Twenty-One Boxes: Author Talk and Book Signing Event

Name: Twenty-One Boxes: Author Talk and Book Signing Event
Start: 2024-10-17T18:00:00-04:00
End: 2024-10-17T20:00:00-04:00
Location: Pasquotank County Library

Schedule

Thu Oct 17 2024 at 06:00 pm to 08:00 pm

UTC-04:00

Location

Pasquotank County Library | Elizabeth City, NC

Please join our book club, All Booked Up, in welcoming authors Betsy Hester and Robin Couto as they visit Elizabeth City to promote their book, Twenty-One Boxes: Robin’s Story and the Tragedy of the Edenton Seven.
The authors will be signing books and giving an overview of the case during their visit. Books are available for purchase at The Recycled Reader (1725 City Center Blvd in Elizabeth City).
Doors open thirty minutes prior to the event; guests will enter through the side door on East Colonial Ave. To reserve your seat at this event, you MUST fill out the Google Form HERE:
https://forms.gle/CDUMtMTPKzqYquT28
Locals of a certain age may remember this case, and the devastating effects it left on our neighboring town of Edenton.
For more details, please read the synopsis below, taken from Twenty-One Boxes: Robin’s Story and the Tragedy of the Edenton Seven.
“In 1989, the Little Rascals Day Care in Edenton, North Carolina, was suddenly thrust into the national spotlight. One day, the owner's husband disciplined a boy at naptime, and soon an angry mother suggested that it was more than just a slap. Rumors quickly morphed into charges of unimaginable crimes against dozens of little children. Panic consumed the town, as the police, therapists, and parents relentlessly pressured the children who attended the day care to name the teachers responsible for multiple allegations of abuse. The Edenton Seven were caught up in the accusations, including nineteen-year-old teacher Robin Boles Byrum. She spent nearly a year in jail under an enormous bond meant to pressure her to "tell the truth" while she had a new baby at home.
Eerily reminiscent of the hysteria that gripped Salem, Massachusetts, during the witch trials of the seventeenth century, the Little Rascals case ultimately became the longest and most expensive criminal trial in North Carolina history.
Three decades later, Betsy Hester met Robin Byrum Couto and together, they joined forces to tell the truth. In this book, Betsy shares insights from legal and medical experts and reveals the facts from twenty-one boxes and bound testimonies from the courtroom long since buried away. Intertwined with the case history is Robin's never-before-told story of her harrowing journey through the court system. Finally, this book serves as a modern-day warning about the danger of mass hysteria and the consequences of a judicial system that blindly refused to hear and seek the truth.”