Library to get special copies of Tom Sawyer

By Laura Johnson | Dadeville Record

Published Wednesday, September 9, 2009

The Horseshoe Bend Regional Library is expecting a bus load of books.

Friday they will be visited by The Big Read Bus, which is touring the state to deliver about 12,000 copies of a special edition of the Mark Twain classic “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” to 14 regional Alabama libraries for Alabama’s Big Read program.

“I hope it gets people excited about reading,” Horseshoe Bend Regional Library director Susie Anderson said of the Big Read Program. “This is a book that a lot of people are familiar with and love.”

The program, which is sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts, is designed to get Alabamians reading. After the book was chosen for the program, the regional publishing company NewSouth, Inc., developed a specially designed edition of “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” specifically for the program.

Later this month, the books will be disbursed to librarians from the Horseshoe Bend Regional Library. Those librarians will then disburse the books to the community for fundraisers and as donations to community leaders in late February or early January.

The program will include several programs at libraries across the region and will get under way in the spring of 2010.

“There will be a lot of activities going on in the spring that will be about reading Tom Sawyer,” Anderson said.

Local communities Anderson expects to participate in the program through their libraries include Dadeville, Alexander City Goodwater, Auburn, Rockford, Tallassee, Wetumpka and Millbrook.

The Big Read Bus will arrive at the Horseshoe Bend Regional Library Friday at 8:30 a.m.

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