This year’s main selection is the nonfiction tome “Stubborn Twig: Three Generations in the Life of a Japanese American Family,” by Eugene author Lauren Kessler, head of University of Oregon’s graduate program in literary nonfiction. And, for the first time, the festivities will include a children’s book, “Apples to Oregon,” by Deborah Hopkinson, and a young adult novel, “Bat 6,” by Virginia Euwer Wolff. The three books were selected by the statewide Oregon Reads committee and Deschutes Public Library was given the honors to do the closing events for the state-wide program.

The Library’s Novel Idea program and the Library’s youth services program, StoryStars!, will combine efforts in April 2009 to offer programs appropriate for every age. The children’s and young adult authors will visit schools throughout Deschutes County on April 23rd and 24th. All three authors will come together for a reception and book signing at the Bend Public Library on Thursday, April 23. Adult author, Lauren Kessler, will speak at The Tower Theatre on April 24 and at the Sisters Library on April 25.

“Stubborn Twig” author Kessler — who picked up an Oregon Book Award on Sunday for the more recent “Dancing With Rose: Finding Life in the Land of Alzheimer’s” — says she was honored to learn Oregon Reads had selected her 1993 book about the Japanese immigrant experience in Oregon.

“It was absolutely thrilling and a real honor,” Kessler told The Bend Bulletin. “It’s going to be fun for me to revisit that work and think about it again. Because, in fact, when you write a book, even though you care about it deeply while you’re writing it, after it comes out and you move on to the next project, you really are embedded in the next project. This is a story that doesn’t ever go away. And I’m not talking about the specific details of one family’s life, I’m talking about the perils and the promise of America and the process of becoming American

Project director for A Novel Idea, Chantal Strobel, says there should be plenty of copies of all three books available at library branches in Bend, La Pine, Redmond, Sisters, and Sunriver. By the official April 5 launch, the library will also have a number of copies of “Stubborn Twig” available for readers to either take and keep, or return for others to read.

For more information, please contact Chantal Strobel at 541-312-1031.