Skip to main content

Great Reads From Great Places

2025 Library of Michigan For Libraries Michigan Center for the Book National Book Festival 2024 Desk
Library Of Michigan

Great Reads From Great Places

Great Reads from Great Places - Michigan Selections

2025 Library of Michigan For Libraries Michigan Center for the Book National Book Festival

Every year, a list of books representing the literary heritage of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and US territories is distributed by the Library of Congress’s Center for the Book during the National Book Festival. Books are selected by the local Center for the Book affiliate, with titles for both children and adults. Books may be written by authors from the state, take place in the state, or celebrate the state’s culture and heritage.

Learn more about the titles representing Michigan on the Great Reads from Great Places list.

Great Reads from Great Places - Current Michigan Selections

2026 Library of Michigan For Libraries Michigan Center for the Book Great Reads from Great Places Lions

Adult Selection - "The Lions Finally Roar: The Ford Family, the Detroit Lions, and the Road to Redemption in the NFL" by Bill Morris

In 1963, William Clay Ford purchased the Detroit Lions for $6 million, marking the start of a tumultuous era of mediocrity for the team. Despite a legacy of legendary players like Bobby Layne, Joe Schmidt, Calvin Johnson, and the iconic Barry Sanders, the Lions struggled with poor management and missed opportunities for decades. However, under the leadership of Bill Ford’s daughter, Sheila Ford Hamp, and key hires like GM Brad Holmes and coach Dan Campbell, the team has finally found success, signaling a hopeful new chapter in both their history and Detroit’s transformation.
2026 Library of Michigan For Libraries Michigan Center for the Book Great Reads from Great Places Luminous

Youth Selection - "The Luminous Life of Lucy Landry" by Anna Rose Johnson

After losing her father at sea, spirited French-Ojibwe orphan Lucy is sent to live with the Martins, a large Anishinaabe family living on a lighthouse in the middle of stormy Lake Superior, where she hopes to find the legendary necklace her father spent his life seeking.
  • 2026 - The Lions Finally Roar: The Ford Family, the Detroit Lions, and the Road to Redemption in the NFL by Bill Morris (For Adults)
  • 2026 - The Luminous Life of Lucy Landry by Anna Rose Johnson (For Youth)
  • 2025 - Dearborn: Stories by Ghassan Zeineddine (For Adults)
  • 2025 - Strikers: A Graphic Novel by Kiel Phegley (For Youth)
  • 2024 - Dilla Time: The Life and Afterlife of J Dilla, The Hip-Hop Producer Who Reinvented Rhythm by Dan Charnas (For Adults)
  • 2024 - Shapes, Lines, and Light: My Grandfather’s American Journey by Katie Yamasaki (For Youth)
  • 2023 - Tin Camp Road: A Novel by Ellen Airgood (For Adults)
  • 2023 - Ancestor Approved: Intertribal Stories for Kids edited by Cynthia Leitich Smith (For Youth)
  • 2022 - RESPECT: Aretha Franklin, the Queen of Soul by Carol Boston Weatherford
  • 2021 - The Many Colors of Harpreet Singh by Supriya Kelkar
  • 2020 - Sport: Ship Dog of the Great Lakes by Pamela Cameron
  • 2019 - Nature’s Friend: The Gwen Frostic Story by Lindsey McDivitt
  • 2018 - Clever Beatrice: An Upper Peninsula Conte by Margaret Willey
  • 2017 - Mackinac Bridge: The 5 Mile Poem by Gloria Whelan
  • 2016 - Tallulah: Mermaid of the Great Lakes by Denise Brennan-Nelson
  • 2015 - Bernida: A Michigan Sailing Legend by Al Declercq, Tom Ervin & Gloria Whelan
  • 2014 - Bluffton: My Summers with Buster Keaton by Matt Phelan
  • 2013 - Bear Has a Story to Tell by Philip C. & Erin Stead
  • 2012 - Magic Trash: A Story of Tyree Guyton and His Art by Jane Shapiro
  • 2011 - For the Love of the Tigers: An A-to-Z Primer for Tigers Fans of All Ages by Frederick C. Klein
  • 2010 - January’s Sparrow by Patricia Polacco
  • 2009 - Pocketful of Passage by Loraine Campbell
  • 2008 - Mail by the Pail by Colin Sergei
  • 2007 - Mackinac Bridge: The Five Mile Poem by Gloria Whelan
  • 2006 - The Legend of Michigan by Trinka Hakes Noble & Gisjbert van Frankenhuyzen
  • 2005 - The Edmund Fitzgerald: Song of the Bell by Kathy-Jo Wargin
  • 2004 - M is for Mitten by Annie Appleford
  • 2003 - The Legend of Mackinac Island by Kathy-Jo Wargin
  • 2002 - The Legend of Sleeping Bear by Kathy-Jo Wargin

Great Reads from Great Places Throwback

Michigan's 2022 Great Reads from Great Places: Author Conversation with Carole Boston Weatherford

Join Reference/Michigan Collection Librarian Mindy Babarskis and author Carole Boston Weatherford as they discuss Weatherford's book RESPECT: Aretha Franklin, the Queen of Soul, the 2022 Great Reads from Great Places selection from Michigan.