Tammy Armstrong, author of “Pearly Everlasting,” a novel about a family that raises a bear cub with their own child, will hold a book launch Oct. 19 at 2 p.m. at Barnes & Noble, 200 Running Hill Road, South Portland.

The author spent much of her childhood in South Portland, where she grew up listening to her family tell stories about working in New Brunswick’s lumber camps in the 1930s and ’40s. She came to understand the poverty and work conditions the men suffered through, which formed the background for this novel steeped in rural folklore, superstition and filled with the wonder of the natural world, according to a release about the book.

“Pearly Everlasting” landed on the L.A. Times list of 30 books to read this fall. Details about the launch can be read at stores.barnesandnoble.com.