09/21/2026
Still processing this one. 🧡📚
Our newly-reinvented Night for the Books started with a pretty simple idea: books don’t just help kids get through school. They shape us. They make us laugh, help us survive hard things, introduce us to people and worlds we’ve never known, and sometimes become part of who we are.
And WOW did our speakers prove that.
From puppies and toddlers who bite, to strangers on airplanes, to finding hope in dark places, to becoming a reader later in life, our eight speakers were funny, vulnerable, surprising, and extraordinarily generous with their stories. We could not have dreamed up a better first slate of speakers for Night for the Books.
And then there was all of YOU.
You packed the theater. You packed the brewery. You bid and pulled books and tossed rings at w**e and bought drinks and gave generously. You celebrated some BIG news with us, including the largest grant in CLN history ($50,000 from Ann Arbor Kiwanis Thrift Sale !!) and the deep work that will allow us to reach nearly three times as many children and families this year.
During National Inclusion Week, we were also incredibly proud to welcome ASL interpreters to the evening and share more about our commitment to making CLN’s literacy programming truly accessible to every child.
To our speakers, sponsors, volunteers, board, staff, donors, interpreters, and everyone who showed up: thank you.
And an enormous thank you to Hear.Say Brewing + Theater for opening your doors to us and helping us create the kind of warm, weird, joyful, book-loving night we hoped this could be.
Turns out a whole lot of people want to gather in a brewery and talk about the books that changed them.
So… same time next year? 📖🍻🧡
I also (hi, it’s me Kristin Giant!) FORGOT to offer a way to directly support CLN at the event itself, so if you feel called to make a donation I hope you do so at the NFTB26 Donation link in our bio!
