Oprah’s Book Club Favorite Picked As Contra Costa Book Of The Year

CONCORD, CA —The selected book for the 2026 Read Contra Costa program has been selected.

The featured selection is “The Girls Who Grew Big,” a brilliant novel by Oakland author Leila Mottley, according to Deputy County Librarian for Public Services Amy Brunson.

Oakland native Leila Mottley drew national attention in 2018 when she became the city’s Youth Poet Laureate at 16, Brunson said in the librarian's monthly newsletter.

Mottley's bestselling debut novel, “Nightcrawling,” earned an Oprah’s Book Club selection and a place on the Booker Prize longlist, making her the youngest author ever nominated for the award.

Mottley’s poetry collection, “woke up no light,” draws partly on her experience as a youth advocate, educator, and doula.

“The Girls Who Grew Big” follows a close-knit group of teenage mothers who call themselves “The Girls.” Rejected by their families, schools, and community, they raise their children together out of the back of a pickup truck, creating their own support system and refusing to let society define them by statistics.

Read Contra Costa is the Library’s annual community reading program that encourages everyone in the county to come together, read the same book, and share their perspectives. It runs from October 1 through November 14.

Copies of the book are available now in hardcover, eBook, and eAudiobook formats.