Public Information and Communication
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
July 29, 2024
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Tessa Timperley
402-471-3434
800-307-2665
Books Chosen to Represent Nebraska at National Book Festival
“Eat Your Woolly Mammoths!: Two Million Years of the World's Most Amazing
Food Facts, from the Stone Age to the Future” and “Dancing with the Octopus:
A Memoir of a Crime” chosen for the National Center for the Book’s Great
Reads from Great Places program.
The Nebraska Center for the Book has
selected one youth book and one adult book by Nebraska authors to represent
the state at the 2024
National Book Festival:
Eat Your Woolly Mammoths! by
James Solheim and Dancing with the
Octopus by Debora Harding.
Both titles will be part of the National
Center for the Book’s Great
Reads from Great
Places program.
Great Reads from Great Places
features books and authors representing the literary heritage of all 50
states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands,
Guam, American Samoa, and Northern Marianas. For over 20 years this program
has included a highlighted youth title from each affiliate center. In 2022,
Great Reads from Great Places
began including titles for adults for the first time.
This year's National Book Festival on August 24th will be held in-person in
Washington, D.C., but will include many livestreamed and recorded virtual
programs celebrating books and authors.
About the Books
“Eat Your Woolly Mammoths!: Two
Million Years of the World's Most Amazing Food Facts, from the Stone Age to
the Future” by James Solheim
“If there’s one thing that transcends time, it’s our love for food! But what
did people generations ago consume? And what will we eat in the years ahead?
James Solheim’s Eat Your Woolly
Mammoths! serves up the stories behind the world’s most delicious,
nutritious, and amazing foods—from the Stone Age to the future. For readers
who love the fascinating facts that bring history to life. Let the feast
begin!
Would you like a plate of woolly mammoth? Or perhaps a sample of fresh tuna
eyeballs? From scorpions on sticks and llama salami to oysters and chocolate
chip cookies, you’ll travel through the centuries and around the world and
discover the amazing foods that have been eaten—and enjoyed—throughout
history.
Eat Your Woolly Mammoths!
explores the history of food and is full of fun, digestible facts that young
historians, cooks, and scientists will gobble up. An accessible,
educational, and funny text combined with laugh-out-loud illustrations make
this ideal pick for independent readers and snackers everywhere. A great
choice for readers who munched through
Ripley’s Believe It or Not: Fun Facts
and Silly Stories and the
National Geographic Kids: Weird but True books. Includes sidebars, fun
facts, recipes, additional resources, and more!”
Nebraska’s Great Reads from Great
Places book is chosen from the previous year’s Nebraska Book Award
winners and this book was awarded two
2023 Nebraska Book Award
in the Children’s Nonfiction Book category and the Children’s Books Design
category.
“Dancing with the Octopus: A Memoir
of a Crime” by Debora Harding
This memoir of native Nebraskan, Debora Harding, is all about a traumatic
childhood event, the aftereffects of which would change her family forever.
Harding expertly weaves the past with the present in a riveting story of
survival and family dynamics. Harding’s debut book has been compared to
bestsellers like The Glass Castle
by Jeannette Walls and Educated
by Tara Westover.
“With remarkable narrative skill, Harding untangles the lingering effects of
family dysfunction and criminal trauma. This is a page-turner with a deep
heart and soul, full of forgiveness but demanding of accountability.”
—BookPage, “Best Books of 2020:
Memoirs”
Chosen as the
2024 One Book One Nebraska
selection, libraries across Nebraska and other literary and cultural
organizations have participated in book discussions, activities, and events
that encourage Nebraskans to read and discuss this book.
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.