Adventure Pass temporarily shut down in 2025

Due to software issues affecting all libraries using the service, the Iowa Adventure Pass program will temporarily shut down in 2025. Any reservation already made for 2025 will be honored, but we encourage anyone with a current reservation to print those passes immediately. Customers can still make new reservations for passes that must be used by December 31, 2024. The service will return at a later time. We apologize for the inconvenience.

Weather update for 12/14/2024

All locations of the Des Moines Public Library will be open normal hours Saturday, December 14, and all locations will serve as emergency warming shelters during open hours. 

AViD Presents Taylor Harris

Program Type:

Author Visits

Age Group:

All Ages
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Event Details

Virginia-based writer Taylor Harris’s 2022 debut memoir, This Boy We Made, received critical acclaim. The book is an emotional examination of Harris’s relentless quest to discover why her young son was experiencing a frustrating assortment of health challenges. The book explores the bond between mother and child, the real-world frustrations Black mothers can experience when questioning and navigating the health and education systems, and how her beliefs and faith guided her through the journey.

Scientific American called the book “gripping … with tender, evocative prose” on the “intersection of two ‘ burdens’ – Black and undiagnosed – in a world that is comfortable with neither.” The book is a finalist for the 2023 Southern Book Prize, was named a best book of the year by The Washington Post and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.