Congratulations to Hayley Rocco, John Rocco and Vanessa Lillie! Wild Places: The Life of Naturalist David Attenborough and Blood Sisters are the 2024 Rhode Island Great Reads books and our submissions for the National Book Festival in Washington, DC on August 24th, 2024. Blood Sisters is our adult selection and Wild Places is our kids selection.
An inspiring and accessible picture book biography of the beloved naturalist, broadcaster, and documentarian David Attenborough!
With the conversation around climate change growing more abstruse and complex, cutting through the noise to the heart of this global crisis can be difficult when trying to explain it to our kids. In their latest book, husband and wife duo Hayley Rocco and Caldecott Honoree illustrator John Rocco, take us on the life journey of David Attenborough in Wild Places. Yes, this is the story of David Attenborough, but it is also the story of our planet which has rapidly changed over the course of one person’s lifetime.
About the Author: Hayley Rocco is the author of How to Send a Hug, her first collaboration with her husband, John Rocco. Before dedicating herself to writing for children full-time, she worked as a publicist for several major publishers. She has five books launching in 2024 including Wild Places: The Life of Naturalist David Attenborough; and the first three books in Meet the Wild Things, a new series introducing young readers to endangered animals including: Hello, I’m a Pangolin; Hello, I’m a Sloth; and Hello, I’m a Quokka. In addition to becoming an ambassador for Wild Tomorrow, she is also co-chair of the Children’s Book Creators for Conservation group, which embarked on its first trip to South Africa together in October 2023. She lives in Rhode Island with fellow co-founder of the CBCC, John Rocco.
About the Illustrator: John Rocco is a New York Times bestselling author and illustrator of many acclaimed books for children including Blackout, the recipient of a Caldecott Honor, and How We Got to the Moon, which received a Robert F. Sibert Honor and was longlisted for the National Book Award. Rocco is also known for illustrating the cover art for Rick Riordan’s internationally bestselling series Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard, and The Trials of Apollo. He also created the illustrations for the #1 New York Times bestsellers, Percy Jackson’s Greek Gods and Percy Jackson’s Greek Heroes. In addition to becoming an ambassador for Wild Tomorrow, he is also co-chair of the Children’s Book Creators for Conservation group, which embarked on its first trip to South Africa together in October 2023. He lives in Rhode Island with his wife—and fellow co-founder of the CBCC—author Hayley Rocco.
A visceral and compelling mystery about a Cherokee archaeologist for the Bureau of Indian Affairs who is called back to rural Oklahoma to investigate the disappearance of two women…one of them is her sister…There are secrets in the land.
As an archaeologist for the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Syd Walker spends her days in Rhode Island trying to protect the land’s Indigenous past, even as she’s escaping her own.
While Syd is dedicated to her job, she’s haunted by a night of violence she barely escaped in her Oklahoma hometown fifteen years ago. Even though she swore she’d never go back, the past comes calling. What happens to the land happens to the women.
When a skull is found near the crime scene of her youth, just as her sister, Emma Lou, disappears, Syd knows she must return to Oklahoma. She refuses to let her sister, or the remains, go ignored as so often happens in cases of missing Native women.
But not everyone is glad to have Syd home. The search for Emma Lou puts Syd in the crosshairs of local drug dealers looking to build an empire and vengeful vigilantes policing the abandoned mines, while government officials silence tribal rights.
The truth will be unearthed.
The deeper Syd digs, the more she uncovers about a string of missing Indigenous women cases trailing back decades. To save her sister, she must expose a darkness in town that no one wants to face—not even Syd.
About the Author: Vanessa Lillie is the USA Today bestselling author of Blood Sisters, a new series centered on the stories of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, which was a Target Book Club pick and GMA Book Club Buzz Pick, as well as a best mystery of the year from the Washington Post, Amazon Editor’s and Reader’s Digest. Her other thrillers are Little Voices, For the Best and she’s the creator and coauthor of the# 1 Audible Charts bestseller and International Thriller Writers award nominated, Young Rich Widows, set in Providence, RI where she lives, and the Audible Original sequel Desperate Deadly Widows and print edition were recently released. Originally from Miami, Oklahoma, she is a proud citizen of the Cherokee Nation. Lillie was a Sisters in Crime board member and wrote a weekly column for the Providence Journal about her experiences during the first year of the pandemic. She hosts an Instagram Live show, ‘Twas the Night Before Book Launch, where she chats with authors the night before their book is out in the world.
ABOUT THE NATIONAL BOOK FESTIVAL
The Library of Congress National Book Festival is an annual literary event that brings together best-selling authors and thousands of book fans for author talks, panel discussions, book signings and other activities. The 24th Library of Congress National Book Festival will celebrate “Books Bring Us Together” in 2024, featuring the creativity and inspiration of some of the nation’s most gifted authors on August 24th. The event showcases the importance of books and reading. Every year, the Library of Congress asks each state Center for the Book to select a title that represents the state’s literary landscape to highlight at the National Book Festival, these titles are part of the Great Reads From Great Places Initiative. The Rhode Island Center for the Book has chosen Blood Sisters and Wild Places as the Rhode Island Great Reads for 2024. See the full list here.
The National Book Festival Great Reads From Great Placesis made possible by the generous support of the Institute of Museum and Library Services and the National Endowment for the Humanities with additional support from Chief Officers of State Library Agencies.