City Springs & One Book Baltimore

In 2018, a group of Baltimore librarians and educators, including Wyatt Oroke, City Springs Elementary / Middle School, founded One Book Baltimore in collaboration with Baltimore City Public Schools, the Enoch Pratt Free Library, and T. Rowe Price. “We formed Once Book Baltimore with the hope of using a young adult text each year to help teach a central message across Baltimore City to all 7th and 8th graders,” explains Mr. Oroke, who teaches 8th Grade English at City Springs.

Each year, Mr. Oroke and the book selection committee choose the text. Mr. Oroke also helps create the discussion guides for each of the texts, as well as create lesson plans for the books which have been selected.

For the 2024-25 school year, the One Book Baltimore text was Onyx & Beyond by Amber McBride, which tells the story of Amber’s father growing up in 1970s Alexandria, Virginia, dealing with his mother battling dementia. 

Over the years, award winning and nationally recognized authors have visited City Springs Elementary/Middle School as part of the program. Those authors include Nic Stone, D. Watkins, Tami Charles, Jacqueline Woodson, and most recently, Amber McBride. In November, she joined the 8th grade scholars at City Springs and co-taught a lesson with Mr. O after the scholars finished reading Onyx & Beyond.