Michelle Kuo, at age twenty-two, arrives in the Mississippi Delta town of Helena, Arkansas in 2004. Kuo quickly realizes that her new home, the birthplace of the Civil Rights Movement, is still poor, still segregated and still in need of dramatic change. Helena is where she meets Patrick, inquisitive and quiet, with a poor attendance record. With Kuo's attention, Patrick’s reading and writing flourish and he wins a school-wide award for "Most Improved." When Kuo leaves Helena to pursue a law degree, she suspects herself of having taken the easier route.

Three years later, Kuo's attention receives the news that Patrick is in prison for murder. Kuo puts her life on hold and moves back to the Delta. In the visiting room of the Phillips County Jail, she and Patrick spend seven months pouring over classic novels, poems, and historical narrative by Frederick Douglass, C.S. Lewis, Marilynn Robinson, James Baldwin, W.S. Merwin and more. Patrick learns how to be a serious reader and a fluent writer, and in doing so, discovers new worlds both inside and outside of himself.

Themes of Reading with Patrick include education and criminal justice in the Mississippi delta, the role of educators in our lives, the uniting power of literature, poetry, and reading, race, and power dynamics in American history. Find book group questions, selected resources for further learning on the topics discussed in Reading with Patrick, and a conversation guide at readbetween.org.