A children’s picture book that encourages children to know their history will represent Nebraska at the 2021 National Book Festival. The Nebraska Center for the Book selected Your Bridge to History by Portia Love and Preston Love, Jr. (Preston Publishing, 2019) as the state’s selection for the National Book Festival’s Great Reads from Great Places programing. Each state selects one book about the state, or by an author from the state, that is a good read for children or young adults. The book will be featured in the Great Reads from Great Places – History Edition author panel, which will be available September 17th on the websites of both the National Book Festival and Nebraska Center for the Book. The National Book Festival will run Sept. 17-26, with the theme “Open a Book, Open the World.”
This book, written by Portia and Preston Love, Jr. and illustrated by Regina Jeanpierre, takes you along with the Black Votes Matter Tour across the American South. The characters tour sites where individuals and organizations focus on Civil Rights, Voting Rights, and Black History in the United States. Beautiful illustrations depict the pictures the tour participants experienced along the way. QR codes are included to take readers to websites that are important to further learning. Nebraska’s Great Reads from Great Places book is chosen from the previous year’s Nebraska Book Award winners and this book was awarded the 2020 Nebraska Book Award in the Children’s Picture Book category. Entries for the Nebraska Book Awards are accepted every year between March 1st and June 30th – see http://centerforthebook.nebraska.gov/awards/nebookawards.html.
The National Book Festival will feature virtual and live presentations by award-winning authors, poets, and illustrators. One such featured author is Nebraskan, Roxanne Gay. Gay’s presentation will be available September 17th on the festival’s Video On-Demand page. We encourage all Nebraskans to tune in for both author talks and experience two voices representing our state’s literary heritage. Find out more about the 2021 National Book Festival (including a list of featured authors) at www.loc.gov/events/2021-national-book-festival/about-this-event/.
The Nebraska Center for the Book is housed at the Nebraska Library Commission and brings together the state’s readers, writers, booksellers, librarians, publishers, printers, educators, and scholars to build the community of the book, supporting programs to celebrate and stimulate public interest in books, reading, and the written word. The Nebraska Center for the Book is supported by the Nebraska Library Commission.
As the state library agency, the Nebraska Library Commission is an advocate for the library and information needs of all Nebraskans. The mission of the Library Commission is statewide promotion, development, and coordination of library and information services, bringing together people and information.
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The most up-to-date news releases from the Nebraska Library Commission are always available on the Library Commission Website, http://nlc.nebraska.gov/publications/newsreleases .