a story about the power of kindness and on relenting courage in a time of war and it has been targeted for removal from school library shelves. the velshi banned book club convenes this morning with r. j. palacio author of the powerful graphic novel white bird. velshi starts now. good morning. i am ali velshi. it is saturday may 14th, day 80 of the invasion of ukraine and the war that is not going as putin planned or as anyone expected. the consequences of the war of choice on the neighbor, both intended and unintended, are now out in the open and on display for the world to see. there is a global economic toll and ramifications for the world food supply, ukraine being one of the largest producers of green in the world. we will dive into this later on in the show. other consequences are more direct and visual with ukraine being altered. entire cities, towns, villages, big and small, ruined and erased from the landscape. tens of thousands of people have been killed in th