Join us as we welcome the author the 2024 One Book One Town selection Warrior Girl Unearthed, Angeline Boulley.  We are honored to host Angeline Boulley at Fairfield University Quick Center for the Arts, located at 1073 North Benson Road. This event takes place on Tuesday, March 5, at 7:00pm. Register here.

Fairfield Public Library and its community partners are pleased to announce Fairfield’s One Book One Town (OBOT) selection for 2024, Warrior Girl Unearthed by Angeline Boulley.

In this coming-of-age thriller, Perry Firekeeper-Birch has always known who she is—the laidback twin, the troublemaker, the best fisher on Sugar Island.  Her aspirations won’t ever take her far from home, and she wouldn’t have it any other way.  But as the rising number of missing Indigenous women in her community starts circling closer, as her family becomes embroiled in a high-profile murder investigation, and as greedy grave robbers seek to profit off what belongs to her Anishinaabe tribe, Perry begins to question everything.  Old rivalries, sister secrets, and botched heists cannot—and will not—stop her from uncovering the mystery before the ancestors and missing women are lost forever.  

Angeline Boulley is an enrolled member of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians and a storyteller who writes about her Ojibwe community in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.  She is a former Director of the Office of Indian Education at the U.S. Department of Education.  Warrior Girl Unearthedis the stand-alone companion to Boulley’s 2021 debut best-selling novel Firekeeper’s Daughter.

“We’ve never selected a thriller or a book by an Indigenous author, so those were two things that immediately stood out to the OBOT Reading Committee,” said Jennifer Laseman, One Book One Town co-Chair and Head of Teen Services for Fairfield Public Library.  “But what really captivated us was how Boulley crafts her stories not just to entertain but to educate and inspire readers to think critically about issues important to the Indigenous population.  Like all OBOT selections, the book is intended to promote community discussion, with the additional hope that it will inspire readers to dive deeper into exploring the history and present-day life experiences of the Native American communities in our region.”  

For our middle-grade and elementary school-age readers, we have selected companion books that explore age-relevant themes related to Indigenous communities.  For middle-grade readers, We Still Belong by Christine Day tells the story of a girl whose hopeful plans for Indigenous Persons Day go all wrong—until she finds herself surrounded by the love of her Indigenous family at an intertribal pow-wow. For younger children, the committee chose Berry Song by Caldecott Medal winner Michaela Goade, a wonderful book about the stewardship of our land, as a grandmother and granddaughter forage for food throughout the seasons.

This year’s OBOT partners include Experience Fairfield, Fairfield Museum & History Center, Fairfield Public Library, Fairfield Public Schools, Fairfield University, Fairfield University Store, Friends of Fairfield Public Library, the Pequot Library, Sacred Heart University, and WSHU Public Radio.

Copies of Warrior Girl Unearthed and its companion books are available to borrow at either location of Fairfield Public Library and at Pequot Library, or for purchase at the Fairfield University Store.  Author Angeline Boulley will speak at the Quick Center for the Arts at Fairfield University on Tuesday, March 5, at 7:00pm.  Registration for this event opens on February 1st; please visit our website at https://fplct.librarymarket.com/events/month/2024/03 to register.

Look for clues in January.

Thursday, January 11, 2024 at 11:00 am: OBOT Reveal 
Join us in the Periodical Room of the Main Library to reveal this year’s title and author and the companion books for middle grade and a children’s picture book.

Tuesday, March 5, 2024 at 7pm:
Welcome the OBOT author to Fairfield University Quick Center for the Arts

The February episode of our library podcast focuses on One Book One Town (OBOT). Join host Philip Bahr as he welcomes OBOT members Mary Coe, Jennifer Laseman, and Claudia Silk.  Topics include the history of OBOT, the selection process, 2022 choice The House in the Cerulean Sea, and author TJ Klune’s writing and books. Dig deeper in this Cerulean Sea love fest. 

Listen to the podcast on Anchor or search on your favorite podcast platform under, “Fairfield What Are You Reading?”

Have you listened to The House in the Cerulean Sea on audiobook yet? If not, you’re in for a special treat. As a thank you to the town, audiobook narrator Daniel Henning created a special welcome from all the characters in the book especially for the town of Fairfield!

Listen to the audio message:

Aside from print and e-book copies, the audiobook is available on hoopla. Click to borrow immediately – no holds, no waits.

Visit audiobook narrator Daniel Henning’s website.

A New Year means a new One Book One Town title to share! Please join us on Thursday, January 6th at 11:30 am when we will be making the grand announcement outside SHU Community Theatre (1420 Post Road, right across the street from Fairfield Public Library). In the meantime, here is a hint to whet your appetite!