This year, we celebrate Ohio comics creators! Ohio has a storied (pun intended) heritage when it comes to comics, tracing back to the very beginning of the modern medium. Pivotal founders of the art hailed from Ohio, including R. F. Outcault (born in Lancaster, Ohio), Winsor McCay (who got his professional start in Cincinnati), Frederick …
Read More 2026 Comics Discussions: Winter/Spring2025 marks the 40th anniversary of the beloved comic strip Calvin and Hobbes by Ohio’s beloved Bill Watterson. We’d be remiss if we did not take a moment to celebrate this iconic duo. Calvin and Hobbes ran in daily syndication in newspapers across America from November 18, 1985, to December 31, 1995. The stories center …
Read More Happy Birthday Calvin and Hobbes! Celebrating 40 Years of Imagination!
Saturday, December 6, 12:00 pm – 4:30 pm Cleveland Public Library Main Library’s Louis Stokes Wing Auditorium (525 Superior Avenue, Cleveland, OH 44114) Jane Austen, the person who helped shaped the modern novel, is turning 250 this year; and we’re having a celebration! The Ohio Center for the Book is proud to host this party …
Read More Happy Birthday, Jane Austen!
On September 6, 2025, the Ohio Center for the Book will once again be participating in National Book Festival at the affiliate Centers for the Book’s Roadmap to Reading area in Hall D of the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, DC. Visit our table for information about Ohio’s literary heritage, our Great Reads …
Read More Ohio at the National Book Festival!
Hey kids! Do you think you’re funny? Does everyone at school laugh at your jokes? This is your chance to turn your humor into a real stand-up comedy act. In partnership with the Cleveland Comedy Festival, we’ll be hosting their Class Clown Workshop this fall. This four-week workshop is for teens ages 12-18 and will …
Read More Are You A Class Clown? Comedy Workshop For Young PeopleOhio Center for the Book’s Page Count podcast hit the road recently to visit the Paul Laurence Dunbar House in Dayton, Ohio. (Listen now: Touring the Paul Laurence Dunbar House.) Here, listeners can view images of the house for a glimpse into Dunbar’s life and surroundings. From wallpaper patterns to archaic phones, typewriters, and washing …
Read More Inside the Paul Laurence Dunbar House
In keeping with our charge to promote comics as an important and unique medium of expression, we are very excited to be a part of Cleveland Public Library’s A Superhero Homecoming on Saturday, July 12. Attendees will be able to hear from and meet some of the leading creators in the medium, including a rare …
Read More A Superhero Homecoming!
While we, of course, encourage everyone to read Rubini’s engaging biography of Virginia Hamilton chosen as this year’s Great Reads youth selection, we felt it would be helpful to post some readily available links to additional information on Virginia Hamilton’s life and works here online. Article The pathbreaking Virginia Hamilton and her “liberation literature” – …
Read More Virginia Hamilton: Additional Resources
Using our 2025 adult Great Reads from Great Places selection as a jumping off point, this article provides a brief introduction to exploring Ohio’s National Park and our state’s rich and varied poetic landscape. Exploring Cuyahoga Valley National Park: The Literal Landscape Cuyahoga Valley National Park encompasses over 32,000 acres of fields, forest, lakes, rivers, …
Read More Exploring the Diversity of Ohio’s Literal & Poetic Landscape
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, …
Read More Great Reads from Great Places 2025