Selections for 2027

When Haze Evans, the Granite Greek Gazette’s columnist of 50-plus years, suffers a stroke, the paper’s editor, Susan McGrath, chooses to reprint one of her columns each day while hoping for her return to health.

Haze is a master at chronicling current events and interlacing them with memories from her life to form a poignant social commentary. She opens her heart to her readers and they grow to love her...although some are less tolerant of her open-book style, referred to as “puking on paper,” and others resent the political bent she reveals, earning her the name Radical Hag, which she cheerfully adopts while printing yummy recipes to offset her viewpoint. Her decades-old columns make a difference in the lives of a new generation of readers, especially Susan’s rebellious 15-year-old son, Sam. When Haze is in the hospital, Susan makes Sam, who’s at loose ends after his parents’ divorce, work at the Gazette, where he is charged with reading Haze’s old columns and choosing which ones to reprint. Finding nothing appealing in an old person’s writing, Sam fights the assignment but is inevitably drawn to Haze’s down-to-earth views. She piques his curiosity with the timelessness of her insights, and he shares her columns with his English class, which discusses them on Radical Hag Wednesday. Sam’s curiosity prompts him to snoop a bit in Haze’s office, leading him to a deep secret that she never shared with her readers and that brings new closeness to his relationship with his mother.

(Kirkus Reviews)

Meet Sienna Lee of Moorhead, Minnesota (age 17), the inaugural Minnesota Youth Poet Laureate.  As Minnesota’s first Youth Poet Laureate, Sienna will serve a one-year term as a public ambassador for poetry—appearing at events statewide, engaging communities, and participating in national youth poetry convenings. She will also receive mentorship from Minnesota-based poets and literary organizations committed to artistic excellence, leadership, and civic engagement.

Sienna serves as Executive Editor of the Minnesota-Dakotas Key Club, representing over 3,000 students across three states. Her work has been published in the Minnesota English Journal, and she has received multiple Scholastic Arts and Writing Awards across poetry, journalism, digital art, and painting. She is also the youngest nominee for the 2026 YWCA Cass-Clay Woman of the Year Award and serves as her school’s media representative. Through her writing and leadership, she is committed to humanizing lived experiences and expanding access to the arts. She advocates for interdisciplinary creativity, encouraging students to see contrasting areas such as STEM and the arts not as opposing paths, but as complementary forces for innovation. Her work reflects an enduring commitment to her community of Minnesota.

(Minnesota Humanities Center)

Letters from Lucy Loon is a heartwarming tale of community, curiosity, and the enduring love between a parent and child. Join Lucy Loon as she fiercely determines that she must experience the opportunity of living in the Northwoods for the winter instead of flying south with her mother, as loons do. With the help of the other parents in the Northwoods community, Lucy experiences winter with her Northwoods animal friends by learning how they live and survive in this cold climate with lots of snow. Lucy writes poems and notes on postcards to stay in touch with her mother, who reads them from her location in the warm waters off the Florida coast.

Young readers will relish learning about what animals do during cold winters, as well as have fun with the playful poetry that describes each scene. Parents will recognize the heart-aching pull of children determined to learn about life on their own terms and trusting a supportive community to help them achieve that.

(Itasca Books)