Photo courtesy of Michael Pearce.
“The Night The Forest Came to Town” by Homewood author Charles Ghigna was selected for national festival.
The Alabama Center for the Book has selected “The Night the Forest Came to Town,” by Homewood author Charles Ghigna to be featured as the Alabama Great Reads selection for the 2020 National Book Festival.
The Library of Congress National Book Festival is an annual literary event that brings together best-selling authors and thousands of book fans for author talks, panel discussions, book signings and other activities. The 20th Library of Congress National Book Festival will celebrate “American Ingenuity” in 2020, featuring the creativity and inspiration of some of the nation’s most gifted authors in a reimagined virtual festival the weekend of Sept. 25-27. The event will be will be virtual this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, broadcast through various web-based venues that were to be announced in August.
“The Night the Forest Came to Town” “sings the story of a paved parking lot returning to a paradise teeming with diverse people, plants and animals. It begins with an illustration of distracted townspeople scurrying across gray streets on a summer evening. The children, full of wide-eyed wonder, notice the wind blowing in something new...” (Kirkus Reviews, 2018). With beautiful and engaging illustrations as backdrop, Ghigna takes readers on a lyrical journey from drab, gray, concrete living, to vibrant urban renewal.
Every year, a list of books representing the literary heritage of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico, is distributed by the Library of Congress’s Center for the Book during the National Book Festival. Each book is selected by a Center for the Book state affiliate or state library and most are for children and young readers. Books may be written by authors from the state, take place in the state or celebrate the state’s culture and heritage.
The Alabama Center for the Book supports reading, literacy and other book-related activities in Alabama as well as promotes appreciation of regional writers.The center is a founding co-sponsor of the Alabama Writers Hall of Fame.
The Library of Congress’ Center for the Book, established by Congress in 1977 to stimulate public interest in books and reading, is a national force for reading and literacy promotion. A public-private partnership, it sponsors educational programs that reach readers of all ages through its affiliated state centers, collaborations with nonprofit reading-promotion partners and through its Poetry and Literature Center at the Library of Congress. For more information, visit read.gov.
Submitted by Michael Pearce.
