Each year, our Center for the Book selects “Great Reads from Great Places.” These books are are chosen from the Category Winners of the Utah Book Awards.
2026 Great Reads from Great Places
Every year since 2002, a list of books representing the literary heritage of each of the fifty states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, the Northern Mariana Islands, Guam, and American Samoa has been distributed by the Library of Congress’s Center for the Book during the National Book Festival. Since 2022, a title for younger readers and one for adults has been selected by each state and territory. Utah’s books serve as ambassadors to the rest of the nation, highlighting the Beehive State’s literary heritage and enticing readers to explore our literary landscape… which is rich, historical, and fascinating.
The Utah Great Reads books are chosen from the Category Winners of the Utah Book Awards.
2026 Youth Reader Selection: Iceberg
Iceberg by Jennifer Nielsen (Scholastic Press, 2025)
As disaster looms on the horizon, a young stowaway onboard the Titanic will need all her courage and wits to stay alive. A thrilling tale from New York Times bestselling author Jennifer A. Nielsen!
Hazel Rothbury is traveling all alone from her home in England aboard the celebrated ship Titanic. Following the untimely death of her father, Hazel’s mother is sending her to the US to work in a factory, so that she might send money back home to help her family make ends meet.But Hazel harbors a secret dream: She wants to be a journalist, and she just knows that if she can write and sell a story about the Titanic's maiden voyage, she could earn enough money to support her family and not have to go to a sweatshop. When Hazel discovers that her mother didn’t send her with enough money for a ticket, she decides she must stow away on board the storied ship.
With the help of a porter named Charlie and a sweet first-class passenger named Sylvia, Hazel explores the opulent ship in secret, but a haunting mystery quickly finds her. The danger only intensifies when calamity strikes, and readers will be caught up in the terror and suspense alongside Hazel as she fights to save her friends and herself.
Bestselling author Jennifer A. Nielsen weaves an extraordinary tapestry of survival and disaster in this magnificent thriller.
#1 New York Times Bestselling Novel
2025 Winner of the Utah Book Award for Best Middle Grade/ Young Adult Fiction
Publisher’s Weekly Bestseller List
2024 Teen Readers’ Choice Award Finalist Favorite Historical Novel
2024 Reading the West Book Award Nominee
2026 Adult Selection: Still as Bright
Still As Bright by Christopher Cokinos (Pegasus Books, 2024)
In the luminously told Still As Bright, the story of the Moon traverses time and space, rendering a range of human experiences—from the beliefs of ancient cultures to the science of Galileo’s telescopic discoveries, from the obsessions of colorful 19th century “selenographers” to the astronauts of Apollo and, now, Artemis.
Still As Bright also traces Cokinos's own lunar pilgrimage. With his backyard telescope, he explores the surface of the Moon, while rooted in places both domestic and wild, and this award-winning poet and writer rediscovers feelings of solace, love and wonder in the midst of loss and change.
Simultaneously steeped in rigorous cultural and scientific history, as well as memoir, Still As Bright is a thoughtful, deeply moving, evergreen natural history. It takes readers on a lyrical journey that spans the human understanding of our closest celestial neighbor, whose multi-faceted appeal has worked on witches, scientists, poets, engineers and even billionaires.
“An award-winning author takes a close and fascinating look at our cosmic neighbor. Writing with a clear, poetic voice, Cokinos shows how the story of the Moon is also a story of humanity.”
Kirkus Reviews, starred
2025 Winner of the Utah Book Award for Narrative Nonfiction