by Brianne Anderson

Every once in a while, an opportunity lands in your path that is almost too exciting to pass up. This past year, Ames Public Library (APL) had one of those moments when the Library of Congress asked if we’d consider being Iowa’s representing organization for the Center for the Book program. YES! YES!!

The Center for the Book in the Library of Congress is a community of 56 Affiliated Centers, promoting reading, libraries and literacy through the Library of Congress and its Affiliated Centers across the country. APL will now get to use our connection with Center for the Book to celebrate and promote Iowa's unique literary heritage to a broader, state-wide audience.

Once we made the partnership official, one of the first things APL needed to do was select two books to be included in the Great Reads from Great Places program. Each year we must select a youth-focused title and an adult-focused title to be included on the list. This year we selected “Swine Republic” by Christopher Jones for adults, which focuses on how politics and economics have influenced changes in Iowa’s water quality. For youth, we selected “10 Beautiful Things” by Molly Beth Griffin. This heartfelt story is about a girl who is traveling to live with her grandmother in Iowa, and they discover ten beautiful things along their journey.

One of our goals for the Center for the Book partnership is to find ways to connect with Iowans all across our state, and so we want to challenge all Iowans to do what Lily and her grandmother did and take a moment to look outside and find beautiful things about our state.

Take a photo and submit the image to our 10 Beautiful Things Photo Contest by the end of this September. Maybe a corn field is especially beautiful one evening with the sunset, or you love the sight of your kids playing in your backyard. We want to see what makes you happy and inspired about living in Iowa!

Submissions will be featured on our website and social media, and ten special selections will be enlarged and printed to be showcased during the month of November in APL’s art exhibit space to coincide with author Molly Beth Griffin’s visit to Ames.

For more information about the contest and to submit your photo, visit www.AmesPL.org/IowaCenterForTheBook or give us a call. We can’t wait to see all the ways Iowa is beautiful to you!