The CT Center for the Book is proud to announce it has selected two books representing Connecticut’s literary heritage for the Library of Congress’ Roadmap to Reading project at the 2024 National Book Festival:

• Adult title: The Rediscovery of America: Native Peoples and the Unmaking of U.S. History by Ned Blackhawk of New Haven
• Youth title: Three Pockets Full: A Story of Love, Family, and Tradition by Cindy L. Rodriguez of Plainville

This year’s National Book Festival is Saturday, August 24, from 8:30 a.m.-6 p.m. at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C. Rodriguez will be on hand for book signing and author questions at CT Center for the Book’s booth, #3410, from 9-11 a.m. and 1-3 p.m.

The CT Center for the Book, administered by CT Humanities, is one of 56 affiliates of the Library of Congress and its Center for the Book. Its mission is to promote the written and spoken word throughout the state, and to foster a love of reading for the people of Connecticut. Representatives from the 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa, Guam, and Northern Marianas will staff tables as part of the Roadmap to Reading to promote their book selections and other literary works reflective of their unique locations.

The National Book Festival Roadmap to Reading is 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.

About Ned Blackhawk and The Rediscovery of America:

Ned Blackhawk is the Howard R. Lamar Professor of History and American Studies at Yale University, where he is the faculty coordinator for the Yale Group for the Study of Native America. He is an enrolled member of the Te-Moak Tribe of Western Shoshone Indians of Nevada. A graduate of McGill University, Blackhawk holds graduate degrees in history from UCLA and the University of Washington, and he was on the faculty at the University of Wisconsin, Madison from 1999 to 2009. He lives in New Haven, Connecticut, with his wife and family.

Blackhawk is the author or co-editor of four books on Native American and Indigenous history, including Violence over the Land: Indians and Empires in the Early American West, which won seven professional awards, including the Frederick Jackson Turner Prize for the most significant first book in U.S. history, awarded by the Organization of American Historians.

In The Rediscovery of America: Native Peoples and the Unmaking of U.S. History, Blackhawk’s retelling of U.S. history acknowledges the enduring power, agency, and survival of Indigenous peoples, yielding a truer account of the United States and revealing anew the varied meanings of America. Building on decades of new scholarship in Native American and Indigenous studies, Blackhawk reveals a wide-ranging, overdue retelling of U.S. history — one that recognizes essential roles Indigenous peoples played, and continue to play, in the development of American democracy.  Blackhawk interweaves five centuries of Native and non-Native histories, from Spanish colonial exploration to the rise of Native American self-determination in the late twentieth century.

About Cindy L. Rodriguez and Three Pockets Full: A Story of Love, Family, and Tradition

Cindy L. Rodriguez is a senior editor for an educational publisher and an award-winning author of children’s books. Her titles are When Reason Breaks, “I’m a Survivor” from Life Inside My Mind: 31 Authors Share Their Personal Stories, Volleyball Ace, Drill Team Determination, Gymnastics Payback, The Doomed Search for the Lost City of Z, Three Pockets Full: A Story of Love, Family, and Tradition, and The Mount Everest Disaster of 1996.

Cindy, who is of Puerto Rican and Brazilian descent, is also a former journalist with the Hartford Courant and Boston Globe, a public school teacher, and a founder of Latinxs in Kid Lit. When she’s not working or writing, she is hanging out with her family and two dogs in Plainville, Connecticut.

Three Pockets Full, illustrated by Begoña Fernández Corbalán, comes with a reader’s guide for children and a free download from the publisher website. Lesson plans, activities, and discussion questions allow parents, teachers, and caregivers to explore the topics further and deepen comprehension. “Beto won’t wear a guayabera to the wedding. Nope! Nunca! Not going to happen! Beto tries his best to rid himself of the traditional Mexican wedding shirt his Mami gave him. He even gets help from his dog Lupe, but the shirt ends up back on his bed each time with notes from Mami, who becomes increasingly frustrated with Beto. Mami insists that Beto attend the wedding, and wear the shirt, because — after all — it’s her wedding! Beto has to accept the fact that Mami is getting remarried and that she wants him to wear the shirt, which is part of his heritage. The best book for exploring family, change, and new experiences.”

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