Sandy Hook native Shirley Ferris has been a journalist (including a very successful stint with this newspaper), is a former Connecticut Commissioner of Agriculture, and married into a family that continues to work its dairy farm on Sugar Street.

In her recently released memoir, The Silver Bridge is Silver Again (But Somebody Tore Down Bill’s Hot Dog Stand), she uses the iconic Silver Bridge in Sandy Hook metaphorically, paralleling the changes in her hometown with those in her own life.

It is very fitting that this farmer’s wife has promised that all proceeds from the sale of her book will be donated to FAITH Food Pantry, the longstanding nonecumenical organization dedicated to helping Newtown residents put food on their table.

Named “One of 60 People Who Make New England New England” by Yankee magazine, Ferris will be the featured guest of an author program at C.H. Booth Library next month, celebrating the release of her very enjoyable memoir.

The book began in earnest about three years ago, Ferris said recently. She was cleaning out a closet and found a note from former Brookfield Journal Editor Jim Stuart complimenting her work right around the time her daughter Colleen also stopped in for a visit. When Ferris showed the note to her daughter, Colleen encouraged her mother to collect her work and publish a book.

This past September Ferris celebrated the completion of that project. The Silver Bridge is Silver Again is indeed a collection of columns, many updated to remain relevant or to appeal to a wider audience.

“Many were written for The Brookfield Journal, for the people of Brookfield,” Ferris explained during a recent visit to The Newtown Bee, another stop on her journalism career. She also wrote for The New Milford Times, and contributed to American Agriculturist and Hoard’s Dairyman.

“I wanted to update them so that more people could enjoy them,” she said.

The book also shares recollections of “the serendipitous life of one skinny little kid from Sandy Hook” who grew up within walking distance of the landmark bridge that carries traffic between Newtown and Southbury over Lake Zoar.

The mother of five talks about her life after marrying a dairy farmer, her eight years as Connecticut Commissioner of Agriculture, the family’s venture in the ice cream business (perhaps readers have heard of Ferris Acres Creamery…), and even takes time to introduce many of the animals — cats, dogs and cows — and people she has known so far.

It’s an easy, very enjoyable read. Local readers will recognize many names and locations, but even those from afar will enjoy the descriptions, from walking through the New England woods and favorite smells (as highlighted in a column “The Nose”) to the joy and heartbreak of parenthood and even what she calls the phenomenon of the disposable plastic shopping bag.

Ferris credits two friends, Dottie Evans and Kaaren Valenta, with the suggestion to divide the book into its two primary sections. Part One covers Seasons of a Life — “Growing Up in Sandy Hook,” “Raising a Family on a Farm” and “Expanding Horizons” — while Part Two is the very aptly named Random Observations. It’s in the book’s second part that the myriad columns appear.

Once she took her daughter’s advice to heart, she said, Ferris got serious about her book project.

“I had actually started doing that in the 80s,” she said. It was after sharing her initial combined collection of columns and memories that Evans and Valenta — separately, but within 24 hours of each other — told Ferris that she had two distinct collections.

“They both said, ‘You’ve really got two books here. Divide them into sections,” Ferris said. The writing, she said, was always fun. The editing process took “a good year,” she said. “But it was fun,” she added.

The Silver Bridge is Silver Again was published in late September, after Colleen did some additional editing.

“I had all these stories that I wanted to share,” Ferris said. “I talked about the Sandy Hook Diner, and Ellie Lewis,” she said, referring to one of the state’s oldest diners and until recently its longtime owner.

“My daughter read some of the stories though, and she’d say, ‘No Mom, you don’t want to include that,’” Ferris said, laughing. Her laugh always comes easily. “She weeded some things out.”

Despite stories that were removed, the book still reads very well.

The tie-in to the town’s food pantry, she said, came around the same time her daughter encouraged her to finally put her work together.

“I knew about the pantry, but heard around that time that they really needed some help,” Ferris explained. “I decided to update some of my work and use this as a fundraiser for FAITH.”

Readers are invited to join Ferris on Monday, December 4, at 6 pm, in the meeting room of C.H. Booth Library, 25 Main Street. She will be reading from and sharing stories beyond the pages of The Silver Bridge is Silver Again.

For those who prefer, the program will also be available via Zoom. Registration is requested for either format.

Contact Jennifer Nash at 203-426-4533 or jnash@chboothlibrary.org for additional information, or visit chboothlibrary.org to register.

Copies of The Silver Bridge is Silver Again are $20, and available at the office of The Newtown Bee, 5 Church Hill Road; C.H. Booth Library, 25 Main Street; and Queen Street Gifts, 3 Queen Street.

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Managing Editor Shannon Hicks can be reached at shannon@thebee.com.