I've been getting a bunch of messages from parents lately who are reading THE OGRESS AND THE ORPHANS with their children right now as a way of navigating these strange political times. And yes, the themes are more relevant than I might wish - misinformation, despotism, scapegoating, corruption. - ThreadSky

kellybarnhill.bsky.social • 3 days ago

I've been getting a bunch of messages from parents lately who are reading THE OGRESS AND THE ORPHANS with their children right now as a way of navigating these strange political times. And yes, the themes are more relevant than I might wish - misinformation, despotism, scapegoating, corruption.

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kaydayak.bsky.social•3 days ago

Thank you for posting this! I’ve been looking for some tools to discuss current events with my kids. Will definitely pick this up.

profvekasi.bsky.social•3 days ago

I read this book to my kids a few years back and it has deeply informed our discussions of current events.

dy50.bsky.social•2 days ago

Wow! If you can navigate that and serve as a guide to parents and their kids, kudos! Keep on keepin’ on!

morpen14.bsky.social•3 days ago

I recently read The Girl Who Drank The Moon to my kids while reading When Women Were Dragons myself. So good, thank you. That hook at the beginning of not trusting authority had me very excited for the kids book. Both were great reads and reading them at the same time was super interesting.

extrasuperkk.bsky.social•3 days ago

All of Kelly’s books are excellent.

melanieconklin.bsky.social•3 days ago

It’s an incredible book to help navigate these times!!!

psmitty.bsky.social•3 days ago

We read it shortly after it came out and saw so much of Minneapolis in it. What a valuable
tale, not just for this time but for all time that has so many lessons (including how important it is to be friends with the crows).

kellybarnhill.bsky.social•3 days ago

I mean, heck - it starts out with an attack on a library. I wrote that book in 2020, so I had no way of knowing at the time how bad the attacks on books and libraries would become. But clearly I was worried about it.

kellybarnhill.bsky.social•3 days ago

Anyway, I get asked the same questions a lot. "Is the Mayor secretly Trump?" is a big one. And the answer is the same: yes and no. He's Trump in the fact that he's a despot and a tyrant, and all despots and tyrants are basically the same: vain, greedy, rapacious, addicted to flattery and lies.

libraryfaery.bsky.social•3 days ago

Ordering this this afternoon - I want to read it now.

kellybarnhill.bsky.social•3 days ago

But you could also say the Mayor is Putin. Or Orbán. Or Musk. Or any other asshole who delights in deceit, who profits off division, who detests community, whose insatiable hunger for power and riches and attention is a yawning black hole at the center of their being, and will never be filled.

lesleymath.bsky.social•3 days ago

This has been the hardest thing to explain to my kids, who have trouble understanding how you could be so wealthy and just want more wealth and power. I have to explain that some people don't use money as a path to achieve their personal goals - that money and power become the goal by itself.

kellybarnhill.bsky.social•3 days ago

It makes me sad, honestly, that people have needed to return to that book, that it has become necessary for them right now. I wrote it just as the world started to shut down, as we were separated from our neighbors, and I hoped that evil was defeatable, at the end of the story. I was naive.

kellybarnhill.bsky.social•3 days ago

In fact, we don't defeat evil. Good doesn't triumph. It never has. Instead, good seeks to make more of itself - through kindness, through love of neighbor, through cleaving to justice and mercy and knowledge and hope and righteousness.

kellybarnhill.bsky.social•3 days ago

There will always be monsters. We will always have to come together to defeat them. We will always have to love one another, and love one another, and love even more, and build a better world, and rebuild what evil has broken.

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