Edward A. Hailes Jr. and Jennifer Lai-Peterson—both formerly of The Advancement Project—and veteran children’s writer Laura Atkins. Both Jennifer and Laura will be at WFC and will co-facilitate this book club and talk about the issues. 

Jennifer Lai-Peterson is a civil rights attorney, legal strategist, and movement lawyer. A litigator and former union and community organizer, Jen served for nearly eight years as senior attorney in the Power and Democracy Program at Advancement Project where she focused on the federal Right to Vote Initiative as well as state-based voting rights restoration efforts. Jen is a member of the California Bar and a graduate of UCLA School of Law and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She lives in Virginia where she is a proud member of the Political Action Committee of the NAACP Fredericksburg Branch and a supporter of Hamkae Center, a Virginia-based Asian American civil rights organization.

Laura Atkins is a lover of children’s books as well as an activist for social justice. She spent seven years in the children’s publishing industry, working at Children’s Book Press, Orchard Books and as a book editor Lee & Low Books. After that, she received her MA in Children’s Literature from Roehampton University in England. I also got my MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults at VCFA in Vermont. She has published five children’s books, including the first two books in the Fighting for Justice book series, Calling All Future Voters! and her latest, Bringing the Beach Home.

Immediately following the youth book club, there will be a follow-on adult-centered discussion (5-6pm) about The Advancement Project’s ongoing voting rights work led by Jennifer Lai-Peterson. Laura Atkins will be leading another youth book club and related kids’ activities centered on Bringing the Beach Home on Saturday, July 5.