Community members, tots, tweens, teens, and adults, are invited to join members of the Shared
Community Action Group and its One Book One Community Festival (OBOC) Committee for
conversations, concerts, and hands-on activities to explore the 2026 OBOC Festival theme, Fire: Light
and Warmth, Danger and Destruction.
The 2026 festival books will make it easy for children and adults of all ages to participate in the festival.
Young children will be reading Wombat Said Come In, a picture book written by Carmen Agra Deedy and
illustrated by Brian Lies. The action is set in Australia where bush fires are sweeping the country and
destroying the homes of many animals. It is not long before friends, a wallaby, a kookaburra, a platypus,
a koala, and a sugar glider, are knocking on the door of Wombat's warm underground burrow seeking
shelter. He welcomes them all, but not without a few second thoughts as his friends make themselves at
home. 
Tweens will read Wildfire, a graphic novel written by Breena Bard. Rather than focus on the urgency of
escaping a wildfire, Bard frames the story as a call to action by examining the aftermath of a family’s
escape and forced relocation from their rural home to urban Portland. The sudden loss of her home and
the animals she loves leaves Julianna, Bard's central character, sad and frustrated but also concerned
enough about her world to join a conservation club (CC). The CC's advisor looks to the students to
determine the activities they adopt, activities that help Julianna work through her sadness and regain
her enthusiasm for action and adventure.
Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury’s well-known 1953 dystopian novel is the OBOC choice for adults. Both
protagonist and antagonist are firefighters, but rather than save homes, they destroy houses, the books
they conceal, and the shared history, wisdom, and speculations of generations of writers, scholars, and
artists. The images of flames consuming books and homes are dramatic, but the revolution that Clarisse,
a young non-conformist, quietly sparks in Montag's mind is revelatory and life changing. The quiet
removal of books from library shelves today echoes Bradbury’s concern, making this science fiction
classic worth rereading or discovering for the first time.
The One Book One Community idea comes from the American Library Association, and cities and towns
across the USA have been adopting the program for more than two decades. Our community has begun
participating by bringing residents together to explore some of our shared interests and basic values by
reading and discussing books in common. The City of Macomb, the Macomb Fire Department, the
Macomb, Blandinsville, Bushnell, and Colchester Public Libraries, and area book clubs are among
community participants.
OBOC Festival activities will begin with Bill Maakestad’s March 27 Final Friday at The Wine Sellers and
will continue into May with a variety of programs. For further information or to host a program that
explores the festival theme, contact Janice Welsch (jrwelsch@gmail.com), Virginia Diehl
(virginiadiehl@gmail.com), Sue Scott (info@wimuseum.org), Guy Huston (ga-huston@wiu.edu), Lisa
Torrance (lfulker@illinois.edu), or Ellie Zoerink (zoerinke@gmail.com).