The author of Darius the Great Is Not Okay, Adib Khorram, visited Belleville Middle and High Schools on November 5. He had discussion sessions with middle school and high school students and staff, and, during the evening, he met with parents and other community members.

The book is the winner of the William C. Morris Debut Award and is a coming-of-age story about Darius, who faces the challenges that any teenage boy might, but he must confront additional challenges that sometimes overwhelm him. In both America and Iran, he struggles with fitting in with the world and his own family. His clinical depression didn't help.

This fall, the staff of the Belleville Public Library partnered with staff at the Belleville Middle and High Schools, NAMI of Green County, members of the Kiwanis Club of Belleville, Belleville Area Cares Coalition, and several other organizations to provide area residents information about mental health, Let's Talk About It: A Community Conversation About Living with Mental Illness.

Part of the project involved students and staff at the Belleville Middle and High Schools.

"The middle school students engaged in a read-aloud with the P.R.I.D.E. blocks around Darius the Great Is Not Okay," explained Middle and High School Principal Nate Perry.

These were accompanied by daily discussion questions developed by school staff.

"Having read most of the book before Adib's visit, the middle school students wanted to know more about the novel's characters and how much of the story was linked to the author's life," added Perry. "Students had their hands up throughout the hour-long session trying to get their questions answered."

In the evening, when Khorram visited with parents and other community members, he said, "It was a tremendous honor having my book chosen for the community to read, and it's great to see it bringing people of different generations together to discuss it."

He added that he was pleased with how open they (the students) were to the discussion in general.

"Young people today seem to have fewer hang-ups about discussing mental health than we did when I was in middle school or high school," said Khorram. "That's not to say everything's better. We still have a way to go before the stigma around mental illness is dismantled entirely."

Members of Belleville Area Cares Coalition donated 140 copies of Darius the Great is Not Okay that were available for the students.

The members of the Kiwanis Club of Belleville also donated books that are available to residents and can be checked out from the Belleville Public Library.

There were several other discussion groups, including one at the Sugar River Senior Center on October 17, and another one at the Belleville Public Library on October 24.

The staff at Lingonberry Llama will host another discussion at 6:30 p.m., on November 15.

For more information, please contact Bronna Lehmann at (608) 424-1812 or Nate Perry at (608) 424-1902.

"We are thrilled to have a joint project with the School District of Belleville and the other organizations," said Bronna Lehmann, Director of the Belleville Public Library. "By working together, we will expand the reach, get people communicating about mental health and, hopefully, lessen the stigma associated with mental health."

Lehmann also thanked the National Endowment for the Humanities, Madison Community Foundation and UW-Madison School of Social Work for the Beyond the Page Grant; Angela Willits for her presentation: Let's Talk About It: Identifying and Responding to Mental Health Stigma; Bob McGrath for his presentation: Resilience in Times of Stress, which was sponsored by UW Connects; and Mental Health First-Aid training that the library staff received on October 18.

Perry added that the school district wants to work collaboratively on future projects like this project.

"The funding from the Belleville Area Cares Coalition and other organizations and the adult audience brought in by the public library enhanced anything that the middle and high schools could have put on by ourselves," said Perry.