August 2026 Virtual Book Club

This month, we're excited to feature the Outside Our Window board book series by Minnesota author Mélina Mangal! Mélina Mangal writes picture books, biographies, and short stories that focus on connections with nature and culture. She is the coauthor, with Sun Yung Shin, of the Minnesota Book Award finalist Revolutions Are Made of Love: The Story of James Boggs and Grace Lee Boggs, named One of the Best Children's Books of the Year by Bank Street Center for Children’s Literature. Mélina also wrote The Vast Wonder of the World: Biologist Ernest Everett Just, winner of the Carter G. Woodson Award, and Jayden’s Impossible Garden, named a Blueberry Honor book for inspiring love of nature and action for planet earth. Mélina is the author of the nature-based board book series Outside Our Window.

Melina's newest book in the Outside Our Window series, Ants Work Together, released on August 25th! We hope you'll celebrate by supporting local literacy in your own community.

To participate in Read With Me MN's August Book Club, do one or more of the following:

• Request one or more books from the Outside Our Window series from your local library.

• If your library doesn't have them, consider requesting that they add them to their collection.

• Purchase a copy from your favorite local independent bookstore.

• Read the books together and make connections to what’s outside your window!

• Download and complete our Read With Me MN Book Club Gameboard to make reading even more fun!

Ask the Author!

This month, we tried something new! Instead of meeting in person, we had the opportunity to hear directly from Mélina Mangal. Listen towards the end of the video to hear Mélina’s answers to your questions! Then, leave your comments below. What new information did you learn? Which book have you read or want to read from the series? What did you take away?