FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
June 1, 2016
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Mary Jo Ryan
402-471-3434
800-307-2665
Eleanor & Park to Represent Nebraska at National Book Festival
The Nebraska Center for the Book selected
Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell (St. Martin’s Griffin, 2013) to represent Nebraska at the 2016 National Book Festival. The book is the state’s selection for the National Book Festival’s “Discover Great Places through Reading” brochure and map. 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 brochure and map will be distributed at the Festival on September 24 and featured in the “Great Reads about Great Places” links on the websites of both the National and Nebraska Centers for the Book.
Set over the course of one school year,
Eleanor & Park is the story of two star-crossed sixteen-year-olds—outsiders that meet on the school bus who are smart enough to know that first love almost never lasts, but are brave enough to try. Nebraska’s “Great Reads about Great Places” book is chosen from former Nebraska Book Award winners and this book was awarded the 2014 Nebraska Book Award in the Young Adult Fiction category. Entries for this year’s Nebraska Book Awards will be accepted until June 30—see
http://centerforthebook.nebraska.gov/awards/nebookawards.html.
The National Book Festival will feature presentations by award-winning authors, poets, and illustrators at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, DC. Festival goers can meet their favorite authors, get books signed, have photos taken with mascots and storybook characters, and participate in a variety of learning activities. States will staff exhibit booths to promote reading, library programs, and literary events. Find out more about the 2016 National Book Festival (including a list of featured authors) at
http://www.loc.gov/bookfest.
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.
