Great Reads from Great Places 2025 Announced
- July 3rd, 2025
- by pearc007
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The Alabama Center for the Book has selected Bonnie’s Rocket written By Emeline Lee, and illustrated by Alina Chau, to be featured as the Alabama Children’s Great Reads selection, and Distracted by Alabama: Tangled Threads of Natural History, Local History, and Folklore by Dr. James Seay Brown as the Alabama Adult Great Reads Selection for the 2025 National Book Festival.
This year the Festival will return to the Washington Convention Center in Washington, DC, on Saturday, September 6th , and is free for all to attend. This year marks the 25th anniversary of the Library of Congress National Book Festival. A selection of programs will be live-streamed, and video of all presentations can be viewed online after the Festival concludes.
Bonnie’s Rocket is a tale about a girl whose father works on the Apollo 11 mission. While he works on the moon-landing module far away, Bonnie designs, builds, and tests her own project — with sometimes disastrous results! Inspired by the experiences of the author’s grandfather, who helped design the space suits and life-support systems on the Apollo 11 lunar module, Bonnie’s Rocket celebrates the diverse team that contributed to one of the United States’ greatest achievements. It’s also a heartwarming father-daughter story and a terrific gift for budding engineers and space fans of all ages.
–Lee and Low Books
Distracted by Alabama: Tangled Threads of Natural History, Local History, and Folklore, is a collection of twelve captivating essays about Alabama and the South by Samford University writer and scholar Jim Brown, a former president of the Alabama Folklife Association.
During his decades living and teaching in Alabama, Brown followed his curiosity down myriad pathways about Alabama and the region, including the state’s majestic landscape, plants and animals found nowhere else, history, and rich folkways. In the tapestry of Alabama culture, Brown traces the threads of Native American, African slave, and European settler influences, woven over the centuries into novel patterns that surprise and fascinate.
Writing in the voice of a learned companion, Brown reveals insights and stories about unforgettable facets of Alabama culture, such as Sacred Harp singers and African American railroad callers, the use of handmade snares and stationary fish traps to catch river Redhorse and freshwater drum, white oak basket making and herbal medicine traditions, the evolution of the single-pen log cabin into the impressive two-story I-house, and a wealth of other engrossing stories.
An instant classic, Distracted by Alabama is a keepsake that readers who love, visit, or are curious about Alabama and Southern culture will return to again and again.
–The University of Alabama Press
Every year, a list of books representing the literary heritage of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico, is distributed by the Library of Congress’s Center for the Book during the National Book Festival. Each book is selected by a Center for the Book state affiliate or state library and most are for children and young readers. Books may be written by authors from the state, take place in the state, or celebrate the state’s culture and heritage. We are proud to select these titles for 2024.
The Alabama Center for the Book supports reading, literacy and other book-related activities in Alabama as well as promotes appreciation of regional writers. The Center is a founding co-sponsor of the Alabama Writers Hall of Fame.
The Library of Congress’ Center for the Book, established by Congress in 1977 to stimulate public interest in books and reading, is a national force for reading and literacy promotion. A public-private partnership, it sponsors educational programs that reach readers of all ages through its affiliated state centers, collaborations with nonprofit reading-promotion partners and through its Poetry and Literature Center at the Library of Congress. For more information, visit Read.gov.
