Arkansas Gems is an annual publication of the Arkansas Center for the Book at the Arkansas State Library. Arkansas Gems posters and bookmarks feature approximately twenty new works about Arkansas or by authors with a connection to the Natural State. This project is one of the ways the Arkansas Center for the Book fulfills the mission of encouraging reading, writing, and literacy in the state.
This year, the 2024 Great Read for Youth is the Et Alia picture book Cypress Knees and Tupelo Trees: Discovering Plants and Animals of the Swamp, written and illustrated by Cathy Melvin. 2024 Arkansas Center for the Book “Great Reads” selections will our state at the 2024 National Book Festival in Washington DC next weekend. The 2024 Festival theme is “Books Build Us Up.” Cypress Knees and Tupelo Trees is featured at the top of the poster along with the 2024 Great Read for Adults, the novel Ozark Dogs by Eli Cranor (Soho Crime, 2023).
Also included in the poster is the Et Alia book One True Scrapper: A Memoir of Childhood Cancer, Good Eyeliner, and a Fighting Spirit by Kaden Peebles.
Inclusion in the poster is based on the work’s literary or artistic merit, originality, and potential for local and regional interest. Titles with registered copyrights published within the current calendar year or previous calendar year will be considered. Arkansas Gems posters and bookmarks are introduced each year at the National Book Festival, and they help to highlight recent regional literature to a national audience.
