Brookfield Library Announces 'One Town, One Read' Book Selection

Press release from the Brookfield Library:

3rd Annual One Town, One Read in Brookfield: Book Selection Announced!

[Brookfield, CT, 6/6/2020 ] What is One Town, One Read?

One Town, One Read (OTOR) is a town-wide reading program with the goal of building community spirit through a shared reading experience, by asking everyone in town to read the same book. This is the third consecutive year that Brookfield is participating in this program. “This year we faced some unique challenges. With the library closed to the public due to COVID-19, we decided to select a title that is in the public domain, in other words, copyright protection has expired and it is readily available to the public. Knowing that many families are sequestered together during this time, we also wanted a family-friendly book, so we decided to select a classic American novel.” said Library Director Yvonne Cech. The Brookfield Library OTOR committee has chosen, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by Frank Baum! The library is planning many COVID-safe enrichment programs and discussions inspired by the themes within this book.

The kickoff for this year’s program is a Book Giveaway of 200 brand-new copies of The Wizard of Oz. To get one of these free books, yours to keep, go to our website www.brookfieldlibrary.org and enter to win. This giveaway is made possible by the generous support of the Friends of the Brookfield Library.

“Our selection process normally begins in November or December of the preceding year with between 60 – 100 titles. By January we usually have a dozen or so favorites and then we start the very difficult process of narrowing it down to one very special book. We are always in search of a book that is well-written and is a compelling read. We also take into account the current climate in our community. We look for a story that will inspire programs that will be of high interest to the community. This year we had to abandon our process in February and start all over again due to the health crisis. The objective of the One Town, One Read program is always to spark enthusiasm for reading together, as a community, and to inspire thoughtful discussion,” said Library Director Yvonne Cech. “Since March, the way in which we do that has dramatically changed, so the program had to be completely redesigned. The themes in this book, of strong friendships, courage and heart, are especially relevant today.” Normally, we reach out to local businesses to help support our OTOR program. However, this year, we realized we had to flip that model and instead we had to reach out to local businesses to see how we could help them. So, we designed a town-wide Yellow Brick Road scavenger hunt to highlight some local businesses. Take a look at our website to see out how it works”.

Programs for Brookfield’s OTOR will run throughout June and July. Our culminating event is a must see live stream presentation entitled “The Saga of the Ruby Slippers” with the curator of the Entertainment Collection at the National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution on Thursday, July 23, at 6:30 pm! A full schedule of programming information is available on the library’s Facebook page, Twitter @BrookfieldLib and on the library’s website: brookfieldlibrary.org.

One Town, One Read is a generic name for a community-wide reading program that attempts to get everyone in a town or a city to read and discuss the same book. These programs take the idea of a localized book discussion club and expand it to cover a whole town or city. Typical activities for OTOR programs include book discussion sessions, scholarly lectures on the book or related topics, a visit by the author, exhibits, and related arts programming.

The first OTOR program in the U. S. was “If All of Seattle Read the Same Book” in 1998, started by Nancy Pearlat Seattle Public Library’s Washington Center for the Book. Other cities copied the idea, and the Library of Congress now lists hundreds of programs around the country each year. The Center for the Book at the Library of Congress tracks all known One Town One Read programs and the books they have used.

The Brookfield Library is the municipal public library in the Town of Brookfield, CT.

This press release was produced by the Brookfield Library. The views expressed here are the author's own.