Book-lovers will not want to miss this glorious daylong event – a gathering of local and world-famous authors, panel discussions, author lunches, readings and signings and chattings-up and lots more – when the Millbrook Book Festival descends on the village of Millbrook this Saturday, May 14 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The Festival will spread itself throughout multiple venues for a day of free programs, designed to encourage reading (some of us need none, but we’ll be there anyway) and inspire visitors and residents alike with the treasures of picturesque Millbrook.

Various rooms in the Millbrook Free Library, Grace Church Parish House and a book tent on the Millbrook Library lawn will be hosting programs like “A Time to Garden” with Sydney Eddison (Gardening for a Lifetime), Page Dickey (Embroidered Ground) and Ron and Jennifer Kujawski (Week-by-Week Vegetable Gardener’s Handbook); readings from River of Words: Portraits of Hudson Valley Writers edited and hosted by Nina Shengold; “For Kids and the Kids-at-Heart,” with favorite children’s book authors reading their works; a staged reading of The Boycotting of Captain Boycott, written by Walter Keady and staged by Half Moon Theatre; and so much more that you really need to check the website at www.millbrookbookfestival.org for a complete listing of events.

The lineup of authors scheduled to be in town is daunting. Better get a good night’s sleep before attempting to check in on Peter Ackerman (The Lonely Phone Booth), Thelma Ada (Playdate), Jo Ann Beard (In Zanesville), Artie Bennett (101 Ways to Say Vomit), Jennifer Berne (Calvin Can’t Fly), Keith Bendi (illustrator for Casey at the Bat), Gwendolyn (Wendy) Bounds (Little Chapel on the River), Joseph Bruchac (Keepers of the Earth: Native American Stories and Environmental Activities for Children), Will Bunch (The Backlash), Akiko Busch (Patience Taking Time in an Age of Acceleration), John Darnton (Almost a Family), Jerry Davis (Little Chicken’s Big Day), Paul De Angelis (co-author of Dear Mrs. Kennedy: The World Shares Its Grief, Letters November 1963), Page Dickey (Duck Hill Journal: A Year in a Country Garden and Breaking Ground), Jennifer Donnelly (Revolution), Liza Donnelly (When Do They Serve the Wine?), Sydney Eddison (Gardening for a Lifetime and frequent contributor to Fine Gardening magazine), Don Estes (Willy and Friends: Traveling through the Seasons ), Michael Garland (Miss Smith under the Ocean and Grandpa’s Tractor), Marilyn Johnson (This Book Is Overdue!: How Librarians and Cybrarians Can Save Us All), Walter Keady (The Dowry: A Novel of Ireland), Michael Korda (Hero: The Life and Legend of Lawrence of Arabia), Ron Kujawski (author of a popular syndicated gardening column called “The Gardener’s Checklist”),Carole Maso (Ghost Dance, The Art Lover, AVA, The American Woman in the Chinese Hat and Defiance), Jenny Nelson (Georgia’s Kitchen), Karen Kaufman Orloff (I Wanna Iguana, If Mom Had Three Arms, I Wanna New Room and Talk Oscar, Please!), Susan Richards (Saddled: How a Horse Reined Me in and Set Me Free), Joydeep Roy-Bhattacharya (The Storyteller of Marrakesh), Nina Shengold (books editor at Chronogram magazine), Sarah Smith (The Other Side of Dark), Timothy Tocher (Odd Ball: Hilarious, Unusual and Bizarre Baseball Moments), Tina Traster (columnist of “Burb Appeal” for The New York Post), Daphne Uviller (Super in the City and its sequel, Hotel No Tell), Laura Wiess (Ordinary Beauty) and Diane Zahler (A True Princess).

Produced by Merritt Bookstores in Red Hook and Millbrook, it truly is “a celebration of the written and spoken word.” Be there.