C.H. Booth Library has arranged for a special author event on Wednesday, May 3, at 5:30 pm, featuring Craig Thompson.

Thompson’s autobiographical graphic novel Blankets is among a few titles currently being challenged by residents of Newtown, who feel the book is inappropriate for younger readers finding them in public school libraries. The Board of Education is fielding this challenge, which also includes Flamer by Mike Curato.

Booth Library Head of Circulation Tom Nolan and Young Adult Librarian Darcy Sowers are coordinating the May 3 program.

Thompson will be joining virtually for a live discussion moderated by Nolan and Sowers. The author program will be in the meeting room of the library, 25 Main Street.

Nolan told The Newtown Bee this week that the program has been expanded, with the Q&A session to be available via Zoom.

Blankets was published in 2003 by Top Shelf Productions. A coming-of-age autobiography, the book tells the story of Thompson’s childhood in an Evangelical Christian family, his first love, and his early adulthood.

Nolan says the book is one of his favorites. It is, he told The Bee, “a fully immersive narrative experience. It uses the medium to ask big questions, such as: What is a self? What is the purpose of a body? How does religion, society, family, and relationships influence how we feel about ourselves and our bodies?”

Thompson’s style can be impressionistic and symbolic, said Nolan. The book’s images, he said, “are fueled by the emotions of the characters, and those images, working in tandem with the reflections of a man clearly looking back on his life and how he got to wherever he is, create that feeling of immersion into the stories of the book’s characters, but also their hearts, and their feelings.

“On every page, and in every panel, there are multiple layers working together to represent the nature of Craig’s development as a person,” he added.

Nolan is hoping the author program next week will focus more on the author’s journey and his work than the challenges the book is facing locally and across the country.

“Those are the things that I would like to convey to people during this discussion, the things I would like them to see, and what I would hope they might feel: How does Craig’s very specific personal journey of finding himself relate to the reader’s potentially completely different journey, to all of our journeys,” he said.

Nolan would like the discussion with Thompson to not be reactionary, but to facilitate thoughtful conversation.

He does not want, he said, “to be focused on holding a certain group of people accountable for their thoughts … but instead try to illustrate the value of the work; to show that art can be a bridge to empathy, and how that empathy, how being open-minded, can strengthen a community, not hurt it.

“It is my belief that opportunities to have thoughtful, heartfelt, and passionate discussions about anything is good for us, good for the town. Blankets is like an empathy bomb as far as I am concerned, and I am grateful to be able to give this event to the community, to engage them in this very worthy conversation,” he concluded.

Donated copies of Blankets are available to check out from Booth Library. Due to the current interest level in the book, copies are at the main Circulation desk. The book is usually shelved in the adult graphic novels section.

The Q&A portion of the May 3 program with Thompson will begin at 6:40, and registration is required to participate in that portion of the event. Registration is requested for the in-person gathering; call 203-426-4533 or visit chboothlibrary.org for either.

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Managing Editor Shannon Hicks can be reached at shannon@thebee.com.