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PRESS RELEASE</div>
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Great Lakes Great Books Award</div>
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Jesse Shirtz, committee co-chair</div>
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906-486-4381</div>
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<u><a href="mailto:GreatLakesGreatBooks@gmail.com" id="OWA49bc16cd-8261-5157-e777-7bd4da505c3a" class="OWAAutoLink" style="color: rgb(17, 85, 204);">GreatLakesGreatBooks@gmail.com</a></u></div>
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE</div>
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<span style="font-weight: 700;">2024-25 Great Lakes Great Books Award Winners Announced</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: 700;">[ISHPEMING, MI] </span>- The Great Lakes Great Books Award Committee announced this year’s winners at the Michigan Reading Association’s Annual Conference on Saturday, March 8, 2025in a Facebook Live event. Michigan students
in grades K-12 elected the winners and up to two honor books in each category by voting on the pool of 40 nominees chosen by the committee. The winners and honor books are as follows:</div>
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K-1:</div>
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<span style="font-weight: 700;">Winner:</span><i> One Chicken Nugget</i> by Tadgh Bentley (Balzer + Bray)</div>
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<span style="font-weight: 700;">Honor Books:</span><i> Chickadee, Criminal Mastermind</i> by Monica Silvie, illustrated by Elina Ellis (Kids Can Press)</div>
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<i>Sprout Branches Out</i> by Jessika von Innerebner (Roaring Brook Press)</div>
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2-3:</div>
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<span style="font-weight: 700;">Winner: </span><i>The Skull</i> by Jon Klassen (Candlewick Press)</div>
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<span style="font-weight: 700;">Honor Books: </span><i>Virginia Wouldn’t Slow Down!: The Unstoppable Dr. Apgar and Her Life-Saving Invention</i> by Carrie Pearson, illustrated by Nancy Carpenter (Norton Young Readers)</div>
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<i>Stranded!: A Mostly True Story from Iceland</i> by Ævar Þór Benediktsson, illustrated by Anne Wilson (Barefoot Books)</div>
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4-5:</div>
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<span style="font-weight: 700;">Winner: </span><i>How to Stay Invisible</i> by Maggie C. Rudd (Farrar Straus Giroux Books for Young Readers)</div>
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<span style="font-weight: 700;">Honor Books: </span><i>My Head Has a Bellyache: And More Nonsense for Mischievous Kids and Immature Grown-Ups</i> by Chris Harris, illustrated by Andrea Tsurumi (Little, Brown and Company)</div>
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<i>Strikers: A Graphic Novel</i> by Kiel Phegley, illustrated by Jacques Khouri (Graphic Universe)</div>
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6-8:</div>
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<span style="font-weight: 700;">Winner: </span><i>Four Eyes: A Graphic Novel </i>
by Rex Ogle, illustrated by Dave Valeza (Graphix)</div>
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<span style="font-weight: 700;">Honor Books: </span><i>The Lost Year</i> by Katherine Marsh (Roaring Brook Press)</div>
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<i>Buzzing</i> by Samuel Sattin, illustrated by Rye Hickman (Little, Brown Ink)</div>
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9-12:</div>
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<span style="font-weight: 700;">Winner: </span><i>Numb to This: Memoir of a Mass Shooting</i> by Kindra Neely (Little, Brown Ink)</div>
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<span style="font-weight: 700;">Honor Books: </span><i>Together We Rot</i> by Skyla Arndt (Viking Books)</div>
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<i>Warrior Girl Unearthed</i> by Angeline Boulley (Henry Holt & Co.)</div>
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<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Votes on the 2025-26 Nominations may be submitted until January 11, 2026 on the MRA’s website. The committee maintains a web presence at<a href="http://www.michiganreading.org" id="OWA3d8255bb-f649-7e98-3083-20c239ee5c1e" class="OWAAutoLink" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">
</a></span><span style="color: rgb(17, 85, 204);"><u><a href="http://www.michiganreading.org/great-lakes-great-books" id="OWA545f8265-7258-77f7-6785-1911a7db221c" class="OWAAutoLink" style="color: rgb(17, 85, 204);">www.michiganreading.org/great-lakes-great-books</a></u></span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"> and
on social media: @MichGLGBooks on Facebook and Twitter, and @GreatLakesGreatBooks on Instagram. </span></div>
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Jesse Shirtz</div>
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<a href="https://pronouns.org/" title="https://pronouns.org/">(she/her</a>)</div>
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Library Director</div>
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Ishpeming Carnegie Public Library</div>
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317 N. Main Street</div>
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Ishpeming, MI 49849</div>
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906-486-4381</div>
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<a href="http://www.ishpeminglibrary.info">www.ishpeminglibrary.info</a></div>
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co-chair</div>
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<a href="http://www.michiganreading.org/great-lakes-great-books" title="www.michiganreading.org/great-lakes-great-books">Great Lakes Great Books Award</a></div>
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Michigan Reading Association</div>
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