The National Endowment for the Arts has awarded $12,000 -- of a total grant amount of $3.7 million -- to the Orem Public Library to host and organize "The Big Read" literature program.

Lori Stevens, assistant director of Orem Public Library and manager of the program, said the library has received a national grant since the program began three years ago. The Big Read is aimed to encourage communitywide reading and discussion. "The program just keeps growing every year, and every year we have more people involved in it," Stevens said.

More than 8,000 people participated last year in reading Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird , while the previous year the featured book was Willa Cather's My Antonia . The grant money, distributed in amounts between $2,500 to $20,000 to 269 nonprofit organizations nationwide, is used toward purchase of books. Libraries and other nonprofits participating in the program distribute one book per family on a first-come-first-served basis.

Stevens said the library chose Mark Twain's The Adventures of Tom Sawyer for this year's program for its historical context during a time of racial change in the United States and Twain's beliefs about the importance of an adventurous childhood.

The library will kick-off the six-week program Sept. 14 with a lecture by Fred Adams, founder of Utah Shakespearean Festival, on the importance of reading. The Utah Baroque Ensemble will perform American folk music from the period at the event.

Information and a full schedule of events will be posted at www.orembigread.org. For information, call 801-229-7385 or 801-229-7175.