Speaker Series
Milton Public Library Speaker Series
Family Presentation and Book Signing with Mac Barnett
Saturday, March 28th, 2026 at 11 AM | Pierce Middle School | Milton, MA
Join us for an event with award-winning, bestselling children’s author Mac Barnett, who will give a presentation entitled Behold! The Picture Book.
This event is free and open to the public, and will take place at Pierce Middle School, 451 Central Avenue, Milton, Massachusetts. The event is appropriate for kids of all ages and their caregivers.
Doors open at 10:30 AM, and the author will give a talk at 11:00 AM, followed by a book signing.
Registration through our Events Calendar is encouraged. Sponsored by the Milton Library Foundation, and supported by the Friends of the Milton Public Library.
About the presentation: Behold! The Picture Book
Mac Barnett invites us to look anew at a great literature hiding in plain sight: the children’s picture book. Picture books are a vibrant and sophisticated art form; they’re also often underestimated. Barnett will show us how these books work and reflect on why our experiences reading them—as kids and adults—can be so powerful. It’s an eye-opening, entertaining case for the picture book’s rightful place among our best literature.
He’s a New York Times-bestselling author of stories for children and the writer, with Jon Klassen, of Looking at Picture Books, a newsletter for adults about how picture books work. Barnett’s work has been translated into more than 30 languages and sold more than 5 million copies worldwide. His books have won many prizes, including two Caldecott Honors, three New York Times/New York Public Library Best Illustrated Awards, three E.B. White Read Aloud Awards, the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award, Germany’s Jugendliteraturpreis, China’s Chen Bochui International Children’s Literature Award, The Netherlands’ Silver Griffel, and Italy’s Premio Orbil. He is the co-creator, with Jon Klassen, of Shape Island, a stop-motion animated series on Apple TV+, based on their best-selling Shapes series of picture books. For more than two decades, Barnett’s trademark multigenerational appeal has left an impact on young readers, and now he’s committed to having meaningful conversations with adult audiences. In his lectures across the country, Barnett champions the power of picture books and the brilliance of the kids who read them. His mission to talk to adults stems from a desire to unpack why children’s literature is often underestimated or overlooked. Barnett lives in Oakland, California.
Author Talk and Book Signing with Colm Tóibín
Wednesday, April 15 at 6:30 PM | Milton High School
The Milton Public Library Speaker Series presents an evening with award-winning, best-selling author Colm Tóibín.
Colm will talk about his work and writing influences, followed by a Q&A and a book signing.
This event is free and open to the public, and will take place at Milton High School Auditorium, 25 Gile Road, Milton, Massachusetts. Doors open at 6pm.
Registration through our Events calendar is encouraged (you will receive a reminder email if you register), and will open four weeks before the event.
Sponsored by the Milton Library Foundation and supported by the Friends of the Milton Public Library.
Colm Tóibín is an Irish novelist, essayist, journalist, critic, playwright and poet. He is the author of eleven novels, including Long Island, an Oprah’s Book Club Pick; The Magician, winner of the Rathbones Folio Prize; The Master, winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize; and Nora Webster, winner of the Hawthornden Prize, as well as three story collections and several books of criticism. Tóibín’s celebrated novel Brooklyn, winner of the Costa Book Award, was turned into a film starring Saoirse Ronan which garnered four Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture. His story collection The News From Dublin publishes March 31. [Click here to view a collection of his titles in the Library catalog].
He is the Irene and Sidney B. Silverman Professor of the Humanities at Columbia University and was named the 2022–2024 Laureate for Irish Fiction by the Arts Council of Ireland. In 2021, he was awarded the David Cohen Prize for Literature. Colm Tóibín lives in Ireland and the United States.
The MPL is presenting additional programs to celebrate Colm Tóibín. These include a Brooklyn movie night on March 25 and a Colm Tóibín books discussion group on April 6.
Family Presentation and Book Signing with Author Grace Lin
Our community was joined on Thursday, March 6, 2025 by award-winning, bestselling children’s author Grace Lin, who gave a presentation on How a Book Is Made.
This event was free and open to the public, and took place at Pierce Middle School Auditorium in Milton, Massachusetts. The event was appropriate for kids in grades K-5, with caregiver.
Doors opened at 5:30 PM, and the author gave a talk at 6:00 PM, followed by a book signing.
Before Grace Lin was an award-winning and NY Times bestselling author/illustrator of picture books, early readers and middle grade novels, she was the only Asian girl (except for her sisters) going to her elementary school in Upstate NY. That experience, good and bad, has influenced her books—including her Newbery Honor WHERE THE MOUNTAIN MEETS THE MOON, her Geisel Honor LING & TING, her National Book Finalist WHEN THE SEA TURNED TO SILVER and her Caldecott Honor A BIG MOONCAKE FOR LITTLE STAR.
But, it also causes Grace to persevere for diversity as an occasional New England Public Radio commentator and when she gave her TEDx talk “The Windows and Mirrors of Your Child’s Bookshelf,” as well as her PBS NewsHour video essay “What to do when you realize classic books from your childhood are racist?.”
In 2016, Grace’s art was displayed at the White House and Grace, herself, was recognized by President Obama’s office as a Champion of Change for Asian American and Pacific Islander Art and Storytelling. In 2022, Grace was awarded the Children’s Literature Legacy Award from the American Library Association. Grace is a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design and lives in Northampton, Massachusetts with her husband, daughter and a fluctuating amount of chickens.
Author Talk and Book Signing with Dennis Lehane
The MPL community was joined by award-winning, bestselling author Dennis Lehane on February 6th, 2025. Dennis talked about and read from his newest novel Small Mercies. Author J. Courtney Sullivan and Dennis then engaged in a lively Q&A followed by a book signing.
This Event was free and open to the public, and took place at Milton High School Auditorium.
Dennis Lehane grew up in Dorchester, Massachusetts. Since his first novel, A Drink Before the War, won the Shamus Award, he has published thirteen more novels that have been translated into more than 30 languages and become international bestsellers: Darkness, Take My Hand; Sacred; Gone, Baby, Gone; Prayers for Rain; Mystic River; Shutter Island; The Given Day; Moonlight Mile; Live by Night; World Gone By; Since We Fell, and Small Mercies.
Four of his novels – Live by Night, Mystic River, Gone, Baby, Gone, and Shutter Island – have been adapted into films. He lives in California with his family.
The acclaimed New York Times bestselling writer returns with a masterpiece to rival Mystic River–an all-consuming tale of revenge, family love, festering hate, and insidious power, set against one of the most tumultuous episodes in Boston’s history.
Author Talk and Book Signing with Geraldine Brooks
The Milton Public Library was excited to host Geraldine Brooks as the inaugural author in our Speaker Series.
Brooks, a bestselling and award winning author, joined us at Milton High School on Wednesday, November 1st, 2023. There was a book signing at 5:30, followed by a lecture at 6:30 and a conversation with local author Hallie Ephron.
Her novels include People of the Book, Caleb’s Crossing, Year of Wonders, and the Pulitzer Prize winning March. Her novel Horse follows three intertwined stories spanning three centuries from the 1850s to today.
The Library also hosted children’s author, and creator of Pete the Cat, Eric Litwin in February 2024.
Coming Up:
Save The Date!
On the evening of April 15, 2026, the Milton Public Library will be hosting author Colm Tóibín at Milton High School.
Scroll down for more details.